I'm a PhD candidate in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity. I focus on Gospels, ancient book cultures, early Jewish and early Christian biblical interpretation, ecstatic prophecy, and women in antiquity. Supervisors: David Lincicum
Many interpreters have observed allusions to Elijah and Elisha in the signs of the Gospel of John... more Many interpreters have observed allusions to Elijah and Elisha in the signs of the Gospel of John. Older studies typically evaluated the parallels to determine either John's use of a signs source, the provenance of the Gospel, or the Christology of early Christian communities. But several recent studies taking a more narrative-oriented approach have asked what kind of Christology is generated when one reads the signs in light of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha. They have generally concluded that the resulting prophetic Christology functions as a steppingstone toward higher Christologies. However, on the intertextual reading of this article, the prophetic Christology relates to other Christologies not as a steppingstone but on the terms of the theology of prophecy from Kings: the signs of Jesus validate his prophetic authority, and Jesus takes up not only the role of Elijah and Elisha but also the role of the prophets' God.
David Winston distinguishes two types of Mosaic prophecy in Philo's De vita Mosis, noetic and ecs... more David Winston distinguishes two types of Mosaic prophecy in Philo's De vita Mosis, noetic and ecstatic. Noetic prophecy, which corresponds to Moses's delivery of the special laws, is active and rational. Ecstatic prophecy, which corresponds to Moses's predictive prophecies, is passive and irrational, though while some Greek authors view ecstasy in terms of a total possession by the god, Philo takes a more moderate view that can also be found in Plutarch. Winston's appeal to Plutarch is the basis of this paper. It explores ecstasy in Plutarch's two dialogues on the Pythian oracle and applies Plutarch's categories to Mosaic prophecy in De vita Mosis. Under the light of Plutarch, noetic prophecy is actually passive, and ecstatic prophecy is actually active.
In 1 Tim 2, the author claims that Eve alone was deceived, not Adam, yet women can be saved throu... more In 1 Tim 2, the author claims that Eve alone was deceived, not Adam, yet women can be saved through childbirth. In Or. 37, Gregory of Nazianzus construes Gen 3 differently, that both Eve and Adam were deceived and that both will be saved in the same manner. This article considers whether Gregory performs a subtly transgressive rewriting of 1 Timothy. To corroborate that Gregory is engaging 1 Timothy, rather than disregarding it, the article surveys early Christian reception of 1 Tim 2:14 through the lens of Elizabeth A. Clark's categories of ascetic reading, and it explores how women function in Gregory's corpus and how his own interpretive principles could render a transgressive rewriting intelligible. It concludes that Gregory may be transgressing 1 Timothy after the pattern of Jesus transgressing the Mosaic law on divorce, a spiritual transgression.
This article explores meanings floating in the space between John 21:15–19 and 2 Kgs 2:1–18. Agai... more This article explores meanings floating in the space between John 21:15–19 and 2 Kgs 2:1–18. Against the background of Kings, the threefold conversation between Jesus and Peter in John 21 functions as a loyalty test in a prophetic succession-Jesus passes on his prophetic role to Peter after the pattern of Elijah and Elisha. Against the background of the Gospel, the threefold conversation between Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kgs 2 functions as a restoration, which suggests that Elisha may be the unnamed prophet in 1 Kgs 19:3. These experimental intertextual readings provoke a reassessment of prophecy in the Gospel, provide interpretive insights into the Farewell Discourse (John 13–17), and open up a metaleptic possibility: reading the Gospel might be like coming upon the cloak of Elijah along the riverbank, freshly fallen from heaven, and hearing the invitation to pick it up and strike the water.
Different translations of Plutarch's De Pythiae oraculis 404B reflect an interpretative difficult... more Different translations of Plutarch's De Pythiae oraculis 404B reflect an interpretative difficulty not yet adequately thematized by exegetes. Plutarch's dialogues on the Delphic oracle describe two perspectives on mantic inspiration: possession prophecy, where the god takes over the prophetess as a passive apparatus, and stimulation prophecy, where the god incites the prophecy, but the prophetess delivers the oracle through her own faculties. Plutarch understands the Pythia at Delphi to exhibit stimulation prophecy, not possession. One of his metaphors for inspiration comes from the theatre: the god ‘puts the oracle into the Pythia's mouth, like an actor speaking through the mask’ (De Pyth. or. 404B [Russell]). Some translators take the metaphor as describing possession prophecy (Goodwin), while others take it as stimulation prophecy (Babbitt)—in other words, it may describe the view Plutarch affirms or the view he rejects. This article assesses the two alternatives, concluding that the theatre metaphor describes possession prophecy.
