Research interests:
My area of expertise is the Bible, primarily the Hebrew Bible, and Second Temple period Judaism. I am most interested in theological and ethical questions raised by the Bible. Recently, I have become increasingly interested in the intersection of gender with theology and ethics in the Bible and especially in early exegetical literature. Secondarily, I am interested in the impact of Hellenistic culture on early Judaism.
My first book, Theologies in Conflict in 4 Ezra: Wisdom Debate and Apocalyptic Solution, offers a new interpretation of 4 Ezra that mediates between the two dominant critical approaches of the latter half of the twentieth century: the first reading the dialogues between Ezra and Uriel as a reflection of theological debates in the author's time, and the second focusing on the psychological development of the protagonist. I argue that the inconclusive quality of the dialogues indicates the author's dissatisfaction with Uriel's attempts at a rational theodicy. Ezra's subsequent transformation points to the symbolic visions as the locus of the author's apocalyptic solution to the theological problems raised in the dialogues.
My current research is on the development of the metaphor of childbirth from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament. Childbirth has a predominantly negative connotation when used as a metaphor in the Hebrew Bible, but has a broader and more often positive range of meanings in the New Testament. I am looking at texts, primarily Jewish but also Greco-Roman, written in the period from approximately 300 b.c.e. to 100 c.e., to try to determine why and how this shift in the metaphor’s meaning took place.
Recent and forthcoming publications:
“The Meanings of tôrâ in 4 Ezra.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 38 (2007): 530–552.
Theologies in Conflict in 4 Ezra: Wisdom Debate and Apocalyptic Solution. JSJSup 130. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
“Fourth Ezra.” Dictionary of Early Judaism. Ed. John J. Collins and Daniel Harlow. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans: forthcoming in 2009.
Introduction and commentary on 4 Ezra in The Lost Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Outside of Scripture. Ed. Louis Feldman, James Kugel and Lawrence Schiffman. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, forthcoming.
“Elusive Wisdom and the Other Nations in Baruch.” In The Other in Second Temple Judaism: Festschrift for John J. Collins. Ed. Matthew Goff, Daniel Harlow, Karina Martin Hogan and Joel Kaminsky. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming.
Faculty Fellowship: Fall 2008
Assistant Professor