Judges

Forthcoming, 2026
This chapters in this volume will be first published online in advance on an individual basis, and then altogether as a volume.

Studies in the book of Judges have flourished as biblical scholarship has expanded to include several new methodological approaches. Yet, while the diversity of method has produced new depth and insight, the gaze of scholarship has remained steadfast—focusing attention on the same characters and centering the same basic storylines. This volume seeks to shift focus from the storylines held by the traditionally centered characters to understand the stories of the characters on the periphery of the narrative. Thus, it has as a volume-wide theme the study of minor characters and the issues that arise in connection with their presence in a given story. What stories within stories have we overlooked and how might they expand our understanding of the book of Judges as a whole if we see the story through multiple perspectives within the text? Using various methodological approaches, each chapter in this volume focuses on a traditionally under-read character in the Judges narrative to recover new aspects of these well-known stories and, perhaps, change the way we read the dominant narrative in the process.