Mosaic medallion of a chained lion and Dionysius | From Pompeii, currently held in the Naples National Archaeological Museum | Image Source
On AJR
Unexpected Influences with Patricia Cox Miller: In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity
Cox Miller: “That blind spot in ancient Christian texts is the repeated assertion of the irrationality of animals when compared with humans, an assertion that actually rests on a concept of animals that is homogenizing. What I found was that reading around, past, and underneath the ancient Christian rhetoric of animal irrationality disclosed another mindset in which particular animals, not “the animal,” are engaged and used in meditations on various kinds of human/animal mutuality.”
Book Note: Tarmo Toom (ed.), Patristic Theories of Biblical Interpretation: The Latin Fathers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Walters: “Overall, for those interested in the history of biblical interpretation, this volume will prove to be a valuable collection. Most of the ancient authors included in this volume have long been studied as part of the history of biblical interpretation, so readers familiar with this field will not find new material or unique arguments in every chapter. Still, these chapters provide convenient starting places for each author, with suggestions for further reading.”
Articles and News
Upcoming: the third Materia Conference approaching material texts in the ancient world at NYU.
Reflections on synchronicity, global history, and the history of ideas.
Annie Greene at the Katz Center blog outlines the long history of Iraqi Jews.
Neat, illustrated piece on reading obscured text on a Torah scroll using multispectral imaging.
Sarah Bond talks ancient and modern fingerprinting, bioarchaeology, and databases.
A letter home from the 2nd century CE (probably).
Marc Brettler and A.J. Levine meet the Pope.
Published #HebrewProject Phase 2: Or 10351, Samaritan prayer book for Sabbath from 1905 https://t.co/2iim48ceKi pic.twitter.com/QfvAXa65xW
— BL Hebrew Project (@BL_HebrewMSS) 28 March 2019
In this morning's MIDEAST 490---a course about early Christians' creation of the past---we read a chap from Remains of the Jews and worked out that @drewjakeprof's analysis of how Egeria's account scripturalizes and ritualizes the landscape applies almost perfectly to #PokemonGo
— Ellen Muehlberger (@emuehlbe) 25 March 2019
Grad students -- Is there a newly published academic book vital to your research? Write a book note for @ancientjew and get the book for free! DM me for details.
— Krista N. Dalton (@KristaNDalton) 24 March 2019