About

Catherine Bonesho is an Assistant Professor in Early Judaism in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Her research focuses on locating the history, languages, literature, and culture of Judaism in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods within their imperial contexts. She is particularly interested in how ancient Jewish communities navigated life under imperial domination, with an emphasis on Jewish literary depictions of the Greeks and Romans. Her first monograph investigates Greek and Roman festivals in the ancient Jewish imagination, and she is working on a second monograph examining Jewish portraits of Greek and Roman rulers through case studies such as depictions of Cleopatra VII Philopator. Bonesho’s scholarly work also concentrates on the Roman Near East and Semitic languages, especially Aramaic dialects, and their use in imperial contexts. She has published articles in various academic journals and has received fellowships including the 2021-2022 Frankel Fellowship from the University of Michigan and the Rome Prize Fellowship in Ancient Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She earned her PhD in Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and her MA in Hebrew and Semitic Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Research topics

• History
• Philosophy
• Epistemology

Selected publications

• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2026-02-01

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2025-02-01

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• Editorial

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2025-06-01

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2025-10-01

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• Qumran Cave 4: The Aramaic Books of Enoch, 4Q201, 4Q202, 4Q204, 4Q205, 4Q206, 4Q207, 4Q212, edited by Henryk Drawnel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xix + 580. Hardcover. $280.00. ISBN 9780198799917.

  SBL Press eBooks · 2024-12-31

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2024-10-01

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2024-02-01

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2023-10-01

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2023-02-01

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• Editorial Foreword

  Currents in Biblical Research · 2023-06-01

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Frequent coauthors

• Kelly J. Murphy

  38 shared

• Ekaputra Tupamahu

  33 shared

• Drew Strait

  Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

  9 shared

• Nathaniel E. Greene

  8 shared

• Jeremy M. Hutton

  8 shared

• Maura K. Heyn

  University of North Carolina at Greensboro

  7 shared

• Alan E. Mast

  Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin

  6 shared

• Eleonora Cussini

  Ca' Foscari University of Venice

  6 shared

Awards & honors

• 2021-2022 Frankel Fellowship from the University of Michigan
• Rome Prize Fellowship in Ancient Studies at the American Aca…