A beautiful new book with a blue cover that says: Ethnic Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean: Social Life Under Empire by Philip A. Harland

@philharland.bsky.social ‘s book has arrived!

congratulations!

i hope you hang it up in your office

Just a reminder that it costs you absolutely nothing to be kind or neutral in an email

The first page of the journal article entitled "The Alexamenos Graffito as Christian Parody." Abstract: Against the near-universal consensus that it was created by a pagan (non-Christian) in order to satirise Christian worship, this article contends that the Alexamenos graffito can plausibly be read as a Christian self-parody, created by the enslaved Alexamenos himself. It is the first full-length treatment of the authorial origins of the Alexamenos graffito. The article first provides an overview of the visual and scholarly histories of the image since the nineteenth century. Then it addresses evidence for and against reading the text as non-Christian or Christian in origin, focusing on the apparent sexualisation of Jesus, early Christian receptions of satirical depictions of Jesus, the graffito's use of a titulus, the solidarity of the image with enslaved workers and the relevance of nearby Christian graf-fiti. Finally, it places the graffito in conversation with ancient self-parody practices from wider Greek, Roman and Christian sources. While it is impossible to argue definitively about the identity of the graffito's creator, this article contends that scholarship cannot exclude the possibility and potential likelihood that it may be Christian in origin.

Pleased to see that my latest article, entitled "The Alexamenos Graffito as Christian Self-Parody," is now out in NTS. In it I argue against the widely held view that this graffito is non-Christian in origin and that it could very well have been written by an enslaved Christian.

abstract: Paul’s ritual demand that gentiles turn from images of their ancestral gods (so-called idols) is a staple in scholarly accounts of his gentile mission. It is so widely accepted that the very fact of it is not often considered. The result is that a basic observation among scholars of early Judaism has gone unrecognized as a puzzle for the study of Paul: early Jews did not generally expect, much less demand, that gentiles turn from their images. Why should Paul be any different? In this article, I outline five examples in Jewish texts where gentiles are indeed depicted as turning from their images: resident aliens, righteous gentiles, Noachides, proselytes, and eschatological gentiles. In each case, I trace similarities and differences to Paul’s pneumatic gentiles as yet another option on offer. In so doing, I propose a range of possibilities in early Judaism for when, and for whom, idolatry is idolatry.

abstract below

i was elated to hear that my article, “When Is Idolatry Idolatry? Paul’s Pneumatic Pagans among Other Possibilities in Early Judaism,” was accepted for publication in Harvard Theological Review!

coming early 2027 to a journal near you

The new JECS editor @emuehlbe.bsky.social is on 🔥🔥🔥 the next issue has been sent to press (with an exciting piece in line from @isaactsoon.bsky.social on deck!). Stay tuned!

Ethnic Stereotypes and the Letters of Paul Cambridge Core - Biblical Studies - New Testament - Ethnic Stereotypes and the Letters of Paul

Available now in Open Access — free to browse and download. I’m thrilled that this book is finally seeing the light of day. It’s been quite the journey. Many thanks to all the friends and colleagues who helped me along the way!

My dissertation proposal (tentatively titled "Invisible Hands: Despotic Fiction and Enslaved Labor in Early Rabbinic Literature") has been approved! Time to keep reading and writing. Also time to submit a condensed version of my work to SBL for November.

*gasp* this sounds fascinating!

paging @chancebonar.bsky.social @isaactsoon.bsky.social @candidamoss.bsky.social 👀

this is fantastic news! congrats, Maia!

huge thanks to @isaactsoon.bsky.social and @chancebonar.bsky.social for helping me get my head around the project, and to @candidamoss.bsky.social for the kind invitation to present it.

for those looking for a temporary reprieve from *waves hands at everything*, i’ll be giving a paper on a new project at birmingham’s biblical studies seminar on 18 Feb at 11am ET.

the paper’s entitled, “the enslaved seer: slavery and literate labour in the book of revelation.” DM for the zoom link!

screenshot of the first page of proofs for my forthcoming NTS article, "The Politics of Paul's Image Parodies: Material Epiphany, Human-Divine Reciprocity, and Social Power." Abstract: "Early Jewish parodies of ancient Mediterranean cult images have long been taken as a point of categorical difference between Jews and non‘-Jews. The basic logic can be stated with maximal brevity: Jews were ‘aniconic’, indeed ‘anti-idolic’, while Greeks and Romans were iconic. When it comes to the question of so-called ‘idolatry’ and Jewish polemics against it, Jews were ostensibly ‘unique’ within the wider world of ancient Mediterranean religion. In this article, I interrogate such claims specifically as they relate to the apostle Paul, as one such Jewish polemicist who wrote to a predominantly gentile audience well accustomed to image piety and sensitive to its internal politics. I argue that early Jewish image parodies, including Paul’s own, are better understood to be situated within an iconopolitical strategy of cultural production that was otherwise common among Greeks and Romans, no less than Jews. By caricaturing cult images as non-existent, disabled or dead, it is my contention that Paul operated within and innovated upon a widespread tradition of ancient Mediterranean image politics, which configured social power relations between humans and their gods by abducting, mutilating or destroying their images, and that Paul’s parodies were intelligible and recognisable as such among his gentile followers. After outlining the comparative problems of ‘idolatry’, I draw from classical and art-historical scholarship to theorise the epiphanic and reciprocal dynamics of images in ancient Mediterranean religion, and then redescribe Jewish image parodies in Paul’s letters as operating within these same dynamics in the very process of polemicising against them."

PROOFS DAY

i'm still a bit bewildered this paper won the achtemeier. i've presented its basic content so often that it feels slightly old to me. i'm just glad it's finally coming out so i don't need to present it or write about it anymore! but i hope someone else out there finds some use in it.

you are a wonder

me too! me too! im developing an upper level undergrad seminar for next year on magic and medicine in early christianity, and Shaily’s work will ofc be all over it.

why can’t it be both 💫

SOMEONE PUT THIS GUY ON A TENURE TRACK ALREADY HE CANNOT BE STOPPED

CONGRATS!

heyyooooo CONGRATS PROF MOSS

a picture of a man with glasses and a mustache is surrounded by water Alt: a GIF of rotating spheres of a man’s face with glasses and a mustache is surrounded by water

more like

Just needed to see these three wonderful people’s names on the cover to know I needed to pick this book up. Looking forward to digging into this.

www.fortresspress.com/store/produc...

Picture of the box of author’s copies of my new book, _Smoke & Mirrors_.

OMG look what was on my doorstep! i haven’t seen the print version yet, but it’s prettier than i expected!!

Literate Workers and the Production of Early Christian Literature Cambridge Core - History of Religion - Literate Workers and the Production of Early Christian Literature

My short Elements book "Literate Workers and the Production of Early Christian Literature" is now available on Cambridge Core. It was a lot of fun to learn from the exciting scholarship that's been happening and I hope that it's a useful resource for people. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

congrats Prof Davies! very well deserved

right back atcha, @jeremiahcoogan.bsky.social!

ding ding ding! quite right good sir

Paul within Paganism: Restoring the Mediterranean Context to the Apostle Leading and rising scholars introduce a burgeoning new approach to the study of Paul, which situates the Jewish apostle to gentiles within the wider world of ancient Mediterranean religion.

It also appears in the offshoot from the PWJ school known as Paul Within Paganism (PWP). Adam's analysis would lead one to think that PWP must be somehow at odds with PWJ, but in fact these are two complementary programs of analysis. Many scholars overlap. www.fortresspress.com/store/produc...

by which i mean JAJ