Un poco antes de fallecer, recién rebasada la mitad del siglo XV (1454), el monarca castellano Juan II se atrevió a exponer en breves palabras la tremenda carga que suponía para
cualquier mortal el ejercicio del poder regio, es decir, lo que habitualmente se conoce con el modismo de «el peso de la púrpura»: “Naciera yo fijo de un labrador e fuera…[Read more]

Impreso en 1511, el ‘Cancionero general’ de Hernando del Castillo representa
la más extensa e importante recopilación de poesía de cancionero en lengua
castellana. En ella hay más de mil obras pertenecientes a más de 150 poetas,
muchos de los cuales han permanecido en el más profundo anonimato. La tesis
pretende concretar el número total…[Read more]

La presencia de hombres de letras italianos en la Península Ibérica durante el reinado de los Reyes Católicos (1474-1516) constituye uno de los factores principales para el despegue del Humanismo hispano (Gómez Moreno, 1994). De entre tantos nombres ilustres, quizá sean Pedro Mártir de Anglería y Lucio Marineo Sículo los más conocidos, en especial…[Read more]

Explores the connections between imperialism, language about the courts, and geographic references within Aeschylus Eumenides, the third play of the Oresteia trilogy.

A Ph.D. dissertation considering nearly 200 sarcophagi from the late ancient necropoleis of Jewish communities at Beth She’arim and Rome. This corpus captures a wide range of the possibilities open to Jewish patrons as they went about acquiring or commissioning a sarcophagus and sculptural program. The variety reflects not only the different…[Read more]

A paper delivered at in the 2017 Colloquia of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Considers how a group of sarcophagi from the Jewish catacombs of Rome reflect on the subject of Jewish art and Jewish patrons in Late Antiquity.

What did it mean to ‘be Jewish’ in the Greco-Roman world? Jews, Greeks and Romans will explore the myriad ways that Jewish communities across the Mediterranean engaged with Greco-Roman culture and constructed their own ways of being Jewish. Using texts, artifacts and images–from rabbinic commentaries to Roman catacombs–we will investigate…[Read more]

Front-matter and conclusions to my Ph.D. Dissertation (2017). The project considers nearly 200 sarcophagi from the late ancient necropoleis of Jewish communities at Beth She’arim and Rome. This corpus captures a wide range of the possibilities open to Jewish patrons as they went about acquiring or commissioning a sarcophagus and sculptural…[Read more]

A re-assessment of what we know about women known as hetairai in Classical Greece within the context of the elite women from the 6th and early 5th centuries BCE.

This article looks at how Achilleus physically expresses his mourning following the death of Patroklos, in Homer’s Iliad.

Many scholars have used two verses from an epistle appended to the main body of 2 Maccabees to suggest a canon, proto-canon, or body of scripture is present already during the Hasmonean era and even before. We question such conclusions by investigating the background and contents of the epistle, using both historical-critical and rhetorical…[Read more]

This brief study investigates the desire for a fixed textual form as it pertains to scripture in the Judean tradition. It particularly delves into this phenomenon in three early versions of the Septuagint origin myth. is paper argues that this myth is invaluable for the study of transmission and reception of scripture, as it is one of the…[Read more]

One goal of this essay is to offer an exploratory, historiographical analysis of the conquest account in the book of Joshua, an analysis that focuses upon the sociocultural milieu of ancient Judah. I propose to show how this narrative of conquest might have contributed to discourse(s) among the literate Judean community that perpetuated the text,…[Read more]

In a recent ZAW article, Michael Chan argues that II Reg 25,27-30 alludes to Gen 40-41, and that this allusion provides a hermeneutical key for understanding the purpose of II Reg 25,27-30 in an Enneateuchal context: it points to an imminent exodus, a return from exile and a gathering of diaspora in the promised land. This article picks up where…[Read more]

Both 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees portray the Sabbath law as a central point of con- tention during the struggle over Judean law and tradition in the second century BCE (e.g., 1 Macc 1:41-50; 2 Macc 6:4-6). The Hasmonean family in particular is at times high- lighted as holding the Sabbath in high regard (2 Macc 5:27). In every available source,…[Read more]

Many scholars recognize the importance of authority in the process of scripturalization. The presence of words like “authority” and “au- thoritative” in definitions of the term “scripture” is ubiquitous. Many also identify authoritative status for a text as an important step on the way toward it becoming scripture. However, “authority”…[Read more]

This article investigates the prefatory material in 2 Maccabees (2:19-32; 15:38-39) in order to reveal the motivation and attitude of the epitomator of 2 Maccabees toward the text he is adapting. The article argues that the concept of auxiliary texts, recog- nized in Graeco-Roman and Hellenistic texts by classicist Markus Dubischar, is the lens…[Read more]

This study highlights features of the Letter of Aristeas that reveal how that story conceives of the royal translation project. It will apply the concept of ‘auxiliary texts’ developed by Markus Dubischar based on the conversation theory of Paul Grice in order to show that Aristeas understands the Hebrew Pentateuch as a failing text. It will be…[Read more]

Poster presentation.