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Papers by Olivia Stewart Lester

Research paper thumbnail of The Sibylline Oracles: A Case Study in Ancient and Modern Anti-Judaism

Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism, 2022

This chapter argues that just as the study of canonical texts has been impacted by anti-Judaism, ... more This chapter argues that just as the study of canonical texts has been impacted by anti-Judaism, non-canonical texts within the category of "Hellenistic Judaism" have also suffered from anti-Jewish assumptions and readings. As an example, I examine Adolf von Harnack's views on the Sibylline Oracles. Harnack undermines these texts as conscious forgeries of a poor quality. Moreover, Harnack describes the Sibylline Oracles, as well as a number of other Jewish texts in Greek, as products of a "Judaism of a second order." In Harnack's model, this more universal, less-Jewish Judaism prepared the world for the Christian gospel. I argue that Harnack's view of both "Judaism" and "Hellenistic Judaism" is anti-Jewish. Such anti-Jewish views are not unique to Harnack, however. In the second half of the paper I consider ancient anti-Judaism found within the Sibylline Oracles themselves, arguing that the effacement and violent polemic of the Christian material against Jewish texts, traditions, and people bears meaningful resemblance to later modern scholarly anti-Jewish readings of these texts.

Research paper thumbnail of Death, Demise, and the Decline of Prophecy

Religion & Theology, 2022

This article examines Apollo's prophecy at Delphi as well as prophecy in ancient Judaism and anci... more This article examines Apollo's prophecy at Delphi as well as prophecy in ancient Judaism and ancient Christianity in light of recent scholarship on the demise of religions. I argue that two questions remain about ancient narratives of decline amidst the scholarship on the death of religions. First, how should scholars engage ancient narratives of decline that threaten to erase other practices, beliefs, and rhetoric? Second, what about the challenges of defining a 'religion' that declines? Brent Nongbri has suggested that categories other than religion may provide more fruitful avenues for describing antiquity; I argue that prophecy is one such category.

Research paper thumbnail of Ambivalent Appropriation: Engagement with Apollo in Jewish and Christian Texts and Material Culture

Journal of Early Christian History, 2020

Part of a special issue on "Twilights of Greek and Roman Religions," this article considers ancie... more Part of a special issue on "Twilights of Greek and Roman Religions," this article considers ancient Jewish and Christian engagement with Apollo traditions in texts and material objects from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE. I track a shared strategy in which both Jews and Christians adopt imagery or tropes that surround Apollo, but either (1) reassign them to their god or Jesus, or (2) relocate them within spaces devoted to the worship of their god. In light of Roman imperial use of Apollo traditions, I draw on postcolonial theory to suggest that we might label this recurrent transformative strategy "ambivalent appropriation." Persistent ambivalent appropriation of Apollo traditions by ancient Jews and Christians counters ancient narratives about Apollo's prophecy at Delphi declining and/or ceasing, thereby challenging any notion of a twilight for Delphic prophecy.

Research paper thumbnail of “Views of the World to Come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles.” Pages 261–82 in Dreams, Visions, Imaginations: Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic Views of the World to Come. Edited by Jens Schröter, Tobias Nicklas, and Armand Puig i Tàrrech. BZNW 247. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.

Dreams, Visions, Imaginations: Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic Views of the World to Come, 2021

This chapter argues that views of the world to come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles uni... more This chapter argues that views of the world to come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles unite inexorable divine reckoning with temporal uncertainty and instability, whether such views occur in the collection’s universal histories or in the sibyl’s portrayal of her own eschatological future. First, I reassess the relationship between periodized time and eschatology in the universal histories of Sib. Or. 4 and 1–2. Periodizing time, both in the Sibylline Oracles and elsewhere, has generally been understood as asserting divine order and control. In both Sib. Or. 4 and 1–2, however, the periodized schemas are affected by redactional activity, evidenced by seams and fractures in the progress of time. I argue that the gaps and fractures in these periodized schemas create a sibylline temporality that blends ultimate divine control with temporal uncertainty. Such a fragmentary sibylline temporality could create chaos and instability for ancient audiences, heightening the threat of divine judgment. This chapter then examines the sibyl’s fate in the face of divine judgment in Sib. Or. 2 and 7. It is not just the future of other nations or the larger universe itself that is rendered uncertain in the face of looming divine judgment; these texts call the sibyl’s own future into question. I argue that this second dimension of temporal uncertainty works to subordinate a foreign, female prophetic figure to the God of the Jewish and/or Christian writers. In both the universal histories and the sibyl’s depiction of her own future, then, the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles intermingle looming divine judgment with a future rendered unstable.

