As part of our joint celebration of the #DSSat70 with @TWUDSSI, Josh Matson reviews “Exploring the Dead Sea Scrolls,” a collection of essays by Hanan Eshel.
Read MoreDivine Law in Islamic Tradition
"Moses Receives the Ten Commandments." Machsor mechol hashana. Germany, ca. 1290, leaves 59b, 50a. Vellum (2)
"Moses Receives the Ten Commandments." Machsor mechol hashana. Germany, ca. 1290, leaves 59b, 50a. Vellum (2)
Dr. Marc Herman applies Hayes' What's Divine About Divine Law to Islamic traditions.
Read MoreThe View from the Balcony: Student Perspectives In and Beyond Class
Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz describes using an unexpected classroom balcony as a pedagogical tool.
Read MoreUsing Harry Potter to Construct a Canon
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows; image from Flickr.
On Pedagogy and Playing with Fire: How (and Why) to Eat a Candle in Class!
Candle burning. License: CC0 Public Domain
Candle burning. License: CC0 Public Domain
Dr. Jill Hicks-Keeton on "eating" a candle as a teaching moment.
Read MoreSound Pedagogy
Mamluk Manuscript Page depicting the Archangel Israfil, held at the British Museum and displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Medieval Jerusalem” exhibit in 2016
Mamluk Manuscript Page depicting the Archangel Israfil, held at the British Museum and displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Medieval Jerusalem” exhibit in 2016
Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz describes how to sensitize students to the sounds in ancient texts.
Read MoreWebsite Construction as Introduction to Academic Research
Sample webpage from Biblical Theology Spring 2017 semester.
Sample webpage from Biblical Theology Spring 2017 semester.
Dr. Rebecca Falcasantos with an alternative website-building term project.
Read MoreWhy "Law" in Pauline Discourse
![St. Paul by Lippo Memmi. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 625 [public domain]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5449167fe4b078c86b41f810/1499706892095-R1VREKNLN467FZ2E4BH2/DP295031.jpg)
St. Paul by Lippo Memmi. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 625 [public domain]
St. Paul by Lippo Memmi. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 625 [public domain]
"One criticism I have of Paul and the law scholarship (and Matthew and the law as well) is that extra-Jewish materials are only incorporated into a scholar’s research when such materials are believed to have influenced Paul’s thought. Put differently, extra-Jewish materials only count for Paul and the law scholars if we think Paul knew about them."
Read MorePauline Paleontology
"The oblique nature of Paul’s references to the Abraham Narrative suggests that his implied readers, in fact, do know the basic contours of that story. Paul’s allusions to Genesis, therefore, must represent his efforts to get them to read or hear the Abraham Narrative very differently than they currently do."
Read MoreDescription, Redescription, and Textual Practices: Thiessen’s and Kaden’s Critical Interventions
The Apostle Paul from St. Sophia of Kyiv (Wikimedia Commons)
The Apostle Paul from St. Sophia of Kyiv (Wikimedia Commons)
"Description and Redescription – the classic interrelated activities that animate critical scholarship on religion. This roundtable affords the chance to examine two books that push the descriptive and redescriptive envelopes in their sectors of biblical studies."
Read MoreHow Faith Affects the Incorporation of the Gentile
!["The Conversion of St. Paul" Benozzo Gozzoli on view in The MET 5th Ave Gallery 603 [public domain].](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5449167fe4b078c86b41f810/1499706383897-RN9T2V6L61GA2B7F6ID0/image-asset.jpeg)
"The Conversion of St. Paul" Benozzo Gozzoli on view in The MET 5th Ave Gallery 603 [public domain].
"The Conversion of St. Paul" Benozzo Gozzoli on view in The MET 5th Ave Gallery 603 [public domain].
"Ultimately, I believe that a full understanding of Paul combines both of these interpretations, though with one additional element. It is perhaps a function of my age that I am more cynical than our two authors, but I am inclined to agree that Paul’s offer of cosmic rule for gentiles of faith has the ring of a marketing ploy."
Read MoreSBL 2016 Pauline Epistles Review Panel
The SBL 2016 Pauline Epistles Review Panel including J. Albert Harrill, Christine Hayes, and Stephen Young with Matthew Thiessen and David Kaden responding.
Read MoreTwo Approaches to Pauline Discourse
Saint Paul Writing his Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne (ca. 1618 - 1620) Wikimedia Commons
Saint Paul Writing his Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne (ca. 1618 - 1620) Wikimedia Commons
"Reading Thiessen and Kaden synoptically thus fosters debate over how best to relate globalization studies and biblical studies."
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | Sean P. Burrus
Seasons sarcophagus with menorah in the clipeus. From the Vigna Randani catacombs, Rome. Musei Nazionale Romano, Terme di Diocleziano, Inv. No. 67611. (Photo: Author).
Seasons sarcophagus with menorah in the clipeus. From the Vigna Randani catacombs, Rome. Musei Nazionale Romano, Terme di Diocleziano, Inv. No. 67611. (Photo: Author).
"The use of sarcophagus burial by Jewish patrons was a highly variable mode of cultural interaction, representing an ongoing negotiation of Jewishness by different individuals from different communities in the context of enduring cultural exchange."
Read MoreUnexpected Influences | Michael Swartz and Michael Satlow
Louis Armstrong, Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c27236.
Louis Armstrong, Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c27236.
Dr. Michael Swartz and Dr. Michael Satlow share a book that was an "unexpected influence" upon their academic work.
Read MoreThe Scope and Shape of the Watchers Myth in Antiquity
Dissertation Spotlight | Jessica Wright
ff. 490V from the Trilingual Compendium of Texts (England, 14th c). Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library
ff. 490V from the Trilingual Compendium of Texts (England, 14th c). Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library
"The 'cerebral subject' might be the product of neuroscience and early modern philosophy, but its roots go much further back to antiquity, in the encounter between emergent Christian theories of the soul and entrenched medical understandings of the brain."
Read MoreThe Developmental Composition of the Bible in View of Qumran
Qumran Aramaic Texts: A Forum
AJR and @TWUDSSI’s online celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the Dead Sea Scrolls continues with a second forum devoted to the Aramaic Texts at Qumran with Jonathan Ben-Dov, Daniel Machiela, Devorah Dimant, Andrew Perrin, Henryk Drawnel, and Liora Goldman.
Read MoreThe Compositions Relating to the Levitical Line in the Qumran Aramaic Scrolls
Herod the Great entering Jerusalem. Flavius Josephus, The Judaic Antiquities, Illumination by Jean Fouquet, circa 1470-1475. Paris, BnF, Department of Manuscripts, NAF 21013, fol. 1V. (Book XV)
Herod the Great entering Jerusalem. Flavius Josephus, The Judaic Antiquities, Illumination by Jean Fouquet, circa 1470-1475. Paris, BnF, Department of Manuscripts, NAF 21013, fol. 1V. (Book XV)
Dr. Liora Goldman on priestly tradition, wisdom, and apocalypticism in the Qumran Aramaic texts.
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