Thesiss

My dissertation is a critical edition, translation and analysis of the opening chapter of Sefer Milhamot Hashem (1170), Jacob ben Reuben's philosophical polemic against Christianity. This groundbreaking text, possibly the first of its kind in Europe, emerged seemingly out of the…

Previous studies of Jacob's story in Genesis have treated Jacob's vow to God in one of two general ways. One way sees Jacob's vow to God in Gen 28:20-22 as a consistent but isolated moment in the series of tricks Jacob plays on other characters. He makes his acceptance of Yahweh…

In this dissertation, my primary aims are (1) to acknowledge how hermeneutical and methodological presuppositions affect reading and interpretation of texts and (2) to demonstrate this claim by looking closely at Gen 31-33 from a perspective that is oriented toward the narrative…