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

My father's religious life was not Biblically centered. He was a saintly man, whom I could never emulate, so I went into scholarship rather than into the kind of pastoral activity that he pursued.

Happily, I come out of a Calvinist tradition in which the Hebrew Bible carries as much authority as the New Testament. No different weight is given to one or the other.

The history of interpretation [of the Bible] is fascinating; but that is something else.

I have a concordance to the Talmud at home, which I have to use.

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

[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.