Joseph J. Cross

Joseph J. Cross

I research the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Egyptian literature. Interested in the poetics of ancient literature and its political unconscious. PhD Chicago, 2022.

Publications

Books

  • The Poetics of Plot in the Egyptian and Judean Novella. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Expected Spring 2026.

Edited Books

  • The Routledge Handbook of Ancient Egypt and the Hebrew Bible, with Bernd U. Schipper and Robert Kade, submission in Fall 2025

Edited Journal Issues

  • Exploring New Directions in Biblical Narrative: Contemporary Perspectives on Narrative Theory and Biblical Studies. Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. Co-edited with Davide D’Amico, submission in November 2025

Articles and chapters

Forthcoming

  • “Beyond Paradise: The Persian Paridaidā and Imperial Space in Persepolis and the Demotic Chronicle,” in Kristin Joachimsen and Jason Silverman, eds., Symbolic Spaces Associated with Paradise (Pardes) (Brill, Themes in Biblical Narrative) (with José Rafael Saade)
  • “The Style of the Opening of the Novella: Beginning a Story in Judean and Egyptian Narrative,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (Forthcoming 2026)
  • “Esther as Novella,” in Helge Bezold and Kristin Joachimsen, eds., Esther: Themes and Issues (Forthcoming 2025, Equinox Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies)
  • “The Corpus of Northwest Semitic Texts in Egyptian Script,” in Susan Hollis, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Egypt and the Hebrew Bible (Forthcoming)

2026

  • “Appearance and Reality in Setna’s Dialogue with ‘Pharaoh’ in First Setna 5.31-35,” in Aurore Motte and Victoria Almansa-Villatoro, eds., (Im)politeness in Ancient Egypt: Norms, Wit, and Rudeness in Texts from Pharaonic Times through Late Antiquity (Brill, Studies in Pragmatics 26), pp. 265–292 [link]

2023

  • “Mouvance and the Art of Fiction in Performance in Manuscripts of a Demotic Novella,” Manuscript and Text Cultures 2:2 (2023), pp. 168–200 [link]

2022

  • “The Teaching of Amenemope,” in Global Humanities Reader: Engaging Ancient Worlds and Perspectives, ed. Brian S. Hook, Sophie Mills, Katherine C. Zubko, Keya Maitra (2022), pp. 77-79
  • “Egyptian Love Poetry,” in Global Humanities Reader: Engaging Ancient Worlds and Perspectives, ed. Brian S. Hook, Sophie Mills, Katherine C. Zubko, Keya Maitra (2022), pp. 98-100
  • “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” in Global Humanities Reader: Engaging Ancient Worlds and Perspectives, ed. Brian S. Hook, Sophie Mills, Katherine C. Zubko, Keya Maitra (2022), pp. 236-238

2017

  • “Missing Pages: Two Manuscripts of the Samaritan Torah in the Oriental Institute,” Oriental Institute News & Notes 242 (2017), pp. 6-15