Research paper thumbnail of "The Four Kingdoms Motif and Sibylline Temporality in Sibylline Oracles 4." Pages 121–41 in The Four Kingdoms Motif before and beyond the Book of Daniel. Edited by Andrew Perrin and Loren Stuckenbruck. Themes in Biblical Narrative 28. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

The Four Kingdoms Motif before and beyond the Book of Daniel, 2020

This chapter examines the four kingdoms motif in Sib. Or. 4, which in its current form probably d... more This chapter examines the four kingdoms motif in Sib. Or. 4, which in its current form probably dates from the late first century CE. I consider the motif looking backwards, breaking the text of Sib. Or. 4 apart into reconstructed redactional layers, and forwards, analyzing the sibylline temporality that emerges from the book’s current form, including its literary seams. Engaging Paul Kosmin’s recent proposal that the four kingdoms motif is primarily an anti-Seleucid response to imperial periodized time, this chapter revisits the redactional proposals of John Collins and David Flusser regarding the motif’s origin and transformation in Sib. Or. 4. While our knowledge of the earlier form of the four kingdoms motif in Sib. Or. 4 is too speculative to be conclusive, it is just as possible that the underlying motif was anti-Macedonian, rather than anti-Seleucid. Turning to sibylline temporality in book 4, I argue that the literary transformation of the four kingdoms motif proposed by Collins and Flusser constructs a temporality that is multiple, fragmented, and less linear, even as it employs periodized time. Such a sibylline temporality could have had the effect of reinforcing the chaos of a world under divine judgment for ancient audiences.

Research paper thumbnail of Revealed History as Prophetic Rivalry: John’s Apocalypse, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Prophecy of Apollo

Early Christianity, 2019

This article responds to the call of Stephan Palmié, Charles Stewart, and Dipesh Chakrabarty for ... more This article responds to the call of Stephan Palmié, Charles Stewart, and Dipesh Chakrabarty for a more expansive understanding of “history,” as inclusive of the intervention of gods, spirits, or superhuman beings, by examining two ancient texts that employ divine revelation to speak about the past. Revelation 12 and Sibylline Oracles 4 both present the past in a way that has the rhetorical potential to cast aspersions on the prophecy of Apollo. These texts lay claim to specific traditions associated with Apollo—specifically, the foundation myth for the shrine at Delphi and legends about Apollo inspiring sibyls—calling the legitimacy of his prophecy into question. By laying claim to these particular traditions, Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4 advance alternate accounts about the past to those associated with Apollo’s prophecy. They rewrite the ancient past, loosening the underpinnings of Apollo’s prophetic authority. The work of Robert G. Hall suggests that one might think of this rewritten past in Revelation 12 and Sibylline Oracles 4 as using a rhetorical strategy of revealed history. This article argues that in these texts revealed history could have been useful for prophetic rivalry with Apollo, both for undermining ancient traditions about the god and for delegitimizing his reliability as a source of knowledge about the past.

Research paper thumbnail of Jezebel: A Study in Prophecy, Divine Violence, and Gender. Pages 509–522 in New Perspectives on the Book of Revelation (ed. Adela Yarbro Collins; BETL 291; Leuven: Peeters, 2017).

Presented at the 2015 Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, this paper locates the threat against "Jeze... more Presented at the 2015 Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, this paper locates the threat against "Jezebel" in Rev 2 in a larger discourse of divine violence against prophets in the ancient Mediterranean. It argues that although both male and female prophets are victims of divine violence, the violence tends to be more severe when the prophet is female.

Research paper thumbnail of "The Question of Prophetic 'Authenticity.' A Reponse to Reinhard G. Kratz." Pages 222–24 in Jeremiah's Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, and Transformation (ed. Hindy Najman and Konrad Schmid; Leiden: Brill, 2017).

Research paper thumbnail of "'I Will Speak . . . with My Whole Person in Ecstasy': Instrumentality and Independence in the Sibylline Oracles." Pages 1232–46 in Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy (2 vols.; eds. Joel Baden, Hindy Najman, and Eibert Tigchelaar; Leiden: Brill, 2017).

Books by Olivia Stewart Lester

Research paper thumbnail of Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4–5

Book Reviews by Olivia Stewart Lester

Research paper thumbnail of BMCR. Review of Paula Fredriksen, Paul. The Pagans' Apostle

Encyclopedia Entries by Olivia Stewart Lester

Research paper thumbnail of "Sibylline Oracles 4-5," T&T CLARK ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM

Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Daniel M Gurtner, eds. T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism.... more Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Daniel M Gurtner, eds. T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2019.

Upcoming conferences by Olivia Stewart Lester

Research paper thumbnail of Apocalyptic Thinking

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apocalyptic-thinking-tickets-129867155157%20 The w... more Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apocalyptic-thinking-tickets-129867155157%20
The workshop rethinks the philological, historical and theo-political implications for apocalyptic thinking. Considering both textual sources and visual arts, the papers will explore the limitations of the category of apocalyptic across multiple traditions and cultural contexts. In our discussions we will look for new frameworks and categories to address the depth and breadth of phenomena that the concept of apocalyptic has drawn together.

