https://hcommons.org/groups/ancient-jew-review/ Activity feed for the group, Ancient Jew Review. Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:55:39 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 0a8e86d2f420750f71433ca105077124 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1901079/ Tue, 08 Oct 2024 03:00:30 -0400 In Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 comic novel Good Omens, names act as important signifiers of role and function; the act of naming can be an expression of power so strong and significant that it can literally shape reality. Here, I propose a reading of Good Omens that explores human agency through the process of naming. Focusing on the c…[Read more]

]]> 0 95de0496ad185b77d16e41a275edab51 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1887282/ Mon, 27 May 2024 03:00:27 -0400 In this text, Eliseo Ferrer carries out a revision of the positions maintained in a previous work on the “Discourse to Diognetus”. A supposedly Christian text in which the figures of Christ or Jesus do not appear (nor anything related to the Gospel story) and that, with all certainty, was manipulated at an undetermined time by the Roman Chu…[Read more]

]]> 0 b964dd7e5981f01f67a78e7215bcd5f6 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1884601/ Wed, 01 May 2024 03:23:21 -0400 The language Luke uses to depict conception in his infancy narrative calls upon established medical discourse for fertilisation. My argument in this philological study is that ancient gynaecology prompts us to give full weight to the literal meaning of Gabriel’s term sullambanein (“to conceive/grasp”) and to ask what grammatical and material objec…[Read more]

]]> 0 9ebcec700b7972b8e810170e0a6ccbc9 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1884597/ Wed, 01 May 2024 03:23:09 -0400 This article offers a new interpretation of the phrase “Jewish weight,” especially as it is used in the Greek papyrus known as CPJ 3.519. The Roman-era papyrus preserves part of a work of otherwise unknown fiction, probably a script of a comedic mime about an athletic contest in a gymnasium. Contrary to previous interpreters, a new reading of the…[Read more]

]]> 0 3c70f5cb686968429afec27a8fd89619 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1884591/ Wed, 01 May 2024 03:22:17 -0400 Biblical Hebrew is known for its creative avoidance of mentioning intimate body parts. Did such euphemisms continue in Greek-speaking Judaism? This article proposes that the “Greek hat” in 2 Maccabees 4:12 is not (or at least not only) a literal hat or a vague metaphor for Hellenism, as has been suggested through the centuries. Instead, it is a s…[Read more]

]]> 0 2db72caedadd8ae605f11c78333f9866 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1882936/ Fri, 12 Apr 2024 03:03:01 -0400 This paper outlines an investigation into three instances within the Babylonian Talmud where biblical stories of sexual encounters are interpreted as multi-coital events involving figures like King David, Bathsheba, Zimri, Cozbi, Sisera, and Jael. Despite the absence of explicit descriptions of sexual encounters in the Bible, the Talmud…[Read more]

]]> 0 3c6544a609ca0ca74f4fb4d9a268bcc9 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876312/ Tue, 13 Feb 2024 03:00:11 -0500 Según Eliseo Ferrer, en la época herodiana los judíos habían civilizado sus antiguos ritos y costumbres a través de la gran influencia recibida, primero de los babilonios y persas y, luego, de la cultura del helenismo; pero han llegado hasta nosotros sólidos testimonios que no permiten ocultar el carácter sangriento de sus más antiguas (y no tan…[Read more]

]]> 0 dd6853a6a4850646472b02f8ebab72e3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876308/ Tue, 13 Feb 2024 03:00:02 -0500 Según Eliseo Ferrer, las primeras culturas agrícolas desarrollaron una visión cósmica del mundo, dentro de la cual el significado del mito, expresado en el ritual, se habría convertido en la base de las elucubraciones «espirituales» y «religiosas» posteriores. Se trataba del misterio central que explicaba la renovación periódica del mundo a tr…[Read more]

]]> 0 881a07fbc9671c68595044f9d5c7b0cc https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876045/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:01:16 -0500 Según Eliseo Ferrer, la cultura del antiguo Israel tampoco escapó a los insoslayables orígenes neolíticos protagonizados por la diosa de la vegetación y por el árbol en el entorno de las primeras culturas agrícolas. El prototipo bíblico del árbol se encontraba en el Edén (el Dilmun mesopotámico y el jardín o paraíso persa: «pairi-daeza…[Read more]

