SBL Press

cover Remapping Biblical Studies: CUREMP at Thirty Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder and Mary F. Foskett, editors

Get the ebook of Remapping Biblical Studies: CUREMP at Thirty edited by Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder and Mary F. Foskett for $5 now through 15 Feb. with code 2026BHM buff.ly/hDGipVS #BlackHistorySBL26

cover Black Scholars Matter: Visions, Struggles, and Hopes in Africana Biblical Studies Gay L. Byron and Hugh R. Page Jr., editors

Get the ebook of Black Scholars Matter: Visions Struggles and Hopes in Africana Biblical Studies, edited by Gay L. Byron and Hugh R. Page for for $5 now through 15 Feb. with code 2026BHM buff.ly/NFjMFjh #BlackHistorySBL26

Cover They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Fernando F. Segovia, editors

Get the ebook of They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism edited by Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Fernando F. Segovia for $5.00 from 12–15 Feb. when you use code 2026BHM buff.ly/yIH6kFr #BlackHistorySBL26

Publishers as Partners in the Global-Systemic Movement As facilitators of the production and venues for consumption, publishing arenas help record, distribute, and circulate critical discourses and debates. —Bridgett A. Green

Read Publishers as Partners in the Global-Systemic Movement by Bridgett A. Green in The Critic in the World: Essays in Honor of Fernando F. Segovia buff.ly/w1HT70j #BlackHistorySBL26

Islandedness, Paul, and John of Patmos Using islandedness and the related conversations about diaspora space and migrant strategies of enculturation to “think” about the Bible yields a clearer understanding that much of the biblical library, even the New Testament, is a diaspora space, a collection of writings “in-migration”—writings written to, for, or by migrants, some forced, some voluntary. Margaret Aymer

Read “Islandedness, Paul, and John of Patmos” by Margaret Aymer in Islands, Islanders, and the Bible: RumInations buff.ly/439fLfk #BlackHistorySBL26

A Reflection on the Black Lives Matter Movement and Its Impact on My Scholarship “The killings of Aiyana Stanley Jones (2012), Renisha McBride (2014), and the death of Sandra Bland while in police custody (2015) are part of an inescapable rising tide of black death. These deaths occurred and continue to occur in the same public square in which biblical interpretation takes place, and they and their implications must be accounted for in the work of interpreters of the biblical text who write, speak, teach, preach, and think to any degree in public.” —Wil Gafney

Access Wil Gafney's “A Reflection on the Black Lives Matter Movement and Its Impact on My Scholarship” in JBL 136.1 (2017): 204–207 buff.ly/mYio8yj #BlackHistorySBL26

“‘What Is the Truth?’ (John 18:38): A Postcolonial Trickster Reading of Jesus’s Arrest and Trial” For most Two-Thirds World populations, biblical literature was preexisting literature that came with modern colonizing powers and was received by the colonized subjects of Christian empires. Consequently, in biblical studies, postcolonial ways of reading examine, among numerous other ways, how biblical texts were used in modern times to endorse, resist, reject, or collaborate with imperialism —Musa W. Dube

Read “'What Is the Truth?' (John 18:38): A Postcolonial Trickster Reading of Jesus’s Arrest and Trial” by Musa W. Dube in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 4: Jesus Remembered in the Johannine Situation buff.ly/m8aCTbe #BlackHistorySBL26

Light and Luminaries: A Study of Genesis 1:3–5 and 14–19 “What is the semantic relation between מארת and אור ? Although some scholars suggest that מארת) vv. 14–19) are the source of אור) vv. 3–5),22 the text does not seem to support this conclusion.” — Daniel Kwame Bediako

Read “Light and Luminaries: A Study of Genesis 1:3–5 and 14–19” by Daniel Kwame Bediako in #JBL144.3. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55. #BlackHistorySBL26

The African American Bible: Bound in a Christian Nation “We should not struggle to imagine nineteenth-century black people envisioning the trappings of Washington, DC, as Egypt. Lest one think I exaggerate, the National Archives and Records Administration holds receipts in testament to the blood, sweat, and tears shed by the slaves who built the White House.” —Richard Newton

Read Richard Newton's “The African American Bible: Bound in a Christian Nation.” JBL 136.1 (2017): 221–28 free buff.ly/C6DTJg0 #BlackHistorySBL26

