Moan Synagogue
Mandsager, John. To Stake a Claim: The Making of Rabbinic Agricultural Spaces in the Roman Countryside. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 2014.
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | John Mandsager
Moan Synagogue
Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings
Paul Kosmin’s Land of the Elephant Kings is an attempt to understand the royal ideology of the Seleucid dynasty, examining how this vast empire was constituted and imagined by its rulers.
Read MoreStudents Think Better with Thinking Pieces: Why You Should Consider Using Low- Stakes Writing Assignments in Your Class
Relief in Neumagen near Trier, a teacher with three discipuli (180-185 CE)
Relief in Neumagen near Trier, a teacher with three discipuli (180-185 CE)
As you prepare your syllabi for the upcoming academic year, consider using low-stakes writing assignments as an assessment option.
Read MoreElegy for Hatra: The City of the Sun God
I began writing this post after the Islamicists' rampage through the Mosul Museum, but now news reports are coming in that ISIL bulldozers are also on their way to destroy the ancient city of Hatra some 80 km away
Read MoreEdelman and Ben Zvi, Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods: Social Memory and Imagination
Remembering Biblical Figures in the Later Persian & Early Hellenistic Periods is a new edited volume examining the biblical texts through the theoretical lens of social or collective memory.
Read MoreBreed, Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History
In Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History, Brennan Breed argues that the way we describe the Hebrew Bible’s original text and reception is fundamentally flawed.
Read More"Unexpected Influences" with Adele Reinhartz and Andrew Jacobs
Olympians in D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
Olympians in D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
Find out which non-field related books Dr. Adele Reinhartz and Dr. Andrew Jacobs found influential.
Read MoreAJR receives American Academy for Jewish Research Grant
We are pleased to announced that the Ancient Jew Review is an American Academy of Jewish Research grant recipient.
Read MoreRe-Enacting Nicaea
Weekly Roundup for March 13th
Anthony Le Donne reviews The Lost Gospel in the LA Review of Books, finds that it is better than dinosaur erotica.
Read More"Unexpected Influences" with Seth Schwartz and Steven Weitzman
Vincent van Gogh | Stilleven
Vincent van Gogh | Stilleven
Find out which non-field related books Dr. Seth Schwartz and Dr. Steve Weitzman found influential.
Read MoreDavid’s Kingdom and the Province of Academic and Popular Discussion
David and Goliath by Caravaggio
David and Goliath by Caravaggio
Stories about new biblical discoveries appear yearly in major newspapers around the world. But do all of these announcements give an accurate picture of what scholars – of archaeology, epigraphy, or the Bible – actually do?
Read MorePearce and Wunsch, Documents of Judean Exiles and West Semites in Babylonia
Tribute Bearers, the Apadana Relief, Persepolis
Tribute Bearers, the Apadana Relief, Persepolis
In their new book, Pearce and Wunsch publish 103 tablets from Babylonia for the first time, dating from roughly the years 572-477 BCE, but mostly from the 6th century BCE
Read MoreHouston, Inside Roman Libraries
G.W. Houston's Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity is a book about "everything that may be in a Roman library" written in order to "obtain a better understanding of several matters."
Read MoreThe Understudied and Marginal Josephus: Bringing Him into the Conversation
The Bust of Flavius Josephus (but not actually Josephus).
The Bust of Flavius Josephus (but not actually Josephus).
There is good news and bad news for the state of Josephan studies.
Read MoreWho is Carpocrates?
A Saturnalia celebration.
A Saturnalia celebration.
At first glance, Carpocrates looks like an unremarkable character in the history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.
Read MoreThe Jewishness of Josephus: an Interview with Sören Swoboda
Woodcut illustration of the story of Paulina and Decius Mundus from Josephus's Jewish Antiquities from aGerman translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel of Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, printed by Johannes Zainer at Ulm ca. 1474.
Woodcut illustration of the story of Paulina and Decius Mundus from Josephus's Jewish Antiquities from aGerman translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel of Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, printed by Johannes Zainer at Ulm ca. 1474.
My book compares Josephus’ Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities with the work of other historians in antiquity.
Read MorePatterns and Theory: the Evolution of a Category
A brief review of the original aims of the unit prompted several questions for me: how much have the sessions addressed these questions? what has not been addressed? what else has been addressed? and with what results?
Read MoreAn Introduction to Toledot Yeshu
Marc Chagall's Mystical Crucifixion
Marc Chagall's Mystical Crucifixion
The Toledot Yeshu, which ridicules Jesus’ birth, miracles, and death, sheds light on another Jewish response to the threat and allure of Christianity.
Read MoreAlterity in Late Antiquity: Disrupting Binaries
Jewish Dance" by Alexandr Onishenko, 1999
Jewish Dance" by Alexandr Onishenko, 1999
What are the "relations" in early Jewish Christian relations? The term "relations" is neutral enough to encompass a variety of relationships, from enemy to friend to anywhere in between.
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