An exploration of the paradoxical celebrity of ascetic renunciants in early Christianity, using the example of Simeon Stylites, the pillar saint.

As per its title

This article treats late ancient rabbinic texts (ca. 1st-early 3rd cents. CE), reading them as biology, and following their ideas about the limits and possibilities of reproductive and species variation. I read sources from the tractates of Niddah, Kil’ayim, and Bekhorot, in the Mishnah and Toseta, as expressions of a science of generation, or a b…[Read more]

In spite of renewed scholarly interest in the religion of Judeans living on the island of Elephantine during the Persian period, only one recent study has addressed the religious significance of the fired clay female figurines discovered there. The present article seeks to place these objects back on the research agenda. After summarizing the…[Read more]

In spite of renewed scholarly interest in the religion of Judeans living on the island of Elephantine during the Persian period, only one recent study has addressed the religious significance of the fired clay female figurines discovered there. The present article seeks to place these objects back on the research agenda. After summarizing the…[Read more]

This thesis follows my earlier work on Aurignacian rock art by drawing a clear line between cave painting in the south of France and the holiest Hebrew script Ktav Ivrit or STA”M. This is an in depth study detailing relationships between Language, Mysticism and Kabbalah, as well as Religious Dogma that answers the question, “Why do all religions…[Read more]

This is a series of brief paradigms that suggest ways of manipulating abstraction, such as Art Language Religion and Politics, for use with a Carlos Ginzburg Evidentiary Paradigm, or other multivariate analysis. The tables in this appendix accompany the Index of Deities and Demons and How the Aleph-Bet Got Its Shape.

This thesis describes the evolution of the alphabet from Upper Paleolithic to present. We draw a direct line from Aurignacian rock art to Hebrew STA”M script and from Auriginal Paganism to Kabbalah using a Ginzburg Evidentiary Paradigm. Provides strategies for quantifying concepts, belief, and abstraction such as Art, Language, Religion, and…[Read more]

Writing Demetrias: Ascetic Logic in Ancient Christianity

The Seleucid Antiochus IV profoundly intervened in the cult of Jerusalem in 168 BC. Under the leadership of the Hasmoneans, an uprising developed against these interventions, which led to the restoration of the cult, the establishment of the Hasmoneans as high priests and the independence of Judea. Against the background of widely differing…[Read more]

The Seleucid Antiochus IV profoundly intervened in the cult of Jerusalem in 168 BC. Under the leadership of the Hasmoneans, an uprising developed against these interventions, which led to the restoration of the cult, the establishment of the Hasmoneans as high priests and the independence of Judea. Against the background of widely differing…[Read more]

The Seleucid Antiochus IV profoundly intervened in the cult of Jerusalem in 168 BC. Under the leadership of the Hasmoneans, an uprising developed against these interventions, which led to the restoration of the cult, the establishment of the Hasmoneans as high priests and the independence of Judea. Against the background of widely differing…[Read more]

The Nike monument of Samothrace is one of the most important works of ancient sculpture. Since its discovery in 1863 it has always had a special appeal for modern viewers, but a deeper understanding of its historical significance is still a problem: if consensus could be reached quickly on the fundamental classification of the Nike statue in the…[Read more]

***For a copy of the article please write to RNEIS@umich.edu***

While biologists argue about the limits and definition of a species, the urge to cluster and distinguish among the plenitude of lifeforms that populates the planet remains. Contemporary concerns about attempts to clone monkeys and to engineer human-porcine chimeras point to…[Read more]

In this paper I argue that Philo’s Embassy to Gaius makes use of the literary paradigm
of theatricality, a strategy of representation marked by the portrayal of multiple
and competing discourses amongst those in unequal relations of power, as
well as an emphasis on the arts of acting and discernment. Th e Embassy marks an
appearance of the t…[Read more]

Review article from History of Political Thought covering books on the history of Athenian democracy and its relevance to politics now (as of publication date in 2017)

Scholarly reflections on the concept of the will as it is articulated in late ancient texts have centered on the male individual and the difficulties he faces as he tries to train or direct his intentions. By contrast, in this article we seek to explore late ancient concepts and negotiations of the will by considering a cluster of ancient Jewish…[Read more]

in: Ilse Müllner/Barbara Schmitz (Hg.), Perspektiven. Biblische Texte und Narratologie (SBB 75), Stuttgart 2018, 131-173.

Exodus 15, the Song at the Sea, appears to be triggered by the
divine victory over the Egyptians at the Sea, but the poet draws on other
literary images of destruction, images that are incompatible, in order to
express exuberance over divine victory. This seemingly rudimentary technique
is adroitly deployed in tandem with strategies of…[Read more]

This essay will show, however, that the text is not linked to diplomas, but belonged to an African version of Prosper’s chronicle. I will propose a new edition, which will put the text back in its original context. Rather than looking for ‘good’ and ‘bad’ texts according to 19th-century categories, I will try to analyze the specific character…[Read more]