Developments in Early Judaism research since the publication of the 1986 first edition of Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters

Recent research has shown that city gates were a place of judgment, execution, and public displays in ancient Israel and the ancient Near East. This article explores the role of the gate on the literary level in the narratives concerning the deaths of Eli, Abner and Jezebel. It demonstrates how the function of gates in ancient Israel, and the…[Read more]

This article aims to bring together the discussions surrounding creation and humanity in Isaiah 40-55 and Genesis 1,26. The article demonstrates that Deutero-Isaiah’s view of humanity is incompatible with that of the P narrative, rendering attempts to cite it in support of Genesis 1 ineffective. It argues that the application of the terms in G…[Read more]

A discussion of the different lists of Canaanite nations.

A discussion of the different lists of Canaanite nations.

This paper presents a reading of Sarah (Genesis 11:29-23:19) as a proto-trans(gender) figure. The author addresses the problem of cisnormativity and its impact on biblical interpretation. In particular, throughout this paper Sarah is presented as a character who has been cisnormalised within the literary tradition of the Biblical text in order to…[Read more]

This article is a detailed review of Constructions of Space III: Biblical Spatiality and the Sacred, ed. Jorunn Økland, J. Cornelis de Vos, and Karen J. Wenell (Bloomsbury, 2016); and The King and the Land: A Geography of Royal Power in the Biblical World, by Stephen C. Russell (Oxford University Press, 2017).

The paper argues that the pesaḥ is a ritual with no origins in the literature we have, from the earliest recoverable fragment, through the first revision that introduces as many problems as it aims to solve, to subsequent extensions in multiple directions, with no arc, no trajectory, no telos, but recurrent hermeneutic expressive engagement.

This reader presents, in Septuagint canonical order, ten Greek texts from the Rahlfs—Hanhart Septuaginta critical edition. It explains the syntax, grammar, and vocabulary of more than 700 verses from select Old Testament texts representing a variety of genres, including the Psalms, the Prophets, and more.

A survey of an re-reading of Job 42:6, in a Festshcrift honoring the late Semitic philologist, Giovanni Garbini.

This chapter explores the prose traditions in the Writings under the broad division between historiography and storytelling. While 1–2 Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah make use of archival sources and possibly genuine first-person accounts, these materials are arranged and subsumed under an ideological umbrella—much like contemporaneous Greek his…[Read more]

This article discusses the reason behind Jeroboam, king of Israel, instituting a holiday in the eighth month of calendar. We suggest an approach that looks at this holiday as misplaced from the seventh month by means of an additional unauthorized leap-month.

Argues that Qohelet’s famous bit of speech on the seasons at 3:1-8 mimics and mocks proverbial poetry, as part of his larger, prosaic denial that life has discernible and usable rhythms and rhymes.

Part of a panel discussion in the Use and Influence of the New Testament seminar

Hand-drawn illustration of a ‘Iudaea Capta’ coin, after LIMC ‘IUDAEA’ 14 (and BMCRE 117)

How should we understand the naming of legendary figures like Solomon in biblical titles? The ancient practice of attribution is often obscured by scholars committed to the modern construction of authorship. Texts such as 11QPsa XXVII (“David’s Compositions”) demonstrate an altogether different understanding of this ancient practice. Using Prov.…[Read more]

The Gospel of John is not unique in representing Jesus as performing miracles, but the way that John uses signs to point to Jesus’s Christological identity stands out among the canonical gospels. In John, when Jesus is called χριστός—Christ, messiah—it is often in the context of a sign being performed. However, the relationship between Jesus…[Read more]

This essay offers an introduction to select disciplinary developments in the study of history and in historical study of the Hebrew Bible. It focuses first and foremost on “cultural history,” a broad category defined by nineteenth- and twentieth-century developments in anthropology and sociology, literary theory and linguistics, and other fie…[Read more]

Precirculated paper for 10th Nangeroni Seminar, experimentally reflecting on the gendering of knowledge in ancient Jewish literatures (esp. third and second centuries BCE) and modern scholarship upon them.

Conference presentation expanded for publication