Get Free Shipping on orders over $0
Behind Ancient Bars : Narratives of Incarceration in the Hebrew Bible - Hadar Aviram

Behind Ancient Bars

Narratives of Incarceration in the Hebrew Bible

By: Hadar Aviram

Paperback | 12 May 2026 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


$89.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $22.44 with

 or 

Available: 12th May 2026

Preorder. Will ship when available.

In Behind Ancient Bars, law professor and rabbinical student Hadar Aviram challenges the conventional assumption that incarceration is an artifact of modernity by looking back to depictions of detention and confinement in the Hebrew Bible. Aviram takes readers on a journey through the Hebrew Bible's carceral landscape through creative rereadings of five stories: Joseph in Egypt, Esther in Persia, Daniel in Babylonia, Samson in Gaza, and Jeremiah in Jerusalem. Drawing on her experience as a leading voice against mass incarceration, she finds connections between antiquity and the contemporary understanding of incarceration that encompasses not just the prison itself but also pretrial/immigration detention, bail, electronic monitoring, parole, and postrelease supervision. Infusing ancient biblical stories with fresh life through modern punishment theories, Aviram shows how incarceration has much to teach us about government, the experience of people in confinement, and the strength and resilience of the human spirit across millennia.

More in History

Looking from the North : Australian history from the top down - Henry Reynolds
The Library That Made Me : 200 Years of the State Library of NSW - Phillipa McGuinness
The Making of the Middle Ages : An Atlas of Europe - John Haywood
A World Appears : A Journey Into Consciousness - Michael Pollan

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
Rasputin : And the Downfall of the Romanovs - Antony Beevor

RRP $55.00

$43.15

22%
OFF
Where It All Went Wrong : The case against John Howard - Amy Remeikis
We Do Not Part - Han Kang

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Battle of the Arctic : The Maritime Epic of World War Two - Hugh Sebag Montefiore
The House of Blue Glass : A life of Penelope Lucas - Alan Atkinson
Japanese Haiku for Cat Lovers - William Scott Wilson

RRP $29.99

$25.75

14%
OFF
In Flanders Fields : A WWI children's picture book - Norman Jorgensen
The Shortest History of Innovation - Andrew Leigh

RRP $27.99

$25.66

Men in the Sun : And Other Palestinian Stories - Keira Lykourentzos

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF