"Do Christians have to marry in churches? Historically, many Christian theologians have said “yes.” But they haven’t always. It wasn’t until the tenth century, for example, that the Byzantine emperor made a church ceremony a required element of marriage for Orthodox Christians. Nor was Constantinople at the forefront of the matter.”
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source
Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant by Benjamin West, 1800
Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant by Benjamin West, 1800
Liane M. Feldman, “Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source,” PhD Dissertation, University of Chicago, 2018.
Read MorePaul, the Gentiles, and the Other(s) in Jewish Discourse
The Apostle Paul in St. Sophia of Kyiv via Wiki Commons.
The Apostle Paul in St. Sophia of Kyiv via Wiki Commons.
Cavan Concannon responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreThe Goy: A Synchronic Proposal
“Moses receiving the law” in the Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy,
“Moses receiving the law” in the Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy,
Christine Hayes responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreEthnic and Cultural Identities in the Rabbinic Goy Discourse
Isaac, Jacob, and Esau at Cathedral of Monreale, Italy via Wiki Commons.
Isaac, Jacob, and Esau at Cathedral of Monreale, Italy via Wiki Commons.
Yair Furstenberg responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreThe Perils of Polarization
Portrait of Ezra, from folio 5r of The Codex Amiatinus. © Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Portrait of Ezra, from folio 5r of The Codex Amiatinus. © Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Cynthia Baker responds to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile in the AJR review forum.
Read MoreGoy: An AJR Forum
The AJR review forum of Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi’s book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile. With responses from Cynthia Baker, Yair Furstenberg, Christine Hayes, and Cavan Concannon.
Read MoreWhy Goy?
Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi open the AJR review forum of their book, Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile.
Read MoreAffect and Early Christian Identity
Papers from the 2018 Society of Biblical Literature’s review panel on Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).
Read MoreJob, White Privilege, and the Case for Reparations
The Figure of Job - Folio 46r from the Syriac Bible of Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS syr. 341) Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The Figure of Job - Folio 46r from the Syriac Bible of Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale, MS syr. 341) Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Nevertheless, I characterize the book as more protean. It resists reductive readings, always offering a counter-text to any interpretation (including the one in this essay.)
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | Magical Practices and Discourses of Magic in Early Christian Traditions: Jesus, Peter, and Paul
Christ healing the leper (Wikimedia Commons)
Christ healing the leper (Wikimedia Commons)
I argue one must take into account not only what magic is said to be, but also what magicians do. There is a reason, after all, that these practices are the ones against which Apuleius was compelled to mount his defense.
Read MoreRethinking Early Christian Identity: A Response
Maia Kotrosits responds to the review forum on Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).
Read MoreRethinking “Early Christian Art”
Jonah being thrown into the Sea. Catacomb of Saint Peter and Saint Marcellino, Rome, Italy, via wikicommons.
Jonah being thrown into the Sea. Catacomb of Saint Peter and Saint Marcellino, Rome, Italy, via wikicommons.
Eric Smith responds to Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).
Read More"What Has Affect Theory to do with Acts?": Testing Methodological Boundaries In Acts Scholarship
Teresa Calpino responds to Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).
Read MoreThe Codex of Feeling: Affect Theory and Ancient Texts
Image provided free through Unsplash
Image provided free through Unsplash
Donovan Schaefer responds to Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015) at the 2018 SBL review panel.
Read MoreEngaging with Intersectionality and 1st-2nd c. "Judaism"
Image provided free through Unsplash @chuttersnap.
Image provided free through Unsplash @chuttersnap.
Shayna Sheinfeld responds to Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015) at the 2018 SBL review panel.
Read MoreAntiquity on Display: The Armenia! Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Four Gospels in Armenian (1434/5 CE) - MET Collection
Four Gospels in Armenian (1434/5 CE) - MET Collection
This exhibition aims to showcase Armenia as an artistic civilization in its own right rather than a postscript to the more prominent and the better-known achievements of Byzantium or Near Eastern cultures.
Read MoreYear in Review: Top Ten Articles of 2018
Mosaic from a series on the months of the year (early 3rd century CE). Image courtesy of Ad Meskins via Wikimedia Commons.
Mosaic from a series on the months of the year (early 3rd century CE). Image courtesy of Ad Meskins via Wikimedia Commons.
A list of our most popular articles from 2018.
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | A Principio Reges: The Reception of the Seven Kings of Rome in Imperial Historiography from Tiberius to Theodosius
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, "Romulus, vainqueur d'Acron, porte les dépouilles opimes au temple de Jupiter" (1812), (Wikimedia Commons)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, "Romulus, vainqueur d'Acron, porte les dépouilles opimes au temple de Jupiter" (1812), (Wikimedia Commons)
In my dissertation, I group twelve authors by chronology and language of writing. Chapter two treats Velleius Paterculus (d. 31 CE), Tacitus, and Suetonius (d. 126 CE), three authors separated by time, genre, rank, and aims, but unified in their approach to imperial history as in certain respects a recapitulation of regal history; determined by the ancestry of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
Read MoreTeaching Hebrew Bible with Creative Writing
“The Bible is, and will likely long continue to be, both building material and building. It’s a treasury of the ancient world, a storehouse in which lie a large percentage of the glittering gems which survived the ancient Levant in any form. And it’s a doorway through which the ancient Levant continues to shape the present, as well as the history of how this heritage has been repeatedly reshaped and by whom.”
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