Jeremy D Smoak
Biographic Data
| ID | 1422788 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeremy D Smoak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeremy D |
| FAMILY NAME | Smoak |
| SIGNATURE | SMOAK J D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Literary Monumentality and the Question of Ekphrasis in the Hebrew Bible
In many passages of the Hebrew Bible, one encounters vivid and carefully constructed descriptions of places, objects, cities, and bodies. These passages do more than decorate a narrative—they actively shape a reader’s sense of space, scale, and material presence. When read through the lens of monumentality, such descriptions can be understood as techniques for rendering texts themselves “monumental.” Their words bring to life inscriptions, narrat…
Domestic Religion in the Southern Levant
The present study examines how a material religion approach might be applied meaningfully to the study of domestic religion in the southern Levant. Despite the abundant material evidence from the archaeological record, locating religion in the house continues to pose certain challenges, in terms of both definition and visibility. We see in past studies that much of the larger effort of studying the material culture rests in attempts to explain ho…
Building Solomon's Temple
The description of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings 6-7 reads like a tour of a monumental building. The tour begins with the design and dimensions of the temple's exterior and ends with a description of the cultic furniture installed in its courtyard. An integral part of this composition is the narrative about Hiram's copper (7:13-47), which includes both a description of the making and installation of the copper items in the courtyard as well as an i…
Inscribing Monumentality in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
The Material Turn in the Study of Israelite Religions
This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite religions. After providing a discussion of recent theory on space and the body in the study of religion, we give several suggestions for how these ideas can apply to Israelite tomb and temple spaces. Our approach brings the study of Israelite religious texts and material culture (back) into the broader study of material religion. To this end, we prio…
Wearing Divine Words
The present paper writes a biography of the silver amulets discovered at the mortuary site of Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. While past studies have focused upon the content of the inscriptions on the amulets, the present essay focuses on their materiality as silver, their design as miniature scrolls, and their relationship to somatic action. I emphasize the ways that the body’s interaction with the objects presenced the divine for their wearers. By …
Religion at Kuntillet ʿAjrud
The discovery of early Hebrew inscriptions at the site of Kuntillet ʿAjrud has generated considerable discussion among scholars over the past few decades. The fact that the inscriptions contain explicitly religious themes led some to conclude that the site had a cultic function. In the present article, we challenge this assumption and argue that the inscriptions with religious themes are embedded in daily life as religion converges with scribal c…
Inscribing Temple Space
Reading and Writing in the Dark at Khirbet el-Qom
How did ancient Israelites and Judeans interact with inscriptions located in subterranean contexts such as tombs, tunnels, and caves? What roles did writing hold in the darkness of such places? The present article argues that a multimodal approach to literacy needs to be applied to the study of such inscriptions in order to understand how they communicated to audiences underground in the dark. We challenge traditional approaches to the study of t…
Reconsidering the Function of Tomb Inscriptions in Iron Age Judah
The following article challenges the widely held view that refugees wrote the inscriptions preserved on the tomb walls of Khirbet Beit Lei. We argue that the so-called “refugee-hypothesis” should be based upon a stronger methodological foundation and that the interpretation of the inscriptions at the site should give more serious consideration to their context in the space of a tomb. Toward this end, the article argues that the inscriptions shoul…
May Yhwh Bless You and Keep You from Evil
Most of the attention that the two silver amulets discovered at Ketef Hinnom Jerusalem have received in recent scholarship has centered upon their date and relationship to the biblical texts. This is due in part to the fact that both amulets preserve formulations of the biblical Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6:24–26. The new edition of the amulets published in 2004, however, provides impetus for new questions about the form of the incantations o…
The Material Turn in the Study of Israelite Religions
This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite religions. After providing a discussion of recent theory on space and the body in the study of religion, we give several suggestions for how these ideas can apply to Israelite tomb and temple spaces. Our approach brings the study of Israelite religious texts and material culture (back) into the broader study of material religion. To this end, we prio…
Religion at Kuntillet ʿAjrud
The discovery of early Hebrew inscriptions at the site of Kuntillet ʿAjrud has generated considerable discussion among scholars over the past few decades. The fact that the inscriptions contain explicitly religious themes led some to conclude that the site had a cultic function. In the present article, we challenge this assumption and argue that the inscriptions with religious themes are embedded in daily life as religion converges with scribal c…
Inscribing Temple Space
Reconsidering the Function of Tomb Inscriptions in Iron Age Judah
The following article challenges the widely held view that refugees wrote the inscriptions preserved on the tomb walls of Khirbet Beit Lei. We argue that the so-called “refugee-hypothesis” should be based upon a stronger methodological foundation and that the interpretation of the inscriptions at the site should give more serious consideration to their context in the space of a tomb. Toward this end, the article argues that the inscriptions shoul…
Wearing Divine Words