Scripturalizing Revelation: An African American Postcolonial Reading of Empire The African American sacred narration is a counternarration to a racist ethos that is also grounded in biblical imagery and was first articulated by the enslaved and free descendants of Africans as a means for “talking back. —Lynne St. Clair Darden

Get Lynne St. Clair Darden's Scripturalizing Revelation: An African American Postcolonial Reading of Empire buff.ly/dYc3UUL #BlackHistorySBL26

When Momma Shares: Paul’s Mother and Womanist Other Mothering I will begin with a delineation of womanist maternal thought as a foray into an African American community-based grounding of other mothering. An examination of first-century motherhood will assist in comparing and contrasting historical and current-day communal maternal practices while establishing Paul’s context. —Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder

Read “When Momma Shares: Paul’s Mother and Womanist Other Mothering” by Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder in The Critic in the World: Essays in Honor of Fernando F. Segovia buff.ly/w1HT70j #BlackHistorySBL26

Building on Sand: Shifting Readings of Genesis 38 and Daniel 8 Like the sand washed to the shores of the islands, the Bible comes as a strange product. Like the wave of “discoverers” that come to the islands, the Bible enters with the presumptions of dominant power. And like the various transplanted and displaced people who take root in the islands, the Bible requires adjustments and revisions. Steed Vernyl Davidson

Read “Building on Sand: Shifting Readings of Genesis 38 and Daniel 8” by Steed Vernyl Davidson in Islands, Islanders, and the Bible: RumInations buff.ly/439fLfk #BlackHistorySBL26

“Recognizing the Gen(i)us of Animals: Jeremiah 8–9 as a Test Case” This chapter uses an animal-focused ecological hermeneutic to broaden ways of reading biblical texts, add detail and depth to ideas about animals in the Bible, and inform modern discussions of ecological crises and their impact on animals. —Jaime L. Waters

Read “Recognizing the Gen(i)us of Animals: Jeremiah 8–9 as a Test Case” by Jaime L. Waters in Ask the Animals: Developing a Biblical Animal Hermeneutic edited by Arthur W. Walker-Jones and Suzanna R. Millar buff.ly/DPWpFlt #BlackHistorySBL26

“The Incarnation of the Word in the Johannine Situation: Reframing the Historical Jesus” On one hand, this incarnational thrust emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, with implications for understanding more fully the Jesus of history, not simply the Christ of faith. On the other, John’s emphasis on the fleshly humanity of Jesus is not without theological implications. —Kenneth L. Waters

Read the essay "The Incarnation of the Word in the Johannine Situation: Reframing the Historical Jesus" by Kenneth L. Waters Sr. in John, Jesus, and History, Volume 4: Jesus Remembered in the Johannine Situation. buff.ly/m8aCTbe #BlackHistorySBL26

Quote: “Although their own manuscripts are late and beset with problems, their transmission is independent of the continuous Greek manuscripts of 1 Peter, and their testimony, to the extent it can be recovered, can represent important second-century witnesses to the text of this catholic epistle.” —Stephen C. Carlson

Check out “The Text of 1 Peter in Polycarp and Irenaeus” by Stephen C. Carlson in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “In this article I make the case that the language of “teachings of demons” in 1 Tim 4:1 is a reference to the Watchers traditions of the Book of the Watchers (1 En. 1–36; cf. Gen 6:1–4).” —Holly Beers

Check out “The ‘Teachings of Demons’ as ‘Magical' Practices in 1 Timothy 4:1” by Holly Beers in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “This case study is particularly compelling, not only because it provides adistinct wartime setting spanning a specific period, but also because of the detailed accounts provided by Josephus in his Bellum judaicum, which form the primary foundation of this research.” —Jonathan (Yonatan) Bourgel

Check out “Revisiting Sabbath Observance during the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73/74 CE)” by Jonathan (Yonatan) Bourgel in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “Judith uses a legal concept of responsibility in her address to the leaders of Bethulia. She claims that, should Bethulia surrender, her audience will be responsible for the murder of those in Jerusalem. This is based on a legal notion that can be summarized thus: a person has a degree of responsibility to prevent the murder of others." —Joseph Scales

Check out “Responsibility for Murder: The Background of Judith’s Legal Argumentation” by Joseph Scales in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “Scripture is full of paired figures: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Sodom and Gomorrah. In the same category, we find the megamonsters Behemoth and Leviathan in Job 40–41. But are Behemoth and Leviathan a pair in every version of Job?” —James Wykes

