Simon J Joseph
Biographic Data
| ID | 1447232 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simon J Joseph |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simon J |
| FAMILY NAME | Joseph |
| SIGNATURE | JOSEPH S J |
| AFFILIATIONS | California Lutheran University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4119-4142 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Re-Judaizing Jesus: Remembering the Sacrificial Cult in the Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew is commonly regarded as ‘the most Jewish’ of the four New Testament Gospels. Some biblical scholars who specialize in the Gospel of Matthew now hold it to be a relatively faithful account or representation of Jesus’s own ‘Jewishness’. This article questions the relationship between the historical Jesus and the narrative representation of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, particularly vis-à-vis Jesus’s relationship to the Templ…
The Social Memory of Pté Sáŋ Wíŋ: Indigenous History and Oral Tradition in a Lakota Origin Story
Since the early 1900s, the Lakota origin story of the sacred pipe has been told and retold many times. A central symbol of Lakota religion facilitating communication between the human and spirit worlds, the sacred pipe is an instrument of prayer and a portable altar of sacrificial offerings, reflecting the symbiotic relationship between the Lakota and the buffalo as well as their culture’s high regard for the female as representing the sacred. Th…
The Resurrection as Category Error: A Response to The Resurrection of Jesus
The Resurrection of Jesus provides an explanatorily powerful hypothesis accounting for the emergence of “resurrection” belief within the framework of the comparative study of religion. This review article focuses on a central question that illuminates the methodological and theoretical implications attending this project, namely, “What does it mean to say that Jesus ‘rose from the dead?’” Challenging the idea that this explanatory model allows fo…
An Indigenous Jesus: Methodological and Theoretical Intersections in the Comparative Study of Religion
Indigeneity is a relational category that is predominantly, albeit not exclusively, applicable to Indigenous peoples. As a central theoretical site of discourse in Native Studies, indigeneity tends to be characterized by politicized relationships and provides powerful rhetorical strategies and counter-narratives. Facilitating decolonization as well as illuminating the structural and systemic relationships between the indigenous and the colonial, …
“The Land Is Mine” (Leviticus 25: (23): Reimagining the Jubilee in the Context of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The Jubilee tradition commemorates the release of slaves, the remission of debt, and the repatriation of property, a “day” of physical and spiritual restoration. The Jubilee tradition—originating in a constitutional vision of ancient Israel periodically restoring its ancestral sovereignty as custodians of the land—became a master symbol of biblical theology, a powerful ideological resource as well as a promise of a divinely realized future during…
“I Shall be Reckoned with the Gods”: On Redescribing Jesus as a First-Century Jewish Mystic
The categorical identification of the historical Jesus continues to be a central challenge in Jesus Research yet the identification of the historical Jesus as a first-century Jewish mystic has long been a popular topic among Western esotericists, Christian mystics, contemporary New Age authors, and some biblical scholars. Taking a critical look at the category and study of mysticism in Jesus Research in light of the ancient etymological origins o…
American Gnosis: Jesus Mysticism in A Course in Miracles
Since its publication in 1975, A Course in Miracles ( ACIM ) has continued to grow in popularity as a major feature of New Age spirituality. While the text of the Course is not a direct imitation of any particular form of ancient Gnosticism, A Course in Miracles represents an example of the emergence, reception, and popularity of gnosticizing trajectories of thought in the New Age movement. As a modern-day neo-Gnostic text, A Course in Miracles r…
The Secret Pipe: Protecting thePtehíŋčala Čhaŋŋúŋpaof the Lakota Sioux
The Quest for the “Community” of Q: Mapping Q Within the Social, Scribal, and Textual Landscape(s) of Second Temple Judaism
