Uses social poetics to analyze talk in the Bible of looking at Yahweh’s face

Uses social poetics to analyze talk in the Bible of looking at Yahweh’s face

Plutarch’s biography of Julius Caesar, compared with other accounts, deliberately plays down sexuality as a motive in Caesar’s life, in order to stress his single-minded political ambition.

An examination of how Plutarch explains Pompey’s loss in the war with Caesar partly by narrating his devotion to his wives, which distracts him at critical moments in his career.

This paper examines Plutarch’s accounts of ostracism and explores how he thought it worked in theory and in practice. Accounts of ostracism are found in six of the Lives, all of fifth-century Athenians, and in one of the Moralia. These accounts often relate the same event, and so they allow us to see how Plutarch presents the same material from…[Read more]

This chapter provides a series of case studies that explore different ways Archaic and Classical Greeks conceptualized human diversity (modern race and/or ethnicity) in relation to environment, in particular, the land. It explores three inter-related approaches the Greeks took towards understanding this relationship: myths of metals, autochthony,…[Read more]

The paper advances a new interpretation of Iamblichus’ De Vita Pythagorica and discusses its place in the history of neoplatonist biography from Porphyry’s Vita Plotini to Gregory of Nyssa’s De vita Moysis.

Bibliography for an advanced Greek seminar taught at Dartmouth in Winter 2015

Syllabus and bibliography for an advanced Greek seminar taught at Dartmouth in Winter 2016

Syllabus and bibliography for an advanced Greek seminar on Euripides’ Bacchae taught at Dartmouth in Winter 2017.

The paper proposes a new interpretation of Timon’s attack on Arcesilaus in fr. 806 SH.

from: A Companion to Sophocles, ed. K. Ormand (Wiley-Blackwell 2012) 440–461

Burton Mack has made a number of important contributions to the study of early Christianity. One of, if not the most significant of these contributions is his use of the analytical categories of mythmaking and social formation in his construction of a social theory of religion. The analysis of mythmaking and social formation in early Christianity…[Read more]

Burton Mack has made a number of important contributions to the study of early Christianity. One of, if not the most significant of these contributions is his use of the analytical categories of mythmaking and social formation in his construction of a social theory of religion. The analysis of mythmaking and social formation in early Christianity…[Read more]

Hugo Lundhaug and Lance Jenott offer a sustained argument for the monastic provenance of the Nag Hammadi Codices. They examine the arguments for and against a monastic Sitz im Leben and defend the view that the Codices were produced and read by Christian monks, most likely Pachomians, in the fourth- and fifth-century monasteries of Upper Egypt.…[Read more]

This new contribution to the Interpretation Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Early Church limits itself to apocryphal Gospels. Bockmuehl states in his introductory chapter his approach is both accessible and nonsensational (29), in contrast other recent books which describe this literature as suppressed by the establishment and containing…[Read more]

As a paratext, the colophon’s functions can be summarily and quickly described. It marks the ending of a text. In the era before printing this was a necessity, so that later copyists would know that they had a complete text before them to reproduce. This is the case with many Egyptian and Akkadkian colophons. As such, a colophon is an assertion o…[Read more]

As a paratext, the colophon’s functions can be summarily and quickly described. It marks the ending of a text. In the era before printing this was a necessity, so that later copyists would know that they had a complete text before them to reproduce. This is the case with many Egyptian and Akkadkian colophons. As such, a colophon is an assertion o…[Read more]

This article describes the main contours of Greco-Roman and Jewish friendship trad- itions, and considers some of the ways that these traditions were adopted and adapted in New Testament texts. The survey suggests that early Christian writers drew on friendship traditions as a way of articulating certain important values relating to the need to…[Read more]

Joseph and Aseneth is a pseudepigraphic hellenistic romance novel that elaborates on the biblical character of Joseph and his wife aseneth. an expansion of genesis 41: 45, the text describes how aseneth is transformed into a radiant bride t for Joseph, and is thereby associated with his god.1 previous studies may have overstepped the limits of…[Read more]