]]> 0 ceb1251b536ab60e0197563fa63d979f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876042/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:01:10 -0500 Según Eliseo Ferrer, la sabiduría, la espiritualidad y la santidad fueron simbolizadas en el mazdeísmo, al igual que en la India antigua, por la más intensa luminosidad, asociada esta luz al fuego y opuesta a las tinieblas del mal y de la ignorancia. Y de la misma forma que la doctrina de las Upanishads asimilaba el ātman a la luz interior del…[Read more]

]]> 0 079754e7ce69afefd508a414b836dce9 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876038/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:01:07 -0500 Según Eliseo Ferrer, la turbación de los padres de la Iglesia de los siglos segundo y tercero no pudo dar respuesta coherente a las sorprendentes semejanzas que encontraron entre la religión de Mitra y el cuerpo de sus doctrinas, todavía heterogéneas y en proceso de formación. No dudamos de que la posición adoptada por Justino, que luego se conver…[Read more]

]]> 0 83f8fc79b38de8db0569ea4f149656de https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876034/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:00:59 -0500 Preámbulo al libro SACRIFRICIO Y DRAMA DEL REY SAGRADO, de Eliseo Ferrer.
Decía el mitólogo Joseph Campbell que la humanidad se divide entre quienes creen literalmente los textos sagrados (creyentes) y quienes no creen en ellos (ateos). Pero, como en su caso, aquí nos separamos de esta disyuntiva para adoptar una postura diferente, pues de lo que…[Read more]

]]> 0 1fb603b88f9ef69399bf58dd4eec1a50 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876030/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:00:52 -0500 El siervo de Isaías (Ebed Yahvé) ha representado, en la cultura del judaísmo y el cristianismo, una singularizada concreción con forma humana de la figura del chivo. Por lo demás, el Siervo o Justo Sufriente fue una figura arquetípica en todas las culturas del mundo antiguo, bastante poco precisa para nosotros y cuyo significado resulta oscur…[Read more]

]]> 0 d45182d0af93494ebe2ac45324979dd9 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876016/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:00:31 -0500 Según Eliseo Ferrer, el Mesías-Cristo fue un mito ancestral y arcaico reformulado por las sectas del mesianismo apocalíptico judío y transformado por el gnosticismo y por la Iglesia del siglo segundo. Es decir, un cristianismo judeo-helenístico sin historia evangélica ni «punto cero». Eliseo Ferrer propone en Sacrificio y drama del rey sagrado…[Read more]

]]> 0 86a67095bc6c87b9f00f28e4f401ac75 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870495/ Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:03:28 -0500 Our earliest Christian sources suggest that it was common for Christian communities in the first and second century to disregard or ignore statements by Jesus that were perceived to be problematic, even at times claiming they originated with their enemies. This paper turns attention to this early Christian phenomenon of rejecting Jesus’ sayings, e…[Read more]

]]> 0 c04836ff699e6c79ff7fab5c3a46904f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870490/ Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:03:10 -0500 An article that explores the theology of Sabbath keeping, and the biblical arguments for when God wishes his laws to be violated. A theology of the Sabbath, if it is to serve God’s desire in Scripture, must focus on the why of Sabbath, not the when. It cannot rely on arguments from authority or the Law as a cheap excuse for not engaging in a…[Read more]

]]> 0 79fd37c096f75b47fb3045948bf7f2a1 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870482/ Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:02:38 -0500 The passage of Genesis 22 is reviewed and examined through four interpretive lenses: Narrative Criticism, Canonical Criticism, Historical Criticism, and a Hermeneutic of Confrontation. After reviewing extensively the history of child sacrifice in Ancient Israel, the argument of Omri Boehm's reconstructed text (lacking the angelic speeches), and…[Read more]

]]> 0 4181fb3eb80be28c795fe19045b41e1e https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870473/ Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:02:03 -0500 Discussions about the history of the reception of the Apocrypha within Protestantism are often mired by blanket negative presumptions that differ markedly from the actual beliefs attested to in available historical sources. This chapter seeks to rectify such historical misrepresentations by presenting an initial attempt to summarize the entire…[Read more]

]]> 0 0b592d5e9d9179403651f66555f2c664 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870451/ Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:00:05 -0500 The Tribe of Dan has always appeared to biblical scholars and archaeologists as something of an enigma. For decades, certain scholars, beginning with Yigael Yadin, have proposed a connection between the Denyen/Danaoi Sea People and the Danites of Ancient Israel, arguing that the former became the latter and were adopted into Israel at a later date…[Read more]

]]> 0 8a85421662d4b41e3d845e5918f32aa1 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870289/ Tue, 09 Jan 2024 03:00:56 -0500 A summary and review of a creative and neutral approach to teaching the Documentary Hypothesis to undergraduate students.