Check out “Always Two There Are? The Combined Dragon in Job 40:15–41:26 LXX” by James Wykes in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “At the micro level— the level of individual linguistic elements—the focus of attention of our authors often falls especially on the verbs that express divine activity; they are carefully and strategically chosen and creatively transformed.” —Olga Fabrikant-Burke

Check out “Exegeting God: Prophetic Sign Acts and Inner-Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Jeremiah” by Olga Fabrikant-Burke in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “The many elements that both stories share strongly suggest that they are not accurate accounts of historical events, but more likely are a literary convention.” —J. Jona Schellekens

Check out “Creative Imitation in the Story of Josiah” by J. Jona Schellekens in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55.

Quote: “The distinctive features of the Gen 24 betrothal scene—especially its focus on the woman’s initiative and symbolic actions—help illuminate how the author of 1 Sam 25 casts Abigail’s journey to David not merely as an act of peacemaking but as an honor-laden, self-conscious betrothal overture." —Joshua Berman

Read "Abigail and Her Honor Culture Wisdom" by Joshua Berman in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55

Quote: “In recent decades, however, there has been a growing trend in Hebrew scholarship to consider the rich diversity of Biblical Hebrew traditions attested from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and even into modern times.” —Benjamin Kantor

Check out "The Origins of 'In the Beginning . . .': Genesis 1:1 in Light of the Biblical Hebrew Reading Traditions" by Benjamin Kantor in #JBL144.4 . Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55

Quote: “In studies of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, law and selfhood should be taken as conceptually interrelated, despite their alleged separateness in much of the history of research.” —Phillip M. Lasater

Read "Legal Thinking and Notions of the Self: Why Biblical Studies Needs an Anthropology of Law" by Phillip M. Lasater in #JBL144.4. Access the article online using your SBL username and password. tinyurl.com/a6cbyh55

SBL Press AM Book Sale. Use code AM2025 for 30% off. Ends 31 Dec 2025.

The SBL Press AM Book Sale ends tomorrow. Use code AM2025 for 30% off. buff.ly/QJ0ty7f

Covers: Interpreting the Gospel of John in Antioch and Alexandria by Miriam DeCock, Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature by Meredith J. C. Warren, and Religious Competition in the Greco-Roman World edited by Nathaniel P. Desrosiers and Lily C. Vuong

Purchase volumes in the WGRW Supplement Series for 30% off through 31 Dec. Use code AM2025 at checkout. buff.ly/0s1HaCc

Review: “The commentary is rich, detailed, almost line by line....This is without doubt the best commentary ever written on this text.” --Pieter van der Horst, Utrecht University, Bryn Mawy Classical Review

Purchase the paperback of Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Joan E. Taylor and David M. Hay for 30% off between now and 31 December. Use code AM2025 at checkout. buff.ly/F0eQaso

Covers: Adventures of Rabbah and Friends: The Talmud's Strange Tales and Their Readers by James Adam Redfield, Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Their Late Antique Jewish Contexts by edited by Alexander W. Marcus and Jason S. Mokhtarian, and Studies in Rabbinic Narratives, Volume 2 edited by Jeffrey L. Rubenstein

Brown Judaic Studies volumes are 30% off with code AM2025 through 31 Dec. buff.ly/PsV6Y1o

Covers: Bridging the Interpretive Abyss: Reading the New Testament after the Cultural Studies Turn by Luis Menéndez-Antuña, Ask the Animals: Developing a Biblical Animal Hermeneutic edited by Arthur W. Walker-Jones and Suzanna R. Millar, Reading with Feeling: Affect Theory and the Bible edited by Fiona C. Black and Jennifer L. Koosed

Semeia Studies volumes are 30% off now through 31 Dec with code AM2025. buff.ly/YAl7Oje

“At the heart of the study is the innovative use of ‘national identity theory’ to consider how the plant metaphors rhetorically constructed national identity (especially a collective past, present, and future, and a distinctive national character) in particular ways.” –Brad E. Kelle, Religious Studies Review

Purchase Plant Metaphors in Prophetic Condemnations of Israel and Judah by Tina M. Sherman for 30% off using code AM2025 between now and 31 December. buff.ly/wvAgzUu