Michael Avioz

Bar Ilan University | BIU · Department of Bible

This paper offers a new understanding of the word הקטן regarding David in 1 Samuel 16. Instead of focusing on David’s young age, the paper suggests focusing on his height, an understanding that is supported by various details in Samuel as well as in biblical and post-biblical literature.

Looking at some illustrative examples of the reception of Jeremiah in modern Hebrew literature, this article explores how both the prophet and the book named after him were reworked by modern Hebrew authors and poets in the body of literary works in Hebrew that emerged during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Europe in the wake...

This paper examines biblical allusions to the story of Ahaz in 2 Chronicles 28. While earlier scholars have dealt mainly with 2 Kings 16 and Isaiah 7 as its parallels, this paper offers additional biblical sources that the Chronicles has made use of in his retelling of the Ahaz story. These additional sources help the Chronicler in reshaping his ve...

his article is an intertextual study focusing on the allusions made in the Book of Samuel to Nathan’s Oracle (2 Samuel 7). The presence of words, themes, and motifs common to Nathan’s oracle and other passages in the Book of Samuel is examined here in an attempt to understand their interrelationship and role. Allusions to Nathan’s Oracle are identi...

The T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism provides a comprehensive reference resource of over 600 scholarly articles aimed at scholars and students interested in Judaism of the Second Temple Period. The two-volume work is split into four parts. Part One offers a prolegomenon for the contemporary study and appreciation of Second Temple Jud...

This paper reexamines ancient and modern translations of the adjective חום in Genesis 30:32–40. I propose that translating it as »brown« is legitimate and cannot be considered anachronistic, given that the color itself is evident in various ancient archeological finds. Using various equivalent terms in modern languages is unnecessary.

Don Isaac Abravanel, the famous Jewish commentator who lived in Portugal, Spain, and Italy during the transition from the medieval times to the Renaissance (1437–1508), draws several times to Josephus’s writing in his commentary on the Bible. While the Book of Josippon was known to other Medieval Jewish commentators, the same cannot be said of Jose...

The attempt to identify the structure of the books of Samuel is one of the most vexing topics in past and present research. The problem is common to both synchronic and diachronic methods. Diachronic methods usually divide the books into smaller blocks assuming different levels of redaction. Synchronic methods assume that the books of Samuel is a w...

This paper suggests a literary analysis of I Sam 30,15, in which the narrator left unanswered the question whether David made an oath to the Egyptian lad or not. Using the term ellipsis, I try to locate the differing roles of the author and the readers.

In Genesis 50,1 we read that Joseph threw himself on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. The meaning of Joseph’s actions is not explicitly stated and it is therefore the purpose of this paper is to clarify what is the meaning of this kiss. I suggest that the verse in Genesis apparently reflects the traces of an ancient custom, which...

Since the seventies, no study has examined the methodologies of Josephus' rewriting of an entire biblical book as part of his Judean Antiquities. This book attempts to fill this vacuum by exploring Josephus' adaptation of the books of Samuel, penetrating the exegetical strategies he employs to modify the biblical stories for his intended audience....

This paper compares the biblical law in Numbers 8,5-26 regarding the purification of the Levites to Josephus' rewriting of it in his Antiquities of the Jews (AJ 3.258). Rather than automatically assigning all the differences between the biblical text and its rewriting by Josephus to apologetic reasons, this paper suggests assigning at least some of...

This article demonstrates that the punishment eventually imposed upon Absalom was not only due to Nathan's oracle in 2 Samuel 12, but was also the outcome of Absalom's own deeds. Absalom's narrative thus contributes to the structuring of the account according to the model of dual causality. On the divine level, Absalom is an instrument in God's han...

This article analyzes Josephus' rewriting of the biblical narratives about Jonathan, son of Saul (1 Sam. 13–14; 17–23; 31 // Ant. 6.95, 105–29, 205–12, 224–41, 252–53, 369). It compares the biblical narratives to Josephus' rewriting in an attempt to understand the nature of the changes he entered into the biblical text. These include omissions, add...

This article re-examines Josephus' dealing with the biblical miracles. It challenges the view of Feldman and others who argued that Josephus had downplayed the place of miracles in his writings to meet the needs of his intended audience. These scholars failed to define miracles and thus erroneously classified certain stories as miraculous and overl...

It is well-known that there are no detailed descriptions of the physical beauty of specific characters in the Bible. Despite this “disclaimer”, we seek to treat descriptions of such beauty in the books of Samuel and Kings in this article as they are manifested in stories of male (Saul, Eliab, David, Absalom, and Adonijah) and female figures (Abigai...