]]> 0 39c10739bec0b0766e3e0e8f9bda8fa1 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870284/ Tue, 09 Jan 2024 03:00:48 -0500 According to popular scholarly consensus, the role of the classical prophets ceased following the rebuilding of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. This paper will attempt to propose an explanation of 1 Maccabees’ comments about the cessation of prophecy by undertaking a careful and broad examination of the dynamics involved in the Hebrew B…[Read more]

]]> 0 b01407511f2b1295dcbd36ae34a41928 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1870279/ Tue, 09 Jan 2024 03:00:16 -0500 For centuries, the story of Lot’s daughters in Genesis is one which has both abhorred and intrigued countless readers. Utilizing the hermeneutical lenses of Narrative and Feminist Criticism, this paper draws attention to overlooked details in the narrative. The story is also contrasted with that of the Levite’s Concubine in Judges 19. The res…[Read more]

]]> 0 44ec4d71e018ab3d60553fa451789d67 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1868546/ Tue, 19 Dec 2023 03:05:48 -0500 Revista RELACIONES, nº 470 – Julio de 2023 / Montevideo (Uruguay).
On the formation of the Christ myth and the ideologies that led to the birth of Christianity.
Sobre la formación del mito de Cristo y las ideologías que propiciaron el nacimiento del del cristianismo.

]]> 0 9d0879cf3d56c0114926125110403a6d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1861717/ Sun, 15 Oct 2023 03:00:29 -0400 Does "authorship" still have a place in the study of the Hebrew Bible? Historical criticism has long sought to uncover the human authors behind the biblical texts. But how might the "death of the author," so forcefully declared by Roland Barthes over fifty years ago, change the contours of this search? This volume brings together leading experts…[Read more]

]]> 0 450293e4c79f29a4f6bc244c92af6d53 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1861714/ Sun, 15 Oct 2023 03:00:03 -0400 This work provides new insights into the relationship between the Holiness legislation in Leviticus 17–26 and processes of cultic centralization in the Persian period. The author departs from the classical theory that Leviticus 17–26 merely presume, with minor modifications, a concept of centralization articulated in Deuteronomy. She shows how Lev…[Read more]

]]> 0 0bc9c2a7af65dcee2ad6c53be02ed911 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1861159/ Mon, 09 Oct 2023 03:00:51 -0400 Early Jewish writings are replete with narratives of warfare and collective violence. Yet relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to how these accounts of violence affected the way Jews structured their festal calendar. This essay examines the festivals described in 1 and 2 Maccabees that serve to commemorate the most impressive m…[Read more]

]]> 0 b1b7454b533b9a35ade4a63e66ba8d76 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1861156/ Mon, 09 Oct 2023 03:00:26 -0400 This Open Access volume reveals how violent pasts were constructed by ancient Mediterranean societies, the ideologies they served, and the socio-political processes and institutions they facilitated. Combining case studies from Anatolia, Egypt, Greece, Israel/Judah, and Rome, it moves beyond essentialist dichotomies such as “victors” and “va…[Read more]

]]> 0 d39695f8dcbb29cc76438bf88e7f071f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1859593/ Mon, 25 Sep 2023 18:00:16 -0400 The emergence of Judaism and Samaritanism in antiquity is closely linked to the process by which the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) became defined as the Torah of Moses.

]]> 0 1632709c44a8154e1ab265c12429123d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1854162/ Tue, 08 Aug 2023 01:16:22 -0400 This essay examines three cases in which pentateuchal ritual law is employed in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles: the Sukkôt celebration in Neh 8:13–18, Hezekiah’s Passover in 2 Chr 30, and Josiah’s Passover, in 2 Chr 35:1–19. These case studies reveal that the scribes responsible for Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles considered the ritual texts of the P…[Read more]

]]> 0 b0f10b7f3c73d9e98e98e9d501da1507 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1852923/ Thu, 27 Jul 2023 02:24:04 -0400 This article explores how the priestly wilderness shrine functions as a monumental space in the sanctuary construction account of Exod 25–31, 35–40. It draws on spatial theory and studies of monumental architecture to identify five features of the tent of meeting that infuse it with monumentality: first, its significance in negotiating the pat…[Read more]

]]> 0 5dcd324f1ed1d86027a8f3fb786481b5 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1850892/ Sun, 02 Jul 2023 02:25:01 -0400 This is pre-publication preview introduces the major questions, methods, and insights of my book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (UC Press, 2023).