Wayne Meeks argues that Philo's presentation of Moses as king, prophet, and priest in De vita Mos... more Wayne Meeks argues that Philo's presentation of Moses as king, prophet, and priest in De vita Mosis may reflect the traditions lying behind the Fourth Gospel's depiction of Jesus as both prophet and king. This article proposes more specific parallels between the prophetic roles in De vita Mosis and the Gospel. First, the water miracle at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11) has substantial similarities to Philo's rewriting of Moses's water miracles in the wilderness (Mos. 1.181-213) that are not shared by the LXX (Exod 15, 17). Second, both the Gospel and Philo assign to the prophetic office a close proximity to the divine. Third, in both the Gospel and Philo, the prophet is a heavenly revealer who returns to the Father. Philo thus helps explain Jesus's prophetic role in the Fourth Gospel, not simply regarding the merging of prophet with king, but also regarding the particular form that prophecy takes.
Interpreters commonly designate two phrases in Jubilees, "the book of the first law" (6:22) and "... more Interpreters commonly designate two phrases in Jubilees, "the book of the first law" (6:22) and "the words of the law" (30:12), as explicit references to the already written Pentateuch that thus transparently acknowledge the historical context of its own production. However, these supposedly earthly writings are penned by the angel, and interpreters identifying them as already existing Torah seem to equivocate about whether they belong to an earthly or heavenly corpus. Supplementing the work of David Lambert, this article argues that the phrases can be coherently construed as references to heavenly writing, the archetype based on which Moses writes Torah. They therefore harmonize with the putative context of Sinai revelation, rather than compromising it. And the resulting absence of any explicit reference to the Pentateuch can be comprehended in light of Jubilees's strategies for claiming authority. Determining the referents of these two phrases is consequential for our understanding of Mosaic pseudepigraphy more broadly.
John 2:17 quotes Ps 68:10: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Interpreters disagree about whe... more John 2:17 quotes Ps 68:10: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Interpreters disagree about whether consume portrays Jesus’s zeal overwhelming him during the temple incident or leading to his death. They also disagree about whether John alludes metaleptically to the whole psalm, especially the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Ps 68:36–37. This article argues that consume portrays Jesus’s death. It substantiates that John alludes to the whole psalm, not only the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 68:36–37, but also the table becoming a trap and the pouring out of wrath in 68:23, 25. These echoes suggest that Jesus embodies the judgment of God in the temple incident, the suffering of the psalmist in his death, and the restoration of Jerusalem in his resurrection. The story from the Psalter is thus reconfigured in the temple incident: God rebuilds the forsaken city by identifying with Israel’s exile in the crucified body of Jesus. https://brill.com/view/journals/hbth/43/1/article-p70_4.xml
Celebrated travel author Rick Steves recently visited the Yale Divinity School to share his persp... more Celebrated travel author Rick Steves recently visited the Yale Divinity School to share his perspectives on travel as a political and spiritual act. Travel, Rick explained, can profoundly shape our attitudes toward global affairs. In his view, encountering the people and places that will be affected by our political stances has an everlasting effect on our understanding of the world. I spoke with Rick on the phone to follow up on his lecture. https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/travel-as-a-political-and-spiritual-act-a-conversation-with-rick-steves
Stephen D. Moore has been a key contributor to (post-)poststructuralist biblical scholarship for ... more Stephen D. Moore has been a key contributor to (post-)poststructuralist biblical scholarship for several decades, and this book reflects his and others' turn toward affect and animality. It is a collection of essays that perform close readings of the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. His goal, he explains in "Introduction (and Conclusion): Posts Passed, Turns Taken" (1-14), is to defamiliarize these early Christian texts by rereading their Jesuses, and their Holy Ghost, through the lens of what he terms nonhuman theory, which challenges post-Enlightenment reflection on the human, and in light of our ecological crises. https://www.sblcentral.org/API/Reviews/11922_72057.pdf
Many interpreters have observed allusions to Elijah and Elisha in the signs of the Gospel of John... more Many interpreters have observed allusions to Elijah and Elisha in the signs of the Gospel of John. Older studies typically evaluated the parallels to determine either John's use of a signs source, the provenance of the Gospel, or the Christology of early Christian communities. But several recent studies taking a more narrative-oriented approach have asked what kind of Christology is generated when one reads the signs in light of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha. They have generally concluded that the resulting prophetic Christology functions as a steppingstone toward higher Christologies. However, on the intertextual reading of this article, the prophetic Christology relates to other Christologies not as a steppingstone but on the terms of the theology of prophecy from Kings: the signs of Jesus validate his prophetic authority, and Jesus takes up not only the role of Elijah and Elisha but also the role of the prophets' God.
