Seminars

Biblical scholarship often ignores Psalm Titles or treats them as of secondary relevance to the story of the Psalms. This paper argues that viewing the titles from the methodological perspectives of cultural memory, sociolinguistics, and material philology/book history allows us to glimpse at the cantankerous world of early Second Temple politics and to trouble any neat division between a pre- and post-canonical book of Psalms.

1 Kings 7:23 has long caught the attention of mathematicians and biblical scholars alike, with many using it to conclude that the Bible is bad at math. In this talk, I’ll explore what these assessments get wrong about math in the ancient world and situate this text within the context of ancient Near Eastern mathematical cultures. This allows not only for new insights into this text but also demonstrates the value in looking more carefully at how our literary texts count and calculate. Absolutely no mathematical knowledge required to understand any of this--I promise!

In this presentation, my concern is not an analysis of “The Divine Warrior” in biblical texts from the perspective of their ancient Near Eastern contexts, but rather how the medievals struggled to understand (or not understand!) the phenomenon. We shall review their commentaries on such texts as Exodus 15:3; Judges 5:4; Habakkuk 3:3; Psalm 68:8, and other texts.

Within the series of six Woe Oracles that span Isa 28–33, those that comprise Isa 28–29 form a tightly-structured argument, one punctuated by an ambivalent Oracle of Salvation in Isa 29:22–24. The figure of Jacob is placed outside the timeframe of its prophetic fulfillment in order to demonstrate the pedagogical function of time itself in accomplishing God’s work.

This paper challenges conventional modes of thinking about the hereditary conferral of Israelite priestly status. We will examine two biblical narratives, both about priests named Phinehas, who appear to flout the principle that priests are (to borrow a phrase) begotten, but not made. These narratives demonstrate that priestly status can be re/allocated, intensified, and even revoked, forcing us to consider alternatives to the conventional paradigm of priestly descent as well as to the nature of the priesthood itself.

The forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Bible and Animals brings together 38 essays from scholars in biblical studies and adjacent fields, grappling with what it means to interpret biblical texts, contexts, and intertexts with nonhuman animals at the centre. In this lecture, the editor of the Handbook draws out pertinent themes that are suggestive of the major research trajectories in this area. These themes fall into three main groups: animals in themselves, animals in their relationships with humans, and animals in broader systems of meaning and power.

This talk examines the limitations of historical reconstructions of identity in the Iron Age southern Levant through two Shephelah sites, analyzing both archaeological and textual evidence. Rather than treating uncertainty and indeterminacy as problems requiring solutions, I argue that they constitute a methodological and ethical praxis that clarifies evidential limitations, acknowledges the boundaries of knowledge, and offers a responsible path forward for historians and biblical scholars.

In this paper I will offer a set of reflections on the traditional interpretation of the dialogue between Yahweh and Abraham over the fate of Sodom in Genesis 18. I will suggest that most readings of this passage treat it as somehow isolated from its literary context, and as a result miss what the story was actually about; if, however, we read it in its proper literary context, a striking alternative reading presents itself.