Was there a “Q community”? There are many who think that any quest for a “Q community” is a fool's errand. In this paper, I revisit this vexing question by focusing on several distinctive textual coordinates with which we can map Q's author within the social, textual, and theological landscape(s) of Second Temple Judaism. Since the author of Q was capable of crafting innovative scriptural allusions and adapting inherited Jesus traditions, I sugge…
Exit the ‘Great Man’: On James Crossley’s Jesus and the Chaos of History
In Jesus and the Chaos of History ( JCH ), James G. Crossley invites us to ‘rethink some of the ways we approach the historical Jesus.’ The result of many years of critical engagement in Jesus Research, JCH is a helpful overview of the current state of the field and a programmatic set of essays seeking to ‘redirect’ Jesus Research by finding new ways to account for the social, economic, and political factors inherent and implicit in ‘historical c…
Yuwipi: A Postcolonial Approach to Lakota Ritual Specialization and Religious Revitalization
“ ‘Knowledge is Truth’: A Course in Miracles as Neo-Gnostic Scripture”
A Course in Miracles represents a modern-day neo-gnostic scripture that reflects significant trends in contemporary Western religiosity, especially the quest for alternative forms of esoteric “spiritual” knowledge and experience in a nominally Christian or post-Christian Western world. While this text has largely been ignored or marginalized in mainstream scholarship, a critical evaluation of the Course , its editing, reception, and contemporary …
A Social Identity Approach to the Rhetoric of Apocalyptic Violence in the Sayings Gospel Q
Previous articleNext article FreeA Social Identity Approach to the Rhetoric of Apocalyptic Violence in the Sayings Gospel QSimon J. JosephSimon J. JosephCalifornia Lutheran University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe Sayings Gospel Q (Quelle)—a hypothetical "text" extrapolated from the …
‘I Have Come to Abolish Sacrifices’ (Epiphanius, Pan. 30.16.5): Re-examining a Jewish Christian Text and Tradition
The Gospel of the Ebionites is a ‘text’ that only exists as fragments cited in and extrapolated from the heresiological writings of Epiphanius ( Pan . 30). Like Recognitions 1.27–71, the Gospel of the Ebionites is one of a number of second- and third-century Jewish Christian sources, texts and traditions alleging that Jesus rejected animal sacrifice. In this article, I seek to review the history of research on this particular text and tradition a…
Jesus and the Temple Incident: A New Proposal
The Temple incident was a pivotal moment in the ministry of the historical Jesus, if not the causal factor that led to Jesus’ execution. Yet the incident continues to present interpretive problems, not least of which is determining precisely what Jesus objected to about the Temple and its administration. This study proposes a new working model for Jesus’ critical stance towards the Temple, identifying the Temple incident as a symbolic act of esch…
Jesus, Q, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Judaic Approach to Q
In his work, Simon J. Joseph proposes a new working model for understanding the Jewish ethnicity, community, provenance, and compositional traits in Q — the earliest and most reliable source for the Palestinian Jewish Jesus movement. He critically compares the major literary features of Q 3-7, a section which introduces John the Baptist and includes the Beatitudes and Jesus' reply to John in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, and first-c…
‘Blessed is Whoever is Not Offended by Me’: The Subversive Appropriation of (Royal) Messianic Ideology in Q 3–7
Jesus is never explicitly identified as the ‘messiah’ or christos in Q. The conspicuous absence of this particular term—so frequently used in the Pauline letters and the Gospels—is often taken to mean that the Q community was uninterested in, unaware of and/or rejected kerygmatic traditions which understood Jesus as a ‘messianic’ figure. Yet a careful analysis of the literary structure of Q 3–7 demonstrates that the redactor of Q both appropriate…
The Ascetic Jesus
New Testament scholars have long been divided on the question of Jesus' asceticism. This study will argue that the historical Jesus should be identified as a first-century Jewish ascetic. Here, asceticism is conceptualized as a sociological, cross-cultural and comparative lens through which a range of behaviors can be understood. Consequently, by comparing the early Jesus tradition with other contemporary manifestations of ascetic practice in ant…
The Secret Pipe: Protecting thePtehíŋčala Čhaŋŋúŋpaof the Lakota Sioux
The Ascetic Jesus
