Simcha Gross

Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity Cambridge Core - Judaism - Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity

It is a book! www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...

YouTube video by Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies The Aramaic Incantation Bowls: Jewish Society and Culture at a Crossroads

In that case, this might be of use - a programmatic overview of the bowls from the perspective of contemporary scholarship: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gshM...

I'm flattered! I greatly enjoyed your first book!

Krista Dalton (Kenyon College) Presents: Table Fellowship as a Holy Altar: How Dinner Parties Shaped Rabbinic Judaism People often take the existence of rabbis and their authority as a given, but that role and institution also needed to be invented–and some of the forces that shaped it may surprise you. This lecture ...

Calling all Minnesota friends. I'm giving a book talk at the St. Paul JCC next Tuesday (Nov 4th) and would love to see you! cla.umn.edu/jewish-studi...

@philharland.bsky.social has an article out in MTSR.

Putting the Persian Back in “Magic”: Problems with Ignoring Ancient Ethnographic Discourses

brill.com/view/journal...

Open Access Cornucopia for scholars of late antique Judaism today! (1) William Smelik, “A New Aramaic Fragment of Toledot Yeshu as Targum Yerushalmi Isaiah 66.17” in Aramaic Studies = brill.com/view/journal... +

It's not too late to sign-up! Level 1 offered this fall and Level 2 offered in January. An affordable option for ancient language learners (and lovers)!

A 2nd article is also out today, w/Michele Scarlassara!

We present a previously unpublished Syriac incantation bowl from the Penn Museum, w/a formula paralleling several Mandaic bowls, w/intriguing social-historical implications

1st bowl published using spectral imaging!

brill.com/view/journal...

My article “Does an Arrow a Day Keep Satan Away? Late Antique Magical Subtexts in Babylonian Rabbinic Narratives” is now OA in HTR!

It argues that a Talmudic story about a rabbi’s encounter with Satan adjudicates between competing incantations in late antique Iraq

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Rise of Islam

My interview with The Ancients podcast on the Sasanians and the Rise of Islam.

open.spotify.com/episode/42Mc...

Yes, of course.

Pharisees Party Group Game Pharisees Game

I ran a similar exercise, but with this card "game" - phariseesgame.com. The video lays bare how the Pharisees are cast as the eternal Christian other, the Christian antithesis. But the game’s playful tone highlights how deeply embedded these assumptions still are.

Warsaw Late Antique Seminar on Thursday 9 October (4.45 p.m.): Simcha Gross @simchagross.bsky.social (University of Pennsylvania), "Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors: Communities and Empire on the Roman-Sasanian Frontier". In person and online, as usual.

Hmm… I wrote a piece about the epistemic erasure of Jews & my institution posted about it in a manner that doesn’t mention Jews—should I be happy they proved my point or upset…? 🤔

Warsaw Late Antique Seminar. The programme for Winter Semester is ready. Take a look!
More on the seminar's website...

Very honored to have been invited by @relicsclerics.bsky.social to present at the Warsaw Late Antique Seminar, and to be included in this incredible roster.

Join us!

CRAC is getting five! And is going to celebrate this anniversary with a conference The Shady Trade of Hermes: Theft, Thieves and Thievery in the Ancient World to be held on 25-27 September 2025 at the University of Warsaw. If you happen to be in town, do join us!
Programme: bit.ly/42JturY

3-4 Maccabees and the Apocalypse of Baruch According to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars.

I have been informed by the good folks at @gorgiaspress.bsky.social that my translation of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (aka 2 Baruch) is officially in print, though I don't have a hard copy yet. Here's a link: www.gorgiaspress.com/maccabees-3-...

A Gift from JQR and the Katz Center A century and a third of Jewish scholarship goes open access

We are thrilled to announce that beginning with our winter issue in January 2026, the Jewish Quarterly Review will become fully open access, including future issues and our whole 136-year back catalog!

Learn more about this exciting change on the blog:
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

and the podcast is up! sorry I'm in such dim light it's, uh, the mystery of biblical conspiracy surrounding me

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9o1...

(1/5) It's peer review week! #PRW2025 Thank you to those who have reviewed for JQR over the years. We would not be here without you.

Check out this thread for insights and reflections from the JQR editors on the peer review process, including advice for authors and reviewers. 🧵

Front Cover: Portrait of Constantius II in his consular finery, distributing largesse. Chronograph of 354, Romanus 1, ms. Barb. lat. 2154B, 13r. Rome, Biblioteca Vaticana. The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo.

New issue of Journal of Late Antiquity Vol. 18, No. (2025) muse.jhu.edu/issue/55589 @projectmuse.bsky.social @hopkinspress.bsky.social @jmrcolvin.bsky.social

With the caveat that I've been the editor for all of three minutes, here's a thread about the goings on at the Journal of Early Christian Studies---far rosier, for reasons that I think have to do with size

This is the front cover for the book Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt.

Excited to announce my book that is forthcoming in January. I’m looking forward to sharing more soon. Let me know if your faculty, students, or community would be interested in a talk or class.
Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt | Princeton University Press. Description at: bit.ly/PerrySlavery

Things Unseen by Ellen Muehlberger - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

It's time to tell you to pre-order this! $34.95 for a handy lil' paperback!

www.ucpress.edu/books/things...

Text = "Away from a Definition of Apocalyptic, pt. 1" / Image = Alice and Humpty Dumpty

Text = "Away from a Definition of Apocalyptic, pt. 2" / Image = mysterious figure with Scythe

Text = "Away from a Definition of Apocalyptic, pt. 3" / Image = Angel, swooping down with a chain

If you're itching to read about "Apocalyptic" in the most arcane senses of that term, perhaps to distract you from much else apocalyptic in our times, this is the series for you! humanhistoriesofkn.substack.com/p/away-from-...

And on the flip side, ancient discourses about coercing the enslaved, casting their agency as a 'problem' to be solved, for instance through magical means, as studied suggestively by Mira Balberg here: online.ucpress.edu/SLA/article/...

Why Do Jews Cover Their Heads? In JQR 115.3, Simcha Gross looks at norms of Jewish male head covering as a proxy for cultural assimilation and difference in rabbinic Rome and Sasania

Why do Jews cover their heads?

In JQR 115.3, @simchagross.bsky.social looks at norms of Jewish male head covering as a proxy for cultural assimilation and difference in rabbinic Rome and Sasania.

Learn more on the blog and read his essay FREE thru September 5!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

JQR 115.3 is here! We've got:
-Early Jewish head coverings
-The Talmud & the Aramaic incantation bowls
-Israel Naraja
-The Palestinian vocalization signs
-Yosef Yerushalmi & Walter Benjamin
-James Baldwin & Louis Finkelstein

Read the TOC +2 free essays!👇
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Cover for Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration, featuring Titus Kaphar's portrait "Jerome II"

Publication day for a book that Matthew and I spent six years on, anguished over, fought for, rewrote twice, and nearly abandoned. I hope it proves useful in continuing important conversations about the ancient world and about the societies we choose to build today.

www.ucpress.edu/books/ancien...