SBL added its endorsement to the ACLS statement condemning Anti-Asian violence. The ACLS statement responds to acts of hate and xenophobia against Asian persons by encouraging scholarship that treats the historical past and considers methods of supporting anti-racism. Read more about the ACLS statement here).

The Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession is in search of the recipient of the next Outstanding Mentor Award. Nominations of women who have been exceptional role models to other women are welcome. Nomination letters are due 1 May 2021. Learn more this award here).

This volume lays out the charged, complicated beginnings of the independent Jewish state founded by the Maccabees in the second century BCE. Contributors offer focused analyses of the archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and textual evidence, framed within a wider world of conflicts between the Ptolemies of Egypt, the Seleucids of Syria, and the Romans. The result is a holistic view of the Hasmonean rise to power that acknowledges broader political developments, evolving social responses, and the particularities of local history.

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With the Loyal You Show Yourself Loyal: Essays on Relationships in the Hebrew Bible in Honor of Saul M. Olyan

T. M. Lemos, Jordan D. Rosenblum, Karen B. Stern, and Debra Scoggins Ballentine, editors

Contributors to this volume come together to honor the lifetime of work of Saul M. Olyan, Samuel Ungerleider Jr. Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. Essays by his students, colleagues, and friends focus on and engage with his work on relationships in the Hebrew Bible, from the marking of status in relationships of inequality, to human family, friend, and sexual relationships, to relationships between divine beings.

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Rhetoric and Scripture: Collected Essays of Thomas H. Olbricht

Lauri Thurén, editor

This book offers a unique overview of the development of rhetorical criticism both in North America and internationally through the work of pioneering New Testament scholar Thomas H. Olbricht. Nineteen essays cover four areas related to rhetorical criticism: the history of biblical rhetorical analysis, the rhetorical analysis of biblical texts, the characteristics of rhetorical analysis, and types of biblical rhetorical criticism. A foreword by Lauri Thurén and a memorial essay by Carl R. Holladay contextualize Olbricht’s work. Anyone interested in the rhetorical study of the New Testament will find this volume inspiring and informative.

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New from Brown Judaic Studies

Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 1

Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, editor

Rabbinic literature includes hundreds of stories and brief narrative traditions. These narrative traditions often take the form of biographical anecdotes that recount a deed or event in the life of a rabbi. Modern scholars consider these narratives as didactic fictions—stories used to teach lessons, promote rabbinic values, and grapple with the tensions and conflicts of rabbinic life. Using methods drawn from literary and cultural theory, including feminist, structuralist, Marxist, and psychoanalytic methods, contributors analyze narratives from the Babylonian Talmud, midrash, Mishnah, and other rabbinic compilations to shed light on their meanings, functions, and narrative art.

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