Ancient Afterlives

This week's episode, and the last main episode of Season 1, is a special roundtable discussion with various scholars working on aspects related to gender and biblical studies. Our guests include Karina Atudosie, Eleanor Vivian, Charlotte Trombin, Will Moore and Emily Allsopp. The roundtable is hosted by Katherine Gwyther. There is a content warning for this episode as we discuss topics related to sexual violence, rape and still-birth. 

Karina recently completed her MA by Research at the University of Birmingham with a thesis looking at hegemonic power in the Song of Songs. She is currently examining how queenship is constructed in the Hebrew Bible. Her twitter handle is @KAtudosie

Ellie is an AHRC-funded PhD Candidate at the University of Birmingham researching the function of metaphor in the representations and conceptualisations of disabled bodies in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ellie is also a contributor/team member at the Ancient Afterlives academic podcast.

Charlotte is an SWWDTP (AHRC) funded PhD candidate at Exeter University researching military metaphor usage in global Neo-Muscular Christian men’s groups. Her research interests include biblical violence, feminist hermeneutics, the theology of Veganism, Ecotheology, and the intersection of masculinity, the Bible, and nationalism. Charlotte is an honorary Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, and a contributor/team member at the Ancient Afterlives academic podcast.

Will is training for priesthood in the Church of England at Westcott House, Cambridge and his first book, exploring the Bible, toxic masculinity, and the Christian faith, will be published with SCM Press in 2022. He writes broadly in the areas of gender, masculinity, sexuality, and violence, and how they intersect with Christianity and the Bible. You can find him on Twitter @willmoorewill

Emily is studying for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, researching women’s bodies in the prophetic metaphors. Her research interests include feminist criticism, sexual and maternal imagery, sexual violence, and depictions of pregnancy and birth.

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This week is the second of a two-part interview with Ingrid Breilid Gimse, hosted by Katherine Gwyther and Michael DeVries. Ingrid is a theologian doing her PhD at the University of Agder in Norway. She is a research fellow in the research project "The Lying Pen of Scribes: Manuscript Forgeries, Digital Imaging, and Critical Provenance Research." Her PhD project concerns the publication history of the official publication series of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD). The Lying Pen project is on Facebook (https://facebook.com/lyingpen) and has a formal web site (https://lyingpen.uia.no) and a more informal blog (https://lyingpen.com). Ingrid's twitter handle is @IngridBreilidG.

Ingrid's article (Gimse, I. B. [2020]. The Post-2002 Fragments' Dependency on Modern Editions of the Hebrew Bible. Revue de Qumran, 32[1]: 115, 57-77) can be found here: https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/handle/11250/2784067

Bibliography:

Dennis Mizzi and Jodi Magness, "Provenance vs. Authenticity: An Archaeological Perspective on the Post-2002 'Dead Sea Scrolls-Like' Fragments," Dead Sea Discoveries 26.2 (2019):135-169 DOI:10.1163/15685179-12341503.

Kipp Davis, Ira Rabin, Ines Feldman, Myriam Krutzsch, Hasia Rimon, Årstein Justnes, Torleif Elgvin, and Michael Langlois, "Nine Dubious 'Dead Sea Scrolls' Fragments from the Twenty-First Century," Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017): 189–228.

Kipp Davis, "Caves of Dispute: Patterns of Correspondence and Suspicion in the Post-2002 'Dead Sea Scrolls' Fragments*," Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017): 229–270.

Eibert C. J. Tigchelaar, "A Provisional List of Unprovenanced, Twenty-First Century, Dead Sea Scrolls-like Fragments," Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017): 173–188.

Stephen A. Reed, "What is a Fragment?," The Journal of Jewish Studies 45 (1994): 123–125.

Stephen A. Reed, "Find-Sites of the Dead Sea Scrolls," Dead Sea Discoveries 14.2 (2007): 199–221.

Gerrie Snyman, “The African and Western Hermeneutics Debate: Mimesis, The Book of Esther, and Textuality,” OTE 25 (2012): 657–684.

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This week is the first of a two-part interview with Ingrid Breilid Gimse, hosted by Katherine Gwyther and Michael DeVries. Ingrid is a theologian doing her PhD at the University of Agder in Norway. She is a research fellow in the research project "The Lying Pen of Scribes: Manuscript Forgeries, Digital Imaging, and Critical Provenance Research." Her PhD project concerns the publication history of the official publication series of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD). The Lying Pen project is on Facebook (https://facebook.com/lyingpen) and has a formal web site (https://lyingpen.uia.no) and a more informal blog (https://lyingpen.com). Ingrid's twitter handle is @IngridBreilidG.

Ingrid's article (Gimse, I. B. [2020]. The Post-2002 Fragments' Dependency on Modern Editions of the Hebrew Bible. Revue de Qumran, 32[1]: 115, 57-77) can be found here: https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/handle/11250/2784067

Bibliography:

Dennis Mizzi and Jodi Magness, "Provenance vs. Authenticity: An Archaeological Perspective on the Post-2002 'Dead Sea Scrolls-Like' Fragments," Dead Sea Discoveries 26.2 (2019):135-169 DOI:10.1163/15685179-12341503. 

