Recently finished a relatively new semi-accessible scholarly book, and man, Israeli archaeology really can’t get away from the Bible, huh? It’s like imagining historians of England who just had to tie everything back to Shakespeare somehow. It makes the whole project seem impossible.

Dear god someone pay me to do a line by line review of this

Dear god someone pay me to do a line by line review of this

Super fucking cool, genuine response. All the credit: thanks for listening. Really well done.

I’d also really love to know if this is a real Christian thing - like has the 613 come to have some independent Christian meaning, or is it just used as shorthand for “what Jews believe” (as different from what we believe)?

Dude, I did start this mostly joking - just pointing out that it’s kind of a category mismatch to put the Jewish idea of 613 commandments into the Christian idea of the OT. Now you’re playing the “your feelings don’t matter” card, which seems like a wild place to have gone.

Less important - but not unimportant.

Feels weird to tell me that the thing I obviously care about isn’t a thing that Jews care about. I promise that stuff like Christian Seders bothers “us.”

Legitimately interested: can you tell me where the 613 commandments come into Christianity? Because even in Judaism that idea doesn’t exist until the middle of the first millennium CE, and there’s no attempt at enumeration for another five hundred years or so after that.

Yeah - I know what the OT is, and I don’t have any problem with Christians using the term. It’s more that the 613 commandments is an entirely rabbinic concept, and belongs to the Jewish Bible, not the OT. Combining the two feels vaguely supersessionist, like a Christian Seder.

The how many laws in the what now

There’s stuff about which the Bible is bad all on its own- slavery, women, homosexuality - and bad people take advantage of that stuff. Then there’s stuff that isn’t in the Bible at all, and bad people make the Bible into a source for - and racism is one of those things.

If you’re going to invite me to be on your editorial board, probably don’t a) fail to describe any of the responsibilities, b) forward me the message from the EIC saying they’re on a tight deadline to add members, or c) extend the offer also to any students I might have. Must be a terrific journal!

You mean your workplace doesn’t have this sort of thing? Your loss I guess.

Four sources of the Pentateuch, four ideas about Moses’s heritage and relationship to Aaron: P: brothers, both Levites J: brothers, only Aaron is a Levite E: not brothers, no one is a Levite* D: cares about neither thing *requires emendation in Exodus 2:1 that I’m increasingly confident of

Very proud of my doctoral student Paul Essah, who is now ABD and ready to start writing his dissertation, “Revelation as Decolonial Praxis: The Politics of Knowledge and the Book of Daniel.” It’s going to be AMAZING.

Just a fun little pre-Passover reminder that not everyone in ancient Israel thought that Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. Enjoy!

I teach a course on how to engage with scholarship - how to read, how to do panels and book reviews - and one of the first things I tell the students is they can’t say that they liked or didn’t like something. They have to say what it’s trying to do, and what they can profitably take from it.

Quick plug: I’ll be presenting at the "New Insights into the Hebrew Bible" conference March 20–22. Join me and 12 other scholars for a deep dive into Genesis. Register by Feb 28 to save up to 25%. bartehrman.com/nihb

Hi, friends. An FYI for those interested: I've published an article in JSP about Esther as "American scripture." Includes analysis of the Heritage Foundation's "Project Esther" (2024) and its strategies for regulating free speech, higher education, immigration, and foreign policy.

@joelbaden.bsky.social Just wanted to tell you that I am ADORING your Great Courses series!!!! Bravo!!!!

No cheating, etc.

What - and I’m not sure how else to put this - the living fuck is this shit doing in the New York Times? The Kingdom of God Is Ruled by the Humblest of Men www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/o...

And universalist religions, granted immense power, become, let’s say, oppressive to those religions that would like to just be left alone to do their thing in peace please.

Poking through some recipe reviews on the NYT just now and saw multiple people commenting on the irony of using *kosher salt* in a *pork dish* and the fundamental lack of the most basic understanding of what kosher salt is just kills me every so often.

Favorite Courses 1. What Wrote the Bible? (@joelbaden.bsky.social) 2. Understanding Western Art (Dr. Noah Charney) 3. How Science Shapes Science Fiction (Dr. Charles Adler) 4. Archaeological Mysteries of Europe/Mediterranean (Dr. Karen Bellinger) 5. Forgotten America (@phdrachel.bsky.social) 2/3

Like many scholars, especially in the religion space, I get a lot of crazy mail. The one that came today is particularly impressive:

You know what makes a great last minute Christmas gift, but doesn’t really work as a stocking stuffer? My “Who Wrote the Bible?” on Great Courses! www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/who-wrote-th...

Happy to receive a copy of this volume (to which I made a small contribution):

Good thoughts from Chance here. To put this another way: people who are complaining that they can’t get jobs because people aren’t interested in dead white men…maybe are forgetting the generations before this (all of them) when anyone *not* interested in dead white men couldn’t get a job.

I work with the very coolest people.

Hey y’all, just a note that my Great Courses course on Who Wrote the Bible is on 20% discount right now with the code X32Z. www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/who-wrote-th...

I don’t think I’ve binged a 24-lecture course as fast as Who Wrote the Bible by Dr Joel Baden. And his ideas keep prompting new thoughts and questions for me. I love that.

I *think* this pleases me. By the way, I suppose I should announce my first Great Courses…um…course: www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/who-wrote-th...

It’s so nice to go to the conference and see all the people I never get to see in my day to day life…

For Halloween, a bunch of students in my intro Bible class dressed up… as me. Evidence below.

For no reason at all, a late night picture of Mylo.

@joelbaden.bsky.social just finished this excellent book. As great as it is, the conclusion and introspection at the end was even better and the most impactful to me.

It’s still basically the “debate me, bro” mindset. We shouldn’t play that game.

How do we choose one “theme” over another? Great: kindness to immigrants is definitely a consistent biblical theme. So is slavery. So is religious intolerance. Thematic thinking doesn’t make the Bible more liberal.

Just to make this point again, since it becomes relevant occasionally: if you use Bible verses as prooftexts like this, then you’re also saying that we should have the death penalty, forbid gay male sex, and allow chattel slavery of foreigners. Because the Bible is unambiguous about that, too.

Been reading @joelbaden.bsky.social 's book while my car is getting new tires. The essays on נפש‎ and רוח were insightful. Been a great read so far, even if you're familiar with the Hebrew it gives you moments of pause you didn't consider.

First copies of the latest book:

First copies of the latest book:

Ah - there’s no difference. I don’t have any way of knowing *who* inserted this (or any other later insertion) or *when* it was inserted. I care that it’s not from any of the sources and has to have been done in light of their combination. So anyone from the redactor to Augustine is fine by me.

Sure! The crucial point is that there are two interwoven genealogies here: one from P, which is identifiable because every verse begins with either “these” or “the descendants of x,” and one from J (non-P for the haters), which is everything else. The P genealogy of Shem begins in 10:22-23.

Okay, why not: one like, one verse from the Pentateuch that I think is a post-compilation secondary addition. Let’s get NUTS.

Just received the first printing of my new volume of collected essays:

The whole “AI uses em-dashes so don’t use them if you don’t want it to look like you’re writing with AI” thing is pissing me off. Like - Nazis wore belts, but I still have to keep my damn pants up. If you can only tell the difference between real writing and AI because of an em-dash, try harder.

@joelbaden.bsky.social just binged the rise and fall of ancient Israel course. Outstanding job and I did order that book. Quite eager to dive in to that.