Journal of the Bible and its Reception

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The Journal of the Bible and Its Reception (JBR) promotes the study of the reception history of the Bible in terms of both methodology and content. Published twice annually, JBR aims to shed light on the broader horizon of the impact of the Bible in a wide variety of academic fields and cultural settings. Articles focus on the field of Reception History, delivering new research results as well as up-to-date academic discourse. The journal also intentionally cultivates interdisciplinarity, covering a wide range of topics including reception of the Bible in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions; in patristic, medieval, modern, contemporary, and postcolonial contexts; in film, music, literature, and visual arts; and in relation to politics, gender and sexuality, and a variety of other social and cultural issues.

De Gruyter is partnering with the Society of Biblical Literature to offer benefits and discounts on publications in biblical reception to SBL members.

De Gruyter provides you with an array of publications in the area of Bible and biblical Reception:

Topics

Religious studies
History of reception
Old and New Testament
Bible reception
Judaism
Christianity
Islam

Article formats
Original research articles, book reviews

Information on submission process

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Interdisciplinary studies on the Bible reception
Innovative methodology
Wide variety of academic fields and cultural settings
Various contexts and perspectives on the Bible and its reception
Open access publication

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What is Qohelet’s Problem?

12. September 2025

Brennan W. Breed, Davis Hankins

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This essay distinguishes various interpretations of Ecclesiastes using heuristic categories that effectively map their divergent readings on the basis of how they primarily construe the central problem posed by the book. We suggest that there are roughly five broad conceptual models used by readers to answer the question, “What is Qohelet’s problem?” namely: as an epistemological, theological/ethical, political/economic, existential, and/or ontological issue. This article provides examples of each approach from both recent scholarship and the history of reception, showing that each brings certain aspects of the text to light, even as they keep other parts of the book in the dark. While we therefore recognize the value of each approach to Ecclesiastes, we especially advocate for the ontological perspective because we find that it is often overlooked or underappreciated in contemporary scholarship and because we think that it is central to a full understanding of Ecclesiastes’ teachings. This perspective sees Qohelet’s key term הבל ( hebel ) as pointing to a fundamental instability or incoherence in the nature of reality itself. We support our advocacy for this approach through readings of key texts, an exploration of relevant themes in Ecclesiastes, and engagement with various receptions of the book in literature, art, music, and film. The aims of this article, therefore, are to provide a conceptual map of the interpretation and reception of Ecclesiastes. We also advocate for the need to understand the book as a response to various problems including ontological contradictions, which may not be prevalent among contemporary interpretations but nonetheless have precedents in the book’s reception history.
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Purposeful Play: The Reception of Daniel 5–6 in Ludus Danielis

8. September 2025

Rebekah Rochte Votral

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Ludus Danielis is a famous piece of medieval drama that was composed in the late twelfth century by the clerics and students connected to the Beauvais Cathedral in northern France and committed to writing in the early thirteenth century. The musical drama retells the story of Daniel in the courts of Balthasar and Darius, including his experience in the lion’s den (Dan 5–6). The long-standing Christian tradition of interpreting Daniel as a prophet and even prefigurement of Christ finds new expression in the form and content of Ludus Danielis. The play has enjoyed immense scholarly attention focusing on its distinctive features, performance history, devotional impact, context amid other performance traditions, and most notably, its role as a corrective to the Feast of Fools tradition. A reexamination of how Ludus Danielis presents and interprets the biblical narrative suggests that the play served an additional purpose, responding to the theological and ecclesiological trends that shaped the period in which the play was composed, performed, and recorded. The persona of Daniel was an ideal candidate for establishing an imaginative space to help the young clerics engage those trends. The playful engagement between the source material and dramatic mechanisms established a symbolic space wherein the court tales of Daniel 5–6 became the language for negotiating the desired norms of clerical authority and personal piety. The formational playscape created by the ludic (game-like) nature of the plays empowered the young clerics to negotiate the evolving role of the subdeacon as well as the tensions between private devotion and increased ecclesial mediation, especially in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Through purposeful playfulness, Ludus Danielis utilized the person and story of Daniel to engage in instructional commentary and contemplative pilgrimage, encouraging ideal clerical identity and piety while also reinforcing the expanding mediatory role of the clergy.
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Jean de Gaigny and the First Early Modern Discovery of Marius Victorinus’s Commentary on Galatians

