Jacob Milgrom was a prominent American Jewish Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 scholar and Conservative

Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...

 rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

, best known for his comprehensive Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 commentaries and work on the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...

.

Biography

Jacob Milgrom was born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1923. He studied at Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

 and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Jewish Theological Seminary of America

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...

 in New York City. In 1948, he married Jo Berman, also a biblical scholar. They had four children.

Academic career

Jacob Milgrom spent most of his career at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, where he headed the Department of Near Eastern Studies. He was known for his research on Biblical purity laws and considered the world's leading expert on Leviticus

Leviticus

The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, and the third of five books of the Torah ....

.

After retiring in 1994, Milgrom and his wife Jo immigrated to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. He died in Jerusalem in June 2010.

Books

• Studies in Levitical Terminology. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1970. ISBN 0520093089.
• Studies in Cultic Theology and Terminology. E.J. Brill, 1983. ISBN 9004068643.
• Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1995. ISBN 0931464870.
• The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996. ISBN 0-8276-0329-0.
• Leviticus 1-16. New York: Anchor Bible, 1998. ISBN 0-385-11434-6.
• Leviticus 17–22. New York: Anchor Bible, 2000. ISBN 0-385-41255-X.
• Leviticus 23–27. New York: Anchor Bible, 2000. ISBN 0-385-50035-1.
• Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8006-9514-3

Articles

• “The Biblical Diet Laws as an Ethical System.” Interpretation. (July 1963).
• “The Alleged Wave–Offering in Israel and in the Ancient Near East.” Israel Exploration Journal
  Israel Exploration Journal
  The Israel Exploration Journal is a semi-annual academic journal which has been published by the Israel Exploration Society since 1950. It primarily covers research in archaeology, but also history and geography relating to Israel and the surrounding areas. The editors are Shmuel Ahituv and...
  
  . 22 (1972): 33–38.
• “Atonement in the OT,” “Atonement, Day of,” “Encroachment,” “First fruits, OT,” “First-born,” “Heave offering,” “Leviticus,” “Repentance in the OT,” “Sacrifices and Offerings, OT,” “Sanctification,” and “Wave offering.” In The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Supp. vol., 78–83, 264–65, 336–38, 391–92, 541–45, 736–38, 763–71, 782–84, 944–46. Nashville, Tenn: Abingdon, 1976. ISBN 0-687-19269-2.
• “The Temple Scroll.” Biblical Archaeologist
  Near Eastern Archaeology Magazine
  Near Eastern Archaeology is an American magazine dedicated to the publication of art, archaeology, history, anthropology, literature, philology, and epigraphy of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds from the Palaeolithic through Ottoman periods. The magazine is written for a general audience...
  
  . 41 (3) (Sep. 1978): 105–120.
• “The Case of the Suspected Adulteress, Numbers 5:11–31: Redaction and Meaning.” In The Creation of Sacred Literature. Edited by Richard E. Friedman
  Richard Elliott Friedman
  Richard Elliott Friedman is a biblical scholar and the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia. He joined the faculty of the UGA Religion Department in 2006. Prior to his appointment there, he was the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization: Hebrew Bible; Near...
  
  , 69–75. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1981. ISBN 0520096371.
• “The Levitic Town: An Exercise in Realistic Planning.” In Essays in Honour of Yigael Yadin”. Edited by Géza Vermes
  Geza Vermes
  Géza Vermes or Vermès is a British scholar of Jewish Hungarian origin and writer on religious history, particularly Jewish and Christian. He is a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient works in Aramaic, and on the life and religion of Jesus...
  
   and Jacob Neusner
  Jacob Neusner
  Jacob Neusner is an American academic scholar of Judaism who lives in Rhinebeck, New York.-Biography:Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Neusner was educated at Harvard University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America , the University of Oxford, and Columbia University.Neusner is often celebrated...
  
  . Totowa, N.J.: Allanheld, Osmun and Co., 1983. ISBN 0865981027.
• “Magic, Monotheism, and the Sin of Moses.” In The Quest for the Kingdom of God: Studies in Honor of George E. Mendenhall. Edited by H. B. Huffmon, F.A. Spina, A.R.W. Green, 251–265. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1983. ISBN 0931464153.
• “Of Hems and Tassels: Rank, authority and holiness were expressed in antiquity by fringes on garments.” Biblical Archaeology Review
  Biblical Archaeology Review
  Biblical Archaeology Review is a publication that seeks to connect the academic study of archaeology to a broad general audience seeking to understand the world of the Bible and the Near and Middle East . Covering both the Old and New Testaments, BAR presents the latest discoveries and...
  
  . 9 (3) (May/June 1983).
• “Challenge to Sun-Worship Interpretation of Temple Scroll’s Gilded Staircase.” Biblical Archaeology Review. 11 (1) (Jan./Feb. 1985).
• “The Chieftain’s Gifts: Numbers, Chapter 7,” Hebrew Annual Review. 9 (1985): 221–225.
• “‘You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk’: An archaeological myth destroyed.” Bible Review
  Bible Review
  Bible Review was a publication that sought to connect the academic study of the Bible to a broad general audience. Covering both the Old and New Testaments, Bible Review presented critical and historical interpretations of biblical texts, and “reader-friendly Biblical scholarship” from 1985 to...
  
