Master of Affligem, Joseph and Asenath (ca. 1500), Color on oak panel.
Master of Affligem, Joseph and Asenath (ca. 1500), Color on oak panel.
My research contributes to a growing body of scholarship that takes as axiomatic the claim that understanding the media context of antiquity is an essential task for interpretation. It also opens further avenues for considering how narratives were composed and received in Second Temple Judaism, as well as the relationship between composition and reception.
Read MoreRoman mosaic floor from Villalaure France of a wild beast hunt from the 3rd c. CE. Photographed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art by Mary Harrsch and available on Wikimedia Commons
Roman mosaic floor from Villalaure France of a wild beast hunt from the 3rd c. CE. Photographed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art by Mary Harrsch and available on Wikimedia Commons
In my book, Apocalyptic Ecology, I utilize venationes as part of the Roman world against which John of Patmos reacted in writing the New Testament book of Revelation.
Read MoreSection of Jan Brueghel's "The Temptation in the Garden of Eden," ca. 1600 (Wikimedia Commons)
Section of Jan Brueghel's "The Temptation in the Garden of Eden," ca. 1600 (Wikimedia Commons)
Scholars of animal studies unanimously reject anthropological exceptionalism. Much of the conversation in the field has turned on how to reject it and why we ought to do so. In the wake of this literature, I find myself all the more intrigued by the textual ecology of late antique Christianity, since these texts play an outsized role in shaping the shared topography of humanness and animality that we find ourselves inhabiting.
Read MoreThese essays were part of a panel at the Society of Biblical Literature 2018 Annual Meeting titled, “Textual Objects and Material Philology,” inspired in part by the publication of Snapshots of Evolving Traditions (eds. Lied and Lundhaug).
Read MoreImage courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Liv Ingeborg Lied’s Contribution to the Textual Objects and Material Philology forum.
Read MoreSoldiers plundering a village, by Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot
Soldiers plundering a village, by Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot
Jennifer Wright Knust’s contribution to the Textual Objects forum.
Read MoreAdam Bremer-McCollum’s contribution to the Textual Objects forum.
Read MoreThe Ten Commandments, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The Ten Commandments, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Hanna Tervanotko’s contribution to the Textual Objects forum.
Read MoreThe German National Library, courtesy of theeuropeanlibrary.org
The German National Library, courtesy of theeuropeanlibrary.org
Blossom Stefaniw’s contribution to the Textual Objects and Material Philology Panel from SBL 2018.
Read MoreJanet Spittler’s contribution to the Textual Objects and Material Philology Panel from SBL 2018.
Read MoreMonika Amsler. “Effective Combinations of Words and Things: The Babylonian Talmud Gittin 67b-70b and the Literary Standards of Late Antiquity,” PhD Dissertation, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 2018.
Read MoreDr. Catherine Hezser introduces her book Bild und Kontext: Jüdische und christliche Ikonographie der Spätantike: “I examine exemplary biblical, mythological, and symbolic images in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman literary sources to determine their possible uses and meanings within the multi-cultural realms of late antique society. I argue that the images were carefully chosen to engage in an ongoing visual discourse within the public sphere.”
Read MoreMy book is about reading as world-building, because reading with a grammarian in antiquity meant reading in a pool of fragmentation, displacement, and homogenization to re-arrange time and re-align filiation.
Read More“One plus one plus one cannot equal one. Neither does the Old Testament equal the Tanakh. They are not one.”
Read MoreLion, 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.
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.
Read MoreKing 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.”
Read More"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 MoreJoshua 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 MoreThe 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 More“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.
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