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Abstract
CPJ 1.23, a second-century BCE contract between two Jews for an interest-free loan secured with a house, briefly stirred interest for the possibility that it shows Jews observing their law in the Hellenistic diaspora. Most regard that as unlikely though, and the text has since languished in obscurity among scholars of Hellenistic Judaism. This article reexamines the text in its proper juridical context—in comparison with other loan contracts from Greco-Roman Egypt—to show that it uses the form for a hypothecated loan to arrange the sale of a house which gives the seller the opportunity to reclaim it within a year of sale according to Leviticus 25:29–30. The article also places this reading of CPJ 1.23 alongside other evidence for Jews using their ancestral norms in handling property matters in Hellenistic Egypt to outline a hypothesis regarding the purpose of this tendency in Ptolemaic-era Jewish legal reasoning.
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Abstract
The small, two-verse interpolation of Ezekiel 47:22-23 is widely considered one of the most inclusive texts in the Hebrew Bible. Its instruction regarding the גרים allowed for full inclusion into the community that Ezekiel believed to be the true Israel. However, interpretations that view these verses as hyper-inclusive often view the גרים as foreigners. Such a view is largely based on understanding the term גר along linguistic rather than anthropological lines. This paper will explore the use of the term גר in both Ezekiel and the Holiness School to better understand the group envisioned by the author of Ezekiel 47:22-23. In so doing, I will demonstrate that these verses should not be understood simply along a binary of inclusive versus exclusive, but rather as part of a larger project of identity reformulation that occurred as part of a trauma process around the Babylonian exile.
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Abstract
This article adopts a law and literature approach toward Genesis 21:14-21, focused on the legal themes within the narrative and how these themes shape the story. Genesis 21:14-21 records the expulsion of Hagar and her son from Abraham’s home. I identify multiple legal idioms and terms within this unit and argue that the narrative uses legal terminology in order to depict the child’s expulsion specifically as a transfer of custody from his father to his mother. In her marginalization from Abraham’s home, Hagar also gains legal rights, and this article examines these shifts in power from a law and literature perspective in order to interrogate Hagar’s parental rights within the biblical text and to demonstrate how they function within the ancestral narrative as a means of formalizing the rupture in Abraham’s household.
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Abstract
This article presents an imaginative exercise in which a fictional author from the year 4025 details results from excavations of archaeological sites dating to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Based on analyses of small domestic finds, as well as the discovery of a monumental complex utilizing similar imagery, the author concludes that people must have worshipped an anthropomorphic mouse god – the Historical Mouse – in the Mechano-Digital Age, keeping devotional votives in their homes and traveling at least once a year to a primary space of worship centered around the experience of various ritual mysteries. This article calls upon students to perform a self-evaluation about their own assumptions and approaches to the ancient world as they witness a hypothetical historian make outrageous, yet plausible, errors in the course of trying to describe an ‘ancient’ religion.
Understanding Biblical Engagement for Transformation
Series:
Theology in Practice, Volume: 12
Author:
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Ps 119:105).” An avid Bible-reader reflects, 'As the Lord leads, the lamp illuminates my path, step by step.” Such small step makes sense when connected to another inspirational moment, marked by her deeply moved heart. 'The movement of the heart' emerges as a recurring phenomenon in the in-depth interviews with dedicated Bible readers who share powerful narratives of their Bible-reading journey's ups and downs. By unraveling the psychological, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of this heart-moving experience, this book forges a fresh practical theology of Bible reading.
Understanding Biblical Engagement for Transformation
Series:
Theology in Practice, Volume: 12
Author:
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Ps 119:105).” An avid Bible-reader reflects, 'As the Lord leads, the lamp illuminates my path, step by step.” Such small step makes sense when connected to another inspirational moment, marked by her deeply moved heart. 'The movement of the heart' emerges as a recurring phenomenon in the in-depth interviews with dedicated Bible readers who share powerful narratives of their Bible-reading journey's ups and downs. By unraveling the psychological, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of this heart-moving experience, this book forges a fresh practical theology of Bible reading.
Author: