Aseneth’s Eight-Day Transformation as Scriptural Justification for Conversion

The author of Joseph and Aseneth writes a lengthy narrative about Aseneth’s conversion, thereby providing a justification for Joseph’s marriage to an Egyptian woman. The author explicitly connects her seven-day period of withdrawal to creation, thus portraying her conversion as a divinely wrought new creation. In addition, her eight-day conversion process imitates two similar processes from Jewish scripture. First, Aseneth’s transformation parallels the circumcision of the newborn male eight days after his birth. Second, on the eighth day Aseneth partakes of an angelic existence, conversing with an angel, eating the food of angels, and being dressed in angelic garb. This elevation in her status parallels the consecration of the priestly class in Lev 8, which goes through a period of seven days before it can serve as priests on the eighth day. This process thus stresses the distance between non-Jew and Jew, while at the same time providing a scriptural rationale for how Aseneth overcame it

The Many for One or One for the Many: Reading Mark 10:45 in the Roman Empire

Though the “many for one” political ideology was widespread in the first century CE, Mark 10:45 rejects this ideology. Instead, this type of rule is contrasted with Jesus’s own rule as a servant king, sacrificing himself (the one) for his followers (the many)

The Function of a Conjunction: Inclusivist or Exclusivist Strategies in Ezra 6.21 and Nehemiah 10.29–30?

In spite of the genealogical exclusion of non-Israelites evidenced throughout Ezra-Nehemiah, numerous scholars find strategies of inclusivism within the work. In particular, Ezra 6.19-21 and Neh. 10.29-30 have been understood to envision the incorporation of outsiders into the Golah group. After surveying the evidence for exclusivism in Ezra-Nehemiah, this article will present an alternative reading of these specific passages by providing a different interpretation of the function of the waw. It will be argued that, instead of intending to portray outsiders joining the Golah group, Ezra 6.19-21 and Neh. 10.29-30 describe the separation of the Golah group from the impurity of the nations

Abolishers of the Law in Early Judaism and Matthew 5,17–20

Matthew’s use of (kata)luō in Matt 5:17-20 needs to be understood in light of other occurrences of these words in Jewish literature. This paper focuses on two historical events around which these words cluster: the Antiochan persecution and the destruction of the Temple. Since Jewish literature characterizes the Hellenizers of the Maccabean period as law abolishers, labeling others as law abolishers implicated them in endangering the nation. After the Jewish War, as Josephus demonstrates, law abolishers would have been blamed for the Temple’s destruction. Consequently, Matthew addresses the charge that Jesus abolished the law and therefore endangered the Jewish nation

4Q372 1 and the Continuation of Joseph’s Exile

It has been argued that the fragment 4Q372 1 contains polemic against the Samaritans and their temple cult at Gerizim. While allusions to Samaritans are found in the text, their presence signifies to the restored southern tribes that their restoration is not yet complete. Since the northern tribes, represented by the person of Joseph, remain in foreign lands, the promised deliverance of Deut 32 remains unfulfilled. In contrast to those in the south who might be tempted to conclude, with Ps 78, that God had rejected Joseph, 4Q372 1 suggests that the south’s fate is inextricably intertwined with Joseph’s fate

A Buried Pentateuchal Allusion to the Resurrection in Mark 12:25

This article seeks to determine the Pentateuchal background for Jesus's arguments regarding the resurrection of the dead

‘The Rock Was Christ’: The Fluidity of Christ’s Body in 1 Cor. 10.4

Paul’s identification of Christ with the rock that provided water to Israel in the wilderness has confounded interpreters. This article seeks to demonstrate that Paul depends upon a tradition within early Jewish thinking, as evidenced in poetic works such as Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 78, and Psalm 95, which linked Israel’s God to this rock. Despite growing unease with using rock imagery to describe God, as seen in Jeremiah’s recasting of this tradition, as well as the consistent efforts of the LXX translators of the Hebrew Bible to render such language in less chthonic terms, Paul identified the rock with the presence of Christ in the wilderness, and therefore demonstrates his indebtedness to a conception of divine fluidity which Benjamin Sommer has explored in his recent book The Bodies of God

Luke 2:22, Leviticus 12, and Parturient Impurity

In Luke 2:22 Luke attributes parturient impurity to both Mary and Jesus (and/or Joseph). Interpreters have often concluded that this verse demonstrates that Luke misunderstands the levitical legislation pertaining to childbirth impurity (Leviticus 12), which discusses only the impurity of the new mother. This article argues that, despite the apparent contradiction between Leviticus 12 and Luke 2, Luke has not misunderstood Jewish conceptions of impurity after birth. Not only is it possible to conclude that Leviticus 12 implicitly ascribes impurity to the newborn child, but some Second Temple Jewish writers, such as the authors of Jubilees and 4Q265, also believed that the newborn child suffered the same manner of impurity as the new mother. Luke’s gospel, therefore, demonstrates familiarity with contemporary Jewish purity beliefs and practices

Paul's Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2:17–29

The majority of interpreters conclude that in Rom 2:17-29 Paul addresses an ethnic Jew. In contrast, Runar M. Thorsteinsson has argued recently that Paul addresses a gentile, specifically a gentile who has judaized and now thinks of himself as a Jew. This article provides further support for Thorsteinsson’s argument, arguing that Paul, contrary to virtually all translations, does not redefine Jewishness in 2:28-29. Additionally, in vv. 21-27 Paul argues that, despite being circumcised, the gentile judaizer fails to keep the very law in which he boasts

Conversion, Jewish

A dictionary length entry on conversion in early Judaism for the Oxford Classical Dictionary