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Stories of sexual violence are central to the Hebrew Bible. This dissertation examines three of those stories found in Gen 34, Gen 19 and Judg 19–20 through a feminist critical lens. The analysis of the three stories focuses on the politics of sexual violence at play in each of them. It argues that a primary function of these stories is marking out social boundaries betweenvarious communities. Furthermore, the dissertation traces the reception of the three stories in early Jewish literature. It finds that early Jewish writers recognized the boundary-setting function of the stories and engaged with them in their own contexts to explore communal boundaries. The dissertation demonstrates that the biblical and early Jewish writers’ use of stories of sexual violence as boundary markers is rooted in a larger phenomenon, historical and modern, of using stories of sexual violence to mark out boundaries.

During the 8th-7th centuries BCE, Israelite and Judahite society witnessed expanded applications of writing as a communication technology. In particular, the epigraphic record shows a stark rise in the usage of writing by state and military bureaucracies to manage bodies and economic matters across time and space. Previous scholarship has rarely considered how sectors of society may have perceived writing’s expansion in these administrative contexts. How did Israelites and Judahites think about and talk about the increase in bureaucratic writing? This dissertation seeks to answer this question by investigating administrative writing as depicted in biblical literature. It assesses the historical value of three biblical narratives where administrative documents mediate interaction between sovereign figures and other sectors of society. The three narratives include Gideon’s use of a name-list (Judg 8:14), David’s census (2 Sam 24:1-25), and Jehoash’s fiscal reforms (2 Kgs 12:4-16). Each narrative’s portrayal of writing is situated in its literary and historical contexts while also considered in the light of the epigraphic record, other biblical depictions of writing, the anthropology of documents and bureaucracy, and comparative ancient Near Eastern texts and artistic depictions of bureaucratic writing. Typically, such biblical portrayals of writing are valued in scholarship for what they might say about the extent of literacy in ancient Israel and Judah. This dissertation differs from previous scholarship by instead valuing these depictions for what they might say about attitudes towards document-mediated interaction. When the depictions of writing analyzed here are examined with a full consideration of the evidence, it can be argued that they reveal suspicious and anxious attitudes towards state-sponsored writing. Ultimately, it is argued that such negative attitudes stemmed from West Semitic political culture, which placed an emphasis on political action rooted in negotiation and persuasion. In this sociopolitical landscape, administrative documents could function as powerful symbols of coercion and domination. The three biblical narratives examined here suggest that writing’s increased usage in bureaucratic contexts of the 8th-7th centuries BCE thus generated distrust among some factions who had reservations about the growing centralization of the Judahite and Israelite states.

Language consciousness is a ubiquitous phenomenon commonly observed in human speech communities with individuals exhibiting varying levels of awareness regarding the use and importance of language as a marker of religious, cultural, and ethnic identity. While some people may only demonstrate a limited, generalized awareness regarding the existence of different tongues and forms of speech, others possess a much more nuanced understanding of the specific traits and distinguishing features that separate languages and dialects from one another. Authors are keenly cognizant of the purpose and function of language in society, and they wielded language as a tool to convey subtle messages to their audience. For instance, the combination of Aramaic and Hebrew in Late Biblical literature together with the use of colloquialisms served as obvious signals, drawing reader attention to specific elements of the literary content. Language consciousness surges during the Persian and Late Biblical Period in the city of Jerusalem as a corollary of the tectonic shifts in the political scene and demographics of the region. During this period, the Judean community comes into greater contact with speakers of other languages, as well as undergoes a rapid transition from monolingualism to bilingualism. These external factors are responsible for the marked increase of linguistic awareness during the time. I isolated three sociolinguistic conditions responsible for the intensification of language consciousness during this epoch: bilingualism, diglossia, and exposure to a variety of dialects. The postexilic Judean community experienced all three simultaneously, convoluting the linguistic landscape significantly. Consequently, individuals became conditioned to navigate frequently between multiple languages and dialects. This in turn raised levels of cognizance regarding the nuances and key features that distinguish linguistic varieties from one another, as well as solidified the affiliation between language and identity. Language consciousness exists before the exile, but it becomes even more acute during the Persian Period as a result of the political, social, and linguistic transformations of the time.

