Andrew Jacobs (he/him)

tl;dr - i'm a humanist and ok with much more messiness, because a religion is what it is when it is it. and those ideas make people do stuff.

Jodi Magness: Retrospective for The Ancient Jew Review — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW It is my hope that scholars who specialize in the study of texts will recognize that archaeology is not only relevant but indeed vital to their own research. 

Jodi Magness: Retrospective for The Ancient Jew Review www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2026/2/...

Review | Berkovitz, A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW He moves the question of reception away from strictly exegetical approaches that look for a history of interpretation within a world of ideas, and towards how Jews in Late Antiquity encountered physic...

Review | Berkovitz, A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2026/2/...

Book cover of Tara Mulder's book, 'A Womb of One's Own: Lost Histories of Childbirth in Ancient Rome' (Berkeley, Univ. Calif Press, out soon!)

congrats to
@taramulder.bsky.social !
www.ucpress.edu/books/a-womb...

Anna Chancellor has been in 500 things since then but every time I see her I yell "Duckface!"

David Haig and Anna Chancellor on MURDER IS EASY

Duckface and Bernard from FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL reunited on MARPLE!

we'll see

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an amazing day with VA early Christianity colleagues! thanks to @jennisifire.bsky.social for helming this group so well v. grateful to be among them now!

THE Professor Patel in action

@vox-magica.bsky.social presenting one of the most generative ideas I’ve heard in a while

Τα λέγαμε κι εμείς

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Congratulations to my Advising Fellow @drewjakeprof.bsky.social on proving why he is a legendary

oh I will

“A Clear Account of the Codex Simonideios:” Ideological Infrastructures of Biblical Vulnerability in the Nineteenth Century In: Philological Encounters Author: Andrew S. Jacobs Online Publication Date: 24 Feb 2026 Abstract Metadata References Metrics Abstract Soon after Constantin Tischendorf (1815–74) publicized his “discovery” of the Codex Sinaiticus, notorious manuscript broker (and forger) Konstantinos Simonides stunned elite literary circles by announcing that Simonides himself had produced this biblical codex in his youth as a gift for the Russian tsar. Simonides claimed that his “Codex Simonideios” was illicitly being passed off as an ancient biblical codex after being mutilated and disfigured. I argue that this brief but explosive debate about manuscripts, forgeries, and “find” narratives produces a biblical text liable to revision and emendation, due to new discoveries or new methods, and so vulnerable to mischievous actors manipulating the possibilities of new discoveries and methods. The iterative process of attack and defense on display in this codicological debate has remained, in various guises, from collegial disagreement to scorched earth campaigns, an ideological component of critical biblical studies.

well helloooooo

brill.com/view/journal...

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2026 ASCH Book Prizes and Research Fellowships nominations now open in white text on a red background

Nominations for the 2026 ASCH Book Prizes and Research Fellowships are now open!

Learn more: www.churchhistory.org/asch-awards/...

Stay tuned as we highlight each of our prizes/fellowships on social media in the coming days!

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that's too many courses

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at some point everyone just becomes Young and you stop noticing

Matthew Macdadyen as Inspector Neele in the New Marple POCKET FULL OF RYE

Baby Matthew Macfadyen in MARPLE!

ADAM BURSI On the Pattern of God's Throne: The Ka'ba as Paradise in the First Centuries of Islam • ABSTRACT This article suggests that the idea of the Ka'ba as a piece of Paradise on earth was a significant lens through which early Muslims understood this holy site. It highlights evidence that associations between the Ka'ba and Paradise were made already in the early Islamic period, likely going back to the early 2nd/ 8th century. The dating suggests a particular religio-political environment within which such ideas about the Ka'ba circulated: debates about the emerging Islamic sacred geography, and particularly the dialogue between Mecca and Jerusalem. Keywords: Ka'ba, Paradise, Mecca, Jerusalem, Dome of the Rock

Sent back proofs for this article on the early figuration of the Ka’ba as a piece of paradise on earth: part of a special issue on the Ka’ba for Annales islamologiques, coming out sometime this year

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Me and three new Assistant Directors pose in front of the Advising Bus

maybe someone on the team has musical skills and can do a Purim spiel–style rewriting of the lyrics, boom, theme song

Get on board, Chuck!

my new phone came with an auto "we will delete 2FA codes texted to you after 24 hours" feature and yes it's a baby step toward liberation from Texted Code Hegemony but the mills of justice etc.

A graphic soliciting SBL proposals for the Space, Place, & Lived Experience in Antiquity unit by March 9. 1) A panel on space, place, affect, and atmosphere. Possible treatments might be the relation of space, place, affect as they relate to spooky or haunted places; terrifying spaces and experiences of terror; disgusting spaces; ones that are associated with ecstasy; spaces associated with insanity and its experiences; etc. Proposals should include a statement of the theoretical apparatus (for example, cognitive science, Deleuzian frameworks, psychological theories, biological frameworks, etc.) deployed to discuss such dimensions; 2. Open call.

submiiiiiiit #aarsbl26 #sblaar26 #affectivespaces #ancientreligion

FYI I have had "Advising Bus" ringing through my head to the tune of The Who's "Magic Bus" all day because of this project