Curated playlist
Christian saints from the Old Testament
- MosesMichelangelo's statue of Moses has horns because of a mistranslation. A Latin Bible turned ray of light into horned.
- IsaacAbraham bound his son Isaac to an altar and drew his knife. An angel stopped him, and a ram was sacrificed instead.
- AbrahamAbraham is revered by billions, yet most scholars now read him as literature, not history.
- EnochEnoch is a biblical patriarch from the generations before Noah's flood, and the Book of Genesis ends his story in the strangest way it can. The text says Enoch "walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him." He had lived 365…
- JacobJacob wrestled a mysterious being until daybreak and limped ever after. He came away with a new name, Israel.
- IsaiahAccording to the Talmud, the prophet Isaiah hid in a cedar tree and was sawn in two. The Bible never says how he died.
- SolomonArchaeologists have never found the temple, palace or throne of Israel's King Solomon.
- BathshebaBathsheba carries a name that can mean Daughter of the Oath, or possibly Daughter of Sheba. Few figures in scripture have attracted so much argument behind so short a name. She was an Israelite queen who was married twice, first to Uriah…
- GabrielIn Hadith traditions, the angel Jibril is said to have six hundred wings. Jibril is the Islamic name for Gabriel, an archangel known across Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other Abrahamic religions. In some cultures he is called Cebrail.…
- Raphael (archangel)The archangel Raphael lent his name to a ship that sailed from Lisbon for India on the 8th of July 1497. Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four vessels that day. King Manuel I of Portugal insisted that the flagship be called São Rafael. The…
- Michael (archangel)On the berets of French paratroopers sits a winged arm gripping a dagger, and the emblem stands for Michael the archangel. He is also called Archangel Michael or Michael the Taxiarch. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam he is the warrior of…
- Joseph (Genesis)Joseph, the dream interpreter of the Book of Genesis, carries a name that the Bible itself explains in two different ways. In one verse, his mother Rachel says that God has taken away her reproach, which echoes a Hebrew root meaning to…
- ElijahEvery Saturday evening, as the Sabbath ends, Jewish families perform the Havdalah ceremony and sing a plea for Elijah to arrive. The hymn goes: "Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah from Gilead. Let him come quickly, in our day…