Dialogues in Judaic Studies
This podcast features educational, informative and intellectually compelling conversations with authors of newly-published books and recently-released monographs on Jewish history, Jewish religion, Jewish philosophy and Jewish literature. The podcast intends to reach academic specialists, members of the reading public and beginners with entry-level curiosity.
Episodes
51 episodes
Hindy Najman, *Scriptural Vitality: Rethinking Philology and Hermeneutics*. New York: Oxford University Press, 2025.
This study contests the perspective that the Persian and Hellenistic periods signify a decline, often referred to as "late Judaism," situated between a once-vibrant Judaism and the rise of Christianity. Conversely, Hindy Najman cont...
Joseph Scales, *Galilean Spaces of Identity: Judaism and Spatiality in Hasmonean and Herodian Galilee*. Leiden: Brill, 2024.
We interpret the world surrounding us through the constructed spaces we inhabit. These spaces are formed by human activities and, in turn, shape the way people live. This book delves into an analysis of archaeological and textual evidence from ...
Lindsey Davidson, *Scribal Culture in Ben Sira*. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
This monograph explores the concept of scribal culture as a lens for analyzing the characteristics of textual referencing in the Book of Ben Sira (c.198-175 BCE), offering fresh perspectives on how Ben Sira crafted his wisdom literature. While ...
Emmylou Grosser, *Unparalleled Poetry: A Cognitive Approach to the Free-Rhythm Verse of the Hebrew Bible*. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
For over two and a half centuries, the study of biblical Hebrew poetry has largely been influenced by metrical theories and the concept of parallelism. Although there is a growing agreement that biblical poetry does not adhere to metrical norms...
Alex Jassen, *Violence, Power and Society in the Dead Sea Scrolls*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Violence emerges as a pivotal theme within the Dead Sea Scrolls. It captivated the Sectarians who penned these scrolls, viewing themselves as victims of oppression. Their apocalyptic vision was filled with aspirations of retribution against the...
Jacqueline Vayntrub, *Body Language: Voice, Embodiment and Textuality in the Hebrew Bible*. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026.
Performance, transmission, and corporeality were crucial to ancient understandings of textuality. Written text was far more than a mere memory aid; it served as a formidable tool for encapsulating and conveying the essence of embodied vocal pre...
Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen and Sehoon Jang, eds., *The Function of the Reader in the Formation and the Reception of the Book of Isaiah*. Leiden: Brill, 2024.
What new insights from readers were vital for the creation of both the Book of Isaiah and external texts such as the Gospel of Luke? In this meticulously curated volume, a team of esteemed international scholars who specialize in Isaiah explore...
Ari Ackerman, *Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation: The Infinite God and the Expanding Torah*. Leiden: Brill, 2022.
This study investigates the understanding of God as presented by the medieval Jewish philosopher and legal scholar, Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11). It illustrates that Crescas perceives God as infinitely creative and benevolent, while also exami...
Aubrey Buster, *Remembering the Story of Israel: Historical Summaries and Memory Formation in Second Temple Judaism*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
In this book, Aubrey Buster reveals how techniques taken from cultural and social memory studies, along with the new formalism, can illuminate the communal importance of biblical and extra-biblical historical summaries during the Second Temple ...
Katell Berthelot, *Jews and Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome's Challenge to Israel*. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
Throughout their history, Jews have been under the sway of various imperial powers, from Assyria and Babylonia to Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. This monograph illustrates how the Roman Empire posed a unique challenge to Jewish intellectu...
Rinat Harash, *Apollo, Dionysus and the Ubermensch at Sinai: An Attempt at a Nietzschean Analysis*. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2026.
The biblical narrative surrounding Sinai and Moses is pivotal to Jewish and Western culture; however, it has often been regarded only from a religious perspective. In this study, Dr. Rinat Harash offers an insightful interpretation, utilizing N...
Stephanie Binder, *Tertullian and the Jews in Early Christian Literary Imagination*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2026.
