@ancientjew

Ancient Jew Review is a sub­scrip­tion-free dig­i­tal journal for the study of ancient Jews and their neighbors. Editors-in-Chief @KristaNDalton & @ErinCGW.

ancientjewreview.com
Joined October 2014
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A new book review on AJR from Thomas Waldrupe on Spiritual Direction as a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism by Jonathan L. Zecher ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Spiritual Direction as a Medical Art in Early Christian Monasticism — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

Ascetic authors throughout late antiquity gleaned descriptions from contemporaneous, non-monastic sources for detailing the challenges of monastic living.

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Today on AJR, Eva Mroczek describes the power of mythwashing in manuscript discovery as part of a preview of her new book, (Hidden Scrolls, Buried Bibles: How We Discover the Sacred Past. Yale University Press, 2026). ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Mythwashing and the Two Meanings of Mystery in Manuscript Discovery Stories — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

“When manuscript loss and discovery is framed this way--when we tell the stories of modern discovery the same way we recite religious texts—our reverence and desire distracts us from the material...

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Today on AJR: Peter W. Martens writes about Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World by Ellen Muehlberger ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Adjusting the Past — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

This essay was part of a 2026 NAPS Conference Book Review Panel devoted to Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World by Ellen Muehlberger. Read the full forum here .  ...

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Today, James Nati reviews Susan Niditch's Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Book Review | Ethics in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

Those who seek moral guidance from the Bible are faced with a further challenge: how does one interpret, distill, and apply the sheer variety of ethical views contained in these diverse texts in...

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New pod! Mike talks to Glenn Peers about Strange and Familiar Histories of Byzantine Art: Interpretation, Risk, and Empathy. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… open.spotify.com/show/6uGXkA…
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Our review forum on Jacqueline Vayntrub's book concludes with a response from the author. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

An Echo Across the Room: Re-encountering Body Language — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

These reviews have shown me not only what I was looking at when writing Body Language , but where I was standing when I looked.

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The fifth installment in our review series for Jacqueline Vayntrub's Body Language comes from Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Fleshy, Embodied, Embedded Speech — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

When reading texts from the Hebrew Bible or ancient Rome, it is tempting to focus on the similarities between ‘them’ and ‘us’, our shared humanity, and the very familiar descriptions of longing,...

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Our week starts off with the fourth review in our series on Jacqueline Vayntrub's Body Language. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Reading with a Hermeneutics of Presence and Embodiment — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

We share with ancient readers the condition of embodied and vulnerable human existence.

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Nathan Mastnjak writes with our third installment in the reviewl forum of Jacqueline Vayntrub's Body Language. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Speech, Efficacy, and Prophecy — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

These ideas about representation are nearly everywhere assumed but rarely taken up for examination. But as Vayntrub points out, a glance outside the Hebrew Bible suggests the possibilities of...

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Our review form of Jacqueline Vanytrub's Body Language contiues with a contribution from Yosefa Raz. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

On Metaphors of Bodies and Archeology — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

Jacqueline Vayntrub’s Body Language has a dialectical relationship to the pervasive metaphor of archeological excavation, which has indelibly shaped both the way we practice biblical scholarship and...

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We're thrilled to publish a series of reviews of Jacqueline Vayntrub's Body Language, presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 2025. We being with Anathea Portier-Young's contribution: Voices of Wing and Bone. ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Voices of Wing and Bone — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

Voice makes moral and relational claims. It anchors awareness in the particular. The textualized voice and voiced text lay claim to the attention of their audiences in ways that defy apathy, demand...

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New pod! Gabrielle Thomas talks to Mike about The problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… open.spotify.com/episode/48u…
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Our #forum on Ellen Muehlberger's latest publication,Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World, draws to a close with a response from the author @ucpress #lateantiquity ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

The Part You Don’t See — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

As a made thing, a book comprises not one, but two sets of working components. There are the pieces of the book itself as you see it: the chapters, images, bibliography. But then there are the book’s...

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Behind on your #AJR reading? Find the whole forum here: ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Things Unseen Forum — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

A forum devoted to Ellen Meuhlberger’s recent book Things Unseen : Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World , featuring Bradley K. Storin, Young Richard Kim, Jennifer Barry, Matthew...

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A new essay from Christine Luckritz Marquis as part of our ongoing forum on Ellen Muehlberger's Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Mummy Portraits and the White Gaze — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

In her latest book, Ellen Muehlberger asks us to sit in the tensive space between knowing and seeing.

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New pod! Robin Whelan talks to Mike about Serving the Christian State in Late Antiquity podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… open.spotify.com/episode/5ii…
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Our forum on Ellen Muehlberger's Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World continues this week! Next, an essay from Young Richard Kim @ucpress ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Thoughts on Medieval Knowing — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

It is too early to know what emerita Ellen will be like, so for now, let us enjoy being in the presence of and reading the writings of medieval Ellen.

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Today on AJR, Matthew R. Crawford responds to Ellen Muehlberger's Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge @mattrcrawford @ucpress ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Unseen Metaphysics versus Institutional Bureaucracy: Retelling the Story of the Fifth Ecumenical...

Like the rest of the book, the third chapter examines ‘things unseen’ in late antiquity, but the nature of the unseen object differs from those in earlier chapters.

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Our panel on Ellen Muehlberger's Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World continues with an essay from Jennifer Barry @ucpress ancientjewreview.com/read/20…

Paper Dolls of Late Antiquity — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

This essay was part of a 2026 NAPS Conference Book Review Panel devoted to Things Unseen: Essays on Evidence, Knowledge, and the Late Ancient World by Ellen Muehlberger. Read the full forum here .  

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New pod! Mike talks to Sabrina Inowlocki about "Ancient Apologetics and the Bibliographic Imagination" podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… open.spotify.com/episode/3E1…
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