Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies

03/06/2025

Now published! Sarah F. Porter, “Writing to Paul: Using Interactive Fiction to Explore Early Christian Worlds.”

Abstract: “Bringing early Christianity to life” is a worthy goal, but it is worthier when buttressed by more specific learning objectives. A text-based choose-your-own-adventure-style game, Writing to Paul, invites students to explore the first decades of earliest Christianity. In this article, I present the learning objectives achieved by the game: introducing the rich historical context of 50 CE; introducing key teachers and teachings of earliest Christianity; and introducing crucial historiographical questions like “How does one tell history?” I present ethical considerations in both designing and playing the game, such as taking seriously the agency of disenfranchised populations, presenting varieties of early Christianities, and developing historical empathy. Finally, I offer other use cases for using interactive fiction in the religious studies classroom.

Sara Stone, “Oh Poor Jephthah: Jephthah, Jephthah’s Daughter, and Himpathy,” 1–22. KEYWORDS:Judges 11, Jephthah, Jephthah’s Daughter, sympathy, himpathy, herasure This article will explore how the story of Jephthah and his daughter in Judges 11 provides us with a biblical example of himpat...

12/03/2025

We are pleased to announce the publication of our first article of 2025! Go check out Sara Stone's latest, "Oh Poor Jephthah: Jephthah, Jephthah's Daughter, and Himpathy," now available on our website.

Sara Stone [email protected] Judges 11 tells us the story of Jephthah and his daughter, his only child, whom he must sacrifice in order to keep his vow to God. The narrative is written in a way to make the reader feel sympathy for Jephthah which, I argue, communicates a himpathetic mindset. H...

24/10/2024

We are very pleased to announce the publication of a special JIBS issue on Disability and the Bible. Guest edited by Eleanor Vivian, Isaac Soon, and Tom de Bruin, this issue features the following articles:

- Grant Gates, “Davidic Kings with Disability: Illness, Disability, and Ideal Monarchs.”
- Matthew Korpman Matthew J. Korpman, “Epilepsy as Punishment from God: A Disability Reading of 2 and 3 Maccabees."
- Emma Swai , “A Metanarrative of Disability in John 5."
- Grace Emmett and Ryan Collman, “St Paul of the Thorns: A Note on Disability, Visual Criticism, and 2 Cor 2 Corinthians 12:7b–10."

Disability and the Bible  Guest editors: Eleanor Vivian, Isaac Soon and Tom de Bruin Grant F. Gates, “Davidic Kings with Disability: Illness, Disability, and Ideal Monarchs,” 1–20. KEYWORDS: 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Disability Studies, David, Mephibosheth, Asa, Azariah, Hezekiah Royal illn...

07/10/2024

Now published: "Naming as Human Agency in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens" by Clair J. Hutchings-Budd.

Abstract: In Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 comic novel Good Omens, names act as important signifiers of role and function; the act of naming can be an expression of power so strong and significant that it can literally shape reality. Here, I propose a reading of Good Omens that explores human agency through the process of naming. Focusing on the character of Adam Young, who is himself named after the first human described in Genesis, I examine how Good Omens intersects with the cultural inheritance of the Bible, and specifically with literary and popular cultural engagements with Genesis and Revelation. Approaching the novel primarily via its literary and cinematic intertexts, I position Adam Young as a literary construct who in turn names and shapes other beings out of material from his own mental library. Like his namesake, in Genesis to whom God delegated the naming of the animals, I consider how the Adam of Good Omens uses naming to define the world around him and in doing so, asserts his humanity over his supernatural origins.

Alexiana Fry, “Shall I Fear? The Irony of Affective Politics in Judges 19,” 1–15. KEYWORDS: Judges 19, Affect Theory, Fear, Levite, Irony In Judges 19, the Levite from Ephraim, together with his concubine, on their journey back home pass by Jebus and refuse to stay in the hometown of the Jebus...

25/09/2024

Now published: Eric Smith's "There Was a Man Who Had Two Sons: A Parable of Futurity, Reproductivity, Utopia, and Social Death." Don't miss it!