]]> 0 945f2c5d71d594e1a0effe6d1da50693 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1842286/ Mon, 24 Apr 2023 02:24:00 -0400 (Sobre el «Discurso a Diogneto» y la literatura cristiana primitiva).
En este trabajo, se lleva a cabo un concienzudo estudio del «Discurso a Diogneto» o «Epistola a Diogneto» (como queramos llamar a este texto). Y en él, su autor destaca como rasgos fundamentales:
—El carácter muy temprano de este texto, que intentó armonizar la Iglesia co…[Read more]

]]> 0 581d7c9dd6511a5e96eafe81b3b217e4 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1836494/ Mon, 06 Mar 2023 02:28:59 -0500 Preámbulo del libro SACRIFRICIO Y DRAMA DEL REY SAGRADO, de Eliseo Ferrer. (Se añade índice y bibliografía).
Vaya por delante que ésta no es una obra de consenso académico; y tampoco una obra guiada por la fe religiosa, ni por los presupuestos decimonónicos del ateísmo antirreligioso y anticristiano. Decía el mitólogo Joseph Campbell que la hu…[Read more]

]]> 0 9d1890356c139bec68a55dedcf294514 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1836489/ Mon, 06 Mar 2023 02:28:52 -0500 Toda la tesis de R. Panikkar estuvo dirigida, dada su tradición intelectual multicultural y multirreligiosa, a «un encuentro sincero» entre el cristianismo y el hinduismo; y quizá por eso subtituló este libro («El Cristo desconocido del hinduismo») con el ambicioso reclamo: «Para una cristofanía ecuménica». No obstante, y para no engañar a…[Read more]

]]> 0 5a0791f4e63aaccc2561b8b2967609b3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1830649/ Fri, 20 Jan 2023 02:23:39 -0500 Although the prohibition of avodah zarah (literally, “strange/foreign worship,” but more loosely translated as “idolatry”) is included in both the Torah’s 613 mitzvos for Jews and in the seven Noahide laws, many authorities maintain that the exact parameters of the prohibition differ when applied to Jews versus when applied to non-Jews. There is…[Read more]

]]> 0 21e9bd694f37a4ae498a9885bccdd0aa https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1826996/ Mon, 19 Dec 2022 02:23:40 -0500 The Greek addition to Daniel Susanna and Chariton of Aphrodisias’ Callirhoe are early examples of novels/novella. These works reflect on legal protocol and the place of women vis-à-vis the law and the household, exposing female bodies to make their point. This article connects these features to ancient novelists’ utilisation of female bodies. Cont…[Read more]

]]> 0 e89d7fe75261f47d1da8fb675d6514f3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1819902/ Fri, 04 Nov 2022 02:23:39 -0400 This chapter examines how historical and critical modalities of reading sacred scripture became central to modern biblical studies. It examines what “criticism” was, whence it came, what it did, and which critiques it sustained, before considering its prospects for future historical and literary analysis of the Bible.

]]> 0 6de9db3f3cbc3cdbc2199164577f7a4d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1817623/ Sat, 15 Oct 2022 02:23:40 -0400 This article analyzes the nexus between collective violence, temple violation, and military glory in 1 and 2 Maccabees by comparing two festivals established in the context of revolt and guerilla warfare; namely, Hanukkah and Nicanor’s Day. It argues that the accounts of the origins of these two festivals in 1 and 2 Maccabees reinforce the close c…[Read more]

]]> 0 f566e5e497793739233e65bdbf9894e3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1793768/ Sun, 11 Sep 2022 02:27:11 -0400 It is my modest goal in this essay to trace how Nock uses conversion to produce religion(s) and then to explore its similarities to and differences from an analogous construction of religion-through-conversion in late antiquity.