New Testament scholars have long been divided on the question of Jesus' asceticism. This study will argue that the historical Jesus should be identified as a first-century Jewish ascetic. Here, asceticism is conceptualized as a sociological, cross-cultural and comparative lens through which a range of behaviors can be understood. Consequently, by comparing the early Jesus tradition with other contemporary manifestations of ascetic practice in ant…
The Ascetic Jesus
New Testament scholars have long been divided on the question of Jesus' asceticism. This study will argue that the historical Jesus should be identified as a first-century Jewish ascetic. Here, asceticism is conceptualized as a sociological, cross-cultural and comparative lens through which a range of behaviors can be understood. Consequently, by comparing the early Jesus tradition with other contemporary manifestations of ascetic practice in ant…
‘Blessed is Whoever is Not Offended by Me’: The Subversive Appropriation of (Royal) Messianic Ideology in Q 3–7
Jesus is never explicitly identified as the ‘messiah’ or christos in Q. The conspicuous absence of this particular term—so frequently used in the Pauline letters and the Gospels—is often taken to mean that the Q community was uninterested in, unaware of and/or rejected kerygmatic traditions which understood Jesus as a ‘messianic’ figure. Yet a careful analysis of the literary structure of Q 3–7 demonstrates that the redactor of Q both appropriate…
Jesus, Q, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Judaic Approach to Q
In his work, Simon J. Joseph proposes a new working model for understanding the Jewish ethnicity, community, provenance, and compositional traits in Q — the earliest and most reliable source for the Palestinian Jewish Jesus movement. He critically compares the major literary features of Q 3-7, a section which introduces John the Baptist and includes the Beatitudes and Jesus' reply to John in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, and first-c…
‘I Have Come to Abolish Sacrifices’ (Epiphanius, Pan. 30.16.5): Re-examining a Jewish Christian Text and Tradition
The Gospel of the Ebionites is a ‘text’ that only exists as fragments cited in and extrapolated from the heresiological writings of Epiphanius ( Pan . 30). Like Recognitions 1.27–71, the Gospel of the Ebionites is one of a number of second- and third-century Jewish Christian sources, texts and traditions alleging that Jesus rejected animal sacrifice. In this article, I seek to review the history of research on this particular text and tradition a…
Jesus and the Temple Incident: A New Proposal
The Temple incident was a pivotal moment in the ministry of the historical Jesus, if not the causal factor that led to Jesus’ execution. Yet the incident continues to present interpretive problems, not least of which is determining precisely what Jesus objected to about the Temple and its administration. This study proposes a new working model for Jesus’ critical stance towards the Temple, identifying the Temple incident as a symbolic act of esch…
“ ‘Knowledge is Truth’: A Course in Miracles as Neo-Gnostic Scripture”
A Course in Miracles represents a modern-day neo-gnostic scripture that reflects significant trends in contemporary Western religiosity, especially the quest for alternative forms of esoteric “spiritual” knowledge and experience in a nominally Christian or post-Christian Western world. While this text has largely been ignored or marginalized in mainstream scholarship, a critical evaluation of the Course , its editing, reception, and contemporary …
A Social Identity Approach to the Rhetoric of Apocalyptic Violence in the Sayings Gospel Q
Previous articleNext article FreeA Social Identity Approach to the Rhetoric of Apocalyptic Violence in the Sayings Gospel QSimon J. JosephSimon J. JosephCalifornia Lutheran University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe Sayings Gospel Q (Quelle)—a hypothetical "text" extrapolated from the …
The Quest for the “Community” of Q: Mapping Q Within the Social, Scribal, and Textual Landscape(s) of Second Temple Judaism
Was there a “Q community”? There are many who think that any quest for a “Q community” is a fool's errand. In this paper, I revisit this vexing question by focusing on several distinctive textual coordinates with which we can map Q's author within the social, textual, and theological landscape(s) of Second Temple Judaism. Since the author of Q was capable of crafting innovative scriptural allusions and adapting inherited Jesus traditions, I sugge…
Exit the ‘Great Man’: On James Crossley’s Jesus and the Chaos of History
