Behind the literary form of testament and expressions memorializing the dead is a concept of how objects, rights, and speech pass from one generation to the next: transmission. This essay examines two interrelated phenomena that give filial succession in the biblical and Ugaritic literature its contours: first, the discourses surrounding…[Read more]

This thought experiment considers whether Siamese (Conjoined) are allowed to marry according to Halacha. It considers various aspects of the Biblical bans on incest and offers a very contemporary discussion about the meaning of personhood. This paper uses medical journals, works on medical history, and various responsa to find a precedent and…[Read more]

Declaration of the Social Movements: Ten Peoples’ Principles Against Land Grabs, Evictions and Neoliberalism. “Let a New World be born in Bandung for a genuine land reform, not land grabs!” — Bandung-Indonesia, September 24, 2018.

On 24 September 2018, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of Gedung Merdeka in Asia-Afrika Street, Bandung, West Java, where the Global Land Forum (GLF) 2018 was happening. This was the eighth gathering of the forum since the inaugural conference in Rome in 2003. The opening of the three-day event coincided with Indonesia’s National Peasants’ Day.

Punk in Indonesia has often been described as a spectacular performance of disorder and resistance, a youthful style that posed a disruptive challenge to the authoritarian hierarchy and discipline of the New Order regime. The punk scene in Bandung has developed in the context of what is often referred to as ‘post-authoritarian’ Indonesia. Punk giv…[Read more]

Qurʾān in Samaritan cursive script produced for a students’ exercise in a seminar entitled “One Language, Many Scripts: Allographic Traditions Used for Writing Arabic” with reference to Johannes den Heijer, Andrea Schmidt and Tamara Pataridze (eds.), Scripts Beyond Borders: A Survey of Allographic Traditions in the Euro-Mediterranean World (…[Read more]

Qurʾān in Samaritan script produced for a students’ exercise in a seminar entitled “One Language, Many Scripts: Allographic Traditions Used for Writing Arabic” with reference to Johannes den Heijer, Andrea Schmidt and Tamara Pataridze (eds.), Scripts Beyond Borders: A Survey of Allographic Traditions in the Euro-Mediterranean World (Louvain: P…[Read more]

Developments in Early Judaism research since the publication of the 1986 first edition of Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters

Recent research has shown that city gates were a place of judgment, execution, and public displays in ancient Israel and the ancient Near East. This article explores the role of the gate on the literary level in the narratives concerning the deaths of Eli, Abner and Jezebel. It demonstrates how the function of gates in ancient Israel, and the…[Read more]

This article discusses the identity of the Daniel character mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel.

A discussion of the different lists of Canaanite nations.

A discussion of the different lists of Canaanite nations.

This paper presents a reading of Sarah (Genesis 11:29-23:19) as a proto-trans(gender) figure. The author addresses the problem of cisnormativity and its impact on biblical interpretation. In particular, throughout this paper Sarah is presented as a character who has been cisnormalised within the literary tradition of the Biblical text in order to…[Read more]

This reader presents, in Septuagint canonical order, ten Greek texts from the Rahlfs—Hanhart Septuaginta critical edition. It explains the syntax, grammar, and vocabulary of more than 700 verses from select Old Testament texts representing a variety of genres, including the Psalms, the Prophets, and more.

Chapter in Post-Dance, Edited by Danjel Andersson, Mette Edvarsdsen and Mårten Spångberg. MDT, 2017.
ISBN 978-91-983891-0-4. Based on materials from the workshop ‘Nor Culture Nor Art’, with Mårten Spångberg and Vanessa Ohlraum, at Learning Plays. A School of School, Impulse Theatre Festival in collaboration with Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Mülheim…[Read more]

This article discusses the reason behind Jeroboam, king of Israel, instituting a holiday in the eighth month of calendar. We suggest an approach that looks at this holiday as misplaced from the seventh month by means of an additional unauthorized leap-month.

עיונים וביאורים הערות וציונים על מסכת יבמות

Argues that Qohelet’s famous bit of speech on the seasons at 3:1-8 mimics and mocks proverbial poetry, as part of his larger, prosaic denial that life has discernible and usable rhythms and rhymes.

In this paper I argue that many aspects of the distinctive vocabulary and themes of 1-2 Chronicles reflect Achaemenid ideology as seen in the Testament of Darius. The doctrine of immediate retribution, the motif of seeking-and-finding, the use of the words maʿal and hitḥazzeq, the motif of the deity choosing the king, and other features are d…[Read more]

Entry in one-volume commentary