David Winston distinguishes two types of Mosaic prophecy in Philo's De vita Mosis, noetic and ecs... more David Winston distinguishes two types of Mosaic prophecy in Philo's De vita Mosis, noetic and ecstatic. Noetic prophecy, which corresponds to Moses's delivery of the special laws, is active and rational. Ecstatic prophecy, which corresponds to Moses's predictive prophecies, is passive and irrational, though while some Greek authors view ecstasy in terms of a total possession by the god, Philo takes a more moderate view that can also be found in Plutarch. Winston's appeal to Plutarch is the basis of this paper. It explores ecstasy in Plutarch's two dialogues on the Pythian oracle and applies Plutarch's categories to Mosaic prophecy in De vita Mosis. Under the light of Plutarch, noetic prophecy is actually passive, and ecstatic prophecy is actually active.
In 1 Tim 2, the author claims that Eve alone was deceived, not Adam, yet women can be saved throu... more In 1 Tim 2, the author claims that Eve alone was deceived, not Adam, yet women can be saved through childbirth. In Or. 37, Gregory of Nazianzus construes Gen 3 differently, that both Eve and Adam were deceived and that both will be saved in the same manner. This article considers whether Gregory performs a subtly transgressive rewriting of 1 Timothy. To corroborate that Gregory is engaging 1 Timothy, rather than disregarding it, the article surveys early Christian reception of 1 Tim 2:14 through the lens of Elizabeth A. Clark's categories of ascetic reading, and it explores how women function in Gregory's corpus and how his own interpretive principles could render a transgressive rewriting intelligible. It concludes that Gregory may be transgressing 1 Timothy after the pattern of Jesus transgressing the Mosaic law on divorce, a spiritual transgression.
This article explores meanings floating in the space between John 21:15–19 and 2 Kgs 2:1–18. Agai... more This article explores meanings floating in the space between John 21:15–19 and 2 Kgs 2:1–18. Against the background of Kings, the threefold conversation between Jesus and Peter in John 21 functions as a loyalty test in a prophetic succession-Jesus passes on his prophetic role to Peter after the pattern of Elijah and Elisha. Against the background of the Gospel, the threefold conversation between Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kgs 2 functions as a restoration, which suggests that Elisha may be the unnamed prophet in 1 Kgs 19:3. These experimental intertextual readings provoke a reassessment of prophecy in the Gospel, provide interpretive insights into the Farewell Discourse (John 13–17), and open up a metaleptic possibility: reading the Gospel might be like coming upon the cloak of Elijah along the riverbank, freshly fallen from heaven, and hearing the invitation to pick it up and strike the water.
Different translations of Plutarch's De Pythiae oraculis 404B reflect an interpretative difficult... more Different translations of Plutarch's De Pythiae oraculis 404B reflect an interpretative difficulty not yet adequately thematized by exegetes. Plutarch's dialogues on the Delphic oracle describe two perspectives on mantic inspiration: possession prophecy, where the god takes over the prophetess as a passive apparatus, and stimulation prophecy, where the god incites the prophecy, but the prophetess delivers the oracle through her own faculties. Plutarch understands the Pythia at Delphi to exhibit stimulation prophecy, not possession. One of his metaphors for inspiration comes from the theatre: the god ‘puts the oracle into the Pythia's mouth, like an actor speaking through the mask’ (De Pyth. or. 404B [Russell]). Some translators take the metaphor as describing possession prophecy (Goodwin), while others take it as stimulation prophecy (Babbitt)—in other words, it may describe the view Plutarch affirms or the view he rejects. This article assesses the two alternatives, concluding that the theatre metaphor describes possession prophecy.