In Jesus and the Chaos of History ( JCH ), James G. Crossley invites us to ‘rethink some of the ways we approach the historical Jesus.’ The result of many years of critical engagement in Jesus Research, JCH is a helpful overview of the current state of the field and a programmatic set of essays seeking to ‘redirect’ Jesus Research by finding new ways to account for the social, economic, and political factors inherent and implicit in ‘historical c…
Yuwipi: A Postcolonial Approach to Lakota Ritual Specialization and Religious Revitalization
American Gnosis: Jesus Mysticism in A Course in Miracles
Since its publication in 1975, A Course in Miracles ( ACIM ) has continued to grow in popularity as a major feature of New Age spirituality. While the text of the Course is not a direct imitation of any particular form of ancient Gnosticism, A Course in Miracles represents an example of the emergence, reception, and popularity of gnosticizing trajectories of thought in the New Age movement. As a modern-day neo-Gnostic text, A Course in Miracles r…
The Secret Pipe: Protecting thePtehíŋčala Čhaŋŋúŋpaof the Lakota Sioux
“The Land Is Mine” (Leviticus 25: (23): Reimagining the Jubilee in the Context of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The Jubilee tradition commemorates the release of slaves, the remission of debt, and the repatriation of property, a “day” of physical and spiritual restoration. The Jubilee tradition—originating in a constitutional vision of ancient Israel periodically restoring its ancestral sovereignty as custodians of the land—became a master symbol of biblical theology, a powerful ideological resource as well as a promise of a divinely realized future during…
“I Shall be Reckoned with the Gods”: On Redescribing Jesus as a First-Century Jewish Mystic
The categorical identification of the historical Jesus continues to be a central challenge in Jesus Research yet the identification of the historical Jesus as a first-century Jewish mystic has long been a popular topic among Western esotericists, Christian mystics, contemporary New Age authors, and some biblical scholars. Taking a critical look at the category and study of mysticism in Jesus Research in light of the ancient etymological origins o…
An Indigenous Jesus: Methodological and Theoretical Intersections in the Comparative Study of Religion
Indigeneity is a relational category that is predominantly, albeit not exclusively, applicable to Indigenous peoples. As a central theoretical site of discourse in Native Studies, indigeneity tends to be characterized by politicized relationships and provides powerful rhetorical strategies and counter-narratives. Facilitating decolonization as well as illuminating the structural and systemic relationships between the indigenous and the colonial, …
The Resurrection as Category Error: A Response to The Resurrection of Jesus
The Resurrection of Jesus provides an explanatorily powerful hypothesis accounting for the emergence of “resurrection” belief within the framework of the comparative study of religion. This review article focuses on a central question that illuminates the methodological and theoretical implications attending this project, namely, “What does it mean to say that Jesus ‘rose from the dead?’” Challenging the idea that this explanatory model allows fo…
The Social Memory of Pté Sáŋ Wíŋ: Indigenous History and Oral Tradition in a Lakota Origin Story
Since the early 1900s, the Lakota origin story of the sacred pipe has been told and retold many times. A central symbol of Lakota religion facilitating communication between the human and spirit worlds, the sacred pipe is an instrument of prayer and a portable altar of sacrificial offerings, reflecting the symbiotic relationship between the Lakota and the buffalo as well as their culture’s high regard for the female as representing the sacred. Th…
Re-Judaizing Jesus: Remembering the Sacrificial Cult in the Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew is commonly regarded as ‘the most Jewish’ of the four New Testament Gospels. Some biblical scholars who specialize in the Gospel of Matthew now hold it to be a relatively faithful account or representation of Jesus’s own ‘Jewishness’. This article questions the relationship between the historical Jesus and the narrative representation of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, particularly vis-à-vis Jesus’s relationship to the Templ…
Biblical Studies and Interpretation (13 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Theology (11 works) · History (9 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (8 works) · Art (8 works) · Literature (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Historical Jesus (7 works) · Judaism (6 works)