My book is about reading as world-building, because reading with a grammarian in antiquity meant reading in a pool of fragmentation, displacement, and homogenization to re-arrange time and re-align filiation.
Read MoreBook Note | Acts of the Apostles and the Rhetoric of Roman Imperialism
Trajan's Column, Rome (Wikimedia Commons)
Trajan's Column, Rome (Wikimedia Commons)
In Acts of the Apostles and the Rhetoric of Roman Imperialism, Drew Billings places Emperor Trajan and the triumphal Column erected to honor his reign into conversation with the New Testament’s Acts of the Apostles.
Read MoreWeek in Review (4/5/19)
Encaustic wall painting from Sòlunto, Sicily | Currently held in the Museo archaeologico regionale di Palermo (Italy) | Image Source
Encaustic wall painting from Sòlunto, Sicily | Currently held in the Museo archaeologico regionale di Palermo (Italy) | Image Source
This Week: Bible beyond “Old Testament,” midrash, Sogdians online, pigment in antiquity, amethyst-mining inscriptions – and more!
Read More“We solved racism!” and other miscalculations in the biblical studies classroom
“One plus one plus one cannot equal one. Neither does the Old Testament equal the Tanakh. They are not one.”
Read MoreBook Note | Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer: Structure, Coherence, Intertextuality.
Yoni Nadiv reviews Katharina Keim’s Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer: Structure, Coherence, Intertextuality: “In the absence of a critical edition, Keim argues that the literary descriptive project she undertakes is not only possible absent a critical edition but is a prerequisite for preparing one.”
Read MoreWeek in Review (3/29/19)
Mosaic medallion of a chained lion and Dionysius | From Pompeii, currently held in the Naples National Archaeological Museum | Image Source
Mosaic medallion of a chained lion and Dionysius | From Pompeii, currently held in the Naples National Archaeological Museum | Image Source
This Week: Unexpected animals, Latin Christian exegesis, fingerprinting and bioarchaeology, multispectral Torah, Jews in Iraq – and more!
Read MoreUnexpected Influences | In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity
Lion, detail of mosaic, Mount Nebo (Mosaics of Jordan, fig. 219 on p. 169). Chapel of the Priest John at Khirbat-al-Mukhayyat, Jordan 565 CE. Courtesy of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, Mount Nebo, and the American Center of Oriental Research, Amman. Permission obtained by author.
Lion, detail of mosaic, Mount Nebo (Mosaics of Jordan, fig. 219 on p. 169). Chapel of the Priest John at Khirbat-al-Mukhayyat, Jordan 565 CE. Courtesy of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, Mount Nebo, and the American Center of Oriental Research, Amman. Permission obtained by author.
The intellectual climate had changed, and I saw that I needed to situate my work as an historian in contemporary animal theorizing in order to be responsive to the interpretive richness of this new cultural moment in scholarship and to develop a vocabulary that might enable a reading “otherwise” of ancient Christian texts that feature animals.
Read MoreBook Note | Patristic Theories of Biblical Interpretation: The Latin Fathers
Pietro della Vecchia, A Dispute among (possibly) the Four Doctors of the Church (1654) Wikimedia Commons
Pietro della Vecchia, A Dispute among (possibly) the Four Doctors of the Church (1654) Wikimedia Commons
The selection of ancient authors covered in this volume is governed by the explicit criterion that the ancient author must discuss something that may be surmised to be a “theory” of biblical interpretation. That is, the articles included do not simply survey how exegesis was practiced amongst Latin authors in late antiquity. Rather, they concern themselves specifically with Latin authors who articulated their hermeneutical method.
Read MoreWeek in Review (3/22/19)
Mordechai and Esther | Painted wood synagogue panel, Dura-Europos (Syria) | Image Source
Mordechai and Esther | Painted wood synagogue panel, Dura-Europos (Syria) | Image Source
This Week: Chag Purim Sameach, Esther under Islam, renewing philology, global history, deathbed moments, Sasanian manuscripts – and more!
Read MoreWhat can pre-modern Muslims tell us about the Hebrew Bible?
King Ahashverush and the maidens, Shahin, Ardashir-nameh, Persia, 2nd half of the 17th century (Berlin, Staatbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
King Ahashverush and the maidens, Shahin, Ardashir-nameh, Persia, 2nd half of the 17th century (Berlin, Staatbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz)
“There is evidence that Persian Muslims and Jews shared notions about the story that united them on the one hand and distinguished them from their coreligionists elsewhere on the other.”
Read MoreBook Note | Secret Groups in Ancient Judaism
James Tucker reviews Michael Stone’s Secret Groups in Ancient Judaism: “An analysis of the insider and outsider sources can illuminate how secrecy and esotericism were realized apropos the social practices of initiation, graded revelation, and hierarchical structure.”
Read MoreWeek in Review (3/15/19)
Limestone statue of Heracles | C1st-2nd CE, excavated at Hatra (Iraq), on display in Tokyo National Museum | Image Source
Limestone statue of Heracles | C1st-2nd CE, excavated at Hatra (Iraq), on display in Tokyo National Museum | Image Source
This Week: Marriage in Arabia, martyrs, Jewish Coptic magic, Syriac offerings galore, Geniza crowdsourcing, papyrus petitions – and more!
Read MoreCreating Christian Marriage in Early Islamic Arabia
"Do Christians have to marry in churches? Historically, many Christian theologians have said “yes.” But they haven’t always. It wasn’t until the tenth century, for example, that the Byzantine emperor made a church ceremony a required element of marriage for Orthodox Christians. Nor was Constantinople at the forefront of the matter.”
Read MoreBook Note | Christian Martyrs under Islam
Sahner’s book fills a noteworthy gap in studies of martyrdom, which have generally been limited to the earliest centuries of Christianity and have ignored later developments.
Read MoreWeek in Review (3/8/19)
Greco-Roman statue of a philosopher, associated with Apollonius of Tyana | Late second-third century CE, currently at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum | Image Source
Greco-Roman statue of a philosopher, associated with Apollonius of Tyana | Late second-third century CE, currently at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum | Image Source
This Week: More goyim, narrative and ritual, Ezekiel’s tomb in Iraq, burning papyri, Apollonius of Tyana, Geniza transcription crowd-sourcing, Assyriology online – and more!
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source
Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant by Benjamin West, 1800
Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant by Benjamin West, 1800
Liane M. Feldman, “Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source,” PhD Dissertation, University of Chicago, 2018.
Read MorePaul, the Gentiles, and the Other(s) in Jewish Discourse
The Apostle Paul in St. Sophia of Kyiv via Wiki Commons.
The Apostle Paul in St. Sophia of Kyiv via Wiki Commons.
Cavan Concannon responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreThe Goy: A Synchronic Proposal
“Moses receiving the law” in the Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy,
“Moses receiving the law” in the Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy,
Christine Hayes responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreEthnic and Cultural Identities in the Rabbinic Goy Discourse
Isaac, Jacob, and Esau at Cathedral of Monreale, Italy via Wiki Commons.
Isaac, Jacob, and Esau at Cathedral of Monreale, Italy via Wiki Commons.
Yair Furstenberg responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreThe Perils of Polarization
Portrait of Ezra, from folio 5r of The Codex Amiatinus. © Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Portrait of Ezra, from folio 5r of The Codex Amiatinus. © Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Cynthia Baker responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read More