New Books in Biblical Studies

What happens when you read the weekly Torah portion alongside the strange, fascinating, and sometimes uncomfortable story of modern Jewish history? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with Rabbi David Bashevkin to discuss I Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parasha (Maggid, 2026), a book that turns Shabbat reading into an intellectual journey through the Jewish past. Bashevkin takes familiar Torah stories and places them in surprising conversation with the events and ideas that have shaped modern Jewish life. Noah’s ark leads to the Industrial Revolution. The biblical census opens a window onto the modern haredi draft debate. Korah’s rebellion becomes a lens for understanding the rise of Marxism. Along the way, Bashevkin explores questions that remain deeply relevant: Is the founding of Israel a messianic moment? How should we understand rabbinic authority centuries after its emergence? Can political disagreements justify divisions among Jews? And how did the revival of Hebrew transform Jewish identity? The essays move freely between Jewish history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature, and traditional sources. They aren't conventional Torah sermons or academic lectures; instead, they are invitations to make unexpected connections and to see both the Torah and Jewish history with fresh eyes. Each essay also ends with suggested books, turning Bashevkin's own reading into an invitation for listeners to keep exploring. Together, Bashevkin and Katz explore what happens when the weekly parasha becomes a doorway into the Jewish historical imagination—and why Shabbat might be the perfect time to slow down, pick up a book, and reconnect with the story of our people. About the Guest: David Bashevkin is founder of 18Forty, a media and educational platform leading conversations on Jewish faith, identity, and community, and host of its flagship podcast. He serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Jewish Values at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business and is a rebbe at Isaac Breuer College. David has been rejected from several prestigious fellowships and awards. About the Host: Rab­bi Marc Katz is the Rab­bi at Tem­ple Ner Tamid in Bloom­field, NJ. He is author of the books Yochanan’s Gam­ble: Judaism’s Prag­mat­ic Approach to Life (JPS) cho­sen as a final­ist for the PROSE award and The Heart of Lone­li­ness: How Jew­ish Wis­dom Can Help You Cope and Find Com­fort (Turn­er Pub­lish­ing) which was cho­sen as a final­ist for the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award.

In this episode of the New Books Network, Željko Stanojević speaks with Matthew Montgomery about his article “An Intercessor Like Moses: A Key Component of the Psalter’s Message”, published in the European Hebrew Journal. Montgomery’s study asks how the final form of the Masoretic Psalter communicates hope after the collapse of Judah and the Babylonian exile. Building on the widely recognized observation that Book III of the Psalter engages the downfall of the Southern Kingdom while Book IV places unusual emphasis on Moses, he traces textual signals connecting these sections with Exodus 32–34. Particular attention is given to the introduction of Moses and Aaron, the clustering of references to them in Books IV and V, and repeated allusions to Moses’ intercession after Israel’s covenant-breaking at Sinai. The central argument is that these features are not isolated reminiscences. Read together, they help shape the Psalter’s theological and literary message. Moses appears as the paradigmatic representative who can stand between God and a disobedient people, plead on their behalf, and turn away divine anger. Montgomery argues that, in the post-exilic horizon of the Psalter, this Mosaic pattern contributes to an emerging hope for an intercessory figure capable of mediating between God and a covenant-breaking community. The interview explores what this proposal contributes to final-form readings of the Psalter and why the arrangement of psalms can itself become a vehicle of meaning. Matthew Montgomery is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose research includes Psalms, scriptural reuse, rhetoric, literary coherence, and the shaping of biblical collections. His article was published on 18 June 2026 after double-blind peer review, with Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Eckart Otto serving as Academic Editor. The article is freely available through its permanent DOI. Montgomery will also speak at the EHJ International Scholarly Online Conference 2026, “New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies”. On 8 November 2026 at 22:00 CET, he will present “Neither Story or Arbitrary: The Rhetoric of Juxtaposition in the MT Psalter”. The presentation develops a related concern with how the Psalter’s ordering creates rhetorical and theological effects without requiring readers to treat the collection either as one continuous story or as an arbitrary anthology. The host, Željko Stanojević, is a Hebrew linguist, biblical philologist, lexicographer, translator, and scholar of Biblical and Modern Hebrew. He is President of the Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature in Belgrade, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the European Hebrew Journal, and a host on the New Books Network Biblical Studies channel. His work includes Biblical Hebrew, Semitic linguistics, textual criticism, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Bible translation, biblical onomastics, and Hebrew lexicography. This episode will be of interest to readers and listeners working on Psalms, the Hebrew Bible, Moses and Aaron, Exodus traditions, intercession, post-exilic theology, ancient Hebrew, biblical allusion, textual criticism, and the literary shaping of Scripture.

Saul, David, and Solomon are among the most influential—and most contested—figures in the Hebrew Bible. The biblical narratives portray them as rulers of an expanding Israelite polity that eventually divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Yet how much of these accounts reflects historical reality? Did the United Monarchy truly exist, and what can archaeology tell us about Israel’s earliest kings?

Tune in to this interview about Body Language: Voice, Embodiment, and Textuality in the Hebrew Bible (Yale UP, 2026). Jacqueline Vayntrub is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University in the Divinity School. She holds a Ph.D. with honors in Northwest Semitic Philology from the University of Chicago. Her research operates at the intersection of biblical philology, poetics, and the history of biblical scholarship. She is the author of Beyond Orality: Biblical Poetry on its own Terms (Routledge 2019), Body Language: Voice, Embodiment, and Textuality in the Hebrew Bible (Yale University Press, 2026), as well as the co-author of Hebrew Funerary Inscriptions from Iron Age Judah (Society of Biblical Literature Press, forthcoming). Her current major projects include a commentary on Ecclesiastes for the Old Testament Library series (Westminster John Knox Press), and serving as Project Director for an NEH-funded international collaboration investigating the institutional history and anti-Jewish scaffolding of modern biblical criticism. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies

In this New Books Network interview, Professor Željko Stanojević speaks with Professor Yigal Levin of Bar-Ilan University about his new book, The Chronicles of David and Solomon: 1 Chronicles 10–2 Chronicles 9: A New Translation and Commentary, published by Bloomsbury. The conversation explores what is new in Levin’s translation and commentary, how the Book of Chronicles reshapes the stories of David and Solomon, and why Jerusalem, the Temple, the priesthood, the Levites, geography, political memory, and the idea of “all Israel” are central to the Chronicler’s message. The book offers a new English translation and detailed commentary on 1 Chronicles 10 through 2 Chronicles 9. It is part of a planned multi-volume commentary. It begins with the death of Saul and follows the Chronicler’s account of David’s rise to power, the establishment of Jerusalem, the transfer of the Ark, the divine promise concerning David’s dynasty, preparations for the Temple, Solomon’s accession, and the construction and dedication of the Jerusalem Temple. Levin shows that Chronicles does far more than repeat Samuel and Kings. The Chronicler selects, reorganises, expands, and omits earlier material to create a distinctive interpretation of Israel’s past. David is presented above all as the king who prepares Jerusalem, worship, personnel, materials, and institutions for the future Temple, while Solomon completes that project by building and dedicating the Temple. The volume also examines priests, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, officials, military groups, tribes, cities, territories, genealogies, and neighbouring peoples. These details are essential for understanding how the Chronicler imagined Israel’s unity, institutions, memory, and identity. Levin combines Biblical Hebrew, textual comparison, historical geography, archaeology, genealogy, literary analysis, and the history of ancient Israel. The commentary is especially valuable for scholars and students of Chronicles, David and Solomon, the Jerusalem Temple, biblical historiography, Persian-period Yehud, Biblical Hebrew, biblical archaeology, and ancient Israelite history. Professor Yigal Levin is an Israeli historian and biblical scholar at Bar-Ilan University. His research focuses on the history of ancient Israel, the Book of Chronicles, historical geography, biblical archaeology, biblical historiography, genealogies and tribal identity, Persian-period Yehud, and the relationship between biblical texts, geography, archaeology, and history. He is also Director of the Rivlin Institute for the History of the Land of Israel and its Settlement. Professor Levin is a member of the Editorial Board of the European Hebrew Journal, an international, peer-reviewed, Diamond Open Access journal published by the Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature in Belgrade. The journal publishes research in Hebrew language, Biblical Hebrew, the Hebrew Bible, Jewish Studies, Semitic linguistics, philology, textual criticism, biblical archaeology, ancient Israelite history, Hebrew literature, manuscript studies, translation, lexicography, and related fields. EHJ does not charge authors submission or publication fees. Professor Levin has also been announced as a speaker at the international online conference New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies, to be held on 6–8 November 2026. The conference brings together scholars from biblical studies, Hebrew studies, theology, archaeology, Jewish Studies, history, and related disciplines. The interview is hosted by Professor Željko Stanojević, President of the Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature, and European Hebrew Journal, and a New Books Network host for Biblical Studies.European Hebrew Journal Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature: Conference: New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies, An International Online Conference Supporting the Diamond Open Access Mission of the European Hebrew Journal Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies