Skip to main content
This paper identifies the language which affirmed the status of a wife and daughter as property of their husbands and/or fathers in the Hebrew Bible. http://www.publicacions.ub.edu/ficha.aspx?cod=08982
“Terms of Endearment? The אשת יפת-תאר (Desirable Female Captive) and her Illicit Acquisition,” in Exodus and Deuteronomy (Text and Context Series;  ed. G. Yee and A. Brenner; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), 237-257.
Research Interests:
Women's Studies, Women's History, Masculinity Studies, Rape, Women and War Studies, and 35 more
Significant aspects of natural law are reflected in the statements of corporal punishment presented in the Pentateuch. In relation to the “eye for eye” clause from the talionic formulation, it is suggested that acts of blinding were... more
Significant aspects of natural law are reflected in the statements of corporal punishment presented in the Pentateuch. In relation to the “eye for eye” clause from the talionic formulation, it is suggested that acts of blinding
were perceived also as a form of punishment of an offending organ and can,therefore, be classified as examples of “instrumental talion.”  This is distinct
from measures which focus on the character of the sinner, or the nature of his crime, identified as “reflective talion,”  in this paper. Both processes convey an underlying desire for poetic justice, evidenced in biblical and ancient Near Eastern sources, where aetiological explanations clarify accounts of
serious injuries to the eyes.
Research Interests:
This paper clarifies the ancient Hebrew linguistic distinctions between the penalties of capital punishment, and live human substitution, which appear in the Covenant Code. Such differentiations are significant for the legal history of... more
This paper clarifies the ancient Hebrew linguistic distinctions between the penalties of capital punishment, and live human substitution, which appear in the Covenant Code. Such  differentiations are  significant for the legal history of lex talionis (the law of retaliation), where interpretations of the talionic “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” formulation among Jewish exegetes (from late antiquity until the present day) are characterized by the insistence that this represented financial compensation. In addition, it will be shown that these penalties were not unique to the laws preserved biblical scribes, but reflected broader juridical concerns present in earlier Assyrian and Babylonian legal traditions.
Research Interests:
In this paper I suggest that the mutilation of the woman's palm in Deuteronomy 25:11-12 is intended as a form of "instrumental talion," or punishment of the offending organ, based on related traditions in Middle Assyrian law. Moreover,... more
In this paper I suggest that the mutilation of the woman's palm in Deuteronomy 25:11-12 is intended as a form of "instrumental talion," or punishment of the offending organ, based on related traditions in Middle Assyrian law. Moreover, the various scholarly claims that this law prescribed the genital shaving of the guilty woman , or that  female circumcision was symbolised, appear  less plausible in view of the evidence examined.
Research Interests:
This paper suggests that the Priestly perception of masculinity in the Hebrew Bible was based on notions of sexual virility and fertility, rather than on physical strength and military prowess. It is further argued that this is distinct... more
This paper suggests that the Priestly perception of masculinity in the Hebrew Bible was based on notions of sexual virility and fertility, rather than on physical strength and military prowess. It is further argued that this is distinct from the subsequent rabbinic (Tanaitic) construction of masculinity, which is characterized rather by the figure of the circumcised Jewish male.
The covenant of the rainbow and circumcision are two Priestly signs that have minimal roles in the sectarian texts from Qumran, quite unlike their representation in the primeval and patriarchal narratives. This paper indicates that the... more
The covenant of the rainbow and circumcision are two Priestly signs that have minimal roles in the sectarian texts from Qumran, quite unlike their representation in the primeval and patriarchal narratives.  This paper indicates that the sign of the rainbow, with its inherent symbolism of sexuality and fertility, was of little doctrinal value to the sectarian community who were otherwise intent on enforcing increased levels of ritual purity and encouraging greater sexual restraint, than was specified by biblical law.  Furthermore, circumcision (already attested among in Judea and Egypt  - and not exclusively among Jews) attracted harsh condemnation in Graeco-Roman society.  Thus the relative absence of these signs may be due to the perception that neither the covenant of the rainbow, nor the rite of circumcision, served to enhance the self-defined elitism expressed by the sectarian writers of the scrolls.
The Sacred Ink eLecture series, focuses on body marking for ritualistic, aesthetic, and other benign purposes throughout the ages, from Ancient Egypt up to the present day. The eLectures take place each Wednesday from 27 April until 1... more
The  Sacred Ink eLecture series, focuses on body marking for ritualistic, aesthetic, and other benign purposes throughout the ages, from Ancient Egypt up to the present day. The eLectures take place each Wednesday from 27 April until 1 June 2022 from 16:00 until 17:00 BST (London) via Zoom.
Research Interests:
The use of the cuneiform script in Israel and the Palestinian territories remains one of the earliest, explicit, indicators of the impact of ancient Mesopotamian cultural transmission from the Middle Bronze age. The initial “Cuneiform in... more
The use of the cuneiform script in Israel and the Palestinian territories remains one of the earliest, explicit, indicators of the impact of ancient Mesopotamian cultural transmission from the Middle Bronze age. The initial “Cuneiform in Canaan” project was dedicated to the “fathers of Israeli Assyriology,” namely Hayim Tadmor, Aaron Shaffer, Anson Rainey, and Itamar Singer. Supported by the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, together with the Israel Exploration Society, this initiative culminated in the collective publication of cuneiform finds from the Israel, Gaza, and the currently occupied territories in 2006. Its publication provided for the first time a comprehensive account of tablets and fragments, that was previously inaccessible.  The second edition—appearing in 2018—illuminates 97 cuneiform objects, from 29 different locations and periods. What is the importance of these finds? And how do such tiny and broken pieces make a difference to our knowledge of early Judaism?  This lecture will address these questions with reference to the written development of law in ancient Babylonian and Hebrew sources.
The subordinate role of women and their lack of legal autonomy was a widely accepted norm in the ancient societies of the Near East, Levant, and Egypt. This position was epitomized also in the memories of the biblical scribes, whose... more
The subordinate role of women and their lack of legal autonomy was a widely accepted norm in the ancient societies of the Near East, Levant, and Egypt. This position was epitomized also in the memories of the biblical scribes, whose directives sought to restrict the legal capacity of women, while legitimating their sexual abuse. Yet evidence from archival documents indicates that such norms were by no means universal and that it was possible for a woman to exercise her own legal independence and authority not only in her daily life, but also within the institution of marriage. From the border of southern Egypt in the Ptolemaic period, this paper will highlight the relevant Aramaic archives relating to Mibtaḥiyah, daughter of Jedaniah, a Judaean migrant employed in the military garrison at Elephantine island c. 470BCE, and identify how her acquisitions, inheritance rights, and legal agency, defied the idealized patriarchal norms.
This paper will examine the prohibition of burning children (Deuteronomy 18:10), as a developmental stage of legal reasoning in biblical law. In this case it will further be suggested that epigraphic sources from Neo-Assyrian cultic... more
This paper will examine the prohibition of burning children (Deuteronomy 18:10), as a developmental stage of legal reasoning in biblical law. In this case it will further be suggested that epigraphic sources from Neo-Assyrian cultic dedications, rather than the Priestly condemnation of Molekh worship, may have provided the impetus for this prohibition.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper will examine the Priestly requirement of circumcision in Genesis 17:1-21, suggesting that its prescription was crucial to determining the identity of Abraham’s chosen successors in the post-exilic period, i.e. before the... more
This paper will examine the Priestly requirement of circumcision in Genesis 17:1-21, suggesting that its prescription was crucial to determining the identity of Abraham’s chosen successors in the post-exilic period, i.e. before the matriarchal principle qualified Jewish birth in subsequent rabbinic law.  Here the Priestly stipulations ensured that the privilege of hereditary succession was restricted to Isaac (circumcised upon the eighth day after his birth), in preference of Abraham’s first-born son Ishmael (circumcised at the age of thirteen).  In addition, a number of widely recognizable political and legal conventions were integrated into the framework of this patriarchal narrative – each of which was intended to communicate the necessary authority and gravitas of the rite to its earliest audience(s): namely those Judeans who remained in the Persian province of Yehud, and potentially also those in the process of establishing exilic communities in Babylon and Borsippa.  My discussion will identify key elements of these conventions found in Genesis 17:1-21, clarifying also their relationship to Esarhaddon’s Vassal Treaty, a text previously associated with Deuteronomic, rather than Priestly, scribes.
Research Interests:
This ground-breaking research examines the biblical traditions of circumcision, corporal punishment, ear piercing, and tattooing in the context of ancient Near Eastern laws and traditions. Why, if man is created in the image of God, is... more
This ground-breaking research examines the biblical traditions of circumcision, corporal punishment, ear piercing, and tattooing in the context of ancient Near Eastern laws and traditions. Why, if man is created in the image of God, is his circumcision and ear piercing required? Is the punitive mutilation of women a singular phenomenon, or do such punishments reflect ancient Near Eastern legal precedents? Not least importantly, are any general principles regarding the use of the body identified in the biblical expressions of divine law?

