Michael DeVries
@michaeldevries.bsky.social
PhD @unibirmingham.bsky.social | Second Temple Judaism | Dead Sea Scrolls | Researching ritual, cognition, and the Qumran movement | Adjunct Professor
Pretty much spot on.
The Norwegian government is staying fairly quiet for now, but as a sign of the shifting vibe here the former head of Norway’s armed forces has come out and called the US a “neo-fascist banana republic” and a “hostile great power without norms”. www.dn.no/politikk/tid...
Tidligere forsvarssjef om Trumps USA: – Neo-fascistisk bananrepublikk (+)
Tidligere forsvarssjef Sverre Diesen mener USA er blitt «en normløs og fiendtlig innstilt stormakt», og advarer samtidig mot å feste vår lit til Europa. Harald Sunde mener det haster med en plan B.
www.dn.no
January 19, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Pretty much spot on.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're celebrating the authors, activists, and historians who have championed and enriched our understanding of civil rights and justice for all. For a limited time, save 25% on these titles with the code MLK25—keep reading below.
January 19, 2026 at 4:11 PM
This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're celebrating the authors, activists, and historians who have championed and enriched our understanding of civil rights and justice for all. For a limited time, save 25% on these titles with the code MLK25—keep reading below.
My review of Étienne Nodet's *A Gate to Heaven: Essenes, Qumran: Origins and Heirs* is now live on @readingreligion.bsky.social. Check it out and let me know what think!
readingreligion.org/978056770971...
readingreligion.org/978056770971...
A Gate to Heaven - Reading Religion
Etienne Nodet proposes that Qumran functioned as a pilgrimage site for the Essenes from the 1st century BC onwards. Nodet suggests that the Essenes were scat...
readingreligion.org
January 19, 2026 at 8:55 PM
My review of Étienne Nodet's *A Gate to Heaven: Essenes, Qumran: Origins and Heirs* is now live on @readingreligion.bsky.social. Check it out and let me know what think!
readingreligion.org/978056770971...
readingreligion.org/978056770971...
Reposted by Michael DeVries
Please share widely! 3-year Postdoc in Early Christian Studies. Deadline: 8 March. Let me know if you have any questions or want to nominate a colleague.
Postdoc Position: Early Christian Studies | Radboud University
Do you want to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher: Early Christian Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies? Check our vacancy!
www.ru.nl
January 16, 2026 at 11:57 AM
Please share widely! 3-year Postdoc in Early Christian Studies. Deadline: 8 March. Let me know if you have any questions or want to nominate a colleague.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
Some important new government policy that Native Americans might be interested in:
Trump talks about Denmark and Greenland just now: "The fact that they landed a boat there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land."
January 9, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Some important new government policy that Native Americans might be interested in:
And so a new semester begins. Teaching a new-ish Hebrew Bible survey class. Using material from other courses I have taught so not too rough of a prep!
January 7, 2026 at 6:48 PM
And so a new semester begins. Teaching a new-ish Hebrew Bible survey class. Using material from other courses I have taught so not too rough of a prep!
Reposted by Michael DeVries
ICYMI: Texas A&M admin is requiring a faculty member to either remove *Plato* from their syllabus for being too woke
or
be reassigned to teach “Ethics for Engineers” at 8am
or
be reassigned to teach “Ethics for Engineers” at 8am
From an email to one of our faculty members....
Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!
Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!
January 7, 2026 at 1:11 AM
ICYMI: Texas A&M admin is requiring a faculty member to either remove *Plato* from their syllabus for being too woke
or
be reassigned to teach “Ethics for Engineers” at 8am
or
be reassigned to teach “Ethics for Engineers” at 8am
Reposted by Michael DeVries
📢 #OpenAccess 🔓 Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in the Ancient Near East 🪔 By Jennifer Singletary
A cross-cultural study of near-eastern texts from the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, applying research in cognitive science of religion and prototype theory.
🔗 brill.com/display/ti...
A cross-cultural study of near-eastern texts from the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, applying research in cognitive science of religion and prototype theory.
🔗 brill.com/display/ti...
