Divine Deliverance contributes to the rich variety of scholarship that examines ancient texts not for historical detail but for rhetorical effect.
Read MoreWeek in Review (10/27/17)
Illustration of Galen and other ancient medics | Vienna Dioskorides (ca.512), f. 3v | Image source
Illustration of Galen and other ancient medics | Vienna Dioskorides (ca.512), f. 3v | Image source
This Week: Disability Studies, rabbis and Romans, carbon dating, theaters, Bladerunner, buddhas - and more!
Read MoreAncient Medicine: An AJR Forum
Caroline Wazer, Lennart Lehmhaus, Chris De Wet, Julia Watts Belser, and Heid Marx examine aspects of ancient medicine from their own research.
Read MoreDisability Studies and Rabbinic Resistance to the Roman Conquest of Jerusalem
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, David Roberts Oil on canvas, 1850.
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, David Roberts Oil on canvas, 1850.
Dr. Julia Watts Belser uses disability theory to read rabbinic narratives about the destruction of Jerusalem, identifying how "the disabled Jewish body serves both as a visceral occasion for lament and a potent site of protest against empire."
Read MoreBook Note | On Prophets, Warriors, and Kings Former Prophets through the Eyes of Their Interpreters
Joshua Matson with a summary of the edited volume On Prophets, Warriors, and Kings, which contains conference papers from "various scholars who explored how the Former Prophets have been read, interpreted, and utilized throughout the ages."
Read MoreMedicine, Culture, and Self in Late Antiquity: A Gastronomic Reflection
![Fig.: The yellow indicates the vagal nerve running from the nervous system to the stomach (from Gray’s Anatomy, plate 793; Wikimedia commons [public domain]).](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5449167fe4b078c86b41f810/1506362512031-CY0T2K6AEF0K345F70S4/Untitled.jpg)
Fig.: The yellow indicates the vagal nerve running from the nervous system to the stomach (from Gray’s Anatomy, plate 793; Wikimedia commons [public domain]).
Fig.: The yellow indicates the vagal nerve running from the nervous system to the stomach (from Gray’s Anatomy, plate 793; Wikimedia commons [public domain]).
"What is intriguing about such statements as cited above—and one can list many similar cases with other authors—is that in them we witness how health, physiology, and anatomy are structured by means of social and cultural discursive formations. In this case, the discourse of slavery, which I have termed doulology,[iv] structures the dynamics between mental and gastric health. By their extension into the realm of the material psychē, these dynamics, in turn, shape the self. You are how you eat."
Read MoreBook Note | The Christian Schism in Jewish History and Jewish Memory
Joshua Blachorsky with a book note of Burns' The Christian Schism in Jewish History and Jewish Memory: "Burns continues the trend of eschewing the traditional parting model and envisioning a split only after the beginning of the 4th century. But he does so with a novel lens, focusing on the rabbinic evidence."
Read MoreWeek in Review (10/12/17)
Busts of Sol Invictus and Constantine I | Gold solidus minted in Ticinum in 313CE to commemorate victory at the Milvian Bridge | Image source
Busts of Sol Invictus and Constantine I | Gold solidus minted in Ticinum in 313CE to commemorate victory at the Milvian Bridge | Image source
This Week: Constantine, Jewish warrior poets, Talmudic medicine, magic incantation amulets – and more!
Read More“Curiosity Cures the Reb:’” Studying Talmudic Medical Discourses in Context
Galen and Hippokrates from Anagni Italy. Photo: Nina Aldin Thune via wikimedia commons.
Galen and Hippokrates from Anagni Italy. Photo: Nina Aldin Thune via wikimedia commons.
Dr. Lennart Lehmhaus shares a rabbinic case study in order to reflect upon the history of science and rabbinic texts: "A careful study of the discursive strategies and the embeddedness of such medical knowledge within their broader contexts of theology or religious law (Halakhah), allows one to highlight the differences in form and content in the variants of this narrative."