One of the prolific writers in the discipline of African Biblical Hermeneutics is the Nigerian Old Testament (OT) scholar, Professor Tuesday David Adamo. In his tireless efforts to unlock the OT reality for African contexts, persuaded by his commitment to decolonise the subject of Biblical Studies, Adamo has made successful efforts to reflect on the African presence in the Old Testament. The present study seeks to engage Adamo's concept of African Biblical hermeneutics in order to investigate whether the author sufficiently discussed the theme of gender in his discourses. This research attempts to respond to the following two main questions in view of Adamo's discourses: (1) In Adamo's concerted effort of confirming the presence of Africa and Africans in the Hebrew Bible, does the woman question feature? (2) If so, how does Adamo navigate the question? Keywords: Adamo; African Biblical Hermeneutics; African Woman; Bosadi; Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; Wife.

The verbal forms תִכְבֶּה and וַתִּבְכֶּה in 2 Kgs 22:17 and 19 exhibit metathesis. This metathesis represents the reversal that Josiah’s weeping accomplishes by momentarily delaying Judah’s judgment.

The context and purpose of Exod 21:7–11 has been the subject of much debate. One of the most recent treatments is that of Joseph Fleishman, who suggested that the law did not allude to a father selling his daughter, but to giving her in marriage. To that end, he adduced a number of parallels that included several cuneiform legal documents, such as those of Nuzi, in North Iraq. This contribution attempts to assess the weight of those Nuzian parallels.

Taking a look at Lot through the lens of Biblical Masculinity Studies, we see him constantly trying to meet ideals of a performance of hegemonic masculinity but failing to do so. This paper uncovers masculinity as the motor of the narrative in the Lot stories, especially in Gen 19. The stories make fun of Lot and his offspring, the Moabites and Ammonites, as “failed” men. This paper analyses how this is achieved by the authors. Masculinity and masculine traits are artistically and deliberately used as a highly idealised background foil in order to highlight Lot’s failure. Furthermore, the authors’ point of view is highly ideological. They are in a superior and dominant position from which they portray Lot and his masculinity. They do this from safe distance, since they themselves are not represented in the stories by a character.

This study attempts to resolve some of the difficulties in understanding Zeph 2:1–3 by offering a holistic reading of the oracle presented in 1:2–2:3. It argues that the passage’s sacrificial imagery and the embedded polemic against the wealthy provide the key to understanding Zephaniah’s audience in Zeph 2:1–3. This analysis suggests that rather than attempting to persuade his audience to change their behavior—as is commonly argued—Zephaniah’s condemnation of the upper classes (e.g., שרים and עם־כנען) offers no hope for the repentant. Instead, Zephaniah extends the possibility of survival only to the poor (ענוי הארץ). This message is then contextualized within the Josianic reform movement to which the book’s heading attributes its content.

In Judg 14–15, the source of Samson’s strength is not his uncut hair, but the רוח־יהוה. A Leitmotif of the biblical warrior tradition, the רוח־יהוה is a corporealized metaphor of fiery anger that envelops Samson and grants him great power. This motif was adapted from early biblical poetry, in which Yhwh’s wrath erupted as a fiery breath (רוח) against his cosmic foes. This study explores how the historical context of Judg 14–15 informs the use of this motif, comparing the רוח־יהוה with similar concepts of martial anger in Near Eastern and Greek warrior traditions. Like Mesopotamian melammu and Greek μηνις, the רוח־יהוה was part of a corporeal code that enabled ancient minds to think about the relations between mortals and divine beings in the context of battle.

This article examines the use of the verbs of “meditation” śyḥ and hgh and the corresponding nouns, especially in the Psalms and the Hodayot. Focusing on “meditation” sheds light on the constitution and transformation of an inner self-awareness in Judaism during the Second Temple period. In addition, this article draws on insights from historical and philosophical anthropology to support and deepen the argument. The article examines four Psalms groups from the Hebrew Bible and the Hodayot in order to reveal conceptual and terminological continuity as well as a more precise understanding of reflective literary practices in early Jewish scribal culture.

This paper considers whether biblical narrative was used as part of a technology of the self in Jewish antiquity. Many have seen the assumption that Israel’s ancestors were perfect and, hence, worthy of imitation as essential to the Bible’s identity as Scripture around the turn of the Common Era. Recently several scholars have detailed the specific dynamics of exemplarity among certain readers of the Bible, such as Philo, particularly in light of Hellenistic and Roman models. Such work draws attention to the relative lack of explicit attestation for such a practice in much of ancient Jewish literature. As a next step, we need to further delineate what constitutes a literary practice of exemplarity and explore alternatives or additions to it, such as memorialization. To do so, this paper examines a range of texts, including the Genesis Apocryphon, the Book of Jubilees, Ben Sira, Philo, Josephus, and the rabbinic collection, Genesis Rabbah.

