Abstract Since hair removal in the Bible expresses an underlying trauma of gender instability in the terror of political irrelevancy and domination, an analysis of biblical men removing their hair enhances feminist biblical interpretation. Genesis characters Jacob and Joseph diverge from the hypermasculine due to hair removal. Jacob self-identifies as hairless (Gen 27:11) and Joseph shaves in a non-Israelite context (Gen 41:14). This article firstly introduces feminist and political uses of the term “terror” and their relevance to biblical masculinity and hair, and a second section then examines the gendered and ethnic trauma of hair removal in the Hebrew Bible. Thirdly, a feminist postcolonial reading of masculinity and ongoing hair removal by Jacob and Joseph illustrates how they contrast with normative biblical hair removal. Finally, the conclusion explains the importance of addressing the questions of biblical masculinity studies within a feminist postcolonial reconstruction of gender and power.

Abstract This article attempts to revisit the notion of “rest” from the perspective of colonial discourse analysis. By examining two passages in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 95 and Gen 2), I aim to show how the idea of “rest” is intertwined with the colonial imagination. I endeavor to demonstrate that the notion of “rest” in those passages does not straightforwardly entail liberation but instead involves the colonization of space and time. To sustain the argument I divide the article into three parts. First, I consider what the concept of spatial colonization entails in the notion of “rest” in the Exodus-Conquest traditions. Furthermore, I analyze temporal colonization in the notion of the Sabbath “rest” motif in the Creation narrative. Finally, as both Ps 95 and Gen 2 were cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews’ discussion of “rest” (chs. 3–4), I conclude this article by offering a preliminary reading of Heb 3–4 as an implication of the discussion of spatial and temporal colonization of “rest” in those Hebrew Bible passages.

Abstract While many prophetic texts display human actions as echoing into the non-human world, Hos 4:3 and Zeph 1:2–3 uniquely do so by reversing the order of creation as found in Gen 1:1–2:3. Both texts literarily deconstruct creation as part of larger paradigms of judgment. Whereas Hosea presents human action (i.e., repentance) as capable of averting the coming crisis, humans are powerless to halt the unraveling of creation in Zephaniah. This shift in the relationship between human agency and creation’s destruction parallels modern ecological concerns, as human actions increasingly stress natural earth systems, threatening to trigger environmental feedback loops (or “tipping points”) that will take the trajectory of climate change out of human control. The following article offers an ecocritical reading of Hos 4:3 and Zeph 1:2–3 in dialogue with the shifting function of human agency in modern calls for human change in response to the climate crisis.

Abstract First-generation Asian immigrants in the “West” often encounter persistent stereotypes of “perpetual foreigners” and “model minority” despite their societal contributions and integration efforts. Compared to native-born Asians, these new immigrants are frequently further marginalised as “Fresh off the Boat (FOB s),” a term describing their perceived dissonance from mainstream culture and their presumed need to conform to the dominant hegemony. This article explores the intercontextual overlaps between the marginalised and invisibilised experiences of Asian immigrants with John 4’s portrayal of the Samaritan woman. I examine how the text appropriates the Samaritan woman’s marginalised position to highlight both her need and the superiority of a saviour, Christ. I illustrate that the evangelist casts the woman as a perpetual foreigner by invisibilising her contribution to missions and silencing her voice among her fellow Samaritans within the Johannine story-world in a manner comparable to first-generation Asian immigrant experiences and the complex intra-Asian community dynamics.