Research paper thumbnail of The Sibylline Oracles: A Case Study in Ancient and Modern Anti-Judaism

Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism, 2022

This chapter argues that just as the study of canonical texts has been impacted by anti-Judaism, ... more This chapter argues that just as the study of canonical texts has been impacted by anti-Judaism, non-canonical texts within the category of "Hellenistic Judaism" have also suffered from anti-Jewish assumptions and readings. As an example, I examine Adolf von Harnack's views on the Sibylline Oracles. Harnack undermines these texts as conscious forgeries of a poor quality. Moreover, Harnack describes the Sibylline Oracles, as well as a number of other Jewish texts in Greek, as products of a "Judaism of a second order." In Harnack's model, this more universal, less-Jewish Judaism prepared the world for the Christian gospel. I argue that Harnack's view of both "Judaism" and "Hellenistic Judaism" is anti-Jewish. Such anti-Jewish views are not unique to Harnack, however. In the second half of the paper I consider ancient anti-Judaism found within the Sibylline Oracles themselves, arguing that the effacement and violent polemic of the Christian material against Jewish texts, traditions, and people bears meaningful resemblance to later modern scholarly anti-Jewish readings of these texts.

Research paper thumbnail of Death, Demise, and the Decline of Prophecy

Religion & Theology, 2022

This article examines Apollo's prophecy at Delphi as well as prophecy in ancient Judaism and anci... more This article examines Apollo's prophecy at Delphi as well as prophecy in ancient Judaism and ancient Christianity in light of recent scholarship on the demise of religions. I argue that two questions remain about ancient narratives of decline amidst the scholarship on the death of religions. First, how should scholars engage ancient narratives of decline that threaten to erase other practices, beliefs, and rhetoric? Second, what about the challenges of defining a 'religion' that declines? Brent Nongbri has suggested that categories other than religion may provide more fruitful avenues for describing antiquity; I argue that prophecy is one such category.

Research paper thumbnail of Ambivalent Appropriation: Engagement with Apollo in Jewish and Christian Texts and Material Culture

Journal of Early Christian History, 2020

Part of a special issue on "Twilights of Greek and Roman Religions," this article considers ancie... more Part of a special issue on "Twilights of Greek and Roman Religions," this article considers ancient Jewish and Christian engagement with Apollo traditions in texts and material objects from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE. I track a shared strategy in which both Jews and Christians adopt imagery or tropes that surround Apollo, but either (1) reassign them to their god or Jesus, or (2) relocate them within spaces devoted to the worship of their god. In light of Roman imperial use of Apollo traditions, I draw on postcolonial theory to suggest that we might label this recurrent transformative strategy "ambivalent appropriation." Persistent ambivalent appropriation of Apollo traditions by ancient Jews and Christians counters ancient narratives about Apollo's prophecy at Delphi declining and/or ceasing, thereby challenging any notion of a twilight for Delphic prophecy.

Research paper thumbnail of “Views of the World to Come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles.” Pages 261–82 in Dreams, Visions, Imaginations: Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic Views of the World to Come. Edited by Jens Schröter, Tobias Nicklas, and Armand Puig i Tàrrech. BZNW 247. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.

Dreams, Visions, Imaginations: Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic Views of the World to Come, 2021

This chapter argues that views of the world to come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles uni... more This chapter argues that views of the world to come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles unite inexorable divine reckoning with temporal uncertainty and instability, whether such views occur in the collection’s universal histories or in the sibyl’s portrayal of her own eschatological future. First, I reassess the relationship between periodized time and eschatology in the universal histories of Sib. Or. 4 and 1–2. Periodizing time, both in the Sibylline Oracles and elsewhere, has generally been understood as asserting divine order and control. In both Sib. Or. 4 and 1–2, however, the periodized schemas are affected by redactional activity, evidenced by seams and fractures in the progress of time. I argue that the gaps and fractures in these periodized schemas create a sibylline temporality that blends ultimate divine control with temporal uncertainty. Such a fragmentary sibylline temporality could create chaos and instability for ancient audiences, heightening the threat of divine judgment. This chapter then examines the sibyl’s fate in the face of divine judgment in Sib. Or. 2 and 7. It is not just the future of other nations or the larger universe itself that is rendered uncertain in the face of looming divine judgment; these texts call the sibyl’s own future into question. I argue that this second dimension of temporal uncertainty works to subordinate a foreign, female prophetic figure to the God of the Jewish and/or Christian writers. In both the universal histories and the sibyl’s depiction of her own future, then, the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles intermingle looming divine judgment with a future rendered unstable.

