Every place is accompanied by its own set of etiologies, origin-stories, local
histories, urban myths, folklore, rumors, and gossip. A story about a journey is
also about transitioning between different narratives and modes of being. In
this essay I discuss one such story, about a lonely disciple from Ashkelon, a
rabbinic figure named Shimʿon…[Read more]

“And Both are Equal”: Exegesis Creating Values in Ancient Jewish Texts

Amit Gvaryahu

There are many gaps between the primary or literal interpretation of what is written in the Torah and the way the Sages interpreted it in midrashim, the Mishnah, and the Talmud. Many scholars see these gaps as a result of the Sages’ imposition of exter…[Read more]

Lev 9:1–10:3 contains two of the most memorable events in the priestly narrative: a public theophany at the tabernacle, and the deaths of Nadav and Avihu. It also contains a long sequence of sacrifices, the importance of which has often been overlooked. This article argues that the ritual acts described in Lev 9 follow established and i…[Read more]

Powerpoint accompanying invited presentation, “Gospel Thrillers: Fear, Desire, and the U.S. Bible” at Michigan State University, October 16, 2017

This article argues that Clement’s gender-reversal language in this passage may also fulfil a broader set of purposes. In addition to the gendered connotations Buell focuses on, Clement’s argument draws on contemporary medical connotations and terminology to fulfil the strategy he employs in this chapter, so as to counter charges that Christian…[Read more]

In his landmark essay “Nomos and Narrative,” Robert Cover argues that “[law] may be viewed as a system or a bridge linking a concept of a reality to an imagined alternative – that is, as a connective between two states of affairs, both of which can be represented in their normative significance only through the devices of narrati…[Read more]

A review of Stewart, Poetic Ethics in Proverbs: Wisdom Literature and the Shaping of the Moral Self (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 2016