]]> 0 24773a31a4fa94ddaea194d5ac138695 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1790048/ Thu, 11 Aug 2022 02:23:38 -0400 Biblical Aramaic accounts for a small fraction within the two-testament Christian Bible. Studying it would seem therefore to present a modest value for biblical studies, and Egyptian Aramaic, a nonbiblical counterpart from the same historical era, even more so. The present article argues, however, that comparing Egyptian Aramaic with biblical…[Read more]

]]> 0 d9c71c1affff6bfde615c2f2ceb4ec2e https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1782595/ Thu, 26 May 2022 02:28:20 -0400 This essay examines select Priestly texts that describe the roles of leaders from the northern and southern tribes in the wilderness cult: the texts of Exod 25–31, 35–40 that concern the sanctuary artisans Bezalel (from the tribe of Judah) and Oholiab (from the tribe of Dan), chosen to lead the construction of the wilderness shrine; the des…[Read more]

]]> 0 e37b3dd9349c95f912c2ad4d063f777d https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1781991/ Thu, 19 May 2022 02:23:48 -0400 The circulation and republication of Christian Roman laws on Jews and Judaism gives us a window into the ways imperial attention to the Jewish “other” – sometimes benevolent, sometimes punitive – created multiple paths for the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Laws on economic status, social interaction, and religious custom ultimately produce…[Read more]

]]> 0 37974c662b9fcc8668c3a865ad601ff0 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1781989/ Thu, 19 May 2022 02:23:40 -0400 The institutional, social, and theological rise of an imperial-episcopal orthodoxy in the 4th-century Roman Empire transformed the productive, if not always genial, scriptural and ritual interactions among Jews and Christians in previous centuries into a discourse of theological difference, enabling violence and exclusion.

]]> 0 10b1182d1e78d31dd219bb24042a7a72 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1779488/ Fri, 22 Apr 2022 02:23:59 -0400 An entry for the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception on the topic of Name Theology, how this has evolved in different Abrahamic religions from the scriptural origins.

]]> 0 4fa78ef7010ba3c2a331f5595b1623c3 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1775058/ Fri, 18 Mar 2022 02:24:18 -0400 This article examines the instruction regarding the wood offering and the festival of new oil in fragment 23 of 4QReworked Pentateuch C (4Q365), and in particular its setting at a future temple (‫בית‬) in the land. It argues that while 4Q365 23 represents a departure from earlier versions of Leviticus, it should be considered nonetheless as part o…[Read more]

]]> 0 17d891a543734c82166e664e8552049f https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1774702/ Tue, 15 Mar 2022 02:25:20 -0400 Review of Douglas Boin's Coming Out Christian in the Roman World

]]> 0 bd91fb6d221838a2c379499046f4bb3a https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1774506/ Sat, 12 Mar 2022 02:23:38 -0500 This article examines the innovative focus on sabbath observance that characterizes the Holiness legislation (“H”). By comparing H’s conception of the sabbath with what is known about this sacred time from other biblical and extrabiblical sources, the article demonstrates that H creatively blends two aspects of the sabbath that were not alway…[Read more]

]]> 0 a1a6ca605f6bea8703e6567995c11917 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1773287/ Sun, 27 Feb 2022 02:23:39 -0500 This article reviews the textual transmission of the ban on local butchery in Leviticus 17:3–4. It explores the importance of the manuscripts from the Dead Sea, in particular 4QLevd and 11Q19, for interpreting the plus at verse 4, attested in the Septuagint and in the Samaritan Pentateuch, as well as the change in address in v. 3, which is found i…[Read more]

]]> 0 2c6fe36bb4cf85f658e6c66100df358b https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1771602/ Sun, 13 Feb 2022 02:23:39 -0500 This paper examines how the description of Aaron’s vestments in Exod 28 encodes a distinct concept of high priestly leadership. This chapter of Exodus has garnered relatively little attention in biblical scholarship, even among recent and comprehensive treatments of the high priest in the biblical and post-biblical traditions. This general n…[Read more]

]]> 0 b13506ab94011697823555e2b33918f4 https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1740378/ Thu, 03 Jun 2021 02:23:48 -0400 This essay explores the persistent scholarly desires and motivations that structure the historical study of conversion in religious studies. Most “conversion studies” take a phenomenological approach, which acknowledges the diverse processes, contexts, and meanings of conversion but nonetheless sees the phenomenon as a way to access the con…[Read more]

]]> 0