This essay examines three cases in which pentateuchal ritual law is employed in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles: the Sukkôt celebration in Neh 8:13–18, Hezekiah’s Passover in 2 Chr 30, and Josiah’s Passover, in 2 Chr 35:1–19. These case studies reveal that the scribes responsible for Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles considered the ritual texts of the P…[Read more]

This article explores how the priestly wilderness shrine functions as a monumental space in the sanctuary construction account of Exod 25–31, 35–40. It draws on spatial theory and studies of monumental architecture to identify five features of the tent of meeting that infuse it with monumentality: first, its significance in negotiating the pat…[Read more]

This is a review essay, originally contributed to a blog symposium, responding to the publication of Philip G. Ziegler’s book entitled Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic Turn and the Future of Christian Theology.

What is the contribution of Psalm 45 within its canonical context? What is Psalm 45 doing in, and what is it doing for, the First Korahite Collection (Pss. 42–49)? These are the questions this article engages. In common with scholarship on the “shape and shaping” of the Psalter, the article seeks a form of coherency across the First Korahite Colle…[Read more]

Zimmermann, Ruben, and Zacharias Shoukry, “Creatio Continua in the Fourth Gospel: Motifs of Creation in John 5–6.” Pages 87–116 in Signs and Discourses in John 5 and 6. WUNT 463. Edited by Jörg Frey and Craig R. Koester. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.

Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣūrī’s Treatise on the qibla, written in the 1030s C.E., and its Qaraite rebuttal, most likely written over the course of the following decade, preserve the most substantial and extensive surviving account of the centuries-old debate between Jews and Samaritans about the chosen place, the permanent location of the sanctuary and the…[Read more]

(Sobre el «Discurso a Diogneto» y la literatura cristiana primitiva).
En este trabajo, se lleva a cabo un concienzudo estudio del «Discurso a Diogneto» o «Epistola a Diogneto» (como queramos llamar a este texto). Y en él, su autor destaca como rasgos fundamentales:
—El carácter muy temprano de este texto, que intentó armonizar la Iglesia co…[Read more]

Preámbulo del libro SACRIFRICIO Y DRAMA DEL REY SAGRADO, de Eliseo Ferrer. (Se añade índice y bibliografía).
Vaya por delante que ésta no es una obra de consenso académico; y tampoco una obra guiada por la fe religiosa, ni por los presupuestos decimonónicos del ateísmo antirreligioso y anticristiano. Decía el mitólogo Joseph Campbell que la hu…[Read more]

Toda la tesis de R. Panikkar estuvo dirigida, dada su tradición intelectual multicultural y multirreligiosa, a «un encuentro sincero» entre el cristianismo y el hinduismo; y quizá por eso subtituló este libro («El Cristo desconocido del hinduismo») con el ambicioso reclamo: «Para una cristofanía ecuménica». No obstante, y para no engañar a…[Read more]

Dodecalogue of errors and nonsense / I believe that the secular influence of the theology and dogmatics of the Church (inherited, to a large extent, by the Lutheran reformers), as well as the ideology generated over eighteen centuries on the substratum of the New Testament, have led and They continue to lead in the XXI century to great errors of…[Read more]

Como ya saben muchos de mis amigos y seguidores de Internet, suelo organizar casi todos los meses un foro-debate en Academia.edu sobre asuntos que normalmente giran en torno a la antropología social y cultural, pero también relativos a asuntos destacados de la historia antigua y de la crítica textual, campos en los que normalmente se de…[Read more]

proofs, to be published in a volume 2023

Gotteshäuser en miniature? Architekturbezug, Funktion und Medialität der sogenannten Tempelmodelle der südlichen Levante, in: Jens Kamlah/Markus Witte (Hg.), Sacred Architecture in Ancient Palestine from the Bronze Age to Medieval Times (ADPV 49), Wiesbaden 2023, 153-234.

[Note: these are the slides for the second talk described in the abstract.]

Phylogenetics is an approach developed in evolutionary biology to reconstruct organisms’ relationships of descent based on observations of their trait similarities and differences. It finds a close analogue in textual criticism, where manuscripts correspond to o…[Read more]

This chapter examines how historical and critical modalities of reading sacred scripture became central to modern biblical studies. It examines what “criticism” was, whence it came, what it did, and which critiques it sustained, before considering its prospects for future historical and literary analysis of the Bible.

Groups and individuals known as “elders” (Greek: presbyteros, gerousia; Hebrew: zaqan) are often found in ancient Jewish texts and inscriptions. Their ubiquity in such texts and inscriptions is accompanied by very little information about their actual function. Generally, this may be because we have some kind of impression that a group of old…[Read more]

Rufus’s mother features in Paul’s concluding list of church leaders such as Phoebe in Romans 16. Paul calls her his own mother. I argue that Rufus’s mother’s inclusion indicates higher status and influence within the Pauline house-churches, building on Elmer’s notion of corporate Pauline authorship.

The Woman clothed with the Sun makes a brief appearance in Revelation 12; however, her influence upon the imaginations of artists and interpreters is substantive. She is unnamed and yet multiple identities are ascribed to her including individual women (Eve, Mary), corporate institutions (Israel, the church), and ancient goddesses. In this…[Read more]

Americans overwhelmingly assume that Moses married a Black woman. Using sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this article highlights interpretations of Moses’s marriage to the Cushite woman in Numbers 12. Utilising cultural-critical reception history—that biblical interpretation is culturally conditioned—readers in the United State…[Read more]

Typically, the cupbearer in Genesis 40–41 is interpreted only as a member of Joseph’s supporting cast. However, closely reading this minor character suggests more options for interpreting both him and other anonymous courtiers found throughout the Hebrew Bible. The cupbearer’s actions (and inactions) raise ethical and psychological questions about…[Read more]

This article suggests that in Ezekiel 13:17–23 we have an example of the ritual activities of Yahwistic women being undermined. However, rather than opening the hermeneutical crux of attempting to understand what it is the women are doing or how their ritual activity is functioning, I will focus squarely on the broader social dynamics in the t…[Read more]