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

Response to Angela Standhartinger, Female Officiants

This article considers the range of meanings of “Torah” in first century Jewish writings from Philo, Josephus, Paul, and texts including 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. I argue that the use of “Torah” is variegated and ranges even in writings from the same author, and therefore scholars should not assume that “Torah” or its various synonyms can mean only one thing.

This chapter asks what the depiction of Ezekiel 37 on the walls of the Dura synagogue can tell us about conceptions of resurrection and dis- ability among the Jewish community at Dura. Bodily resurrection is a common theme among ancient Jewish literature, and while text is a useful medium for conveying conceptions of revivification and life after…[Read more]

It is my modest goal in this essay to trace how Nock uses conversion to produce religion(s) and then to explore its similarities to and differences from an analogous construction of religion-through-conversion in late antiquity.

Paulus war wahrscheinlich nicht sehr groß oder sogar kleinwüchsig. Einen ersten Anhaltspunkt bietet der Ausdruck σαργάνη in 2Kor 11,33. Neutestamentler haben das Fassungsvermögen dieses »Korbs« bisher eher überschätzt. Eine Analyse antiker Quellen zeigt, dass ein σαργάνη das Durchschnittsgewicht eines Mannes nicht hätte tragen können. Diese…[Read more]