Amy-Jill Levine (born 1956) is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She is committed to eliminating antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies.

Biography

Amy-Jill Levine was born in 1956. Raised in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood in Massachusetts, she grew up with an appreciation for many aspects of the Christian tradition, though she was raised in a Jewish home.^[2] She completed her undergraduate work at Smith College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and held honors in both religion and English.^[3] She earned her doctorate at Duke University.^[3]

She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies.

Her publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), the edited collection, The Historical Jesus in Context (Princeton University Press, 2006), and the 14-volume Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings (Continuum).

A self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt," Levine "combines historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies."^[4] She is a member of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue Sherith Israel,^[5] though she herself does not observe kashrut or Shabbat according to Orthodox Jewish norms.^[6] Levine has produced lectures on the Old Testament and "Great Figures of the New Testament" for The Teaching Company.^[7]

Quotes

Per the introduction by Levine for The Historical Jesus in Context:

There is a consensus of sorts on a basic outline of Jesus' life. Most scholars agree that Jesus was baptized by John, debated with fellow Jews on how best to live according to God's will, engaged in healings and exorcisms, taught in parables, gathered male and female followers in Galilee, went to Jerusalem, and was crucified by Roman soldiers during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (26–36 CE). But, to use the old cliché, the devil is in the details.^[8]

Selected publications

• Levine, Amy-Jill; Blickenstaff, Marianne, eds. (2001). A Feminist Companion to Matthew. Feminist companion to the New Testament and early Christian writings. Vol. 1. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-841-27211-5. OCLC 47867557.
• ———; Blickenstaff, Marianne, eds. (2001). A Feminist Companion to Mark. Feminist companion to the New Testament and early Christian writings. Vol. 2. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-841-27194-1. OCLC 49864189.^[9]
• ———; Blickenstaff, Marianne, eds. (2002). A Feminist Companion to Luke. Feminist companion to the New Testament and early Christian writings. Vol. 3. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-841-27174-3. OCLC 50616758.^[10]
• ———; Blickenstaff, Marianne, eds. (2002). A Feminist Companion to John Volume 1. Feminist companion to the New Testament and early Christian writings. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
• ———; Blickenstaff, Marianne, eds. (2002). A Feminist Companion to John Volume 2. Feminist companion to the New Testament and early Christian writings. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.^[11]
• ——— (2006). The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. San Francisco, CA: Harper-Collins. ISBN 978-0-060-78966-4. OCLC 70199942.^[12]
• ———; Allison, Dale C.; Crossan, John Dominic, eds. (2006). The Historical Jesus in Context. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-00992-6.^[13]
• ———; Brettler, Marc Zvi, eds. (2011). The Jewish Annotated New Testament. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0195297706.^[14]
• Levine, Amy-Jill; Brettler, Marc Zvi (2020). The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. HarperOne. ISBN 9780062560155. OCLC 1137745257.
• ———; Sievers, Joseph, eds. (2021). The Pharisees. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-7929-5. OCLC 1237694143.
• ——— (2014). Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-061-56103-0.^[15]

Online articles

• https://outreach.faith/2022/09/amy-jill-levine-how-to-read-the-bibles-clobber-passages-on-homosexuality/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20220912160710/https://outreach.faith/2022/09/amy-jill-levine-how-to-read-the-bibles-clobber-passages-on-homosexuality/