Research paper thumbnail of "The Four Kingdoms Motif and Sibylline Temporality in Sibylline Oracles 4." Pages 121–41 in The Four Kingdoms Motif before and beyond the Book of Daniel. Edited by Andrew Perrin and Loren Stuckenbruck. Themes in Biblical Narrative 28. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

The Four Kingdoms Motif before and beyond the Book of Daniel, 2020

This chapter examines the four kingdoms motif in Sib. Or. 4, which in its current form probably d... more This chapter examines the four kingdoms motif in Sib. Or. 4, which in its current form probably dates from the late first century CE. I consider the motif looking backwards, breaking the text of Sib. Or. 4 apart into reconstructed redactional layers, and forwards, analyzing the sibylline temporality that emerges from the book’s current form, including its literary seams. Engaging Paul Kosmin’s recent proposal that the four kingdoms motif is primarily an anti-Seleucid response to imperial periodized time, this chapter revisits the redactional proposals of John Collins and David Flusser regarding the motif’s origin and transformation in Sib. Or. 4. While our knowledge of the earlier form of the four kingdoms motif in Sib. Or. 4 is too speculative to be conclusive, it is just as possible that the underlying motif was anti-Macedonian, rather than anti-Seleucid. Turning to sibylline temporality in book 4, I argue that the literary transformation of the four kingdoms motif proposed by Collins and Flusser constructs a temporality that is multiple, fragmented, and less linear, even as it employs periodized time. Such a sibylline temporality could have had the effect of reinforcing the chaos of a world under divine judgment for ancient audiences.

Research paper thumbnail of Revealed History as Prophetic Rivalry: John’s Apocalypse, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Prophecy of Apollo

Early Christianity, 2019

This article responds to the call of Stephan Palmié, Charles Stewart, and Dipesh Chakrabarty for ... more This article responds to the call of Stephan Palmié, Charles Stewart, and Dipesh Chakrabarty for a more expansive understanding of “history,” as inclusive of the intervention of gods, spirits, or superhuman beings, by examining two ancient texts that employ divine revelation to speak about the past. Revelation 12 and Sibylline Oracles 4 both present the past in a way that has the rhetorical potential to cast aspersions on the prophecy of Apollo. These texts lay claim to specific traditions associated with Apollo—specifically, the foundation myth for the shrine at Delphi and legends about Apollo inspiring sibyls—calling the legitimacy of his prophecy into question. By laying claim to these particular traditions, Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4 advance alternate accounts about the past to those associated with Apollo’s prophecy. They rewrite the ancient past, loosening the underpinnings of Apollo’s prophetic authority. The work of Robert G. Hall suggests that one might think of this rewritten past in Revelation 12 and Sibylline Oracles 4 as using a rhetorical strategy of revealed history. This article argues that in these texts revealed history could have been useful for prophetic rivalry with Apollo, both for undermining ancient traditions about the god and for delegitimizing his reliability as a source of knowledge about the past.

Research paper thumbnail of Jezebel: A Study in Prophecy, Divine Violence, and Gender. Pages 509–522 in New Perspectives on the Book of Revelation (ed. Adela Yarbro Collins; BETL 291; Leuven: Peeters, 2017).

Presented at the 2015 Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, this paper locates the threat against "Jeze... more Presented at the 2015 Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense, this paper locates the threat against "Jezebel" in Rev 2 in a larger discourse of divine violence against prophets in the ancient Mediterranean. It argues that although both male and female prophets are victims of divine violence, the violence tends to be more severe when the prophet is female.

Research paper thumbnail of "The Question of Prophetic 'Authenticity.' A Reponse to Reinhard G. Kratz." Pages 222–24 in Jeremiah's Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, and Transformation (ed. Hindy Najman and Konrad Schmid; Leiden: Brill, 2017).

Research paper thumbnail of "'I Will Speak . . . with My Whole Person in Ecstasy': Instrumentality and Independence in the Sibylline Oracles." Pages 1232–46 in Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy (2 vols.; eds. Joel Baden, Hindy Najman, and Eibert Tigchelaar; Leiden: Brill, 2017).

Research paper thumbnail of Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4–5

Research paper thumbnail of BMCR. Review of Paula Fredriksen, Paul. The Pagans' Apostle

Research paper thumbnail of "Sibylline Oracles 4-5," T&T CLARK ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM

Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Daniel M Gurtner, eds. T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism.... more Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Daniel M Gurtner, eds. T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2019.

Research paper thumbnail of Apocalyptic Thinking

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apocalyptic-thinking-tickets-129867155157%20 The w... more Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apocalyptic-thinking-tickets-129867155157%20
The workshop rethinks the philological, historical and theo-political implications for apocalyptic thinking. Considering both textual sources and visual arts, the papers will explore the limitations of the category of apocalyptic across multiple traditions and cultural contexts. In our discussions we will look for new frameworks and categories to address the depth and breadth of phenomena that the concept of apocalyptic has drawn together.