The present paper writes a biography of the silver amulets discovered at the mortuary site of Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. While past studies have focused upon the content of the inscriptions on the amulets, the present essay focuses on their materiality as silver, their design as miniature scrolls, and their relationship to somatic action. I emphasize the ways that the body’s interaction with the objects presenced the divine for their wearers. By …
Reading and Writing in the Dark at Khirbet el-Qom
How did ancient Israelites and Judeans interact with inscriptions located in subterranean contexts such as tombs, tunnels, and caves? What roles did writing hold in the darkness of such places? The present article argues that a multimodal approach to literacy needs to be applied to the study of such inscriptions in order to understand how they communicated to audiences underground in the dark. We challenge traditional approaches to the study of t…
May Yhwh Bless You and Keep You from Evil
Most of the attention that the two silver amulets discovered at Ketef Hinnom Jerusalem have received in recent scholarship has centered upon their date and relationship to the biblical texts. This is due in part to the fact that both amulets preserve formulations of the biblical Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6:24–26. The new edition of the amulets published in 2004, however, provides impetus for new questions about the form of the incantations o…
May Yhwh Bless You and Keep You from Evil
Most of the attention that the two silver amulets discovered at Ketef Hinnom Jerusalem have received in recent scholarship has centered upon their date and relationship to the biblical texts. This is due in part to the fact that both amulets preserve formulations of the biblical Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6:24–26. The new edition of the amulets published in 2004, however, provides impetus for new questions about the form of the incantations o…
Reconsidering the Function of Tomb Inscriptions in Iron Age Judah
The following article challenges the widely held view that refugees wrote the inscriptions preserved on the tomb walls of Khirbet Beit Lei. We argue that the so-called “refugee-hypothesis” should be based upon a stronger methodological foundation and that the interpretation of the inscriptions at the site should give more serious consideration to their context in the space of a tomb. Toward this end, the article argues that the inscriptions shoul…
Inscribing Temple Space
Reading and Writing in the Dark at Khirbet el-Qom
How did ancient Israelites and Judeans interact with inscriptions located in subterranean contexts such as tombs, tunnels, and caves? What roles did writing hold in the darkness of such places? The present article argues that a multimodal approach to literacy needs to be applied to the study of such inscriptions in order to understand how they communicated to audiences underground in the dark. We challenge traditional approaches to the study of t…
The Material Turn in the Study of Israelite Religions
This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite religions. After providing a discussion of recent theory on space and the body in the study of religion, we give several suggestions for how these ideas can apply to Israelite tomb and temple spaces. Our approach brings the study of Israelite religious texts and material culture (back) into the broader study of material religion. To this end, we prio…
Wearing Divine Words
The present paper writes a biography of the silver amulets discovered at the mortuary site of Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. While past studies have focused upon the content of the inscriptions on the amulets, the present essay focuses on their materiality as silver, their design as miniature scrolls, and their relationship to somatic action. I emphasize the ways that the body’s interaction with the objects presenced the divine for their wearers. By …
Religion at Kuntillet ʿAjrud
The discovery of early Hebrew inscriptions at the site of Kuntillet ʿAjrud has generated considerable discussion among scholars over the past few decades. The fact that the inscriptions contain explicitly religious themes led some to conclude that the site had a cultic function. In the present article, we challenge this assumption and argue that the inscriptions with religious themes are embedded in daily life as religion converges with scribal c…
Building Solomon's Temple
The description of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings 6-7 reads like a tour of a monumental building. The tour begins with the design and dimensions of the temple's exterior and ends with a description of the cultic furniture installed in its courtyard. An integral part of this composition is the narrative about Hiram's copper (7:13-47), which includes both a description of the making and installation of the copper items in the courtyard as well as an i…
Inscribing Monumentality in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
Domestic Religion in the Southern Levant
The present study examines how a material religion approach might be applied meaningfully to the study of domestic religion in the southern Levant. Despite the abundant material evidence from the archaeological record, locating religion in the house continues to pose certain challenges, in terms of both definition and visibility. We see in past studies that much of the larger effort of studying the material culture rests in attempts to explain ho…
Literary Monumentality and the Question of Ekphrasis in the Hebrew Bible
In many passages of the Hebrew Bible, one encounters vivid and carefully constructed descriptions of places, objects, cities, and bodies. These passages do more than decorate a narrative—they actively shape a reader’s sense of space, scale, and material presence. When read through the lens of monumentality, such descriptions can be understood as techniques for rendering texts themselves “monumental.” Their words bring to life inscriptions, narrat…
Archaeology and Historical Studies (9 works) · Art (9 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (9 works) · History (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (6 works) · Literature (6 works) · Ancient history (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works) · Biblical studies (4 works)