A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer ed. by Susan Ashbrook et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer ed. by Susan Ashbrook et al. Holly Hearon susan ashbrook harvey, nathaniel desrosiers, shira l. lander, jacqueline z. pastos, and daniel ulluci (eds.), A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (BJS 358; Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2015). Pp. xix + 304. $59.95. This volume features essays authored by students, colleagues, and friends of Ross Shepard Kraemer from across the forty-plus years of her academic career. The essays reflect the remarkable range of K.'s scholarship and demonstrate how her deep engagement with primary texts has shaped and continues to shape generations of scholars. Many of the essays take up questions or observations raised by K. in her work, promoting the kind of dialogue that K. has valued and encouraged as a teacher and colleague. The volume is divided into two sections. Part 1, "Jews and Christians in the Greco-Roman World," consists of twelve essays: Theodore A. Bergren, "Jesus' Baptism by John in the Context of First-Century Judaism"; Cebra J. Bucher, "Converts, Resisters, and Evangelists: Jews in the Acts of Philip V–VII"; Robert Doran, "Thecla and the Governor: Who Clothes Whom?"; Paula Fredriksen, "If It Looks like a Duck, and It Quacks like a Duck . . . On Not Giving Up on the Godfearers"; John G. Gager, "Who Did What to Whom? Physical Violence between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity"; Maxine L. Grossman, "How Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Help Us to Think about Gender in Ancient Judaism?"; Kim Haines-Eitzen, "The Sound of Angels' Wings in Paradise: Religious Identity and the Aural Imagination in the Testament of Adam"; Jordan D. Rosenblum, "The Night Rabbi Aqiba Slept with Two Women"; Stanley K. Stowers, "The Social Formations of Paul and His Romans: Synagogues, Churches, and Ockham's Razor"; Arthur P. Urbano, "Fashioning Witnesses: 'Hebrews' and 'Jews' in Early Christian Art"; Heidi Wendt, "Entrusted with the Oracles of God": The Fate of the Judean Writings in Flavian Rome"; Benjamin G. Wright, "Cultural Creativity in Egyptian Judaism." Part 2, "Women in Judaism and Christianity," consists of sixteen essays: Lynn H. Cohick, "Mothers, Martyrs, and Manly Courage: The Female Martyr in 2 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and The Acts of Paul and Thecla"; Mary R. D'Angelo, "Susanna's Choice"; Nathaniel P. DesRosiers, "What Is Her Word Worth? Oath Taking and Women in the Mediterranean World"; Jennifer Eyl, "Optatus's Account of Lucilla in Against the Donatists, or, Women Are Good to Undermine With"; Jordan Kraemer and Shira L. Lander "Gender and Apocalypticism in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games Trilogy"; Robert A. Kraft, "To the Most Honorable Lady, Theophile (Luke 1.3; Acts 1.1)"; Amy-Jill Levine, "This Poor Widow . . ." (Mark 12:43): From Donation to Diatribe"; Susan Marks "Bayit versus Beit Midrash: Jewish Mother as Teacher"; E. Ann Matter, "In Her Own Words: Religious Autobiography and Agency in Lucia Brocadelli, a Woman Writer of Early Modern Italy"; Renée Levine Melammed, "Witnesses from Medieval Mediterranean Society: The Reliability of Jewish Women's Narratives from the Cairo Genizah"; Susan Niditch, "Miriam's Well: Rabbinic Variations on a Folk Motif, Gender Views, and Contemporary Reception"; Elaine Pagels, "The Shape-Shifting Bride: Reflecting on Race and Ethnicity in Origen's Exegesis of the Song of Songs"; Adele Reinhartz, "E.T. Phone Home: Exile and Gender in Postexilic Storytelling"; Sarah L. Schwarz, "Her Share of the Cursings: Grid and Group, Gender and Demons"; Karen B. Stern, "Working Women? Professions of Jewish Women in Late Ancient Levant"; Daniel Ullucci, "Ungendering Andrea." [End Page 579] Many of the essays demonstrate K.'s argument that primary sources, whether inscriptions or documentary evidence, represent constructions of gender and religious identity designed to support cultural norms and values. Others press the importance of understanding primary texts in relation to ancient cultural values and practices in order to avoid making historical assertions based on ideological fictions. A few break out in new directions (for example, Haines-Eitzen's essay on aural imagination and Urbano's essay on the rhetorical impact of visual imagery); Fredricksen offers an alternative perspective to Kraemer on the language of "god-fearers"; and there is a nod to...