As a paratext, the colophon’s functions can be summarily and quickly described. It marks the ending of a text. In the era before printing this was a necessity, so that later copyists would know that they had a complete text before them to reproduce. This is the case with many Egyptian and Akkadkian colophons. As such, a colophon is an assertion o…[Read more]

This article describes the main contours of Greco-Roman and Jewish friendship trad- itions, and considers some of the ways that these traditions were adopted and adapted in New Testament texts. The survey suggests that early Christian writers drew on friendship traditions as a way of articulating certain important values relating to the need to…[Read more]

This article describes the main contours of Greco-Roman and Jewish friendship trad- itions, and considers some of the ways that these traditions were adopted and adapted in New Testament texts. The survey suggests that early Christian writers drew on friendship traditions as a way of articulating certain important values relating to the need to…[Read more]

Joseph and Aseneth is a pseudepigraphic hellenistic romance novel that elaborates on the biblical character of Joseph and his wife aseneth. an expansion of genesis 41: 45, the text describes how aseneth is transformed into a radiant bride t for Joseph, and is thereby associated with his god.1 previous studies may have overstepped the limits of…[Read more]

In this article, I address the challenge of fostering better student engagement with ancient material, and discuss my experience with designing a course around creative use of technology. In my recent course, “The Ancient Christian Church: 54–604 CE,” I employed several tactics to encourage student engagement with ancient and modern sources, which…[Read more]

This paper argues that 4 Ezra 14 represents the climax of the sensory revelations experienced by Ezra, and as such, that this is the episode which finally facilitates Ezra’s understanding of divine wisdom. In each of episodes one through six Ezra is incapable of making sense of what has been revealed to him, even though Ezra’s sensory rev…[Read more]

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]

This paper evaluates the recent upsurge of interest in the scribal processes underlying the composition of Hittite ritual text and the implications of this evidence for understanding the compositional history of biblical rituals.

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.

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.

This article defends the disputed label “private creeds” as a useful one for describing a number of fourth century texts. Offering such a confession was the normal method for clearing one’s name on charges of heterodoxy in fourth-century Greek Christianity, though writing such a creed made the author susceptible to charges of innovation. A numbe…[Read more]

Argues that, reversing the trope of subjects visiting the magnificent, the Elohistic history has Yahweh interested in the simplest, flimsiest altars only, which he will visit when and where he is invited to do so. The implication rules out temple-altars and temples for their royal sponsorship.

Analyzes Isaiah 40–48 as a single literary work through levels of speakers (frame and subordinate) with implications for its construction of divine potency and communication.

This is the first English translation of Gregory of Nyssa’s Christmas homily, In diem natalem Salvatoris. It will be published in Mark DelCogliano, ed. The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings, Volume 3: Christ.

In a 2012 article on Bultmann and Augustine, R. W. L. Moberly argued that the church should be understood as a “plausibility structure” for faith and thus a presupposition for the interpretation of Scripture. My response to him in 2014 addressed misinterpretations of Bultmann but did not speak to the central issue of the church as a pre…[Read more]

The story of Dinah’s violation in Genesis 34 has elicited radically different evaluations among exegetes. The present article attributes these divergent readings to the existence of distinct voices or moral positions in the text, particularly in relation to the issue of intermarriage. Beginning with a synchronic literary and ideological analysis o…[Read more]

This article analyzes the primary terms for purity in Biblical Hebrew, Ugaritic, Sumerian, Akkadian and Hittite. Building on insights from cognitive linguistics and embodiment theory, this study develops the premise that semantic structure – even of seemingly abstract concepts– is grounded in real-world bodily experience. An examination of pur…[Read more]

In this study, I apply embodiment theory as a framework for reconstructing the origins of the Israelite notion of pollution (ṭum’ah). Despite the fact that the Hebrew Bible describes a diverse array of sources of pollution – including bodily conditions, moral offenses and foreign cult practices, most modern studies attempt to find a single organ…[Read more]

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]