Wayne Meeks argues that Philo's presentation of Moses as king, prophet, and priest in De vita Mos... more Wayne Meeks argues that Philo's presentation of Moses as king, prophet, and priest in De vita Mosis may reflect the traditions lying behind the Fourth Gospel's depiction of Jesus as both prophet and king. This article proposes more specific parallels between the prophetic roles in De vita Mosis and the Gospel. First, the water miracle at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11) has substantial similarities to Philo's rewriting of Moses's water miracles in the wilderness (Mos. 1.181-213) that are not shared by the LXX (Exod 15, 17). Second, both the Gospel and Philo assign to the prophetic office a close proximity to the divine. Third, in both the Gospel and Philo, the prophet is a heavenly revealer who returns to the Father. Philo thus helps explain Jesus's prophetic role in the Fourth Gospel, not simply regarding the merging of prophet with king, but also regarding the particular form that prophecy takes.
Interpreters commonly designate two phrases in Jubilees, "the book of the first law" (6:22) and "... more Interpreters commonly designate two phrases in Jubilees, "the book of the first law" (6:22) and "the words of the law" (30:12), as explicit references to the already written Pentateuch that thus transparently acknowledge the historical context of its own production. However, these supposedly earthly writings are penned by the angel, and interpreters identifying them as already existing Torah seem to equivocate about whether they belong to an earthly or heavenly corpus. Supplementing the work of David Lambert, this article argues that the phrases can be coherently construed as references to heavenly writing, the archetype based on which Moses writes Torah. They therefore harmonize with the putative context of Sinai revelation, rather than compromising it. And the resulting absence of any explicit reference to the Pentateuch can be comprehended in light of Jubilees's strategies for claiming authority. Determining the referents of these two phrases is consequential for our understanding of Mosaic pseudepigraphy more broadly.
John 2:17 quotes Ps 68:10: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Interpreters disagree about whe... more John 2:17 quotes Ps 68:10: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Interpreters disagree about whether consume portrays Jesus’s zeal overwhelming him during the temple incident or leading to his death. They also disagree about whether John alludes metaleptically to the whole psalm, especially the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Ps 68:36–37. This article argues that consume portrays Jesus’s death. It substantiates that John alludes to the whole psalm, not only the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 68:36–37, but also the table becoming a trap and the pouring out of wrath in 68:23, 25. These echoes suggest that Jesus embodies the judgment of God in the temple incident, the suffering of the psalmist in his death, and the restoration of Jerusalem in his resurrection. The story from the Psalter is thus reconfigured in the temple incident: God rebuilds the forsaken city by identifying with Israel’s exile in the crucified body of Jesus. https://brill.com/view/journals/hbth/43/1/article-p70_4.xml
Celebrated travel author Rick Steves recently visited the Yale Divinity School to share his persp... more Celebrated travel author Rick Steves recently visited the Yale Divinity School to share his perspectives on travel as a political and spiritual act. Travel, Rick explained, can profoundly shape our attitudes toward global affairs. In his view, encountering the people and places that will be affected by our political stances has an everlasting effect on our understanding of the world. I spoke with Rick on the phone to follow up on his lecture. https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/travel-as-a-political-and-spiritual-act-a-conversation-with-rick-steves
Stephen D. Moore has been a key contributor to (post-)poststructuralist biblical scholarship for ... more Stephen D. Moore has been a key contributor to (post-)poststructuralist biblical scholarship for several decades, and this book reflects his and others' turn toward affect and animality. It is a collection of essays that perform close readings of the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. His goal, he explains in "Introduction (and Conclusion): Posts Passed, Turns Taken" (1-14), is to defamiliarize these early Christian texts by rereading their Jesuses, and their Holy Ghost, through the lens of what he terms nonhuman theory, which challenges post-Enlightenment reflection on the human, and in light of our ecological crises. https://www.sblcentral.org/API/Reviews/11922_72057.pdf
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Articles by Matt Klem
https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/travel-as-a-political-and-spiritual-act-a-conversation-with-rick-steves
Thesis by Matt Klem
Book Reviews by Matt Klem
https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/travel-as-a-political-and-spiritual-act-a-conversation-with-rick-steves