These findings indicate that physical disfigurement functioned in biblical law to verify legal property acquisition when changes in the status of dependants were formalized.  In this context the broader function of writing, and the cuneiform script, was highly significant. These developed in Sumer and Mesopotamia for the purpose of record keeping, in order to provide legal proof of ownership, where the inscription of a tablet evidenced the sale, or transfer, of property. Legitimate property acquisition was as important  for a nation of escaped slaves, who by their own account had dispossessed the local inhabitants of their promised land. Accordingly, in biblical law, where physical disfigurements marked dependants permanently, they served to validate appropriate group membership, and further legitimated property ownership primarily on behalf of the adult Israelite male.
Sovereign Authority and the Elaboration of Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2/122 Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020. Pp. xvi + 367. Paper. €89.00. ISBN 9783161595097. Sandra Jacobs Leo Baeck and King's... more
Sovereign Authority and the Elaboration of Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2/122 Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020. Pp. xvi + 367. Paper. €89.00. ISBN 9783161595097. Sandra Jacobs Leo Baeck and King's Colleges (London)
Book Review of Tracey Lemos, Violence and Personhood in Ancient Israel and Comparative Contexts (Oxford: OUP, 2017), pp. 225. £60.00. ISBN: 978-0-19-878453-1, Association for Jewish Studies Review 44/1 (2020): 185-187.
Book Review: Yigal Bloch, Alphabet Scribes in the Land of Cuneiform: Sēpiru Professionals in Mesopotamia in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods (Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East 11; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2018). Pp.... more
Book Review: Yigal Bloch, Alphabet Scribes in the Land of Cuneiform: Sēpiru Professionals in Mesopotamia in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods (Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East 11; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2018). Pp. xv + 497. $165.00. ISBN: 978-1-4632-0635-2, submitted Feb 2019, published March 2020.
Gleanings from the Caves: Dead Sea Scrolls and Artefacts from the Schøyen Collection. Library of Second Temple Studies 71; eds.Torleif Elgvin with Kipp Davies and Michaël Langlois London and New York: Bloomsbury T.&T. Clark, 2016. Pp.... more
Gleanings from the Caves: Dead Sea Scrolls and Artefacts from the Schøyen Collection. Library of Second Temple Studies 71; eds.Torleif Elgvin with Kipp Davies and Michaël Langlois  London and New York: Bloomsbury T.&T. Clark, 2016. Pp. 508 incl. colour illustrations. £81.00, in Strata: The Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 38 (2018), 136-138.
ReviewHa-'Ish Moshe: Studies in Scriptural Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature in Honor of Moshe J. Bernstein (eds. Binyamin Y. Goldstein, Michael Segal and George J. Brooke: STTDJ 122; Leiden: Brill, 2018)... more
ReviewHa-'Ish Moshe: Studies in Scriptural Interpretation
in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature
in Honor of Moshe J. Bernstein (eds.  Binyamin Y. Goldstein, Michael Segal and George J. Brooke: STTDJ 122; Leiden: Brill, 2018)
https://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=12066&CodePage=4290,245,3406,12066,2496,4197,302,113
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Book Review: Russell Hobson, Transforming Literature into Scripture: Texts as Cult Objects at Nineveh and Qumran. (Sheffield: Equinox, 2012), Vetus Testamentum. 66/1 (2016): 167-168.
Research Interests:
Book Review: Joseph Fleishman, Father-Daughter Relations in Biblical Law (CDL Press: Bethesda, Maryland, 2011), Vetus Testamentum 66/1 (2016): 159-161.
Research Interests:
Book Review L. Juliana Claassens and Klaas Spronk eds. Fragile Dignity: Intercontextual Conversations on Scriptures, Family, and Violence (Semeia Studies 72. Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013), Vetus Testamentum 65/4... more
Book Review
L. Juliana Claassens and Klaas Spronk eds. Fragile Dignity: Intercontextual  Conversations on Scriptures, Family, and Violence (Semeia Studies 72. Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013), Vetus Testamentum 65/4 (2015): 661-662.
Research Interests:
Review of Eve Levavi Feinstein, Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible ((Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), AJS Review Issue, Vol. 40, No. 1. (Spring 2016): 151-153.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Book Review: Bodies, Embodiment and Theology of the Hebrew Bible (ed. S.T. Kamionkowski and W. Kim; New York and London: T & T Clark, 2010), Vetus Testamentum 62/2 (2012): 296-297.
