FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
“Dice, Stars and Names: Women and Technical Divination in the Dead Sea Scrolls”
Research article published in Journal of Ancient Judaism (2021)
Volume 12, Issue 12, Pages 48-70
Abstract: Recent studies demonstrate the Dead Sea Scrolls attest to a wide variety of methods of technical divination. While scholars have analyzed these techniques, women’s involvement in them has not been addressed. I argue that by choosing a methodological perspective that allows women’s presence in the texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide an important witness to women’s involvement in various divinatory techniques. By focusing on three avenues to inquire about the divine will: the oracle of the lot, astronomy, and physiognomy, I suggest that apart from being objects of these methods, women were involved in their practice. Women’s participation in technical divinatory techniques is the most noticeable in inquiries that concern their own bodies and matters related to procreation.
Belshazzar's Feast, by Rembrandt (Wikipedia Commons)
“Reading God’s Will? Function and Status of Oracle Interpreters in Ancient Jewish and Greek Texts”
Research article published in Dead Sea Discoveries (2017)
Volume 24, Issue 3, Pages 424–446
Abstract: There is a rising scholarly consensus that consulting the divine will did not altogether cease in the Second Temple period. Rather, it took different forms, and one was consulting the divine will via existing texts. Meanwhile, the identity of such interpreters remains unclear. This paper explores the possible identities of interpreters by comparing the figures that interpret Jewish oracles with the chresmologoi that appear in ancient Greek compositions. Such a comparison provides new insights into the divinatory use of written oracles. The interpreters of the Jewish and Greek texts operated at least partly in similar ways. While their methods of interrogating the oracles are somewhat alike, Jewish interpreters enjoyed a status similar to that of prophetic figures, whereas Greek interpreters operated more independently and without a similarly evident divine mandate.
“Magi(cians) in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Greek Literature”
Book Chapter in Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean: Cognitive, Historical, and Material Perspectives on the Bible and Its contexts (ed. Kirsi Valkama, Hanne von Weissenberg & Nina Nikki; Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society 110; Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society, 2016)
Excerpt: The term magos appears frequently in the Ancient Greek texts. This term can be translated in many ways. It may refer to an ethnic group who seeks to determine god's will, i. e., practise divination. Sometimes the term points to characters that more distinctly practice magic. Figures who practice magic and divination also appear in the Hebrew Bible. These include the magicians operating at Pharaoh's court mentioned in the first chapters of Exodus (Exod 7-8) and Daniel (Dan 1:20), the enchanters. In this article I compare the magoi of the ancient Greek texts to the enchanters of the Hebrew Bible, and ask to what extent the characters correspond to each other.
“‘Let us cast lots, so that we may know’ (Jonah 1:7): Oracle of Lot as a Ritual-like Activity in Ancient Jewish Texts”
Research article published in Biblical Interpretation (2021)
Volume 30, Issue 3, Pages 329-350
Co-authored with Kyle Schofield
Abstract: This article seeks to push further scholarly interest and discussion about the ancient Jewish use of the oracle of lot, which has historically been hindered by its categorization as a divinatory method, by including ritual into its categorization. This article explores the ways in which the oracle of lot, as portrayed in Jewish literature, can be categorized under Catharine Bell’s description of ritual-like activity. First, the article gives a general overview of the methods, materials, and functions that the oracle of lot had in the ancient world. Following this discussion, we move on to four case studies where we examine the ritual-like characteristics of the oracle of lot as attested in four Jewish texts: 1 Samuel 14, Jonah 1, Esther 3, and the Community Rule (1QS).
