Mordechai and Esther | Painted wood synagogue panel, Dura-Europos (Syria) | Image Source
Mordechai and Esther | Painted wood synagogue panel, Dura-Europos (Syria) | Image Source
This Week: Chag Purim Sameach, Esther under Islam, renewing philology, global history, deathbed moments, Sasanian manuscripts – and more!
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 MoreJames Tucker reviews Michael Stone’s Secret Groups in Ancient Judaism: “An analysis of the insider and outsider sources can illuminate how secrecy and esotericism were realized apropos the social practices of initiation, graded revelation, and hierarchical structure.”
Read MoreLimestone statue of Heracles | C1st-2nd CE, excavated at Hatra (Iraq), on display in Tokyo National Museum | Image Source
Limestone statue of Heracles | C1st-2nd CE, excavated at Hatra (Iraq), on display in Tokyo National Museum | Image Source
This Week: Marriage in Arabia, martyrs, Jewish Coptic magic, Syriac offerings galore, Geniza crowdsourcing, papyrus petitions – and more!
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 MoreSahner’s book fills a noteworthy gap in studies of martyrdom, which have generally been limited to the earliest centuries of Christianity and have ignored later developments.
Read MoreGreco-Roman statue of a philosopher, associated with Apollonius of Tyana | Late second-third century CE, currently at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum | Image Source
Greco-Roman statue of a philosopher, associated with Apollonius of Tyana | Late second-third century CE, currently at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum | Image Source
This Week: More goyim, narrative and ritual, Ezekiel’s tomb in Iraq, burning papyri, Apollonius of Tyana, Geniza transcription crowd-sourcing, Assyriology online – and more!
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.
Read MoreIsaac, 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 MorePortrait 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 MoreThe 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 MoreAdi 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 MoreCa. early fourth-century painting of a woman | Catacomb of Calixtus, Rome | Image Source
Ca. early fourth-century painting of a woman | Catacomb of Calixtus, Rome | Image Source
This Week: Hypatia, translational twists and turns, Job and reparations, the problem with “Judeo-Christian,” JQR behind-the-scenes, Cairo Genizah – and more!
Read MorePapers 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 MoreThe 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 MoreDetailed from Raphael’s “School of Athens” (Wikimedia Commons)
Detailed from Raphael’s “School of Athens” (Wikimedia Commons)
Watts ends the volume with a chapter on such modern representations of Hypatia, which move already suggests his aim: to bracket the legend long enough to catch sight of the life that inspired it.
Read MoreChrist 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 More