December 23, 2025 at 8:38 AM
📢 #OpenAccess 🔓 Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in the Ancient Near East 🪔 By Jennifer Singletary
A cross-cultural study of near-eastern texts from the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, applying research in cognitive science of religion and prototype theory.
🔗 brill.com/display/ti...
A cross-cultural study of near-eastern texts from the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, applying research in cognitive science of religion and prototype theory.
🔗 brill.com/display/ti...
Reposted by Michael DeVries
Scholars, please cite yourselves when relevant! You are creating a body of work, a world even, and we want to know where all the pieces are, and how they fit together.
I saw a LinkedIn post making fun of senior scholars for citing themselves, but I've seen academics Columbus entire well developed fields of study and be applauded for it by the AHA, so...?
January 5, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Scholars, please cite yourselves when relevant! You are creating a body of work, a world even, and we want to know where all the pieces are, and how they fit together.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
I didn't want to write this piece on Christmas stealing from pagan festivals because I have always thought that was a myth. BUT in researching it I realized something interesting 1/6
www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
featuring: @praxeas.bsky.social @zafulotus.bsky.social
www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
featuring: @praxeas.bsky.social @zafulotus.bsky.social
Was Christmas moved to eclipse Rome's Saturnalia festival?
Ancient scribes often calculated Christ’s birth as falling in early spring.
www.nationalgeographic.com
December 26, 2025 at 5:55 PM
I didn't want to write this piece on Christmas stealing from pagan festivals because I have always thought that was a myth. BUT in researching it I realized something interesting 1/6
www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
featuring: @praxeas.bsky.social @zafulotus.bsky.social
www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...
featuring: @praxeas.bsky.social @zafulotus.bsky.social
Wonderful interview with Daniel Falk on the upcoming three volume *Prayer in the Ancient World* with @degruyterbrill.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/3ES1...
open.spotify.com/episode/3ES1...
Daniel K. Falk and Rodney A. Werline, "Prayer in the Ancient World Vol.1" (Brill, 2027)
open.spotify.com
December 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Wonderful interview with Daniel Falk on the upcoming three volume *Prayer in the Ancient World* with @degruyterbrill.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/3ES1...
open.spotify.com/episode/3ES1...
Agreed. Been giving serious thought to going back to in-class, hard copy, blue book exams this spring.
Does anyone else bristle at this framing? WSJ says blue books are “torturing” students with hand cramps, and “nobody likes them.”
Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.
Listen, students have been outsourcing everything to AI and cheating their way through college. Blue books should be celebrated as a return to authentic human learning.
They Were Every Student’s Worst Nightmare. Now Blue Books Are Back.
Cheating with ChatGPT has become a huge problem for colleges. The solution is painfully old-school.
www.wsj.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Agreed. Been giving serious thought to going back to in-class, hard copy, blue book exams this spring.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
The reality for the other students is that they are no longer enrolled in a psychology class. It is a Psychology plus My Personal Christian Beliefs class.
Every class at OU is now a My Personal Christian Beliefs class.
Every time any student raises such beliefs, instructors have to accept them.
Every class at OU is now a My Personal Christian Beliefs class.
Every time any student raises such beliefs, instructors have to accept them.
The University of Oklahoma has removed an instructor who was accused by a student of religious discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible and argued that promoting a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.” https://cnn.it/4b6g3rd
Oklahoma instructor removed from teaching for failing a Bible-based gender essay | CNN
The University of Oklahoma has removed an instructor who was accused by a student of religious discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible and argued that promoting a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.”
cnn.it
December 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
The reality for the other students is that they are no longer enrolled in a psychology class. It is a Psychology plus My Personal Christian Beliefs class.
Every class at OU is now a My Personal Christian Beliefs class.
Every time any student raises such beliefs, instructors have to accept them.
Every class at OU is now a My Personal Christian Beliefs class.
Every time any student raises such beliefs, instructors have to accept them.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
I mean, I have been reading up on exorcistic texts lately, but really???
December 22, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I mean, I have been reading up on exorcistic texts lately, but really???
Reposted by Michael DeVries
“When I teach about ancient letter writing, one of the things I emphasize is the precariousness of sending letters any great distance in the Roman world. Without an organized postal service, the delivery of letters could be quite haphazard.”