Although the lived experience of subjectivity for persons in antiquity cannot be known directly, one can study certain texts as tools for the formation of subjects. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls two compositions are particularly instructive, the Hodayot found in 1QHa 2–9, 18–28 (the Hodayot of the Maskil, also known as Hodayot of the Community) and the Two Spirits Teaching (1QS 3:13–4:26). Each develops an understanding of subjectivity based on subtle interpretations of creation traditions, developed through sophisticated intertextual readings. The Hodayot privilege Gen 2–3; the Two Spirits Teaching emphasizes Gen 1. Although mutually contradictory on the surface, the two accounts actually develop subjectivities that share many similarities. By analyzing these converging patterns one may get some sense of the lived subjectivity that was created by the various texts and practices of the Yahad community.

This article discusses the “heart” as part of the terminology for selfhood in ancient Jewish literature. After discussing a couple of criticisms of studies of the self and showing how these criticisms fail to persuade, the paper examines a range of texts in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and beyond for conceptions of the moral self. Special attention is given to the legal S tradition in the Scrolls as a fruitful illustration of how the self and law are recurring conceptual companions. In this legal tradition, a universalizing conception of selfhood and agency is rooted in local, practical concerns of a community.

The halakhic practice does more than regulating the inner world; it takes part in forming it, generating a unique legal subject. But is there a unique halakhic Self? This article examines this question in the context of Tannaitic halakha, both Mishnaic and Midrashic. More specifically I ask whether one can speak of subjectivity in Tannaitic halakha. I study the relationship between anonymous halakhic rulings and specific positions presented in the name of individual sages or argued with the force of personal commitment. Through analyzing the “I” language in Tannaitic literature, in comparison with the rhetoric of prerabbinic halakha, I wish to advance the ongoing search for the rabbinic Self.

In chapter 47 of the Book of Isaiah the fall of Babylon is described in metaphorical language: the arrogant queen Babylon is condemned for having practiced witchcraft since her youth. The evil which she inflicted on her victims will befall herself, and her downfall will be swift and without warning. Her dire fate follows that of her fellow sorcerers, who have perished in fire and flames. This article compares the portrayal of Babylon and her demise in Isa 47 with the Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft series Maqlû and discusses the shared terminology and the striking similarity of themes, such as the indictment of the witch, the gender-stereotype, the reversal of fate, and the condemnation to death by burning. The thematic, and sometimes lexical, overlap may indicate that Deutero-Isaiah incorporated Mesopotamian ideas about (counter-)witchcraft in his own composition, being exposed to local magico-religious thought whilst maintaining a critical stance towards it.

2 Samuel 13:1–19 presents us with dueling perspectives on a rape scene. Despite Tamar’s protests, the narrative voice reflects Prince Amnon’s lustful viewpoint, in which he and Tamar are acting out a scene of steamy seduction. Within this framework, the unexpectedly detailed description of Tamar preparing the dumplings deserves more attention. I examine the Hebrew words לְבִבוֹת (“heart-cakes”), יצק (“to pour out”), and מַשְׂרֵת (traditionally, “baking pan”), offering a philological explanation of their associations that diverges from much modern scholarship. This new understanding of the food-preparation scene makes it clear that Tamar’s actions are a narratively realized metaphor: in preparing the food to be consumed, she is preparing herself to be consumed erotically—at least, as viewed by Amnon. In other words, using the language of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Tamar is the cake.

During the second half of the first millennium BCE, innovative portrayals of Nebuchadnezzar began to emerge within Jewish circles that reshaped and reimagined his role in their history. Such reconstruals were part and parcel of the lively negotiations among Babylonian and Hellenistic scribes over the representation of bygone Mesopotamian monarchs. In this essay, I examine the reimagination of Nebuchadnezzar in the court tales of Dan 2–6 as a unique example of how scribes sought to reshape the haunting memory of Nebuchadnezzar. By comparing Nebuchadnezzar’s narrative portrait with various texts from Jewish prophetic traditions, I argue that the redactor of the court tales constructed a counter-memory of Nebuchadnezzar in which the traumatic experience of Judah’s humiliation, deportation, and restoration was creatively mapped onto Nebuchadnezzar. In order to construct this counter-memory, the redactor drew upon and repurposed specific language, imagery, and motifs borrowed from these textual traditions.

