Publications
For Everyone
Books
The Man Who Wrote the Bible: How an Exiled Scribe Created the World’s Most Famous Text and Changed the Course of History (forthcoming)
When teaching the Bible to students and general public, I have been often asked, “So who wrote it, when, where, and why?” The reason these questions keep popping up is obvious: the Bible is one of the best known and most influential texts in human history, yet its origins are for the most part shrouded in mystery. This is especially true of the grand historical narrative that stretches from the book of Genesis through the book of Kings and forms the Bible’s backbone. In this book, I marshal my vast expertise as a biblical scholar to explain when, where, and why this narrative was written, tentatively identify its author, and, in fictionalized form, tell the dramatic, and ultimately tragic story of his life.
Wrong Track: Why Modern Scholarship Has Nothing Useful to Say about the Bible’s Origins (forthcoming)
For more than three centuries, biblical scholars have tried to figure out how the Bible’s core historical narrative in Genesis through Kings came into being. However, all such attempts have ended in abject failure. Here, I trace this failure to the shared assumption that Genesis-Kings must be a work of multiple hands because it is self-contradictory, repetitive, and unfocused; essentially, it is a hodgepodge of documents, sources, and editorial additions. My book demonstrates that many of the supposed glitches in the biblical text can be resolved without speculating about multiple authors or editors. What is even more important, even with genuinely baffling cases such speculation does not lead anywhere. The only way out of the dead end is to regard Genesis-Kings as an integral composition created at one go.
Articles
“How Old Is the Song of Deborah?”
In many books and encyclopedias, you will read that the Song of Deborah in chapter 5 of the book of Judges is one of the oldest surviving texts in Hebrew: it was supposedly written centuries earlier than any other part of the Bible. The two articles discuss the Song’s language, content, and message to argue that in fact it was created as a part and parcel of Judges and the so-called Deuteronomistic History (Deuteronomy through Kings).
Exodus 4:24-26 is one of the most enigmatic episodes in the entire Bible. It raises a myriad questions: Whom did the deity seek to kill? Whose legs did Zipporah touch? To whom did she speak? What provoked the attack – especially given that Moses was seemingly acting in accordance with the divine will? What saved the child – the circumcision, the act of touching the legs, Zipporah’s pronouncement, all of the above, or perhaps none of it – and why? Why did Zipporah – rather than Moses – spring into action? And what is the connection between circumcision, blood (which may or may not be that of circumcision), and the in-law relationship between two families presupposed by the term hatan, ‘in-law, bridegroom’? I help the readers to make sense of the obscure piece by drawing parallels between Exodus 4:24-26 and other biblical texts.
“The Embarrassing Case of the Blasphemer: Did God Really Want Him Dead?”
Even today, blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in many parts of the world. Some of those who want it outlawed and even punished by death point to Leviticus 24:10-16 where a man is stoned for blaspheming against Israel’s God. But did the deity really want the supposed offender dead? And would Moses even bring this case before God today? After taking a careful look at the way the biblical story is told and its immediate and larger context, I answer both questions with a resounding “No.”
For Scholars and Clergy
Books
The Turn of the Cycle: 1 Samuel 1-8 in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004.
Judges (Forms of Old Testament Literature 6b)
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013
Partners with God: Critical and Theological Readings of the Bible in Honor of Marvin A. Sweeney. Claremont: CST Press, 2017 (edited with Shelley L. Birdsong)
Articles and Chapters (peer-reviewed)
“Defending the Indefensible: JoAnna Hoyt and Repentance in Judges” (with M. Stetckevich)
Hebrew Studies 2021 (in press)
“Why Centralization?”
Lexington Theological Quarterly 49 (2019), pp. 39-55
“The Poverty of Parallels: Reading Judges 19 with Ezekiel 16 via the Song of Songs”
Judges, Gender, and Intertextuality (in press)
“Psalms: Sitz im Leben vs. Sitz in der Literatur”
Petitioners, Penitents, and Poets: On Prayer and Praying in Second Temple Judaism (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020), pp. 43-67
“Synchronic Readings of Joshua-Kings”
The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 339-352
“Repentance in Judges: Assessing the Reassessment” (with M. Stetckevich)
Hebrew Studies 60 (2019), pp. 129-39
“The Cup Does Not Run Over: Political Theology in the Hebrew Bible”
T&T Clark Companion to Political Theology (London: T&T Clark, 2019), pp. 47-60
“Introduction” (with Shelley L. Birdsong)
Partners with God: Critical and Theological Readings of the Bible in Honor of Marvin A. Sweeney (Claremont: CST Press, 2017), pp. 1-12
“Is Form Criticism Compatible with Diachronic Exegesis? Rethinking Genesis 1-2 after Knierim and Sweeney”
Partners with God: Critical and Theological Readings of the Bible in Honor of Marvin A. Sweeney (Claremont: CST Press, 2017), pp. 13-26
“Structure, Genre, and Rhetoric of the Enneateuch”
Vestnik SPbSU. Philosophy and Conflict Studies 33/3 (2017), pp. 354-363
“Patriarch on the Couch: Psychology in Feminist Exegesis”
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect, Vol. 3: Methods (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2016), pp. 181-198
“The Rings of the Lord: Assessing Symmetric Structuring in Numbers and Judges”
Vetus Testamentum 66 (2016), pp. 15-44
“The Comeback of Comebacks: David, Bathsheba, and the Prophets in the Song of Songs”
On Prophets, Warriors, and Kings: Former and Latter Prophets through the Eyes of Their Interpreters (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), pp. 41-64
“‘And They Will Be Yours for Corvée and Serve You’: Forced Labor in the Hebrew Bible, Modern Americas, and Twentieth-Century Communist States”
La Violencia and the People’s Life: Politics, Culture, and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2016), pp. 163-184
“Sisera Unfastened: The Meaning of Judges 4:21aγ” (with A. Frolov)
Biblische Notizen 165 (2015), pp. 55-61
“The Death of Moses and the Fate of Source Criticism”
Journal of Biblical Literature 133 (2014), pp. 648-660
“The Case of Joshua”
Deuteronomy-Kings as Emerging Authoritative Books (Atlanta: SBL, 2014), pp. 83-100
“Sleeping with the Enemy: Recent Scholarship on Sexuality in the Book of Judges”
Currents in Biblical Research 11 (2013), pp. 308-327
“Diversity, Justice, and the Bible for Grown-Ups”
God Loves Diversity and Justice: Progressive Scholars Speak about Faith, Politics, and the World. Lexington Books, 2013, pp. 147-159
“Judah Comes to Shiloh: Gen 49:10bα, One More Time”
Journal of Biblical Literature 131 (2012), pp. 417-422.
