Reading at a Table, Pablo Picasso, 1934, oil on canvas
(image: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1996.403.1/)
Reading at a Table, Pablo Picasso, 1934, oil on canvas
(image: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1996.403.1/)
Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz shares her strategies for teaching the Mishnah to students with no exposure to rabbinic texts.
Read More"Much as we write about the Talmud itself, we pay far less attention to the significance and contribution of writing about our teaching. With our book, Learning to Read Talmud, we aim to expand the research agendas of Talmudists to include scholarship on the teaching of rabbinic literature."
Read MoreSBL's History of Rabbinic Literature's 2016 review panel of Dr. Christine Hayes' What's Divine About Divine Law?
Read MoreChristine Hayes responds to the SBL forum featuring her book, What's Divine About Divine Law?
Read MorePaul Writing His Letters attributed to Valentin de Boulogne [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Paul Writing His Letters attributed to Valentin de Boulogne [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Dr. Fredriksen asks three questions regarding Paul's relationship with the Mosaic Law.
Read More"There is, in short, a an important but small subset of the Law that many ancient Jews, in the second temple and rabbinic periods, believed to be self-evidentially rational."
Read MoreRow of Amphorae (Ad Meskens, Bodrum Castle Turkey)
Row of Amphorae (Ad Meskens, Bodrum Castle Turkey)
Dr. Beth Berkowitz reviews Hayes' What's Divine About Divine Law with a "Container Store" worthy synopsis and explores the modern relevance of Hayes' work in the recent Supreme Court ruling on Same-Sex Marriage.
Read More"What these essays offer instead are provocative and stimulating inroads into the task of recognizing just how different the late ancient world may have actually been."
Read MoreMandaean Incantation Bowl By Daderot (Daderot) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Mandaean Incantation Bowl By Daderot (Daderot) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
"Most of my contributions to Mandaean studies engage topics in Mandaean texts for these topics’ own sake. That means trying to take the literature on its own terms, in accordance with its own religious logic, and avoiding flights into the hallowed sanctuaries of comparisons."
Read MoreHendrik Goltzius - Saint Paul's Martyrdom
Hendrik Goltzius - Saint Paul's Martyrdom
"When I think of what it would take to make Pauline studies fun, I am drawn to one simple idea: we have to kill Paul.”
Read MoreJillian Stinchcomb booknotes Eva Mroczek's The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity, developing how Mroczek "presents a convincing native theory of text production."
Read MoreCalifornia drought, 4th year via Bluesbby via Flickr CC 2.0.
Michelangelo - The Torment of Saint Anthony
Michelangelo - The Torment of Saint Anthony
Despite their general agreement regarding demonic pervasiveness, Christian writers often disagree concerning the nature of the demonic, particularly vis-à-vis the demons’ physical appearance and substance.
Read MorePsukhai that Matter: The Psukhē in and behind Clement of Alexandria’s Paedagogus aims to investigate the ideology and mechanics of the ancient soul’s materiality.
Read MoreA reflection on the contribution of scholars working on rabbinic charity and some of the methodological problems they have faced.
Read MoreDr. Michael Satlow responds to the AJR Charity forum, concluding "we can no more speak of 'the' rabbinic view of charity than we can of “the” rabbinic view of anything else."
Read More2nd century CE. from a villa at Tor Marancia via Wikimedia Commons.
2nd century CE. from a villa at Tor Marancia via Wikimedia Commons.
Dr. Gregg Gardner describes the tannaitic attention to the dignity of the poor, while insisting "The earliest rabbis were simply not as altruistic as many people today would like them to be."
Read MoreMosaic from the Great Palace in Constantinople by Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 5. Jahrhunderts - The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
Mosaic from the Great Palace in Constantinople by Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 5. Jahrhunderts - The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
Dr. Yael Wilfand surveys models of rabbinic charity and suggests that "at least some of the notions and practices mentioned in this corpus seem to have been accepted and engaged beyond rabbinic circles."
Read More"Memento Mori" Mosaic from Pompeii depicting the Wheel of Fortune in Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy. CC
"Memento Mori" Mosaic from Pompeii depicting the Wheel of Fortune in Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy. CC
Dr. Alyssa Gray reflects on her contributions to the field of rabbinic charity and urges scholars to "take rabbinic intertextuality and the creation of texts out of other texts very seriously."
Read MoreSaint Thecla and the Wild Beasts (ca. 5th century, Egypt)
Saint Thecla and the Wild Beasts (ca. 5th century, Egypt)
Since the 1980s, the story and figure of Thecla have featured in vibrant currents in scholarship. This new publication brings a fresh perspective to Thecla’s depiction in light of social expectations for women in the Greco-Roman world.
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