Abstract: Few of the parables found in the gospels have received more attention than the parable of the man with two sons, commonly known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. In this paper, I argue that discourses of q***r futurity can help make new sense of the parable, highlighting its use of family structures and its assumptions about time, and attending to the story’s reflections on the conditions of flourishing. Understood this way, the parable of the man with two sons reads as a debate over bodies, kinship, and possession of the future, and it provokes reflection on the limits that heteronorming structures place on thriving. Read alongside theorists of q***r futurity, the parable of the man with two sons affords at least two possible interpretations. It can be understood as a gesture toward a new horizon, embracing a q***r future free of the constraints of heteronormative reproductivity. But the parable can also be understood as a conservative cautionary tale that insists on temporal reproductive norms and pathologises deviance from full alignment toward a heteroreproductive future.

Alexiana Fry, “Shall I Fear? The Irony of Affective Politics in Judges 19,” 1–15. KEYWORDS: Judges 19, Affect Theory, Fear, Levite, Irony In Judges 19, the Levite from Ephraim, together with his concubine, on their journey back home pass by Jebus and refuse to stay in the hometown of the Jebus...

09/09/2024

New Article Day!🤩 Hot off the virtual presses, it's Jane Sancinito's "Requiring Apologia? Merchants and Artisans in Acts of the Apostles".

Abstract: Christian merchants, artisans, and service providers were explicitly targeted by early critics of the movement, who felt, in line with contemporary prejudices, that such people were dirty, ignorant, and prone to the vices of greed and deceit. Detractors hoped to attack Christianity on two intersecting fronts: that the faith was morally bankrupt and that its faithful were the lowest members of society. Apologists of the 2nd and 3rd centuries denied that Christianity welcomed these workers, emphasizing the virtue of their brothers and sisters. Yet this rejection of commercial and artisanal workers runs counter to the attitudes displayed in the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul and Acts of the Apostles, which largely embraces working people as foundational supporters of the early Jesus movement. This article examines why and how attitudes toward commercial and artisanal workers changed so that a faith that once welcomed professionals later denied them.

Alexiana Fry, “Shall I Fear? The Irony of Affective Politics in Judges 19,” 1–15. KEYWORDS: Judges 19, Affect Theory, Fear, Levite, Irony In Judges 19, the Levite from Ephraim, together with his concubine, on their journey back home pass by Jebus and refuse to stay in the hometown of the Jebus...

05/07/2024

Just published: Esther Brownsmith's "Q***r Futures and Ph***ic Humour in the Book of Esther," the latest article in our Special Issue: Seminal Issues in Biblical Genitalia. Read it here: https://jibs.hcommons.org/volume-5-issue-2/

24/06/2024

We are pleased to announce that Dr Rebekah Welton (University of Exeter) has joined our editorial team! 👏👏

Dr Rebekah Welton is Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at the University of Exeter. She has publications on the roles of animals, food and alcohol in Israelite cultures as well as on retellings of biblical texts in popular visual media, such as video games.

Submit your article at https://jibs.hcommons.org/

03/05/2024

Hooray! Another article published in our latest issue of JIBS! This one really puts the "semen" in Seminal Issues in Biblical Genitalia. Congratulations to Michael Pope for breaking the record for number of uses of the word "semen" in a single article: 61! Check it out in "What Exactly Did Mary “Conceive” in Her Womb?", available now. https://jibs.hcommons.org/volume-5-issue-2/

29/04/2024

The second article from our special edition, Seminal Issues in Biblical Genitalia, is now published. Head to our website to check out Michael Peppard's "Bearing a “Jewish Weight”: A New Interpretation of a Greek Comedic Papyrus About Athletics (CPJ 3.519)." https://jibs.hcommons.org/volume-5-issue-2/

22/04/2024

Just published, our first article from our special edition, Seminal Issues in Biblical Genitalia: Sara Parks PhD, "The Greek Hat: 2 Maccabees 4:12 as a Euphemism for Reverse Circumcision." Journal for Interdisiplinary Biblical Studies 5.2 (2024): 1-20. https://jibs.hcommons.org/volume-5-issue-2/

The other articles are coming soon, so keep a look out!

04/04/2024

Just published in AABNER -- an article examining JIBS's citational ethics policy by Leah Stanley. Read it here:

To Cite or Not To Cite: An Exploration of the Citational Ethics Policy of the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies Article Sidebar PDF Published Feb 23, 2024 DOI https://doi.org/10.35068/aabner.v3i1.982 Main Article Content Leah Stanley Abstract More frequently, the ethics of citations are...