Skip to main content

Anathea Portier-Young

Associate Professor of Old Testament
Divinity School
Duke Box 90967, Durham, NC 27708-0968
202 Gray Bldg, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Professor Portier-Young specializes in biblical prophetic literature, early Jewish apocalyptic literature and novellas, and historiographic literature of the late second temple period. Her teaching and research also include practical application of scripture for social justice and preaching. Her current research examines biblical prophecy through the lens of embodiment, including embodied cognition, religious experience, materiality, affect and emotion, and embodied reception. Her work also addresses themes of incarceration, identity, sexuality, gender, and ethnicity, and traditions of violence and nonviolence in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and other early Jewish literature. Her award-winning first book, Apocalypse Against Empire Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism (Eerdmans, 2011), views the first Jewish apocalypses as responses to imperial domination and hegemony. Her second book, The Prophetic Body: Embodiment and Mediation in Biblical Prophetic Literature (Oxford University Press, 2024), establishes the body's centrality to prophetic mediation. She is co-editor with Gregory Sterling of Scripture andSocial Justice: Catholic and Ecumenical Essays (Lexington Press, 2018). Portier-Young has published scholarly articles and essays on monster theory, empire and resistance, violence in biblical literature, apocalyptic literature and imagination, and on the books Daniel, Judges, Esther, Tobit, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 1 EnochTestament of Job, and Joseph and Aseneth, among others. She writes regularly for the website WorkingPreacher.org

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor of Old Testament · 2011 - Present Divinity School

In the News


Published September 12, 2024
New Books by Duke Authors: Exploring Politics, Theology, AI and Basketball
Published March 26, 2024
Five Decades of Supporting Women in Faith
Published January 20, 2021
Teaching the Old Testament With Zoom, Dance Parties and Blue Suede Shoes

View All News

Recent Publications


Archive, Architecture, and the Politics of Memory in Josephus's Jewish Antiquities 12 and Antiochus III's Edicts for Jerusalem

Journal Article Journal of Ancient Judaism · January 1, 2024 The essay analyzes the edicts of Antiochus III concerning Jerusalem (Ant. 12.138-46) within two contextual horizons: Ant. 12 and Jerusalem after the Fifth Syrian War. A dichotomous understanding of resistance and collaboration is inadequate to explain the ... Full text Cite

The Prophetic Body Embodiment and Mediation in Biblical Prophetic Literature

Book · 2024 Drawing insights from disciplines ranging from neurobiology to cultural studies, the author examines stories of prophetic commissioning, bodily transformation, asceticism and ecstasy, mobility and immobility, affect and emotion, revealing ... ... Cite

Miriam's Dance as Embodied Prophecy (Exodus 15:20-21)

Journal Article Journal of Biblical Literature · January 1, 2024 The discursive labeling of Miriam as prophet constructs her drumming, dancing, and singing as prophetic acts; her actions simultaneously reshape the prophetic role as participatory, creative, and relational. A theoretical frame drawn from dance studies and ... Full text Cite
View All Publications

Recent Grants


Prophecy in the Body: Experience, Affect, Action, Interaction

Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Catholic Biblical Association of America · 2021 - 2022

View All Grants

Education, Training & Certifications


Duke University · 2004 Ph.D.