Rebecca Harris

Miracle of miracles: all of my advisees signed up for an advising appointment, showed up at their scheduled time, and came with a tentative course schedule. Amazing.

Religious Experience and Divinization in the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls "Religious Experience and Divinization in the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls" published on 18 Dec 2025 by Brill.

So exciting to see this up on the web site! brill.com/display/titl...

Who am I likely to forget in writing acknowledgments that I absolutely should not forget to thank?

Getting pulled away from book manuscript revisions to attend a committee meeting feels like such an intrusion.

11-year old lunch box pseudepigraphy … my favorite part of this child taking over school lunch packing responsibilities this year.

Share with your friends! To celebrate #WomensHistoryMonth we’re giving away a guest’s book every week in March! Post a review of the podcast on your favorite app to be entered into that week’s drawing. On Sunday every week we’ll draw a winner.

They did! And the author’s note at the end. They also liked the 7 brothers and their mother, which made me happy.

It is a lot. They navigated it well, though, and even got some of the humor!

I assigned all of 2 Maccabees for my students to read for class today, and they actually READ it!

I only recently discovered Luhrmann, and wow - having grown up in a charismatic Pentecostal tradition, I feel so seen.

Yesterday I told the kids they could not go out to play in the snow because there was less than 1” - not enough to play in. They responded with a 6-page, illustrated treatise, arguing why they should be allowed to go out anyway. They got to go out.

a man is sitting at a table with the words another festivus miracle written on it ALT: a man is sitting at a table with the words another festivus miracle written on it

Hanukkah is most identified with the menorah, which of course commemorates the so-called miracle of oil.

Or does it...?

1/12 🧵

Hanukkah is typically commemorated as a "clash of cultures".

It represents the battle between a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Judaism" against a clearly defined and largely monolithic "Hellenism".

This narrative is increasingly problematized in scholarship.

🧵 1/20

Two books: The Construction of Time in Antiquity, edited by Jonathan Ben-Dov and Lutz Doering, and Time: a Multidisciplinary Approach, edited by Sarit Kattan Gribetz and Lynn Kaye.

Catching up on some recent(ish) publications on time, while enjoying the snow flurries.

Jewish Divination in the Greco–Roman Era This article analyzes the divinatory methods the Jews used to address their questions in the Greco–Roman era. Scholars have previously examined how authors of the Hebrew Bible are aware of numerous d...

My article, "Jewish Divination in the Greco-Roman Era," is out in Religion Compass, and it is Open Access! compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Final grades submitted. Now it’s on to “time and temporality” in the DSS and time at home with the kids!

That question seems to be my students’ way of acknowledging the value they now see in texts that, previously, they did not even know existed.

One of my favorite end-of-semester questions from students in my DSS class is “Why weren’t any of these texts included in the Protestant Canon?” Maybe there needs to be a final activity where they debate/argue/campaign for the inclusion of a particular text.

Absolutely!

Thank you! It was so wonderful to finally meet you too! I so appreciated your fantastic responses. It was such a fun panel to participate in.

Never dreamed I’d be excited about revising my book manuscript, but reviewer 2 came in with some clutch recommendations I cannot wait to read! It’s currently my motivation to get through grading and a short writing assignment.

Christmas pageant gone awry?

60 final projects graded. 8 to go.

Oh, sweatpants and snacks all day are definitely in the mix.

a man in a suit is drinking from a cup that says ' mrs. pepper ' on it Alt: Will Ferrell cradling a mug, then sipping from it and smiling with a side glance and shoulder shrug.

Favorite coping mechanism for end-of-semester grading: I get to drink all the coffee I want.

Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination (Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture) Amazon.com: Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination (Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture): 9781978712188: Toso, Fotini, Thrasher, Andrew D., Freeman, Austin M., Adams, Nicholas, Costabile, Giovanni Carmine, Crisp, Oliver D., Donahue-Martens, Scott, Freeman, Austin M., Herring, Josh, Low, U-Wen, Milbank, Alison, Morrow, Levi, Thrasher, Andrew D., Torbeck, Jacob: Books

Half off! Worth grabbing! Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination (Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture) a.co/d/i0VNFCf

Yes!

Probably my favorite (ever) student depiction of Sheol - the basement at Grandma’s house where it’s dark and you can hear the TV and voices upstairs, but if you scream no one will hear you.

Surprise pictures from my son are the best. Came home to an angry scarecrow with happy clouds in the background.