A contribution to Western genealogies of the self, the corporeality of the Hebrew soul (nefeš) is explored through the lens of ancient medical discourses. Using the example of bitterness as an ethnomedical syndrome, this essay shows how the Hebrew idiom “bitter nefeš” acts as an embodied channel of flux in illness narratives about bodily suffering and healing.

The fable of an insect and a mouse (or some other animal), who marry and embark on a life together, only to end in tragedy, is widely disseminated from the Mediterranean region to India. One version involving a beetle (Ṭuroyo keze, Kurmanji kêz) circulates throughout Anatolia and Iraq. The following Ṭuroyo and Kurmanji version was recorded during the 2020 summer field season of the Russian expedition to Ṭur Abdin in the village of Dērqube from a speaker of the Bequsyone dialect. She relates the narrative portions of the fable in Ṭuroyo, but switches to Kurmanji for its versified portions. In addition to the text and a translation, this study includes an interlinear glossing. It also discusses the motifs of the fable according to the standard classification scheme, as well as its relationship to other attested versions collected in various languages including Arabic, Kurmanji, and Turkish.

This article presents evidence to support an entirely new approach to uncovering the literary structure of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, a subject which continues to attract attention and divide opinion. It draws on a field of Classical Studies that, although abundant in terms of written sources, remains understudied: ancient pharmacology. At its heart is the established four-part definition of the structural features of medical recipes for composite drugs, and an attempt to demonstrate their influence on the compositional model employed by the author of Luke–Acts. The model is first defined with reference to medical writing in antiquity, before its practical outworking is explored in the Gospel proem (i.e. the formal presentation of the work to its audience). The application of the model in individual pericopes, as well as its extension across two series of pericopes, is then examined within the narrative of the work itself.

The severity of difficulties surrounding Paul’s use of Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8 is well known. I argue that Ephesians 4:8 is best understood as an instance of Paul quoting Psalm 68:18 against a broader canonical backdrop, putting the themes of Psalm 68 in dialogue with other portions of the OT (especially Numbers 8) while engaging in typological and christological reflection on the nature of the church as a diversely gifted community. I make this argument by evaluating seven major interpretive options for understanding Paul’s use of the OT here. I then assess the two most promising options by examining Psalm 68 in its relation to Judges 5 and Numbers 8 and by investigating the extent to which these canonical co-texts might have informed Paul’s appropriation of the psalm, concluding that more attention should be given to the possibility that Paul is engaged in a christological reading of Numbers 8.

In Gregory of Nazianzus’s Oration 30, seven of his ten points against Eunomian misreadings of Scripture about the Son deal directly with quotations of Jesus from the Gospels. This study shines new light on Gregory’s exegetical method, arguing that in Oration 30, grammatical, contextual, and partitive exegesis marks Gregory’s interpretation of the Gospels, which serve as foundational texts for understanding the Son’s relationship to the Father. First, I briefly provide support for the Gospels as foundational texts for understanding the Son’s relationship to the Father. Second, I summarize Gregory’s exegesis of each of these seven texts in detail. Third, I analyze Gregory’s exegetical method based on his grammatical, contextual, and partitive exegesis. Perhaps most importantly for Gregory, one must always have before him both the divinity and humanity of the Son. Anything less than this exegetical method leads to misreading the Gospels and misunderstanding the Son himself.

The article identifies the text and location of two unidentified 4Q14 fragments (frags. 37 and 41) in the 4Q14 manuscript. It adds to 4Q14 two fragments from PAM 43.677 which had not yet been identified as 4Q14 fragments and calls attention to three lost parts of 4Q14 fragments that can be found on the earliest photographs. The new photographs also enable to read a few variants which were not recognized by the editor. ispartof: Textus: A Journal on Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible vol:30 issue:2 pages:179-186 status: published

This paper focuses on a fragmentary copy of Exodus from Qumran that has not so far received sufficient attention—4Q11 (4QpaleoGen-Exodl). The paper proposes a material reconstruction of the scroll and discusses its contribution to the textual classification of the scroll. Although 4Q11 apparently reflects the short literary form of MT and LXX Exodus, which does not include the major expansions characteristic of the pre-Samaritan tradition, an examination of individual readings reveals that the scroll includes some minor exegetical variants. Thus, 4Q11 demonstrates the necessity of exploring the scribal approach reflected in scriptural Qumran scrolls, in addition to their classification into textual traditions. Only such a holistic investigation can allow for an improved understanding of the text and processes that took place during its transmission.

