ONLINE AUDIO INTERVIEW conducted by NGFP Online Magazine
with Prof. Kugel, March 2005

THIS AUDIO INTERVIEW IS NOW LIVE. YOU ARE INVITED TO LISTEN AND ENJOY THIS INTRODUCTION TO OUR COURSE!

Click on the [RESPONSE] button following each question to hear Prof. Kugel's comments:

1. Why should anyone be interested in ancient biblical interpretation? After all, modern scholars know a lot more nowadays about what the Bible means than they did 2000 years ago. [RESPONSE]

2. How did ancient interpreters transform the biblical text? Can you give me an example?[RESPONSE]

3. But still, the Bible is the Bible. Why not just concentrate on what IT says and forget about these later interpretations? [RESPONSE]

4. How did these traditions of interpretation get started — and when? [RESPONSE]

5. I thought the oldest Jewish interpretations of the Bible were in the Talmud and midrash. Aren't they? [RESPONSE]

6. What are these ancient sources you keep talkiing about, the biblical apocrypha and psedepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls? [RESPONSE]

7. Who wrote them? [RESPONSE]

8. What's your favorite book among all of these? [RESPONSE]

9. Can you give me a few more examples of how these ancient interpretations transformed the Bible? [RESPONSE]

10. How about an overview of the course: what do you hope students will get out of it? [RESPONSE]