Anathea Portier-Young, Associate Professor of Old Testament

Please note: Anathea has left the "Graduate Program in Religion" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Anathea Portier-Young’s scholarship combines literary, sociological, and theological approaches to the Old Testament with an interest in hermeneutics, history of interpretation, and ethics. She specializes in late second temple Jewish literature, with special attention to early Jewish apocalypses, testaments, and novellas from the third through first centuries BCE. Her book, Apocalypse Against Empire Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism, views the first Jewish apocalypses as responses to imperial domination and hegemony. Her second book, The Theology of the Book of Daniel, will appear in the series Old Testament Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Portier-Young has published scholarly articles on Daniel, Tobit, Joseph and Aseneth, and 1 Corinthians. She writes regularly for the website WorkingPreacher.org. Her other research interests include the book of Genesis and its interpretation, constructions of identity, gender, and ethnicity, and traditions of violence and nonviolence in Old Testament and other early Jewish literature.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	202 Gray Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 660-3404
Email Address:
Division:	Divinity Faculty

Teaching (Fall 2025):

• OLDTEST 752.002, OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION I Synopsis

  Divinity TBA, MTuWThF 10:00 AM-11:40 AM

• OLDTEST 752.10P, OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION I Synopsis

  Online ON, Tu 01:20 PM-02:35 PM

• OLDTEST 752.11P, OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION I Synopsis

  Online ON, Tu 01:20 PM-02:35 PM

• OLDTEST 752.12P, OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION I Synopsis

  Online ON, Tu 01:20 PM-02:35 PM

• OLDTEST 752.13P, OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION I Synopsis

  Online ON, Tu 01:20 PM-02:35 PM

• OLDTEST 770Z.01, EX ENG O T: EZEKIEL Synopsis

  Divinity TBA, Tu 06:30 PM-08:50 PM

• OLDTEST 870Z.01, EX HEB O T: EZEKIEL Synopsis

  Divinity TBA, Tu 05:40 PM-08:00 PM

Education:

Ph.D.

Duke University

2004

Keywords:

Abortion • Bilingualism • Family life • History • Imperialism • Intertextuality • Judaism • Judgment Day • Massacres • Mothers • Political aspects • Religion • Religious aspects • Social aspects • Youth