I recently published a commentary on the book of Ben Sira in the Jewish Annotated Apocrypha. As a result of that, I was invited by Rabbi Drew Kaplan to appear on his podcast series, "Jewish Drinking." Before this appearance, I had never much … [Continue reading] about Ben Sira and Wine
Josephus’s Knowledge of Scripture
In my book, How the Bible Became Holy, I suggested that both Josephus and Paul should be seen in a similar light: Jews from Jerusalem who, like many in their class, were brought up with little knowledge of Hebrew or Scripture, and whose first real … [Continue reading] about Josephus’s Knowledge of Scripture
Sirach vs. Ben Sira
The Book of Ben Sira was written in Hebrew by a Jewish scribe around 180 BCE. Jews (well, the Jews who could read) read and ascribed authority to it until the early Middle Ages. The Cairo Geniza contains several manuscript copies. And then it kind … [Continue reading] about Sirach vs. Ben Sira
Jewish Studies by the Numbers
With Alex Berry, I have launched a new web project that analyzes journals in Jewish studies. You can view the site here, where you can see many different ways of visualizing and interacting with the data. What does it all mean? You tell us! … [Continue reading] about Jewish Studies by the Numbers
The Rabbinic Citation Network
In a previous post, I shared some work that Mike Sperling and I were doing to visualize and analyze the rabbinic citation network in the Babylonian Talmud, that is, who cited whom. I am very pleased to announce that we have just released our … [Continue reading] about The Rabbinic Citation Network