Research Interests:
Esther Eshel, and Yigal Levin (eds.), ‘See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me’ (Ps 40:8) Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Hanan Eshel. Journal of Ancient Judaism... more
Esther Eshel, and Yigal Levin (eds.), ‘See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me’ (Ps 40:8) Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Hanan Eshel. Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements 12. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.  Pp.245, incl. 60 figures. €99.99. ISBN 978-3-525-55062-5.
Research Interests:
Nicholas Postgate, Bronze Age Bureaucracy: Writing and the Practice of Government in Assyria. Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 484 incl. 40 figures. £65.00. ISBN: 978-1-10-704375-6.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Book reviews published since 2011
Research Interests:
This online course will provide an introduction to Hebrew Bible in its ancient Mesopotamian context. Further details, including registration, will soon be available at:... more
This online course will provide an introduction to Hebrew Bible in its ancient Mesopotamian context.  Further details, including registration, will soon be available at: https://lbc.ac.uk/study-with-us/additional-learning-opportunities/lehrhaus/
This is the module outline for the introduction to the Aramaic language in ancient Judaism, which explores the Aramaic in the Hebrew Bible, early Targums, and other Second Temple sources, including Genesis Apocryphon. Emphasis in this... more
This is the module outline for the introduction to the Aramaic language in ancient Judaism, which explores the Aramaic in the Hebrew Bible, early Targums, and other Second Temple sources, including  Genesis Apocryphon. Emphasis in this course will be placed particularly on the role of Aramaic in early Judaean history, where the significance of the Elephantine papyrii will also be examined. In addition students will examine the complex relationship between text, translation, and commentary in pre-rabbinic sources. The module is a compulsory for trainee rabbinic students at Leo Baeck College, London, prior to entrance into the second year and the study of Babylonian (Talmudic) Aramaic.
Research Interests:
Teaching Syllabus taught at Leo Baeck College, London
Research Interests:
How was biblical law understood prior to the codification of the Mishnah? What was the historical background of the legal collections in the Pentateuch and how did these evolve prior to the redaction of מסכת סנהדרין (Masekehet... more
How was biblical law understood prior to the codification of the Mishnah?  What was the historical background of the legal collections in the Pentateuch and how did these evolve prior to the redaction of מסכת סנהדרין (Masekehet Sanhedrin)? More significantly: why was it crucial for the Tanaaitic sages to reconfigure Israelite and Judean legal traditions, in their emerging construction(s) of rabbinic Judaism?  This course will explore a number of judicial issues in the Hebrew Bible: rape, abortion, homicide, corporal and capital punishment, involuntary martyrdom (incl. child sacrifice),  in light of the above questions.
Research Interests:
Handout to accompany a graduate class introducing the non-sectarian texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Research Interests:
Handout to accompany a graduate class introducing the sectarian texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Research Interests:
Available online databases and portals for the study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism.
Research Interests:
The copyright for this syllabus belongs to the Department of Theology and Religions, King's College, London.
Research Interests:
This syllabus written and taught by Dr Sandra Jacobs from January 2011- July 2013, in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. It remains the copyright of King's College, London.
Research Interests:
The integrity of the family unit, with its focus on patriarchal succession and genealogical continuity, was paramount in all strata of the Hebrew Bible. Despite acute fears of the seductive dangers of women, this did not prevent... more
The integrity of the family unit, with its focus on patriarchal succession and genealogical continuity, was paramount in all strata of the Hebrew Bible. Despite acute fears of the seductive dangers of women, this did not prevent Deuteronomy maximizing a man’s acceptable sexual relationships, to include taking foreign captives as wives—in defiance of its integral prohibition of intermarriage. Nor did its laws mitigate the abuse of women, whose exclusion from “the congregation of the Lord” restricted their participation in hearing Deuteronomy’s public recitation.
Abstract Significant elements of natural law are reflected in the statements of corporal punishment presented in biblical law. In relation to the “eye for eye” clause from the talionic formulation, it is suggested that acts of blinding... more
Abstract Significant elements of natural law are reflected in the statements of corporal punishment presented in biblical law. In relation to the “eye for eye” clause from the talionic formulation, it is suggested that acts of blinding were perceived also as a form of punishment of an offending organ and can, therefore, be classified as examples of “instrumental talion.” This is distinct from measures which focus on the character of the sinner, or the nature of his crime, which are differentiated as “reflective talion.” Both processes convey an underlying desire for poetic justice, evidenced in biblical and ancient Near Eastern sources, where aetiological explanations clarify accounts of serious injuries to the eyes.
KULeuven. ...