front cover of Queer Readings of the Centurion at Capernaum
Queer Readings of the Centurion at Capernaum
Their History and Politics
Christopher B. Zeichmann
SBL Press, 2022

The first-ever monograph on the history of queer biblical interpretation of a controversial biblical passage

Since the 1950s, homoerotic readings of the pericope in which Jesus heals a Roman centurion’s slave have been built upon three of the account’s features: the specific Greek word pais, which can refer to youth, slave, or the junior partner in a sexual relationship between two men; Luke’s characterization of the young man as “dear” (entimos) to the centurion; and commonplace homoeroticism in the Roman army. Rather than affirming or denying the historical reality of a sexual relationship between the centurion and the young man, Christopher B. Zeichmann instead traces the shifting patterns of queer readings of the text and the influences of the sexual, political, and theological discourses of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Europe, the United States, and Australia. Readers will see how distinct political contexts have led interpreters to find very different meanings about the sexual subtexts of this story.

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front cover of The Qumran Paradigm
The Qumran Paradigm
Critical Evaluation of Some Foundational Hypotheses in the Construction of the Q
Gwynned de Looijer
SBL Press, 2015

A fundamentally revisionist approach that leaves behind the constructed social reality of a “sectarian” paradigm

Gwynned de Looijer reexamines the key hypotheses that have driven scholars’ understandings of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran, and the textual descriptions of the Essenes. She demonstrates that foundational hypotheses regarding a sect at Qumran have heavily influenced the way the texts found in the surrounding caves are interpreted. De Looijer’s approach abandon’s those assumptions to illustrate that the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect a wider range of backgrounds reflecting the many diverse forms of Judaism that existed in the Second Temple period.

Features:

  • In depth analysis of 4QMMT
  • Reevaluation of the concept of dualism as it has been applied to Qumran texts
  • Charts and tables illustrate complex theories, concepts, and connections
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