Practicalities of Letter Delivery in Antiquity
When I teach about ancient letter writing, one of the things I emphasize is the precariousness of sending letters any great distance in the Roman world. Without an organized postal service, the del…
brentnongbri.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:00 AM
“When I teach about ancient letter writing, one of the things I emphasize is the precariousness of sending letters any great distance in the Roman world. Without an organized postal service, the delivery of letters could be quite haphazard.”
Congrats to @rlharris.bsky.social! Can’t wait to read it!!
It’s here!!! So exciting to finally see a printed copy of my book!
December 20, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Congrats to @rlharris.bsky.social! Can’t wait to read it!!
Reposted by Michael DeVries
And this is how everything dies. We'll stop reading and citing anything new because of the ubiquity of AI slop. Our students won't be exposed to new stuff through our classes unless we can somehow verify that it's been written by an actual human being. Knowledge creation grinds to a halt. Not great.
"An academic discovers a paper attributed to him that does not exist has been cited 42 times" is a sentence with an actual referent in 2025.
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 19, 2025 at 6:41 PM
And this is how everything dies. We'll stop reading and citing anything new because of the ubiquity of AI slop. Our students won't be exposed to new stuff through our classes unless we can somehow verify that it's been written by an actual human being. Knowledge creation grinds to a halt. Not great.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
My book, _An Exotic Apocalypse: Revelation and the Appropriation of Judaism in the Roman Empire_, is officially forthcoming with Penn State University Press. It'll be the inaugural book in their _Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean_ series.
December 15, 2025 at 8:55 PM
My book, _An Exotic Apocalypse: Revelation and the Appropriation of Judaism in the Roman Empire_, is officially forthcoming with Penn State University Press. It'll be the inaugural book in their _Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean_ series.
Reposted by Michael DeVries
Eva Mroczek contextualizes deepfakes in relation to the history of fakery and forgery
The deep history of deepfakes: Q&A with Spatz Chair Eva Mroczek
In her public lecture this week, Dr. Eva Mroczek, the Simon and Riva Spatz Chair in Jewish Studies at Dalhousie, traced the winding history of authenticity and forgery in how we discover, study, and…
www.dal.ca
December 13, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Submitted a review of Anthony Giambrone's *The Bible and the Priesthood* for CBQ. Fascinating read. @catholicbiblical.bsky.social
December 13, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Submitted a review of Anthony Giambrone's *The Bible and the Priesthood* for CBQ. Fascinating read. @catholicbiblical.bsky.social
Reposted by Michael DeVries
Among the Qumran manuscripts, several enigmatic scripts have been discovered. While Cryptic A was deciphered in 1955, Cryptic B has until now remained undeciphered. In this new study, Emmanuel Oliveiro offers the first decipherment of two Cryptic B manuscripts!
Read more ➡️ brill.com/view/journal...
Read more ➡️ brill.com/view/journal...
December 9, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Among the Qumran manuscripts, several enigmatic scripts have been discovered. While Cryptic A was deciphered in 1955, Cryptic B has until now remained undeciphered. In this new study, Emmanuel Oliveiro offers the first decipherment of two Cryptic B manuscripts!
Read more ➡️ brill.com/view/journal...
Read more ➡️ brill.com/view/journal...
Reposted by Michael DeVries
We are delighted to announce that the volume, Performance, Space, and Time in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Papers from the Eleventh Meeting of the IOQS, Zürich 2022 has been published by Brill as volume 154 of the STDJ series. Find it here: brill.com/edcollbook/t... - Thank you to all our contributors!
December 9, 2025 at 6:56 PM
We are delighted to announce that the volume, Performance, Space, and Time in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Papers from the Eleventh Meeting of the IOQS, Zürich 2022 has been published by Brill as volume 154 of the STDJ series. Find it here: brill.com/edcollbook/t... - Thank you to all our contributors!
Reposted by Michael DeVries
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
December 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
Say what?!? Students are NOT your “customers.” THIS is the problem.
December 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Say what?!? Students are NOT your “customers.” THIS is the problem.