Roman mosaic of Dionysus riding a tiger | House of the Faun, Pompeii | Image source
On AJR
AJR Animals and Late Antique Judaism forum continues! Janet Spittler, “Animals in the Way”
Spittler: “An interest in such family relationships is, in fact, a consistent theme throughout the Acts of Thomas. Who are your kin, to whom do you connect yourself (in marriage and otherwise)? These are questions that are returned to again and again—in different forms and of different characters (human, animal, and demon) throughout the narrative. In act three (concerning the murderous snake who is in love with a human woman) the apostle asks the animal: “of what seed and what breed (poias sporas kai poiou genous) are you?”[xix]”
Book Note: Catherine Hezser, Rabbinic Body Language: Non-Verbal Communication in Palestinian Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 2017)
DeGolan: “Counterintuitive studies, however, can be quite rewarding, especially when they demonstrate the benefits and applicability of their novel approach. Catherine Hezser’s new monograph, Rabbinic Body Language: Non-Verbal Communication in Palestinian Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity, succeeds in doing both. First, the book’s overarching argument, that “body language constitutes an important part of the literary self-fashioning of ancient rabbis” (244), is convincing and well supported. Additionally, Hezser provides her readers with a practical model for analyzing non-verbal communication in rabbinic literature.”
Articles and News
Haaretz reports on a newly unrolled late Roman Aramaic, possibly Jewish, hex scroll from Antioch.
Spectacular images at the Manar al-Athar site from the Bagawat monumental tomb, the so-called “Chapel of the Exodus.”
Tony Burke muses on teaching apocrypha, with a focus on “anti-gospels” and Christian-Jewish conflict.
Report from the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World conference, “Future Philologies.”
Michael Satlow takes stock of the study of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity.
Terrific overview by Menachem Katz at TheGemara.com of the surviving manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud.
Sharp social commentary on the Met Gala theme from the perspective of a historian of early Christianity.
Second episode of fledgling New Testament Review podcast online, tackling William Wrede.
Terrific! Striking similarities w/contemporary Xtian glossed Bibles, and what became standard format for printed Talmuds https://t.co/vr409ZyXCU
— Matthew Chalmers (@Matt_J_Chalmers) 17 May 2018
Getting ready for tomorrow's #JubileesPalimpsestProject workshop @NotreDame. Do come if you can - but even if not, check out @NEHgov project info and related resources @THanneken at https://t.co/BsBCRXkuwo pic.twitter.com/JoLp85vxwG
— Annette Yoshiko Reed (@AnnetteYReed) 14 May 2018
I’m very proud of our LIT3053 students. @KatieBEdwards and I co-teach this module, which is Texts of Terror: Confronting the horrific in the Bible. I want to show you some of their final projects, which translate terrifying biblical passages into something with current impact.
— Dr Meredith Warren (@DrMJCWarren) 16 May 2018