With contributions by @zafulotus.bsky.social @mauat.bsky.social, Julie van Pelt, Barbara Crostini and yours truly.

A bit of news! I have accepted a tenured position at Denison University. They recruited me to chair their Religion department, architect a rebuild of its curriculum, and help launch a Jewish studies program. I formally begin July 1st.

Anyone looking for some last minute Passover reading, check out my article on the odd Aramaic opening "invitation" of the Haggadah: www.academia.edu/44600798/Who...

For anyone interested, a historiographic retrospective on the state of the historical study of the Babylonian Talmud, @ancientjewreview.bsky.social : www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2026/3/...

🧯Hot off the press: Education in Religious Contexts of Late Antiquity (Cambridge Element) > free download until April 8! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Proofs for a forthcoming article: "The Conversion of Adiabene: The Politics of Jewishness on the Near Eastern Frontier."

In celebration of pi day, I’m excited to share that my next book—Hidden Numbers: Mathematical Thinking in the Bible and Beyond—is under contact with the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library! It’ll be a few years before it’s out, but I look forward to sharing slices of the project in the meantime.

Shaul’s new translation book is out and Open Access—making accessible selections from the writings of the Satmar Rebbe (i.e. Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum) w/focus on recovering his significance as a political thinker @ucpress.bsky.social www.ucpress.edu/books/jewish...

Reposting this fantastic interview with Kevin van Bladel on his vision of the "Classical Near East", talking a lot about languages like Greek, (Christian) Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Syriac, Mandaic, and Middle Persian. Also very interesting in terms of career paths and how our fields are structured.

Going to Marburg!

🎉 publication day! 🎉 editions & translations of the correspondence btw Umar b. Abd al-Aziz and Leo the Isaurian in medieval Latin, Christian Arabic, Muslim Arabic, Aljamiado, Armenian & early modern Latin. plus the intro to explain how they're all related! open access & available here:

Very pleased to be able to finally announce "The Critical Edition in the Infrastructure of Philology," a special issue of Philological Encounters edited by me and @danielpicus.bsky.social out this Spring.

Now taking place tomorrow, Thursday, January 8th, at 4:45 PM CET! Message me or Robert if you are interested in joining in person or online

On paper, 2025 looked like a great year for me. In lived experience, I was mostly filled w/alarm at attacks on US universities, Rel Studies, & Jewish Studies. My hope for 2026 is for more opportunities to use what I have to help protect & preserve knowledge-making open.substack.com/pub/humanhis...

Great episode of Byzantium & Friends w/Aaron Butts! While centering on Aksum, it engages key questions in the study of late antique empires, such as how to historicize the use of religious imagery in imperial self-presentation, & the proxy war model (e.g. Bowersock) open.spotify.com/episode/4gkP...

@philharland.bsky.social has a book coming out in Spring -already available for pre-order: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #ancientbluesky #classicsbluesky

Very grateful to @ssecunda.bsky.social for the generous and constructive book review at the AJS Review! muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

This is a late ancient (5-7th c.?) Greek account of the life of a rich woman who was raised Jewish, converted to Christianity when her parents died, lived for 20 years as a male monk named John, was discovered & made head of a woman's monastery, & was later martyred

I am pleased to announce that John Penniman, Emanuel Fiano, and I are launching a new book series for the study of religion in late antiquity with Fordham University Press. If you have a book-in-progress looking for a home, please reach out to discuss your project! fordhampress.com/theoria

I got to go on @mikemotia.bsky.social 's podcast, New Books in Late Antiquity, and talk about my new book, Things Unseen! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

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...

My interview with The Ancients podcast on the Sasanians and the Rise of Islam. open.spotify.com/episode/42Mc...

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

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-...

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. 🧵

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

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

It's time to tell you to pre-order this! $34.95 for a handy lil' paperback! www.ucpress.edu/books/things...

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-...

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...

Leave it to @simchagross.bsky.social to break new ground in the typography of academic journals. Now that we can evidently us emojis, I’m going to save thousands of words with 😒

Space... The Final Frontier... and coincidentaly the main subject of my essay that just came out in the Studies in Late Antiquity. online.ucpress.edu/SLA/issue/9/3

New issue of Studies in Late Antiquity Vol. 9, No. 3 (2025) online.ucpress.edu/SLA/issue/9/3 @drewjakeprof.bsky.social @simchagross.bsky.social @annetteyreed.bsky.social @akjp89.bsky.social @ucpress.bsky.social The Ways that Never Parted: A Roundtable & more