Rev. James Platania, S.S.L., S.Th.D.

Catholic Priest · Biblical Scholar · Professor

Publications

Book · Forthcoming November 2026

Inventing Shabbat

Moses as Agent of Legal Innovation in the Narrated World of Exodus 15,22–16,36

James P. Platania. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2027. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 182. 335 pages. ISBN 978-3-16-200263-1.

In the wilderness of Sin, before Sinai, Shabbat takes shape as a lived practice through Moses’ interpretation of what God has already said and done. Reading Exodus 15,22–16,36 in sequence, the book brings narrative poetics and legal hermeneutics into sustained dialogue and offers a model of biblical law as narratively mediated and dynamically unfolding.

About the book · Mohr Siebeck · DOI

Dissertation and thesis

  • October 2024

    Inventing Shabbat: Moses as Agent of Legal Innovation in the Narrated World of Exodus 15:22–16:36

    S.Th.D. dissertation in Biblical Theology, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. Director: Jean-Pierre Sonnet, S.J.

    Bellarmine Prize for Best Doctoral Dissertation in Theology (2024).

    Revised for publication as Inventing Shabbat.

  • October 2016

    The Wrath and the Patience of God: An Exegetical Investigation into Yhwh’s Anger, Moses’ Intercession (Exodus 32:7–14) and Yhwh’s Merciful Character (Exodus 34:6–7)

    S.S.L. thesis, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome. Director: Dominik Markl, S.J.

Work in progress

  • Current research

    Moses the Interpreter

    A developing project, under a provisional title, on how the Pentateuch characterizes Moses as an interpreter and mediator of divine teaching, and what that characterization implies for law, narrative, and legal innovation. See Research.