Recent research demonstrates that maternal grief functions paradigmatically to epitomize despair and sorrow in the Hebrew Bible. These literary uses of maternal grief reinforce the stereotype of womanhood, defined by devotion to children and anguish at their loss. In 1–2 Kings, narratives about unnamed bereaved mothers are used politically to c…[Read more]

The relationship of the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament is explored by means of apocryphal and pseudepigraphical texts, using the ethical issue of interpersonal forgiveness as a test case.

in: R. Achenbach (Hg.), Persische Reichspolitik und lokale Heiligtümer. Beiträge einer Tagung des Exzellenzclusters «Religion und Politik in Vormoderne und Moderne» vom 24.–26. Februar 2016 in Münster (BZAR 25), Wiesbaden 2019, 209-255.

in: A. Berlejung/A.M. Maeir (Hg.), Research on Israel and Aram: Autonomy, Interdependence and Related Issues. Proceedings of the First Annual RIAB Center Conference, Leipzig, June 2016 (RIAB I) (ORA 34), Tübingen 2019, 347-372.

in: Welt und Umwelt der Bibel Nr. 92, 24,2 (2019) 36-43.

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein shows us how to use the Hebrew language as a model for understanding the differences between similar words

King Manasseh of Judah is blamed for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile, a heavy mantle to carry. But as a character, Manasseh is boring—he looks like the other ordinary bad kings, even described as a “cardboard cutout,” that Kings has little literary use for. Wouldn’t we expect a more colorful villain? Is there anything in the…[Read more]

Many of the feminist readings of the Dinah story in Genesis 34 in recent years have focused on the question of whether Dinah is raped. The interpretations that perhaps Dinah was not “raped” span the spectrum from a teenage love affair between Dinah and Shechem, to a case of statutory rape, to a marriage by abduction. Guilty of exploring this que…[Read more]

In spite of renewed scholarly interest in the religion of Judeans living on the island of Elephantine during the Persian period, only one recent study has addressed the religious significance of the fired clay female figurines discovered there. The present article seeks to place these objects back on the research agenda. After summarizing the…[Read more]

D. Kruisheer, ‘A Bibliographical Clavis to the Works of Jacob of Edessa (revised and expanded)’, in B. ter Haar Romeny (ed.), Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute Leiden 18; Leiden: Brill, 2008), 265–293.

D. Kruisheer, ‘Ephrem, Jacob of Edessa, and the Monk Severus. An Analysis of Ms. Vat. Syr. 103, ff. 1–72’, in R. Lavenant (ed.), Symposium Syriacum VII (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 256; Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1998), 599–605.

D. Kruisheer, ‘Reconstructing Jacob of Edessa’s Scholia’, in J. Frishman and L. Van Rompay (eds.), The Book of Genesis in Jewish and Oriental Christian Interpretation. A Collection of Essays (Traditio Exegetica Graeca 5; Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 187–196.

in: Ilse Müllner/Barbara Schmitz (Hg.), Perspektiven. Biblische Texte und Narratologie (SBB 75), Stuttgart 2018, 131-173.

Exodus 15, the Song at the Sea, appears to be triggered by the
divine victory over the Egyptians at the Sea, but the poet draws on other
literary images of destruction, images that are incompatible, in order to
express exuberance over divine victory. This seemingly rudimentary technique
is adroitly deployed in tandem with strategies of…[Read more]

Behind the literary form of testament and expressions memorializing the dead is a concept of how objects, rights, and speech pass from one generation to the next: transmission. This essay examines two interrelated phenomena that give filial succession in the biblical and Ugaritic literature its contours: first, the discourses surrounding…[Read more]

Qurʾān in Samaritan cursive script produced for a students’ exercise in a seminar entitled “One Language, Many Scripts: Allographic Traditions Used for Writing Arabic” with reference to Johannes den Heijer, Andrea Schmidt and Tamara Pataridze (eds.), Scripts Beyond Borders: A Survey of Allographic Traditions in the Euro-Mediterranean World (…[Read more]

Qurʾān in Samaritan script produced for a students’ exercise in a seminar entitled “One Language, Many Scripts: Allographic Traditions Used for Writing Arabic” with reference to Johannes den Heijer, Andrea Schmidt and Tamara Pataridze (eds.), Scripts Beyond Borders: A Survey of Allographic Traditions in the Euro-Mediterranean World (Louvain: P…[Read more]

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 discusses the identity of the Daniel character mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel.