Analyses the introduction of Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah’s Risāla fī ’l-Jawāb ʿan masāʾil mushkila fī ’l-tarkīb, its key concept (al-muwāḍaʿa al-sharʿiyya), and its relation to Muʿtazilī uṣūl al-fiqh.

The paper revisits the arguably most conspicuous example of a Jewish Muʿtazilī Hexaemeron in Arabic. Its 11th century Byzantine Hebrew translation bears the title “Bereshit Rabbah” and attributes the work to Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah (fl. 1040-1070) whose authorship has been questioned in recent scholarship. Based on a reconstruction of all extant…[Read more]

Analyses the introduction of Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah’s Risāla fī ’l-Jawāb ʿan masāʾil mushkila fī ’l-tarkīb, its key concept (al-muwāḍaʿa al-sharʿiyya), and its relation to Muʿtazilī uṣūl al-fiqh.

The paper revisits the arguably most conspicuous example of a Jewish Muʿtazilī Hexaemeron in Arabic. Its 11th century Byzantine Hebrew translation bears the title “Bereshit Rabbah” and attributes the work to Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah (fl. 1040-1070) whose authorship has been questioned in recent scholarship. Based on a reconstruction of all extant…[Read more]

The papper offers an identification and reconstruction of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣūrī’s “Kitāb fī bāb al-qibla” together with its anonymous Qaraite refutation (al-Naqḍ ʿalā l-Sāmira). Building on previous studies by A. Loewenstamm, A. Halkin, H. Pohl, and others, this paper will also provide new evidence from the Firkovitch collections (mainly ФIPK. СA…[Read more]

Forthcoming in Like ʾIlu Are You Wise: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literature in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee, Oriental Institute Publications.

Job 38:8-11 plays an important role in the first divine speech at the end of Job. This article makes a text-critical and literary argument that the stanza primarily emphasizes God’s powerful control over the Sea, in continuity with the preceding poetic unit whose theme is God’s singular power and Job’s incommensurability. However, vv 8-11 also…[Read more]

Syllabus for my course Jewish and Christian Scriptures at Augustana College. Most students who take the course are non-majors, and they take it to fulfill their “Christian Traditions” requirement. I focus on reading primary sources (both biblical and extra-canonical), supplementing with Bible Odyssey materials and pre-recorded online lectures.

The central argument for source division of the Pentateuch is that the present form of the literature is incoherent. The first place most readers notice the incoherence, and where biblical scholarship began giving it attention a few centuries ago, is in the Primevel Story in Genesis 1-11. Among those who accept some form of the Documentary…[Read more]