March 26, 2019

Unexpected Influences | In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity

Lion, detail of mosaic, Mount Nebo (Mosaics of Jordan, fig. 219 on p. 169). Chapel of the Priest John at Khirbat-al-Mukhayyat, Jordan 565 CE. Courtesy of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, Mount Nebo, and the American Center of Oriental Resear… — Lion, detail of mosaic, Mount Nebo (*Mosaics of Jordan*, fig. 219 on p. 169). Chapel of the Priest John at Khirbat-al-Mukhayyat, Jordan 565 CE. Courtesy of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, Mount Nebo, and the American Center of Oriental Research, Amman. Permission obtained by author.

The intellectual climate had changed, and I saw that I needed to situate my work as an historian in contemporary animal theorizing in order to be responsive to the interpretive richness of this new cultural moment in scholarship and to develop a vocabulary that might enable a reading “otherwise” of ancient Christian texts that feature animals.

March 21, 2019

What can pre-modern Muslims tell us about the Hebrew Bible?

by Adam Silverstein in Articles

King Ahashverush and the maidens, Shahin, Ardashir-nameh, Persia, 2nd half of the 17th century (Berlin, Staatbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz) — King Ahashverush and the maidens, *Shahin, Ardashir-nameh*, Persia, 2nd half of the 17th century (Berlin, Staatbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz)

“There is evidence that Persian Muslims and Jews shared notions about the story that united them on the one hand and distinguished them from their coreligionists elsewhere on the other.”

March 13, 2019

Creating Christian Marriage in Early Islamic Arabia

by Lev Weitz in Articles

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"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.”

March 6, 2019

Dissertation Spotlight | Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source

by Liane Feldman in Articles

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.

March 4, 2019

Paul, the Gentiles, and the Other(s) in Jewish Discourse

by Cavan Concannon in Articles

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.

February 27, 2019

The Goy: A Synchronic Proposal

by Christine Hayes in Articles

“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.

February 25, 2019

Ethnic and Cultural Identities in the Rabbinic Goy Discourse

by Yair Furstenberg in Articles

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.

February 20, 2019

The Perils of Polarization

by Cynthia Baker in Articles

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.

February 18, 2019

Goy: An AJR Forum

by Ancient Jew Review in Articles

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.

February 18, 2019

Why Goy?

by Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi in Articles

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.

February 7, 2019

Affect and Early Christian Identity

by Ancient Jew Review in Articles

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).

February 7, 2019

Job, White Privilege, and the Case for Reparations

by Thomas M. Bolin in Articles

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.)

January 29, 2019

Dissertation Spotlight | Magical Practices and Discourses of Magic in Early Christian Traditions: Jesus, Peter, and Paul

by Shaily Patel in Articles

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.

January 28, 2019

Rethinking Early Christian Identity: A Response

by Maia Kotrosits in Articles

Maia Kotrosits responds to the review forum on Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).

January 23, 2019

Rethinking “Early Christian Art”

by Eric Smith in Articles

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).

January 21, 2019

"What Has Affect Theory to do with Acts?": Testing Methodological Boundaries In Acts Scholarship

by Teresa Calpino in Articles

Teresa Calpino responds to Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015).

January 16, 2019

The Codex of Feeling: Affect Theory and Ancient Texts

by Donovan Schaefer in Articles

Donovan Schaefer responds to Maia Kotrosits’s Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging (Fortress, 2015) at the 2018 SBL review panel.

January 14, 2019

Engaging with Intersectionality and 1st-2nd c. "Judaism"

by Shayna Sheinfeld in Articles

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.

January 8, 2019

Antiquity on Display: The Armenia! Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

by Michael Papazian in Articles

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.

December 31, 2018

Year in Review: Top Ten Articles of 2018

by Ancient Jew Review in Articles

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.