Read MoreBook Note | Constantine and the Cities: Imperial Authority and Civic Politics
"Lenski’s book thus offers not a picture of Constantine at all, but a series of portraits artfully arranged – some by Constantine himself, some by his image-makers, and some by contemporary scholars trying to make sense of this complex, enigmatic, kaleidoscopic character. "
Read MoreAsking the Right Questions in Roman Public Health
Dr. Caroline Wazer shares her work on Roman public health in the AJR forum on Ancient Medicine, concluding "that Roman ideas of what could and should be done in the interest of public health were more intimately connected to political climates than they were to the state of scientific knowledge, such as it was."
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | Dana Robinson
Sale of Bread at a Market Stall - Roman fresco from the Praedia of Julia Felix in Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples)
Sale of Bread at a Market Stall - Roman fresco from the Praedia of Julia Felix in Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples)
"When I asked what this emerging Christian food culture might have meant for the ordinary fourth century Christian, I found that it was not merely a trickle-down or oppositional model of lay vs. monastic or institutional piety. Rather, food helped early Christians negotiate among ideas across the spectrum of lived experience."
Read MoreTurning Torah Towards Proverbs: 4Q525 in Late Second Temple Perspective
Carson Bay reviews Turning Proverbs towards Torah: an Analysis of 4Q525 by Elisa Uusimäki as part of our joint #Scrollsat70 celebration with @TWUDSSI.
Read MoreWeek in Review (9/22/17)
The Virgin at the Apocalypse | Troyes Cathedral, window built 1524 | Image source
The Virgin at the Apocalypse | Troyes Cathedral, window built 1524 | Image source
This Week: Apocalypse, Sasanian Iran, the Ten Commandments, Syriac resources, ancient messianism – and more!
Read MoreRetrospective | Martha Himmelfarb
Rutland Psalter. Jacob's dream. 13th century British Library Additional 62925, image 744
Rutland Psalter. Jacob's dream. 13th century British Library Additional 62925, image 744
Dr. Martha Himmelfarb with a retrospective piece on her work with the Book of the Watchers and ancient apocalypses: "Thus I no longer see the ascent apocalypses as an unbroken tradition emanating from the Book of the Watchers as I did in Ascent to Heaven."
Read MoreBook Note | ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity
"Where others might be deterred by the paucity of evidence, the range of languages and disciplines required to make heads or tails of the area, or the lack of any preceding comparable work, Rezakhani refreshingly admits these difficulties and treks on despite – and perhaps even because of – them."
Read MoreWeek in Review (9/15/17)
Painting of the healing of a woman with internal bleeding | Fourth-century, Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, Rome | Image source
Painting of the healing of a woman with internal bleeding | Fourth-century, Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, Rome | Image source
This Week: Jews between Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Jewish art, Dead Sea Scrolls, fourth-century fashion – and much more!
Read MoreFashion for the Wise: Philosophy, Clothing, and Competition in Late Antiquity
Detail of polychrome fragments showing Christ dressed and posed as a philosopher, Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, ca. 300 CE (photo: Arthur P. Urbano)
Detail of polychrome fragments showing Christ dressed and posed as a philosopher, Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, ca. 300 CE (photo: Arthur P. Urbano)
"The appearance of the philosopher type in early Christian art was part and parcel of developments in late antique education, intellectual culture, and philosophical competition."
Read MoreReading the Scrolls and Experiencing Qumran Archaeology with Hanan Eshel
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 MoreWeek in Review (9/8/2017)
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Qusayr 'Amra bathhouse frescoes | Jordan, built ca.723-743 by Walid Ibn Yazid | Image Source
Qusayr 'Amra bathhouse frescoes | Jordan, built ca.723-743 by Walid Ibn Yazid | Image Source
This Week: Syriac sources for early Islam, Qusayr Amra, not *that* Liz Clark, skeuomorphs, African American classicists – and more!
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