In this essay, I pose two questions: the first question is, how do different beginnings shape the way that the story is told? In this section of the essay, I will present a selection of theoretical insights focused on the questions of beginning and the way in which a narrative’s beginning both sets up and determines the content of the story that i…[Read more]

The biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah present the returnees to Jerusalem re-establishing their society after the devastation of the Babylonian exile. The question of “who is in” and “who is out” of this newly re-constituted group brings with it the corresponding question of authority: by what means are such boundaries determined? From the 6th-…[Read more]