In this essay, I consider the ideal ascetic leader depicted in the Life of Moses attributed to Gregory of Nyssa: that leader is not a bishop, but a leader who has more experience with the day-to-day struggles of monks, particularly the kind of struggles described by Evagrius and writers influenced by him.

Critics of biblical violence particularly scrutinize the case of Phinehas, the priestly zealot who publicly skewered an Israelite man and his Midianite consort in Numbers 25. Such studies are preoccupied with God’s approbation of this extra-judicial killing, and how later Jewish readers, from Philo through the rabbis, grappled with divine approval…[Read more]

Scholars have often assumed that the Eusebian apparatus was defunct and ignored in the Middle Ages. I argue, however, that Greek manuscripts offer evidence for readers’ ongoing use of the Eusebian apparatus. While the transmission of the Eusebian apparatus was subject to error, users maintained the functionality of the Eusebian system. Readers a…[Read more]

Despite repeated biblical mentions of the sanctity of the Sabbath and numerous imperatives to keep the day holy, there is little in rabbinic writings on the Sabbath reflecting these facets of the day’s observance. In contrast, Jewish writers from the Second Temple period and mem- bers of the Samaritan-Israelites actively sanctified the Sabbath b…[Read more]