Kipp Davis, Ira Rabin, Ines Feldman, Myriam Krutzsch, Hasia Rimon, Årstein Justnes, Torleif Elgvin, and Michael Langlois, "Nine Dubious 'Dead Sea Scrolls' Fragments from the Twenty-First Century," Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017): 189–228.  

Kipp Davis, "Caves of Dispute: Patterns of Correspondence and Suspicion in the Post-2002 'Dead Sea Scrolls' Fragments*," Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017): 229–270.  

Eibert C. J. Tigchelaar, "A Provisional List of Unprovenanced, Twenty-First Century, Dead Sea Scrolls-like Fragments," Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017): 173–188.  

Stephen A. Reed, "What is a Fragment?," The Journal of Jewish Studies 45 (1994): 123–125. 

Stephen A. Reed, "Find-Sites of the Dead Sea Scrolls," Dead Sea Discoveries 14.2 (2007): 199–221.

Gerrie Snyman, “The African and Western Hermeneutics Debate: Mimesis, The Book of Esther, and Textuality,” OTE 25 (2012): 657–684.

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In this week's episode, Simeon Whiting and Michael DeVries talk about their research in this edition of Coffee Chat. We apologise for Mike's audio quality, but we didn't want to lose this fascinating conversation. Simeon has just completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham. His thesis applies trauma theory and collective memory studies to the Reed Sea story. He is interested in trauma, masculinities and how they can shed light on biblical texts, and he has also published work on Exodus commentaries and their curiously narrow views on how the Pentateuch was composed. Alongside his research, Simeon works part-time as a writer, editor and tutor. He likes long-distance running and good coffee. His Twitter handle is: @simeonwhiting

Michael is completing his PhD, also at the University of Birmingham, and an Adjunct Professor at Azusa Pacific University in California. His research is focused on the War Scroll and related material known from the Dead Sea Scrolls. He examines questions of ritual, purification and defilement in these texts. He is a contributor and the co-general editor of the conference proceedings volume Ezra-Nehemiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls (SBL Press, forthcoming) and a contributor to the edited volume Purity in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: Proceedings from the 10th Schwerte Qumran Meeting (Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming). His Twitter handle is: @mike_devries

This episode is hosted by Eleanor Vivian and Lottie Trombin. Our guest is Chrissie Thwaites, who is a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds, funded by an AHRC White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH) scholarship. Her PhD research focuses on purity culture in contemporary Christianity in UK evangelicalism. Chrissie also writes and speaks on issues in culture, education, religion and equality. She also blogs at http://chrissiewrites.com. You can find her on twitter: @thwaitec. She has written a post on purity culture in the UK here: https://www.shilohproject.blog/why-we-need-to-address-purity-culture-in-the-uk/

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This week’s episode of Ancient Afterlives is slightly different! In this episode of coffee chat, Joseph Scales and Katherine Gwyther discuss what they’ve been reading recently. They chat about everything from J. Cheryl Exum’s revised edition of Fragmented Women and being a feminist in biblical studies, to the recent biblical film ‘Mary Magdalene’ (2018) and representing biblical voices accurately.

Katherine Gwyther is a third year PhD student at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on Exodus and utopia. You can find her on twitter: @katgwyther.

Joseph Scales is an independent scholar. His research is on late Second Temple Judaism. His twitter handle is: @josephdscales

Short bibliography:

Exum, J. Cheryl. Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives. Second Edition. London: T&T Clark, 2015.

Guest, Deryn. Beyond Feminist Biblical Studies. The Bible in the Modern World 47. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012.

Svärd, Saana. Women and Power in Neo-Assyrian Palaces. State Archives of Assyria Studies 23. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2015.

This episode is hosted by Joseph Scales and Eleanor Vivian. We discuss the work behind an open call for papers in a special issue of the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (JIBS), edited by Susannah Rees and Ellena Lyell. We talk with them about how they organised this issue and the broader themes they seek to engage with in the issue itself.

Susannah Rees is about to go into the third year of her PhD at King’s College London. Her research focuses on cosmetics in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East more broadly. You can find her on twitter: @ReesSusy

Dr Ellena Lyell is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. Her research sits at the intersection of biblical studies, Classics, anthropology, and ancient Near Eastern studies. Her forthcoming monograph analyses the material, cultural and theological significance of colour in the Hebrew Bible. Her twitter handle is: @ellenaclyell

You can find the call for papers for Unnamed and Uncredited: Anonymous Figures in the Biblical World here: https://jibs.group.shef.ac.uk/unnamed-and-uncredited-anonymous-figures-in-the-biblical-world/

Short Bibliography:

Reinhartz, Adele. “Anonymous Women and the Collapse of the Monarchy: A Study in Narrative Technique.” In A Feminist Companion to Samuel and Kings, ed. Athalya Brenner (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 43–67.