This study investigates Tertullian, known as the first individual to articulate Christian theology in Latin. It emphasizes the critical issues that are essential for understanding his biography and works, particularly focusing on his depiction ...
Rhiannon Graybill, *Are We Not Men? Unstable Masculinity in the Hebrew Prophets*. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
This monograph presents an innovative perspective on gender and embodiment as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. It argues that prophecy disrupts traditional notions of masculinity and alters the way the mainly male Hebrew prophets perceive their ph...
Getachew Metaferia, ed., *Ethiopia and the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Antiquity to Modernity*. Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2025.
Rich in historical significance and contemporary relevance, this monograph provides readers with a deep understanding of Ethiopia’s enduring role in the Judeo-Christian narrative—spanning from the past, through the present, and into the future....
Bruce Wells, ed., *The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible*. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.
This work offers a detailed overview of the history, essence, and impact of biblical law. It delves into the discussions surrounding the nature of biblical law, analyzing its historical backdrop, the importance of its regulations, and its effec...
Megan Roberts, *Memory Formation in Isaiah 40–55: Poetic Reimagination that Accomplishes Comfort*. Leiden: Brill, 2025.
Scholars agree that comfort and memory are key, interrelated themes in Isaiah 40–55; however, the notion of collective memory has not been specifically investigated to shed light on the link between memory and comfort. Sociological studies conc...
Eva Tyrell, *Strategies of Persuasion in Herodotus’ Histories and Genesis–Kings: Evoking Reality in Ancient Narratives of a Past*. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
In this scholarly work, Eva Tyrell undertakes a comparative analysis of narrative devices in two prominent ancient texts that reflect on the past. By fusing a narratological approach with perspectives from contemporary historical theory and bib...
Jacob Wright, *Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins*. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Why is the Bible considered a creation of ancient Israel instead of another ancient culture? The notion that a small, isolated community could generate a literary work of such global significance appears improbable. Jacob Wright suggests that t...
Pierre Anctil and Richard Menkis, eds., *In a "Land of Hope": Documents on the Canadian Jewish Experience, 1627-1923, Volume 1*. Toronto: Champlain Society, 2023.
The history of the Jewish community is a tale of a non-Christian minority that has, for much of Canadian history, faced marginalization by the Anglo-Protestant and French-Catholic majorities. Despite its distinctive nature, this history is an e...
Mark Scarlata, *The Theology of the Book of Leviticus*. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
The Book of Leviticus in the Pentateuch is often seen as one of the most challenging books of the Bible, mainly due to its focus on blood sacrifice, infectious diseases, and intricate dietary laws.Moreover, academic analyses have primar...
Kamilah Hall Sharp, *Trauma and Survival: A Womanist Reading of Esther*. London: T&T Clark, 2026.
This text fuses womanist biblical interpretation with trauma theory, while comprehensively examining survival and the language that accompanies it in the Hebrew Bible. Although survival is a central theme in discussions about the Book of Esther...
Françoise Mirguet, *An Early History of Compassion: Emotion and Imagination in Hellenistic Judaism*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
In this remarkable book, Françoise Mirguet intricately outlines the appropriation and reinterpretation of pity by Greek-speaking Jewish communities during Late Antiquity. In this scholarly discourse, pity and compassion are portrayed as a rich ...
Catherine Hezser, ed., *The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine*. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. First published in paperback in 2020.
Developed by a celebrated and interdisciplinary collective of scholars from around the globe, *The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine* stands as a vital reference source on the everyday lives of Jews in the region of Israel...
Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, *Cultic Spiritualization: Religious Sacrifice in the Dead Sea Scrolls*. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2022.
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, their material evidence and compelling content have fascinated both scholars and the general public. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, the unear...
Matthew S. Goldstone, *The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke: Leviticus 19:17 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation*. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
In this monograph, Matthew Goldstone investigates the perceptions of religious texts in early Jewish and Christian communities regarding the responsibility to rebuke others, based on the biblical verse: "Rebuke your fellow but do not incur sin"...
