HeyJaredThe Bible Bar
The Bible Bar – The Podcast of the Bible Department of Bar-Ilan University. Hosted by Dr. Joshua Berman, The Bible Bar offers a guided journey through the Bible, one chapter at a time, in conversation with leading scholars from Bar-Ilan University and across the globe.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 28, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest episodes
Gen 32: Did Jacob Wrestle with God or with Esau? (opens the original)
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Guest: Dr. Brad Anderson. On the eve of his dreaded reunion with Esau, Jacob is left alone at night—and suddenly finds himself wrestling with a mysterious ish , a “man,” until daybreak. Who is this stranger? An angel? God? Esau’s guardian angel? Or even a projection of Jacob’s own inner struggle? In this episode, we speak with Dr. Bradford Anderson of Dublin City University about the long history of attempts to explain one of Genesis’s most enigmatic scenes. We explore rabbinic interpretations,
Gen 31 : Why Did Rachel Steal Her Father’s Gods? (opens the original)
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Guest: Dr. Erin Derby. As Jacob and his family secretly flee from Laban, Genesis 31 drops a strange detail into the story: Rachel steals her father’s teraphim . Laban calls them his “gods”—and is desperate to get them back. But what exactly were teraphim , what were they used for, and why would Rachel steal them? In this episode we speak with Erin Darby , Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and an expert on figurines, ritual, and material culture in ancient Is
Gen 30: More Than Spotted Sheep (opens the original)
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Guest: Dr. Suzie Park Genesis 30 ends with one of the strangest episodes in the Jacob story. Jacob agrees that his wages from Laban will consist of the spotted, speckled, and dark-colored animals—and then proceeds to peel branches, place them before the mating flocks, and somehow emerge with an abundance of precisely those animals. What are we supposed to make of this? Dr. Suzie Park joins us to look beyond attempts to explain Jacob’s methods through ancient animal husbandry, genetics, or belief
Gen 29: Love in the Hebrew Bible (opens the original)
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Guest: Dr. Suzie Park. Genesis 29 tells us that Jacob loved Rachel—and that Leah was “hated.” But what does the Hebrew Bible actually mean when it speaks of love ? Dr. Suzie Park, author of Love in the Hebrew Bible (Westminster John Know, 2023), joins us to explore the Hebrew verb ahav and the ways its biblical meaning extends far beyond our modern ideas of romantic feeling. Drawing on biblical narrative, Deuteronomy, and the language of ancient Near Eastern treaties, they examine love as loyalt
Gen 28: Bethel not Babel (opens the original)
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Guest: Dr. Zvi Shimon Why does Jacob receive his vision of a stairway reaching to heaven precisely as he is leaving Canaan and heading east toward Haran? Dr. Zvi Shimon joins The Bible Bar to explore the striking connections between Jacob’s dream at Bethel and the Tower of Babel. Both stories feature a structure whose top reaches heaven, but they offer radically different accounts of how heaven and earth are joined. Along the way, we consider why this short episode has played such an outsized ro
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