‘If God Meant to Interfere’: Evolution and Theodicy in Blood Meridian

Taking the late ninth-century Breton Gesta Sactorum Rotonensium as a starting point, this article aims to demonstrate that there is more to the biblical quotations and allusions employed by early medieval hagiographers than initially meets the eye. By juxtaposing the stories these quotations are in with their ‘original’ biblical context, as wellas…[Read more]

While the Met expedition to Ctesiphon, Iraq was in the field in winter of 1931/1932 they received word that Winlock, an archaeologist from the Egyptian department, a department to which some of the Ctesiphon staff belonged, had been promoted to the director of the Museum. Around the same time the Near Eastern Art department was being formulated as…[Read more]

A response to Erin Runions’ monograph, The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014)

Most scholarship of the last few decades on the book of Revelation has focused on its colonial conditions and heated, even forceful, political engagement, making conflicting conclusions about to what extent it “reproduces” or “resists” imperial ideology. Of particular focus has been the striking image of the lamb on the throne, an image that am…[Read more]

The story of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts – a tale about a hapless Arab peasant who uncovers the buried secrets of early Christianity – has accompanied most scholarly and popular explorations of Nag Hammadi literature. As a colonialist relic, however, it is more than a quirky tale of the accidents of history. It represents and per…[Read more]

This essay is an intellectual history, one of affect theory both within and without biblical studies, rendered as an ecology of thought. It is an “archive of feelings,” a series of thematic portraits, and a description of the landscape of the field of biblical studies through a set of frictions and express discontentments with its legacies, as wel…[Read more]

None

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]

This article discusses various rabbinic approaches to the story of Elisha and Gehazi (recorded in the Book of Kings), in which the former sends the latter with his staff to resurrect the Shunammite woman’s dead child. Gehazi proves unsuccessful in that endeavor and Elisha himself ultimates revives the dead child.

This article discusses various rabbinic approaches to the story of Elisha and Gehazi (recorded in the Book of Kings), in which the former sends the latter with his staff to resurrect the Shunammite woman’s dead child. Gehazi proves unsuccessful in that endeavor and Elisha himself ultimates revives the dead child.

Dempster’s goal in the commentary is to understand the original historical context of the oracles before examining their literary context (17). For this reason the introduction has a solid section placing Micah into the history of Judah in the late eighth century, especially in Assyrian invasion of 701 B.C. Dempster realizes the view that Micah i…[Read more]

John Goldingay has recently written several short, popular level books. IVP Academic published his Do We Need the New Testament? (2015) and A Reader’s Guide to The Bible (2017). In both books Goldingay argues the Old Testament (or First Testament in Goldingay’s book) is the foundational for a proper understanding the New Testament. As he obs…[Read more]

Published in The Embroidered Bible: Studies in Biblical Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Honour of Michael E. Stone. Edited by Lorenzo DiTommaso, Matthias Henze, and William Adler (Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2017

This paper discusses an apparent contradiction in the Bible regarding east of the Jordan River, that lies between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok. In Numbers 21 it seems that this land belonged to the Moabites, while in Judges 11 (during an exchange between the Jewish judge Jephtah and the Ammonite king) it seems that this land belonged to the…[Read more]

This paper discusses an apparent contradiction in the Bible regarding east of the Jordan River, that lies between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok. In Numbers 21 it seems that this land belonged to the Moabites, while in Judges 11 (during an exchange between the Jewish judge Jephtah and the Ammonite king) it seems that this land belonged to the…[Read more]

This paper discusses an apparent contradiction in the Bible regarding east of the Jordan River, that lies between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok. In Numbers 21 it seems that this land belonged to the Moabites, while in Judges 11 (during an exchange between the Jewish judge Jephtah and the Ammonite king) it seems that this land belonged to the…[Read more]

This articles notes the apparent discrepancies between Ezekiel 45-46 and Numbers 28-29 concerning the required sacrifices to be offered on special days of the Jewish Calendar. The article also offers classical rabbinic solutions to those contradictions.

This articles notes the apparent discrepancies between Ezekiel 45-46 and Numbers 28-29 concerning the required sacrifices to be offered on special days of the Jewish Calendar. The article also offers classical rabbinic solutions to those contradictions.

This palaeographical guide grew out of a workshop («A Jewish Theologian’s Arabic Guide to State Administration: Mukhtaṣar fī ṣināʿat al-kitāba of Sahl b. al-Faḍl al-Tustarī»), organised by Dr. Luke Yarbrough at the NYU Abu Dhabi, 29-30 March 2017. Comments and corrections are welcome (g.schwarb@gmail.com).