8. September 2025

Erik A. Estrada

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Scholars have maintained that the first early modern discovery of Marius Victorinus’s Pauline commentaries took place somewhere around 1630. That year, Jacques Sirmond announced his discovery of various commentaries on the Pauline corpus attributed to Victorinus (ca. 280/290–365), the elderly scholar and convert to Christianity mentioned by Augustine in his Confessions . This study, however, invites scholars to go beyond the traditional view about the first discovery of Victorinus and consider the contribution of Jean de Gaigny (d. 1549). Jean discovered Victorinus’s Commentary on Galatians nearly 100 years before Sirmond. The Parisian scholar utilized this commentary of Victorinus mainly to respond to the challenges posed by Erasmus of Rotterdam’s new Latin translation of the New Testament. Because of this discovery, Jean accomplished many firsts with respect to Victorinus from being the first author in Christian history to quote from one of his commentaries on the Pauline Epistles to reintroducing his exegetical work on Galatians to all of Europe.
Open Access
1 Tim 4:13: Public Lecture or Private Study?

3. September 2025

Stefan Krauter

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Almost all contemporary commentaries claim that in 1 Timothy 4:13 Paul urges Timothy to read from Scripture and teach during worship services. This essay traces how this interpretation arose in the early modern period and became established in the 19th century. From antiquity to the Reformation, however, 1 Timothy 4:13 was understood without exception to mean that Paul was urging Timothy to read Scripture for himself and to teach on that basis. This understanding of 1 Timothy 4:13 can be easily contextualized within ancient ideas of character formation. It seems much more plausible than the interpretation that is common today.

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Special Issue: New Perspectives on Biblical Drama; Guest Editors: Sarah Fengler and Dinah Wouters

Special Issue: Midrash as Rabbinic Reception of the Bible; Guest Editor: Burton L. Visotzky

Special Issue: Dynamic Unity in the Gospel of John; Guest Editor: Julie Casteigt

Special Fascicle: The Bible in America and Britain at War / Editors: Nathan MacDonald and Andrew Mein

Special Issue: Making Men: The Reception of the Bible in the Construction of Masculinities in Jewish and Christian Con/Texts / Issue Editors: Ovidiu Creanga, Adriaan van Klinken, Jorunn Økland and Peter-Ben Smit

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Die Zeitschrift Journal of the Bible and its Reception veröffentlicht Sonder- und Themenhefte, die sich auf wichtige und neu aufkommende Themen im Bereich der Forschung konzentrieren. Die Zeitschrift hat ein strenges Verfahren eingeführt, um sicherzustellen, dass alle Manuskripte für Sonderausgaben denselben Qualitätsstandards und Peer-Review-Verfahren unterliegen wie reguläre Manuskripte. Weitere Informationen über die Peer-Review-Politik der Zeitschrift finden Sie in den "Hinweisen für Autoren".

Aktuelle Themenhefte

Band 11 | Heft 2 Special Issue: New Perspectives on Biblical Drama; Guest Editors: Sarah Fengler and Dinah Wouters

Submission
Please submit to JBR via ScholarOne Manuscripts

As per De Gruyter policy, no author list changes are permitted after acceptance of an article. The De Gruyter production team is instructed to enforce this policy during the production/proofing process.

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Submission process

If you would like to submit an article to the journal for consideration, please adhere to the guidelines in the JBR style sheet
If you would like to submit a book review to the journal for consideration, please adhere to the guidelines in the JBR Book Review Guidelines
Submission of your paper via ScholarOne Manuscripts
Peer review process
Decision on your paper
Publishing
You will be guided through the whole process of submission
In case of any problems editorial assistance will be provided

Please note

Before submitting your article please have a look at Ethical Guidelines and our Copyright Transfer Agreement
Once your article is accepted you have the option to publish it open access
Our Repository Policy allows you to distribute 30 PDF copies of your published article to colleagues (the PDF has to include the information that it is an author's copy). Please also feel free to distribute the link to the online abstract
If you have any general questions please visit our FAQ page for authors

We look forward to receiving your manuscript!

Managing Editor
Fiona C. Black; Mount Allison University

Editors
Katherine Marsengill; Princeton University
Christopher Ocker; Australian Catholic University
Jorunn Økland; University of Oslo

Book Review Editor
N.N.

Advisory Board
Roland Boer; University of Newcastle & Renmin University of China
Chin Ken Pa; Fu Jen Catholic University
Francis X. Clooney; Harvard University
David Gunn; Texas Christian University
James E. Harding; University of Otago
Amy-Jill Levine; Vanderbilt University
Jeremy Punt; Stellenbosch University
Ben Quash; King’s College London
Elsa Tamez (Emeritus); Latin American Biblical University
David Thomas; University of Birmingham

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eISSN:

2329-4434

ISSN:

2329-440X

Sprache:

Englisch

Verlag:

De Gruyter

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Erstveröffentlichung:

28. Juni 2014

Erscheinungsweise:

2 Hefte pro Jahr

Journal of the Bible and its Reception

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