Thanks, friend!

Spider-man mask and small toys in the corner of a couch, behind a pillow.

My 7-year old’s new thing is to leave a stash behind the pillow when he doesn’t want to have to take toys back up to his room. I can admire the creativity.

Turns out the scroll was just cover for a “torcher” (secret weapon). 😅

Yellow paper scroll rolled and tied with twine and placed on the couch.

Two pillows hiding the scroll in the corner of the couch.

Anyone else’s kids make scrolls on a Saturday morning and then hide them? 😅 I like to think they are playing DSS but I’m not sure that’s what is going on.

This Is The Oldest Nativity Scene We Have YouTube video by Bible & Archaeology

I was delighted to visit Bible & Archaeology (bam.sites.uiowa.edu) recently to talk about early nativity scenes! 🤓
youtu.be/nKBm6FYKoEc?...

We cover the catacombs, frescoes, Life of Brian. And it's the closest I've ever come to invoking "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals"...

It’s true. What’s not to like?

Hi Lola. Thanks for your interest. It’s published by Brill (and part of the JSJ Supplement Series). Here’s a link: brill.com/display/titl...

It’s here!!! So exciting to finally see a printed copy of my book!

Miracle of miracles: all of my advisees signed up for an advising appointment, showed up at their scheduled time, and came with a tentative course schedule. Amazing.

Religious Experience and Divinization in the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls "Religious Experience and Divinization in the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls" published on 18 Dec 2025 by Brill.

So exciting to see this up on the web site! brill.com/display/titl...

Who am I likely to forget in writing acknowledgments that I absolutely should not forget to thank?

Getting pulled away from book manuscript revisions to attend a committee meeting feels like such an intrusion.

11-year old lunch box pseudepigraphy … my favorite part of this child taking over school lunch packing responsibilities this year.

Share with your friends! To celebrate #WomensHistoryMonth we’re giving away a guest’s book every week in March! Post a review of the podcast on your favorite app to be entered into that week’s drawing. On Sunday every week we’ll draw a winner.

They did! And the author’s note at the end. They also liked the 7 brothers and their mother, which made me happy.

It is a lot. They navigated it well, though, and even got some of the humor!

I assigned all of 2 Maccabees for my students to read for class today, and they actually READ it!

I only recently discovered Luhrmann, and wow - having grown up in a charismatic Pentecostal tradition, I feel so seen.

Yesterday I told the kids they could not go out to play in the snow because there was less than 1” - not enough to play in. They responded with a 6-page, illustrated treatise, arguing why they should be allowed to go out anyway. They got to go out.

a man is sitting at a table with the words another festivus miracle written on it ALT: a man is sitting at a table with the words another festivus miracle written on it

Hanukkah is most identified with the menorah, which of course commemorates the so-called miracle of oil.

Or does it...?

1/12 🧵

Hanukkah is typically commemorated as a "clash of cultures".

It represents the battle between a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Judaism" against a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Hellenism".

This narrative is increasingly problematized in scholarship.

🧵 1/20

Two books: The Construction of Time in Antiquity, edited by Jonathan Ben-Dov and Lutz Doering, and Time: a Multidisciplinary Approach, edited by Sarit Kattan Gribetz and Lynn Kaye.

Catching up on some recent(ish) publications on time, while enjoying the snow flurries.

Jewish Divination in the Greco–Roman Era This article analyzes the divinatory methods the Jews used to address their questions in the Greco–Roman era. Scholars have previously examined how authors of the Hebrew Bible are aware of numerous d...

My article, "Jewish Divination in the Greco-Roman Era," is out in Religion Compass, and it is Open Access! compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Final grades submitted. Now it’s on to “time and temporality” in the DSS and time at home with the kids!

That question seems to be my students’ way of acknowledging the value they now see in texts that, previously, they did not even know existed.

One of my favorite end-of-semester questions from students in my DSS class is “Why weren’t any of these texts included in the Protestant Canon?” Maybe there needs to be a final activity where they debate/argue/campaign for the inclusion of a particular text.

Absolutely!

Thank you! It was so wonderful to finally meet you too! I so appreciated your fantastic responses. It was such a fun panel to participate in.

Never dreamed I’d be excited about revising my book manuscript, but reviewer 2 came in with some clutch recommendations I cannot wait to read! It’s currently my motivation to get through grading and a short writing assignment.

Christmas pageant gone awry?