Dr. Yonatan S. Miller is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Center for Religious Understanding at the University of Toledo, in Toledo, Ohio. He earned his PhD in Jewish Studies from Harvard University, where he also served as a Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica. He has published articles in Jewish Studies Quarterly and in the Journal of Ancient Judaism and is currently at work on a monograph entitled Sacred Slaughter: Violence and the Israelite-Jewish Priesthood.
Last Updated
September 20, 2019
Books by the Author
Articles by the Author
The Torah describes Phinehas as a zealot, who kills Zimri in an act of vigilante fervor, and is rewarded by God with eternal priesthood. Anticipating the rabbis’ discomfort with Phinehas’ vigilantism, Josephus transforms Phinehas into a military general and Zimri’s sin into a dangerous sedition requiring a military response.
The Torah describes Phinehas as a zealot, who kills Zimri in an act of vigilante fervor, and is rewarded by God with eternal priesthood. Anticipating the rabbis’ discomfort with Phinehas’ vigilantism, Josephus transforms Phinehas into a military general and Zimri’s sin into a dangerous sedition requiring a military response.