“How Old is the Song of Deborah?”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 36 (2011), pp. 163-184
“Sarah, Rebekah, and the Unchangeable Ruble: An Unrecognized Folkloric Parallel to the ‘Wife-Sister’ Stories in Genesis”
Biblische Notizen 150 (2011), pp. 3-7
“Homeric and Ancient Near Eastern Intertextuality in 1 Samuel 17” (with A. Wright)
Journal of Biblical Literature 130 (2011), pp. 451-471
“‘Certain Men’ in Judges and Samuel: A Rejoinder to Mark Leuchter”
Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73 (2011), pp. 251-264
“1 Samuel 1-8: The Prophet as Agent Provocateur”
Constructs of Prophecy in the Former and Latter Prophets and Other Texts (Atlanta: SBL, 2011), pp. 71-79
“Rethinking Judges”
Catholic Biblical Quarterly 71 (2009), pp. 24-41
“Joshua’s Double Demise: Making Sense of a Repetition”
Vetus Testamentum 58 (2008), pp. 315-323
“Reclaiming the Vineyard: The “Rebellious Tenants” Story as a Political Allegory”
The Impartial God (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2007), pp. 23-35
“Evil-Merodach and the Deuteronomist: The Sociohistorical Setting of Dtr in the Light of 2 Kgs 25,27-30”
Biblica 88 (2007), pp. 174-190
“The Semiotics of Covert Action in 1 Samuel 9-10”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31.4 (2007), pp. 429-450
“Fire, Smoke, and Judah in Judges: A Response to Gregory Wong”
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 21 (2007), pp. 127-138
“Bedan: A Riddle in Context”
Journal of Biblical Literature 126 (2007), pp. 164-167
“Man of God and the Deuteronomist: Anti-Deuteronomistic Polemics in 1 Sam 2:27-36”
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 20 (2006), pp. 58-76
“Is the Narrator Also Among the Prophets? Reading Zechariah without Presuppositions”
Biblical Interpretation 13 (2005), pp. 13-40
“The Prophecy of Jeremiah in Ezra 1,1”
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 116 (2004), pp. 595-601
“Succession Narrative: A ‘Document’ or a Phantom?”
Journal of Biblical Literature 121 (2002), pp. 81-104
“Two Eunuchs, Two Conspiracies, and One Loyal Jew: The Story of Botched Regicide in Esther as Text- and Redaction-Critical Test Case”
Vetus Testamentum 52 (2002), pp. 304-325
“The Other Side of the Jabbok: Genesis 32 as a Fiasco of Patriarchy”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 91 (2000), pp. 41-59
“David in Jerusalem” (with V. Orel)
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 111 (1999), pp. 609-615
“‘King’s Law’ of the Temple Scroll: Mishnaic Aspects”
Journal of Jewish Studies 50 (1999), pp. 298-307
“Returning the Ticket: God and His Prophet in the Book of Jonah”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 86 (1999), pp. 85-105
“No Return for Shulammite: Reflections on Cant 7, 1”
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 110 (1998), pp.256-258
“Gods of Israel: The Religious Pluralism in the Times of Saul and David” (with V.Orel)
Bibbia e Oriente 191 (1997), pp. 21-39
“Merneptah’s Israel and the Horite Genealogy in Gen 36: 20-30”
Aula Orientalis 13 (1997), pp. 203-209
“Exegetica 1-2” (with V. Orel)
Vestnik drevnej istorii 1997, pp. 111-121 (in Russian)
“The Hero as Bloody Bridegroom: On the Meaning and Origin of Exodus 4, 26”
Biblica 77 (1996), pp. 520-523
“The House of YHWH” (with V. Orel)
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 108 (1996), pp. 254-257
“Was the Lad a Lad? On the Interpretation of 1 Sam 1: 24” (with V. Orel)
Biblische Notizen 81 (1996), pp. 5-7
“Isaac Unbound” (with V. Orel)
Biblische Zeitschrift 40 (1996), pp. 84-91
“Rizpah on the Rock: Notes on 2 Sam 21: 1-14” (with V. Orel)
Bibbia e Oriente 185 (1995), pp. 145-154
“A Nameless City” (with V. Orel)
Jewish Bible Quarterly 23 (1995), pp. 252-256
“‘Days of Shiloh’ in the Kingdom of Israel”
Biblica 76 (1995), pp. 210-218
“On the Meaning of 2 Samuel 9.1” (with V. Orel)
Biblische Notizen 73 (1994), pp. 31-32