Academic article

• Joseph Scales (2022). Susanna and Callirhoe: Female Bodies, Law, and Novels.. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2019). The Linguistic Connection between Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the »Abomination of Desolation« in the Greek Translations of the Book of Daniel. (external link)
• Joseph Scales; Katie Turner (2024). Queen Alexandra was not the widow of Judah Aristobulus I. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2022). Who is “Worthy of Honour”? Women as Elders in Late Second Temple Period Literature. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2022). Bathing Jewish, Bathing Greek: Developing an Approach to De-Categorising Hellenism and Judaism. (external link)
• Ekaterina E. Kozlova; Joseph Scales (2025). The Booty Call: Plundering as (Dis)Assemblage in the Book of Judith. (external link)
• Charles Peter Comerford; Joseph Scales (2022). Categories and Boundaries Special Issue Introduction. (external link)
• Ellena Lyell; Joseph Scales (2021). Uncovering the Dead, Dethroning the King: Divine Embodiment in 1 Samuel 28:14. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2021). Preparing for Military Action: Judith’s Purificatory Washing in Judith 12:7. (external link)
• Cat Quine; Joseph Scales (2021). Josephus’ Adaptation of the Athaliah Narratives. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Responsibility for Murder: The Background of Judith’s Legal Argumentation. (external link)
• Joseph Scales; Cat Quine (2020). Athaliah and Alexandra: Gender and Queenship in Josephus. (external link)

Media interview

• Joseph Scales (2023). Conflict and Identity in ancient Judaism. (external link)
• Joseph Scales; Katherine Gwyther; Michael DeVries et al. (2022). Dead Sea Scrolls in the Modern Era: Provenance and Forgery, Part 2. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2023). Visualising action: pre-battle speeches in ancient Judaism. (external link)
• Joseph Scales; Ingrid Breilid Gimse; Katherine Gwyther et al. (2021). Dead Sea Scrolls in the Modern Era: Provenance and Forgery, Part 1.. (external link)

Conference lecture

• Joseph Scales (2026). No pity was shown for age: Vulnerable groups in ancient Jewish war narratives as victims and victimizers. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2024). Judith’s Murder Mystery. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Gathering strength, swarming over, falling down: Embodied Military Movement in First Maccabees and Josephus’ War. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Jewish representations and realities of being elderly during wartime in antiquity. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2024). Fighting Talk: Motivating Violence in Ancient Judaism. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2024). Fighting Talk: Ancient Jewish Pre-battle Speeches as Ritual Performances. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2024). Fighting Talk: Ancient Jewish Pre-battle Speeches as Ritual Performances. (external link)

Journal review

• Joseph Scales (2025). Atkinson, Kenneth, Patrick Pouchelle, and Felix Albrecht (eds.), Essays on the Psalms of Solomon: Its Cultural Background, Significance, and Interpretation (Parabiblica, 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023), pp. vii + 195. €119.00. ISBN 978-3-16-162448-3 (hardback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Szántó, Zsuzsanna, The Jews of Ptolemaic Egypt: The History of a Diaspora Community in Light of the Papyri (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024), pp. xiv + 293. €99.95. ISBN 978-3-11-142504-7 (hardback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2023). The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends, edited by Rick Bonnie, Raimo Hakola, and Ulla Tervahauta; Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories, edited by Lutz Doering and Andrew R. Krause. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Vanonen, Hanna, War Traditions from the Qumran Caves: Re-thinking Textual Stability and Fluidity in the War Text Manuscripts (STDJ, 139; Leiden: Brill, 2022), pp. xii + 338. €132.00. ISBN 978-90-04-51053-1 (hardback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Czajkowski, Kimberley, and David A. Friedman- (eds.), Looking In, Looking Out—Jews and Non-Jews in Mutual Contemplation: Essays for Martin Goodman on His 70th Birthday (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 212; Leiden: Brill, 2024), pp. xxiii + 451. €140.00. ISBN 978-90-04-68503-1 (hardback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2024). Book Review | In the Court of the Gentiles: Narrative, Exemplarity, and Scriptural Adaptation in the Court-Tales of Flavius Josephus. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Charlesworth, James H., Qumran Greek Fragments: Hymns, Prayers, and Related Documents. Volume 5B of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations (Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2024), pp. xxix + 936. $90.00. ISBN 978-0-664-26773-5 (paperback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2023). The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE: Power, Strategies, and Ethnic Configurations. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Garroway, Kristine Henriksen, Hyun Chul Paul Kim, and John W. Martens (eds.), Violence against Women and Children in the Hebrew Bible: Between Trauma and Resilience (LHBOTS,730; London: T&T Clark, 2024), pp. xiv + 197. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-567-70469-6 (hardback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Cover, Michael B., Philo of Alexandria: On the Change of Names, Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, 8; Leiden: Brill, 2024), pp. xxxiii + 630. €219.00. ISBN 978-90-04-68743-1 (hardback). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2024). Torah, Temple, Land: Constructions of Judaism in Antiquity, edited by Markus Witte, Jens Schröter, and Verena M. Lepper. (external link)

Academic book chapter

• Joseph Scales; Laura Quick (2025). The Emergence of Submergence: Women's Bathing Rituals in Ancient Judaism. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). Apocryphon of Ezekiel/Apocrypha Attributed to Ezekiel. (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2025). The Limits of Evidence. The Miqveh as an Indicator of Jewish Purity Practices in Second-Temple Period Galilee. (external link)

Other presentation

• Joseph Scales (2026). Analysing violent variations in ancient Jewish narrative (DeadSearious Seminars). (external link)
• Joseph Scales (2026). Analysing violent variations in ancient Jewish narrative. (external link)

Encyclopedia entry

• Joseph Scales (2025). Place, Space (Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism). (external link)

Academic monograph

• Joseph Scales (2024). Galilean Spaces of Identity: Judaism and Spatiality in Hasmonean and Herodian Galilee. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Project name - Analysing violent variations in ancient Jewish narrative

Project number- 359600

 

Narrated violence is presently treated as a self-evident phenomenon in ancient Jewish literature (c. 500 BCE – 300 CE). Violence as a concept is reduced to a physical act of harm, understood by ancient authors in the same way modern readers. Framing violence in this way creates interpretative problems when addressing these texts and their use throughout history. This basic construction of violence limits our appreciation of how violence is not simple, and the meaning of violence does not remain consistent between cultures and over time. AViVa will analyse the conveyed norms of violence in depictions of warfare in ancient Jewish literature to examine variation in episodes of violence over the course of conflict. This innovative concept will drastically move analysis of ancient war narratives forward and enable truly meaningful cross-cultural engagement on the subject of probity in war. In this way, we can develop a more precise language for discussing conflicts and harm in our own time.