In this essay, I explore the literary background of 2 Sam 8:1b–14. The Old Sabaic royal summary inscription RES 3945/3946 exhibits significant structural and compositional parallels to the summary account of David’s achievements. I argue that the quantity and quality of such similarities firmly locates the writing practices underlying the literary history of 2 Sam 8:1b–14 within a scribal tradition of narrating royal accomplishments shared in Israel and Ancient South Arabia. Based on this historical approximation, it is possible to revisit the problem of the passage’s literary shape and position within the book of Samuel.

This article responds to M. J. Albanese, “What the Holy Seed Defiled: The Textual Problem of Genesis 49:4,” VT 69 (2019): 1‒18. Instead of proposing textual emendation to solve the so-called “problem” in Gen 49:4, the present article uses a literary-stylistic approach to argue in favour of the Masoretic Text (MT).

In Isa 3:24 there is a hapax legomenon פְּתִיגִיל, which so far could not be explained convincingly. This short note suggests to explain the word’s etymology from Napatan tgr “chain” in combination with the Egyptian article pꜣ.

In a fascinating article, Michael L. Barré noted the topos of “wandering about” as a symptom of depression and mourning in world literature in general, and in the literature of the ancient Near East and the Bible in particular. Building on his insights, this paper argues that the phrase “he went there” (וילך שם) from Ezra 10:6 builds another instance of the topos of “wandering about.” Thus, there is no need to emed MT to “he spent the night there” (וילן שם), as has often been suggested.

The literary unit Sir 42:1–8 opens with the instruction not to be ashamed of keeping the Torah and commandments (42:2), and proceeds to list a series of actions that one should perform without embarrassment. Oddly enough, the second half of 42:2 instructs not to be ashamed “of rendering judgment to acquit the wicked,” על משפט להצדיק רשע. While this verse cannot be explained by the hermeneutic maneuver of changing the simple meaning of the Hebrew term רשע or the syntactic function of the lamed in להצדיק, I propose employing a text-critical approach in order to resolve the difficulty it presents. The emendation suggested in this paper subsequently helps us identify the biblical verses that served as the source of inspiration for the verse in Sirach (Ps 82:2–3), and the midrashic interpretation this verse was given in a later text (Rom 4:5).

The article asks whether the morphosyntax of embedded direct object clauses and purpose clauses in Western Neo-Aramaic reflects retention from older stages of Aramaic, or innovation under the influence of contact Arabic. To this end, direct object clauses and purpose clauses are analysed in Western Neo-Aramaic, in older stages of Aramaic, namely, Old, Official, Biblical and Qumran Aramaic, as well as Syriac, the three Western Late Aramaic dialects (CPA, JPA, SA), and in contemporaneous Syrian Arabic. The analysis considers the embedded verb form, the formal means of linking the embedded clause to the matrix clause, and the co-referentiality of the matrix and embedded subjects, and relates these features to tense-aspect-mood. The article compares the constructions in the various sources of Aramaic and Syrian Arabic and finds features that Western Neo-Aramaic has retained from Late Aramaic, which differ from Syrian Arabic, despite the well documented influence of the latter.

This article utilises the methodology of Third Article Theology to explore the church’s missional role in the world. Initially arguing that ecclesiology and missiology are mutually informing doctrines, it develops a dialogical and pneumatological approach for viewing missiology from the vantage point of ecclesiology. This contrasts with and complements the more common approach where missiology is seen as determinative of ecclesiology. The final and major section of the article uses this approach to sketch out the constituent features of the church’s mission, particularly when the Spirit’s role is viewed as primary and constitutive.

Internal debates about orthodoxy and unorthodoxy inside the Church of England have been going on for centuries. The new contribution this article hopes to make is to provide an outsider’s view of these issues which will incorporate personal experiences, historical analyses, doctrinal developments, and diversifications, reflecting on three test cases, engagement with recent voices, and finally, retrospective reflection on key biblical texts which suggest that faithfulness to Scripture should lead to re-alignment from a dividing Church of England.