The second-century Protevangelium of James contains an enigmatic scene that has fascinated readers for centuries: the stilling of the natural world at the birth of Jesus. Joseph describes the spectacle as he departs the cave in which Mary is laboring: “I looked up at the vault of the sky and saw it fixed. I saw the clouds paused in amazement, a…[Read more]

The second-century Protevangelium of James contains an enigmatic scene that has fascinated readers for centuries: the stilling of the natural world at the birth of Jesus. Joseph describes the spectacle as he departs the cave in which Mary is laboring: “I looked up at the vault of the sky and saw it fixed. I saw the clouds paused in amazement, a…[Read more]

This article describes the current crisis in Pentateuch research, presenting its origin and results, as well as the impact on the modern research. It shows the main players in the debate and its contribution to the current status in the field. It finishes describing the future of the research, as we can grasp from the current research and the…[Read more]

This article describes the current crisis in Pentateuch research, presenting its origin and results, as well as the impact on the modern research. It shows the main players in the debate and its contribution to the current status in the field. It finishes describing the future of the research, as we can grasp from the current research and the…[Read more]

This article describes the current crisis in Pentateuch research, presenting its origin and results, as well as the impact on the modern research. It shows the main players in the debate and its contribution to the current status in the field. It finishes describing the future of the research, as we can grasp from the current research and the…[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.

Contrary to the opinion of Dahl, the most economic solution to the authorship of the Latin Prologues to the letters of Paul is still that they arose in Marcionite circles

The Baylor-Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity series undertook this translation of a monumental synthetic study of ecclesiology in the Gospel of Matthew by notable German scholar Matthias Konradt. Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew is a meticulously researched and provocative challenge to latent anti-Semitism and…[Read more]

Virginia Tech professor Brian Britt presents this far-reaching study on biblical curses and their reception history. Britt’s introduction clearly sets out his goals for the book, especially the importance of distinguishing between the general power of curses in the ancient world and the general profanity of curses in early modern modern Europe and beyond.

University of Lethbridge professor Kevin McGeough presents a meticulous and thorough three-volume series on the reception of Near Eastern culture, his- tory, and art in nineteenth-century Europe and America. Both in the introduction to the first volume and throughout the series, McGeough makes clear the fascination held by Western entities such as…[Read more]

A dictionary length entry on conversion in early Judaism for the Oxford Classical Dictionary.

This article explores the relationship between law and love as this comes to expression in the ethical sections of Galatians. It considers the likely important of Galatians 2:19–21 for understanding the development of Paul’s bi-focal view of the law in relation to love.

This article explores the relationship between law and love as this comes to expression in the ethical sections of Galatians. It considers the likely important of Galatians 2:19–21 for understanding the development of Paul’s bi-focal view of the law in relation to love.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, like many apocryphal gospels, has been much transformed over the course of its transmission. Though composed in Greek in the second century, the gospel is extant in a number of other languages and a myriad of forms. The most well-known form is a 19-chapter version in Greek based on late manuscripts (none earlier than…[Read more]

Introductory overview of the legal literature in the Bible

Uses social poetics to analyze talk in the Bible of looking at Yahweh’s face

Burton Mack has made a number of important contributions to the study of early Christianity. One of, if not the most significant of these contributions is his use of the analytical categories of mythmaking and social formation in his construction of a social theory of religion. The analysis of mythmaking and social formation in early Christianity…[Read more]

Hugo Lundhaug and Lance Jenott offer a sustained argument for the monastic provenance of the Nag Hammadi Codices. They examine the arguments for and against a monastic Sitz im Leben and defend the view that the Codices were produced and read by Christian monks, most likely Pachomians, in the fourth- and fifth-century monasteries of Upper Egypt.…[Read more]

This new contribution to the Interpretation Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Early Church limits itself to apocryphal Gospels. Bockmuehl states in his introductory chapter his approach is both accessible and nonsensational (29), in contrast other recent books which describe this literature as suppressed by the establishment and containing…[Read more]