Mauricio Avayu and his murals.

And the geopolitics of the Bronze Age Levant.

The Qurayyah oasis.

Humanism, pessimism, and other philosophical questions.

Reading Joseph through Jacob and Esau.

How the rabbis wove an obscure figure into the biblical narrative.

And what it has to do with Passover.

Beware the wandering thingamajig.

The contradictions of Shechem.

And how the Flood changed him.

How the Bible and Plato can prepare us for the high-tech future.

Lessons from spiritual whiplash.

Figs, grapes, and unconvincing explanations.

Liberation theology, the Exodus, and divine love.