Zodiac mosaic at the Beit Alpha synagogue.
Zodiac mosaic at the Beit Alpha synagogue.
Francis Borchardt (“Erasing the Hyphen from the Study of Early Judaism”) builds on Ben’s work on Hellenistic Jewish ethnicity to discuss how to think about Jewish self-definition in the Hellenistic period, in light of the great diversity of the sources, practices, and communities we call Jewish.
Read MorePrint introducing Sirach from 17th century Claes Janszoon Visscher Dutch Polyglot Bible
Print introducing Sirach from 17th century Claes Janszoon Visscher Dutch Polyglot Bible
Elisa Uusimäki’s essay (“Emulation in Ben Sira and its Hellenistic Context”) shows how the idea of the sage might be better understood by reading Jewish texts like Ben Sira together with non-Jewish Greek philosophical writing on how to learn virtue.
Read MoreThe Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Attribution: © Hans Hillewaert
The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Attribution: © Hans Hillewaert
Stewart Moore (“The Translation of the Torah in Alexandria and the Relevance of the Rosetta Stone”) engages Ben’s scholarship on the purpose of the Septuagint translation, highlighting its possible implications for the ethnic identity of Judeans in Egypt.
Read More"The Librarian" by Guiseppe Arcimboldos. Public Domain.
"The Librarian" by Guiseppe Arcimboldos. Public Domain.
James Tucker (“The Role of Wisdom for the Scribe and Scholar”) considers how our understanding of the Qumran Community Rule and the Damascus Document might be informed by critiques of traditional philological concepts of “original text” and “work,” considerations familiar from Ben’s work on the complicated textual history of Ben Sira.
Read MoreBetty Blythe as the Queen of Sheba, 1921
Betty Blythe as the Queen of Sheba, 1921
Jillian Stinchcomb (“Ben Sira as a Baby: The Alphabet of Ben Sira and Authorial Personae”) shows how the persona of the sage and “author” we see in the early Jewish book of Ben Sira takes surprising--and sometimes shocking--turns in Ben Sira’s medieval afterlife.
Read More"Sarai Is Taken to Pharaoh's Palace" by James Tissot. The Jewish Museum of NYC.
"Sarai Is Taken to Pharaoh's Palace" by James Tissot. The Jewish Museum of NYC.
Dr. Jacqueline Vayntrub (“Voice and Presence in the Genesis Apocryphon”) considers how the voice and agency of Sarai in the Genesis Apocryphon, an Aramaic text from Qumran, complicates our ideas about the authoritative first person voice in Second Temple Jewish texts.
Read MoreFrancis Borchardt and Eva Mroczek introduce the "alternative Festschrift" in Dr. Ben Wright's honor.
Read MoreNine contributors consider many facets of Ben’s scholarship on translation, authorial personae and voice, concepts of text and transmission, wisdom and the sage, and Jewish identity in the Hellenistic world.
Read MoreSilver Mirror (4th c. CE) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Silver Mirror (4th c. CE) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
If Gregory describes the aim or perfection of the Christian life as “never to stop growing towards what is better and never placing any limit on perfection,” how does mīmēis (Greek: imitation, representation) function within that endless pursuit?
Read More17th cent icon of Elijah and Enoch in Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland. Przykuta [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
17th cent icon of Elijah and Enoch in Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland. Przykuta [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Hilla Alouf's dissertation argues that "the Elijah traditions reflect the influence of not only the Torah-Centered wisdom tradition which viewed the law as the source of wisdom, but also the Apocalyptic-Centered and the Spirit-Centered wisdom traditions."
Read MoreSaint Ignatius of Antioch - 10th century ceramic (Turkey) courtesy of The Walters Museum
Saint Ignatius of Antioch - 10th century ceramic (Turkey) courtesy of The Walters Museum
Sometime near the end of the fourth century, an anonymous scribe carefully read and revised the Ignatian epistles, extensively amending many of the letters and adding a few of his own in Ignatius’s name.
Read MoreCentaur - Bestiary, Royal MS 12 C XIX; 1200-1210 | Image source
Centaur - Bestiary, Royal MS 12 C XIX; 1200-1210 | Image source
How do claims, explicit or implicit, about what animals are—and what they do, suffer, or feel—reflect assumptions about what people are? And what types of knowing engage animals?
Read MoreTogether the essays of this volume explore the themes of Scriptures and Sectarianism from a variety of lenses, ranging from close study of specific texts to broad assessments of scriptural authority and meaning-making in the Second Temple Period.
Read MoreLouvre Reproduction of the Law Code of Hammurabi via CC BY-SA 2.0 Mary Harrsch
Louvre Reproduction of the Law Code of Hammurabi via CC BY-SA 2.0 Mary Harrsch
When viewed in conjunction with the wealth of pertinent biblical and ANE sources, the biblical law of bailment can tell us about a law in its many contexts, about divine justice and compassion, about the interactions of law with literature, about everyday life in ancient societies, and about the earliest articulations of a legal topic whose relevance has persisted into the modern era.
Read MoreView inside of an arched burial niche or arcosolim inside of the Villa Torlonia catacombs. The walls, vault, and even the insides of the burial troughs were originally plastered and painted, but were subsequently damaged by additional burials in the back wall and above the original tomb covers. Photo: International Catacomb Society
View inside of an arched burial niche or arcosolim inside of the Villa Torlonia catacombs. The walls, vault, and even the insides of the burial troughs were originally plastered and painted, but were subsequently damaged by additional burials in the back wall and above the original tomb covers. Photo: International Catacomb Society
Ironically enough, at the time these stories, literally, made history, the catacombs for Jews remained "secret" and known to a minimal extent. Nevertheless, they, too, were seen as collective responses to ritual needs and distinctly Biblical traditions.
Read More"Berns’ talk, and the seminar discussion, enabled reflection from an unexpected angle on the PSCO theme for the year: what does it mean for us to have expertise about what ancient Jews knew (and how they knew it)?
Read MoreAJR will be sharing highlights from the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins. This year's theme "science and the scientific" asks, "Does considering knowledge as practiced in the ancient world disrupt, modify, and nuance our understanding of the “scientific”?"
Read MoreMarble relief of Asclepius and his daughter Hygieia. From Therme, Greece, end of the 5th century BC. Istanbul Archaeological Museums. (Wikimedia Commons)
Marble relief of Asclepius and his daughter Hygieia. From Therme, Greece, end of the 5th century BC. Istanbul Archaeological Museums. (Wikimedia Commons)
How did ancient scientists think about the ways plants fit into the larger cosmological order in relation to other ontological forms such as metals/minerals, animals, celestial beings, and other divinities?
Read MoreCaroline Wazer, Lennart Lehmhaus, Chris De Wet, Julia Watts Belser, and Heid Marx examine aspects of ancient medicine from their own research.
Read MoreThe Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, David Roberts Oil on canvas, 1850.
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, David Roberts Oil on canvas, 1850.
Dr. Julia Watts Belser uses disability theory to read rabbinic narratives about the destruction of Jerusalem, identifying how "the disabled Jewish body serves both as a visceral occasion for lament and a potent site of protest against empire."
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