This article deals with Josephus's retelling of the Bible story of the incineration of the bones of Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31. In several places in the biblical text, researchers have found echoes of the practice of cremation, a practice borne out in archaeological excavations. The question dealt with in the Bible is: How does Josephus treat...

This essay tries to uncover the reason for the omission of Moses from the Passover haggadah. According to my interpretation, the editors of the haggadah expressed an opinion on an issue which already occupied the authors of the Biblical stories. Integrating Moses' name intensively in the haggadah may have blurred the viewpoint that wishes to attrib...

This essay reconsiders Louis Feldman's assertion that Josephus characterized Saul as a king who administered justice. This assertion is examined against the narratives in 1 Samuel 14 and 22. My conclusion is that Josephus did not praise Saul for being a just king. In this regard, his characterization of Saul is consistent with the biblical narrativ...

This article seeks to present Josephus' retelling of the story of David, Nabal and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25. It tries to answer the following questions: what was the text on which Josephus based his story? What are the differences between the biblical version and Josephus' retelling and how can they be explained? My conclusion is that Josephus' versi...

This article identified the function of the reference to Jerusalem in the Concubine of Gibeah narrative. In contrast to other scholars, who view this reference as part of the anti-Saul or anti-Benjamin polemic, I suggested regarding it as an allusion to the future, when Jerusalem will become the capital city in the time of David. In Jud 19, there i...

Summary This article is a rhetorical study of Jeremiah 7:1-15. It attempts to show that a rhetorical analysis of Jeremiah helps the reader to understand the different parts of the speech correctly, to discover what was mentioned and what was not mentioned in it, and to identify the target audience and the methods of persuasion used by the prophet....

In the first part of my article (CBR 4.1 [2005]), I surveyed the research conducted on various, diverse aspects of the book of Kings, starting in the early 1990s and until 2004. In this article, I will focus on research dealing with the characters appearing in the book of Kings, using this classification: kings, beginning with David; prophets, espe...

This article examines Josephus’s retelling of the Lot Narratives. Comparing Josephus’s treatment of Lot to his treatment of other biblical narratives leads to the conclusion that Josephus made great efforts not to condemn Lot in any way. It is argued that Josephus presented Lot as a righteous character for two reasons: he was Abraham’s nephew and K...

Berdugo was neither the first nor the last to face the question of how we should relate to the talmudic sages' solutions of various cruxes in biblical exegesis. The burden of this question is that peshat interpretation is liable to entail the rejection of rabbinic interpretations that follow a different approach and thus to erode the authority of t...

This paper deals with the way Josephus has retold and rewritten the narrative in 2 Sam 7 in his Jewish Antiquities 7.90-95. Recent studies made on this issue have focused either on the question of Messianism or on the characterization of king David in Josephus' writings. However, our study focuses on Josephus' qualities as a commentator and discuss...

This article reconsiders the pericope in 1 Samuel 13:13-14, in which Samuel told Saul that had he been obedient to him, he and his dynasty would have ruled forever. These words are traditionally considered by scholars and interpreters as a later addition or as Samuel’s own interpretation of God’s oracles. I contest these views on the basis of histo...

This article deals with the troublesome issue of Jeremiah's calls for revenge in the so-called 'Jeremiah's laments' (Jer xi-xx). Such calls are strange due to the fact Israelite prophets are usually conceived as intercessors. After surveying the different views and criticizing them, the author offers three solutions to the problem. Instead of focus...

This article examines recent trends in the study of the book of Kings in the 1990s and in the beginning years of the third millennium. It focuses on issues pertaining to: composition and redaction; structure; sources; purpose; and date of the book. After a survey of recent commentaries, the studies on the book of Kings are presented in various circ...

This book offers a new analysis of Nathan's Oracle in 2 Samuel 7 and its echoes in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. First, it deals separately with the main issues raised in 2 Samuel 7: the disqualification of David as temple builder and the nature of the Divine promise made to him that the House of David will rule forever. In dealing wi...

The purpose of this article is to examine the textual and contextual differences between Nathan's prophecy in II Sam 7 and in I Chr 17. In contrast to scholars who try to explain the textual differences between the sources exclusively in accordance with a particular theory, we have tried to point out several possible causes for such differences. Th...

This article deals with the contradiction between 2 Kgs 25 and Jer 52 regarding the date on which the First Temple was destroyed. Comparing the descriptions of the destruction in Kings and in Jeremiah shows that the two descriptions were borrowed from a common third source. In our view, this common third source is better preserved in Jeremiah 52 th...