Manuscript illumination of Manichaean priests (ca. 8th-9th century CE) from Gaochang, Tarim Basin, China [Wikimedia].
Manuscript illumination of Manichaean priests (ca. 8th-9th century CE) from Gaochang, Tarim Basin, China [Wikimedia].
We spend a lot of time speaking about what we study and how. When putting together the recent conference on “Tracing Christians in Global Late Antiquity,” the organizers wisely decided to open with a panel discussion on method, ethics, and historiography—a topic that opens a space for addressing what we talk about too little, namely, who.
Read MoreImage from inside San José Church, Puerto Rico [Image courtesy of the author].
Image from inside San José Church, Puerto Rico [Image courtesy of the author].
To say the least, these Caribbean versions of Constantine and Justinian turned Puerto Rico into one of the outermost and unlikeliest of territories of a Transatlantic Roman Empire, an eruption of late antiquity into the so-called American Century.
Read MoreThe Library of Celsus in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey [Wikimedia].
The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey [Wikimedia].
One of the big challenges is both working against the ideological bent of our written sources and working against this huge body of scholarship with its sexist, Eurocentric ideas about what constitutes knowledge in the teleological march toward Western Civilization.
Read MoreMadaba Mosaic Map found in the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George ca. 6th CE [Wikimedia].
While studies of the economy in Palestine during Tannaitic and Amoraic periods have a great quantity of textual evidence to draw upon, including but not limited to rabbinic sources, there is much less material available from the Second Temple period available for such an analysis. As such, Gordon’s work attempts to examine a wide range of both textual and archaeological evidence in order to flesh out our knowledge of the Jerusalem Temple economy.
Read MoreLucio Fontana, Madonna (1956) [Image courtesy of Flickr]
A photo of a pomegranate tree with a sun star that was submitted to Click Community [Image courtesy of the author].
A photo of a pomegranate tree with a sun star that was submitted to Click Community [Image courtesy of the author].
If we are to individually tailor our responses, how can we figure out what sort of feedback someone is seeking?
Read MoreIn The Story of Sacrifice, Liane M. Feldman offers an innovative reading of the pentateuchal Priestly source, taking on two of the most entrenched dichotomies in biblical studies: (1) ritual vs. narrative and (2) literature vs. history.
Read MoreChrist Pantokrator, Fresco from the Nativity of the Theotokos Church in Bitola, Macedonia (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).
Christ Pantokrator, Fresco from the Nativity of the Theotokos Church in Bitola, Macedonia (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).
Leaving behind the old redactional-stages approach (that has tempted many scholars through today), we are really forced to think about what “Jewish” and “Christian” should mean as identity or boundary-categories in the world of this text. Clearly it is too simplistic to lop off the Ascension section as “Christian” and call the Martyrdom section “Jewish,” since the Ascension participates in innumerable ways in a Jewish apocalyptic ascent framework, while the Martyrdom section is deeply enmeshed with the Ascension.
Read MoreThe emphasis on the abnormal aspects of Mary’s childbearing prompts reflection on whether the text conveys a real birth of a real man, or an appearance which circumvents the usual modes of human entry and human being in the world.
Read MoreAdditionally, Isaiah as a character is, I think, modeled as a Matthean Christ-figure in certain respects: both are positioned as part of a prophetic critique of ruling powers, tempted by some kind of evil entity to renounce something and gain earthly status, and killed with a wooden instrument. The charge of prophesying against Jerusalem is crucial in the trials of Jesus and Isaiah. The title ‘the Beloved’ is also emphasized uniquely in Matthew’s gospel with a citation from the Book of Isaiah (Matt 12:18).
Read MoreAJR is pleased to host a series of articles on new scholarship on the Ascension of Isaiah. These articles all originated as papers presented at the BRANE Collective’s Primary Text Lab III, on Wednesday, June 23, 2021.
Read MoreDetail of a miniature of the martyrdom of Isaiah, BL MS Royal 17 E VII f. 36v
Detail of a miniature of the martyrdom of Isaiah, BL MS Royal 17 E VII f. 36v
I like to think about apocalyptic rhetoric far more than I like to think about apocalypses: that is, what is a particular text doing vs. what is this text? So when I think about Ascension of Isaiah my question is: What is this particular text doing for readers and audiences?
Read MoreApocryphal Book of the Ascension of Isaiah in Ge‘ez [20th century], British Library, EAP357/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP357-1-11
Apocryphal Book of the Ascension of Isaiah in Ge‘ez [20th century], British Library, EAP357/1/11, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP357-1-11
Although it is often described as an apocalypse, the Ascension defies simple categorisation. As a result, it invites capacious conversation about the categories that modern scholars use to understand ancient texts and about how scholars study texts with expansive histories across historical, linguistic, and religious contexts.
Read MorePieter Brueghel the Elder, Right side in detail from The Tower of Babel (1563). [Wikimedia]
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Right side in detail from The Tower of Babel (1563). [Wikimedia]
What does it mean to be labeled a foreign language speaker in late antique Christianity? How was one’s status as a native or non-native speaker determined? Was such a person considered a heretic? A barbarian? A Christian of equal standing? A saint or a demon?
Read MoreWassily Kandinsky, Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) (1913) Art Institute of Chicago [Wikimedia]
Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) (1913) Art Institute of Chicago [Wikimedia]
Wasserman posits that Jewish apocalyptic works are better understood as myths about relationships in the divine realm. These writings do not share a common worldview (especially two age dualism) or theological system, but rather premises about the structure of the world.
Read MoreAJR continues its conversations series with an exchange between Rhiannon Graybill and Jill Hicks-Keeton on Graybill’s new book, Texts After Terror: Rape, Sexual Violence, and the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Read MoreJoseph Mallord William Turner, Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, 1842 © Tate CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported)
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, 1842 © Tate CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported)
Echoing the atomsphere of Mark, Thate left his book intentionally unfinished. As a whole, The Godman and the Sea covers a wide range of scholarly debates surrounding the Markan narrative
Read MoreThe Gemma Claudia, Roman (ca. 49 C.E.), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. [Wikimedia]
The Gemma Claudia, Roman (ca. 49 C.E.), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. [Wikimedia]
By deftly combining textual analysis and historical considerations, Cole walks the readers through more than forty of Cicero’s writings (from his political orations, philosophical treatises, and personal letters) written between the late 70s and the late 40s BCE. Cole’s analysis demonstrates how Cicero introduced, experimented, and negotiated a new conceptualization of deification in Rome.
Read MoreGuercino, Saint Paul (ca. 1591-1666 CE) [Wikimedia]
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