  . 1 (3) (Fall 1985): 48–55.
• "Ethics and Ritual: The Foundations of the Biblical Dietary Laws." In Religion and Law: Biblical, Jewish, and Islamic Perspectives, 159–91. Edited by E.B. Firmage. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1989. ISBN 0931464390.
• “Seeing the Ethical Within the Ritual: Israel’s priests spoke in rituals, not in words. Their basic values are in the main ethical, and are ensconced in the rituals prescribed in the priestly texts of the Pentateuch.” Bible Review. 8 (4) (Aug. 1992).
• “Food and Faith: The Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Diet Laws: The Bible has worked out a system of restrictions whereby humans may satiate their lust for animal flesh and not be dehumanized. These laws teach reverence for life.” Bible Review. 8 (6) (Dec. 1992).
• “The Priestly ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’: Ancient Israel’s priests would be aghast at the moral pollution of the earth: the brazen slaughter of thousands, millions dying of hunger, while the free world silently changes the channel.” Bible Review. 9 (2) (Apr. 1993).
• “Sweet Land and Liberty: Whether real or utopian, the laws in Leviticus seem to be a more sensitive safeguard against pauperization than we, here and now, have devised.” Bible Review. 9 (4) (Aug. 1993).
• “Does the Bible Prohibit Homosexuality? The biblical prohibition is addressed only to Israel. It is incorrect to apply it on a universal scale.” Bible Review. 9 (6) (Dec. 1993).
• “How Not to Read the Bible: I am not for homosexuality, but I am for homosexuals. When the Bible is distorted to make God their enemy I must speak out to set the record straight.” Bible Review. 10 (2) (Apr. 1994).
• “An Amputated Bible, Peradventure? The publishing house of Simon and Schuster has come up with a radical solution to the problem of “boring” passages in the Bible: Eliminate them.” Bible Review. 10 (4) (Aug. 1994).
• “Sex and Wisdom: What the Garden of Eden Story Is Saying: There is a plain, unambiguous meaning to the story: It is about sexual awareness and the creativity of which that is a part.” Bible Review. 10 (6) (Dec. 1994).
• “Bible Versus Babel: Why did God tell Abraham to leave Mesopotamia, the most advanced civilization of its time, for the backwater region of Canaan?” Bible Review. 11 (2) (Apr. 1995).
• “The Most Basic Law in the Bible: It is easy to ‘love’ the war-ravaged Bosnians, the AIDS-stricken Zaireans or the bereaved of Oklahoma City. But what of the strangers in our midst, the vagrants on our sidewalks?” Bible Review. 11 (4) (Aug. 1994).
• “‘The Alien in Your Midst’: Every nation has its ger: the permanent resident. The Torah commands us, first, not to oppress the ger, and then to befriend and love him.” Bible Review. 11 (6) (Dec. 1995).
• “Lex Talionis and the Rabbis: The Talmud reflects an uneasy rabbinic conscience toward the ancient law of talion, ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’” Bible Review. 12 (2) (Apr. 1996).
• “A Husband’s Pride, A Mob’s Prejudice: The public ordeal undergone by a suspected adulteress in Numbers 5 was meant not to humiliate her but to protect her.” Bible Review. 12 (4) (Aug. 1996).
• “Shifting Borders: The Whole Land of Israel.” Moment
  Moment (magazine)
  Moment is an American Jewish magazine. It publishes articles related to Jewish culture, lifestyle, politics, and religion. Moment is not affiliated with any Jewish organization or religious movement, and its articles and columnists represent a diverse range of political views.-History:Nobel Peace...
  
  . (Aug. 1996): 52.
• “Albert Schweitzer: Doctor, Musician, Theologian.” Bible Review. 12 (5) (Oct. 1996).
• “The Water Libation in the Festival of Booths: Nonbiblical rites, though originating in popular worship and rooted in magical practice, were ultimately assimilated into Israel’s official monotheism.” Bible Review. 12 (6) (Dec. 1996).
• “Jubilee: A Rallying Cry for Today’s Oppressed: The laws of the Jubilee year offer a blueprint for bridging the gap between the have and have-not nations.” Bible Review. 13 (2) (Apr. 1997).
• “The Blood Taboo: Blood should not be ingested because it contains life. Whoever does so is guilty of murder.” Bible Review. 13 (4) (Aug. 1997).
• “The Vow and the ‘Popular Religious Groups’ of Ancient Israel: A Philological and Sociological Inquiry.” Journal of the American Oriental Society. 118 (4) (Oct. 1, 1998): 592.
• “The Truth of Mosaic Origins.” In Mincha: Festgabe Fur Rolf Rendtorff Zum 75. Geburtstag. Edited by E. Blum. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2000.