"The use of sarcophagus burial by Jewish patrons was a highly variable mode of cultural interaction, representing an ongoing negotiation of Jewishness by different individuals from different communities in the context of enduring cultural exchange."
Read MoreUnexpected Influences | Michael Swartz and Michael Satlow
Dr. Michael Swartz and Dr. Michael Satlow share a book that was an "unexpected influence" upon their academic work.
Read MoreThe Scope and Shape of the Watchers Myth in Antiquity
Dissertation Spotlight | Jessica Wright
"The 'cerebral subject' might be the product of neuroscience and early modern philosophy, but its roots go much further back to antiquity, in the encounter between emergent Christian theories of the soul and entrenched medical understandings of the brain."
Read MoreThe Developmental Composition of the Bible in View of Qumran
Qumran Aramaic Texts: A Forum
AJR and @TWUDSSI’s online celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the Dead Sea Scrolls continues with a second forum devoted to the Aramaic Texts at Qumran with Jonathan Ben-Dov, Daniel Machiela, Devorah Dimant, Andrew Perrin, Henryk Drawnel, and Liora Goldman.
Read MoreThe Compositions Relating to the Levitical Line in the Qumran Aramaic Scrolls
Dr. Liora Goldman on priestly tradition, wisdom, and apocalypticism in the Qumran Aramaic texts.
Read MoreEpiphanian Literature Beyond Greek: The Multilingual Textual Afterlives of Epiphanius
"These extra-Greek survivals of Epiphanian texts underscore the important place of, at a minimum, an awareness of these other languages and the activity of translators, and at best, facility in reading and understanding one or more of these languages. They remind us likewise of how far, linguistically speaking at least, the name and fame of Epiphanius had spread, and much the same might be found for many other writers included in the pages of CPG. "
Read MoreBetween Mesopotamia and Qumran: Cuneiform Literature and Jewish Aramaic Texts of the Second Temple Period
Pallas Athena and Aegis surrounded by the moon's cycle. Vatican Museum.
Pallas Athena and Aegis surrounded by the moon's cycle. Vatican Museum.
Dr. Henryk Drawnel on cultural competition and critique between Mesopotamia and Qumran.
Read MorePliny’s Prices: Signs of Economic Thought in the Early Empire
"Ultimately, while Pliny clearly had an eye for prices, the actual numbers he provides aren’t especially useful. His discussions of price formation, however, do give us considerable insight into the way the market functioned in Pliny’s time as well as into Pliny’s ‘economic thought’. In various places Pliny mentions the role of supply and demand, changes in fashion, lying salesmen and other forms of fraud, as well as labor costs."
Read MoreThe Inception and Idiom of the Apocalypse in the Qumran Aramaic Texts
Aramaic Tobit at Qumran
"Tobias' and Sara's Wedding Night" by Jan Havicksz Steen ca. 1626 – 1679 in Museum Bredius
"Tobias' and Sara's Wedding Night" by Jan Havicksz Steen ca. 1626 – 1679 in Museum Bredius
Dr. Devorah Dimant on marriage, demons, burials, and halakhah in Tobit and Qumran.
Read MoreTheorizing “the Ancient Economy”: Three Paradigms
"In the field of classical studies, the 2008 publication of The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World has effectively ushered in a post-Finleyan era in the study of Greco-Roman economies by incorporating methods developed in the field of New Institutional Economics. In what follows, we examine representative samples of three emergent methodological trends: (1) the turn toward New Institutional Economics in studies of Greece and Rome; (2) Roland Boer’s model of the economy of ancient Israel; and (3) K. C. Hanson and Douglas Oakman’s social-scientific approach in New Testament studies."
Read MoreThe Aramaic Language of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Why it Matters and What Lies Ahead
Genesis Apocryphon Scroll (1QapGen) © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Genesis Apocryphon Scroll (1QapGen) © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Dr. Daniel Machiela on the linguistic makeup Aramaic at Qumran and the Bible.
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight: Allan Georgia
"Rarely does the evidence available in textual remains invite us to see the underlying, generative way that conflict and competition textured religious cultures in the late ancient world. This study is an attempt to read Jewish and Christian history in the 2nd-3rd centuries, CE by and seeing the points of overlap and confrontation that can be seen beyond the frame."
Read MoreThe Choice of Aramaic and Hebrew: Ideological Considerations
Persepolis tablets with Aramaic. The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Persepolis tablets with Aramaic. The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov on the ideology of language choice in ancient Judaism
Read MoreEntreaty and Emotion, Theory and Texts: Studies in Second Temple Jewish Prayers
Dissertation Spotlight | Nathalie LaCoste
The River Nile. Michael Gwyther-Jones, 2008.
The River Nile. Michael Gwyther-Jones, 2008.
"Water was not simply part of the background of Jewish experiences in Egypt; rather, it was central to their lives as they developed new perspectives towards the land."
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