Latest Frank Moore Cross Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Elie [Wiesel], when you ask, "Why do I want to know," I'm trying to grab the holy. And I'm getting thrown back.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Trying, Want, Holy

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• We are thrown back on the text, for the most part. Archaeology can give us background. It doesn't either confirm or disprove the Bible, but it may illuminate it.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Giving, May, Archaeology

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• If I ever write a book on "How True Is the Bible?" I'll have to start out by saying that archaeology is not the way to find out; that it has very little to say.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Book, Writing, Littles

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I guess what this is reflecting is my own search for answers that I can't find. Frank [Moore Cross] and I have examined a lot of archaeological materials in the hope of finding out.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Answers, Crosses, Frank

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I try to look at the texts and say: Is there a way that I can find history in the texts and separate it from what may be the mythological elements, and I don't find any rules for that.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Trying, Looks, Elements

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• The text says Deuteronomy was lost, but you say it was written then.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Lost, Written

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• Frank [Moore Cross], publicly dissects the text but he has a private, passionate relationship to the text that he doesn't often speak of publicly.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Passionate, Speak, Crosses

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• That is to say, the inspiration, the interpretive richness of the text is what Elie [Wiesel] does publicly, and his interest in history is his private reserve; he knows that he is not an expert in dissecting the text the way Frank [Moore Cross] does.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Inspiration, Experts, Doe

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I sense that what you two [Elie Wiesel and Frank Moore Cross] share is that you each have a public relationship to the Biblical text and a somewhat private relationship to the Biblical text.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Biblical, Two, Public Relations

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• What is public for you, Elie [Wiesel], is private for Frank [Moore Cross], and the reverse.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Crosses, Reverse, Frank

• In fact, we're both [with Elie Wiesel] engaged with the text. We search for different things, we find different things. There is a side of what he does that I'd like to do, a bit more privately. I'm not sure he is as interested in history, as I am.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Doe, Different, Facts

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• There are surely many legitimate approaches to Biblical literature, and I think that it depends very much on one's experience and temperament which way one deals primarily with Biblical material.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Biblical, Thinking, Literature

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I do think that the Josianic return to the archaic form of the Passover is appropriate and, indeed, historical. Josiah does go back to a different, earlier tradition, the time of a central sanctuary in which the law code was read. But then there were accretions to the Book of Deuteronomy.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Book, Thinking, Law

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• Furthermore, I think there was, in fact, a celebration of Passover in the era of the Judges in which the epic was recited in the context of the central sanctuary. That tradition was displaced by the Feast of Enthronement beginning in the Solomonic era.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Epic, Thinking, Judging

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• There was certainly an old law code which stands behind the earliest form of Deuteronomy. Presumably that is what was lost.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Law, Lost, Form

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• We want to live in ambiguity. This is the human condition.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Want, Human Condition, Ambiguity

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I find it exciting to get any historical material from the ground. As you know, I love to put ancient Israel and its literature into their ancient contexts. And to rebuild - that is, to me, a very exciting historical task.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Israel, Historical, Tasks

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I think we may very well, in many areas, get likelihood, but not certitude. We don't want certitude anyway, do we?

  Frank Moore Cross

  Thinking, May, Want

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• The Garden of Eden presents the same story: If you want to make yourself gods, you'll find you're akin to the animals.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Animal, Garden, Eden

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• If one attempts to achieve deity or to have the holy, he is thrown back; he is refused. His language is taken from him. He can no longer even communicate. That's the Tower of Babel.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Taken, Tower Of Babel, Towers

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• [Sacrifice of Isaac] is a major theme of the so-called Elohist [one authorial strand in the Pentateuch]. It is marked by all of his linguistic characteristics, and so on. We cannot determine what is historical and what isn't. As literary critics, we would understand the importance of this for understanding life, destiny. But the historical question must be left with a question mark.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Sacrifice, Destiny, Understanding

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• I would not speak of Judaism as a Talmudic or Rabbinic religion. It's a Biblical religion.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Biblical, Speak, Judaism

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• The Hebrew Bible defines Judaism. It's certainly true that the Talmudic interpretations become authoritative and normative, but they are interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. So that is always there.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Hebrew, Interpretation, Judaism

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• [The story of Adam and Eve] it's poetry. One must interpret it as poetry. The first 11 chapters of Genesis [the Primeval History] are absolutely remarkable.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Stories, Firsts, Adam

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

• You have miracles [in the Hebrew Bible], yes, but they're not the work, normally, of demons.

  Frank Moore Cross

  Miracle, Hebrew, Demon

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org