Rufus’s mother features in Paul’s concluding list of church leaders such as Phoebe in Romans 16. Paul calls her his own mother. I argue that Rufus’s mother’s inclusion indicates higher status and influence within the Pauline house-churches, building on Elmer’s notion of corporate Pauline authorship.

The Woman clothed with the Sun makes a brief appearance in Revelation 12; however, her influence upon the imaginations of artists and interpreters is substantive. She is unnamed and yet multiple identities are ascribed to her including individual women (Eve, Mary), corporate institutions (Israel, the church), and ancient goddesses. In this…[Read more]

Americans overwhelmingly assume that Moses married a Black woman. Using sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this article highlights interpretations of Moses’s marriage to the Cushite woman in Numbers 12. Utilising cultural-critical reception history—that biblical interpretation is culturally conditioned—readers in the United State…[Read more]

Typically, the cupbearer in Genesis 40–41 is interpreted only as a member of Joseph’s supporting cast. However, closely reading this minor character suggests more options for interpreting both him and other anonymous courtiers found throughout the Hebrew Bible. The cupbearer’s actions (and inactions) raise ethical and psychological questions about…[Read more]

This article suggests that in Ezekiel 13:17–23 we have an example of the ritual activities of Yahwistic women being undermined. However, rather than opening the hermeneutical crux of attempting to understand what it is the women are doing or how their ritual activity is functioning, I will focus squarely on the broader social dynamics in the t…[Read more]

Is anonymity a form of violence? The woman of Judges 19 endured gang-rape and dismemberment, and neither the Bible nor its ancient exegetes gave her a name. This article surveys the modern writers and scholars who chose new names for her, examining how their choices of names reflected their broader goals for retelling her story. From there, I turn…[Read more]

Editorial preface

This essay attends to the relationship between our ethnic, social, and cultural identities, and the creation of the new communal identity embodied in the Christian community. Drawing upon six New Testament texts – Ephesians 2:11–22; Galatians 3:27–28; 1 Corinthians 7:17–24 and 10:17; 1 Peter 2:9–11; and Revelation 21:24–26 – it is argued that t…[Read more]

This is an article focused on the Mahishasur movement. The article also discusses the ideological bases of this movement.

Brahmanical history is based on myths. It neither has been constructed chronologically nor is factually correct. It has eclipsed the reality with a cobweb of myths. To establish a new creed, established dogmas must be disproven. Ish Mishra reviews ‘Mahishasur: Mithak va Paramparayen’ :

The book Mahishasur: Mithak va Paramparayen (Ma…[Read more]

Recently, an important book, Mahishasur: Mithak va Paramparayen (Mahishasur: Myth and Traditions), edited by Pramod Ranjan, was published by Forward Press in collaboration with Marginalised Publication. The book lets the reader travel through the living history of the myths of Durga and Mahishasur. The book is divided into five parts – ‘Yatra Vri…[Read more]

महिषासुर आंदोलन से संबंधित यह पहली पुस्तिका है, जिसमें महिषासुर से संबंधित विभिन्न परंपराओं की जानकारी है। इस पुस्तिका के बाद 2014 में एक और पुस्तिका “महिषासुर” शीर्षक से प्रकाशित हुई। 2016 में इन दोनों पुस्तिकाओं के लेखों को कुछ अन्य लेखाें के साथ मिलाकर एक पुस्तक “महिषासुर: एक जननायक” प्रकाशित की गई। उसके बाद एक अन्य स्वतंत्र संपादित पुस्तक “मह…[Read more]