Meyers, Carol L., Toni Craven, and Ross Shepard Kraemer. Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000).

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This episode is hosted by Katherine Gwyther and Simeon Whiting. Our guest is Dr Charlotte Naylor Davis, who is a scholar of the Bible, of Heavy Metal, of feminism, of social theories and how all these things affect and contribute to our lives. In this episode we discuss a recent chapter that Dr Naylor Davis has written on reading Octavia Butler's view of scripture in "Earthseed" (a religion in her work) and how this intersects with our understanding of the Bible. The reference for this chapter is in the bibliography below. Dr Naylor Davis has a Patreon channel: https://www.patreon.com/MetalBiblicalScholar, Twitter: @NaylorDavis, and is co-organising a conference on "Heavy Metal and Global Premodernity." The call for papers (closing September 15th 2021) can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tZy-UuyFCWYmsZx9svCGD1Qs6NNnMJ4LDekZUjTRmYY/edit.

Bibliography:

Aichele, George, and Tina Pippin. “Introduction: Why the Fantastic?” Edited by George Aichele and Tina Pippin. Semeia 60 Fantasy and the Bible (1992): 1–6.

Boer, Roland. Jameson and Jeroboam. Semeia Series. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1996.

———. Novel Histories: The Fiction of Biblical Criticism. Playing the Texts 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.

Feldt, Laura. The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha. BibleWorld. Sheffield: Equinox, 2012.

Lust, Johan. “Ezekiel’s Utopian Expectations.” Flores Florentino: Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour of Florentino García Martínez. Edited by Anthony Hilhorst, Émile Puech, and Eibert Tigchelaar. JSJSup 122. Leiden: Brill, 2007.

Miscall, Peter D. “Biblical Narrative and Categories of the Fantastic.” Semeia 60. Fantasy and the Bible (1992): 39–51.

Moylan, Tom. Demand the Impossible; Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination. New York and London: Metheun, 1986.

Naylor Davis, Charlotte. “Butler’s Invention of Scripture in Light of Hebrew Wisdom Literature.” In God is Change: Religious Practices and Ideologies in the Works of Octavia Butler. Edited by Aparajita Nanda and Shelby L. Crosby. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021.

Schweitzer, Steven J. Reading Utopia in Chronicles. OTS 442. London and New York: T & T Clark, 2007.

———. “Visions of the Future as Critique of the Present.” Utopia and Dystopia in Prophetic Literature. Edited by Ehud Ben Zvi. Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society 92. Helsinki; Göttingen: Finnish Exegetical Society; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006.

Suvin, Darko. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1979.

Tipton, Brian James. “A Backward Glance for a Queer Utopian Future: Genesis, Climate Change, and Hope as a Hermeneutic.” BibInt28 (2020): 466–94.

Uhlenbruch, Frauke. The Nowhere Bible: Utopia, Dystopia, Science Fiction. SBR 4. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015.

Zipes, Jack. “The Messianic Power of Fantasy in the Bible.” Edited by George Aichele and Tina Pippin. Semeia 60. Fantasy and the Bible (1992): 7–21.

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This episode is hosted by Simeon Whiting and Katherine Gwyther. Our guest is Dr Tupá Guerra's (PhD University of Birmingham, UK), and in this episode we discuss her research on demonology and magic in the Dead Sea Scrolls. She has bachelor’s and Master's degree in History from the University of Brasilia. She is currently head of historical research at the Museu do TCU in Brazil and is also a podcaster, talking about topics related to demonology, antiquity, and magic. You can find her on Twitter @tupaguerra

A short bibliography around this topic is below:

Bohak, Gideon. Ancient Jewish Magic: A History. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 

Bohak, Gideon. “Mystical Texts, Magic, and Divination.” T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by George Brooke and Charlotte Hempel. Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018. 

Brooke, George. “4Q341: An Exercise for Spelling and for Spells?” Pages 271–82 in Writing and Ancient Near Eastern Society: Papers in Honour of Alan R. Millard. Edited by Piotr Bienkowski, Christopher Mee, and Elizabeth Slater. New York ; London: Bloomsbury, 2005. 

Falk, Daniel K. “Liturgical Texts.” T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by George Brooke and Charlotte Hempel. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018. 

Frankfurter, David. Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic. Brill, 2019.

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CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of gendered and sexual violence throughout.

This episode is hosted by Katherine Gwyther and Simeon Whiting. In this episode, we discuss Charlotte's recent paper about misogyny, the Hebrew Bible, and environment. Our resulting conversation covers everything from the texts themselves, the connections between women and land, and what this means for our current world and climate crisis.

A bibliography of some of the material discussed can be found here:

To contact our guest, you can email [email protected], find her on Twitter @c_trombin or visit her website ctrombin.wordpress.com where readers can have a look at some of her papers and find links to her publications.

Thanks for listening!