Luis A. Quiñones-Roman

Biography

Background

Luis A. Quiñones-Roman, born in 1987 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He was educated in San Juan (PR), Princeton (NJ), Jerusalem (IL), and Edinburgh (UK). His maternal grandparents raised Luis until he moved to San Juan to attend university. Every summer, he still visits his grandparents in Puerto Rico. He has achieved an impressive educational background, holding two bachelor's degrees and two master's degrees. His first bachelor's degree is in Biblical Studies from Mizpah Pentecostal University. The second is in History of the Americas from the University of Puerto Rico. Luis obtained a Master's in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2017. The second master's is in the Bible and the Ancient Near East from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2020.

Luis has wide-ranging interests in Torah Studies, Cuneiform and Biblical Laws, Sexual Crimes, Gender Studies, Ancient Judaism, Rabbinical Literature, and Pentecostal Studies. The two foci of my research are sexual crimes and biblical sexual laws. Currently, Luis is pursuing his Ph.D. focusing on research in Sexual Violence and Gender-Based Violence in the Hebrew Bible, under the guidance of Dr. Klein Anja and Dr. Suzanna Millar. 

CV

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Qualifications

Ph.D.           The University of Edinburgh, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, 2021-present.

M.A.             Bible and The Ancient Near East 2020,  The Hebrew University at Jerusalem.

M.Div.          Princeton Theological Seminary, 2017

BA                 History of the Americas, The University of Puerto Rico, 2013

BA                 Biblical Studies, Mizpah Pentecostal University, 2012

Responsibilities & affiliations

Student Representative at Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods (OTSEM)

Student Member at The Association for Hispanic Theological Education  (AETH)

Student Member at The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)

Undergraduate tutor at The School of Divinity, New College, The University of Edinburgh

Undergraduate Instructor at The Theological University of the Caribbean, Puerto Rico

Undergraduate teaching

Tutor: 

DIVI08009 – Prophets and their Oracles 

DIVI08001 – Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding

 

Instructor: 

IB 201 – Hebreo Biblico Elemental

AT 101 – Panorama al Antiguo Testamento

TBS 401 – Teología del Antiguo Testamento 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Research summary

My research project examines the sexual and gender-based narratives found in the Hebrew Bible (HB) and their relation to the cuneiform and biblical legal corpora. The criteria used here are biblical texts that show direct evidence where sexual violence has been exercised, not as a sidenote but rather as the narrative’s main theme. The focus is on narratives that fit the category of forcible intercourse: a) completed male-to-female (Gen 34; Judg 19; 2 Sam 13); b) completed female-to-male (Gen 19:30–38); c) attempt male-to-male (Gen 19:1–29); and d) attempt female-to-male (Gen 39). It also analyzes the biblical laws concerning sexual behaviors (Exod 22:16–17; Lev 18:20; 19:20–22; 20:10; Num 5:11–31; Deut 22) in juxtaposition with the cuneiform laws (LU § 6–8; LE §§ 26–28; 31; LH §§ 129–30; 154–56; HL §§ 189–91; 197–98;  MAL §§ 12; 15–16; 23; 55–56), while discussing the absence of divine justice for victims of sexual violence. The most intriguing feature among these materials is that a single sexual act out of wedlock creates a web of violence.

The governing question of my project is: how do we interpret the connection between the cuneiform and the biblical legal corpora in relation to the sexual and gender-based violence in biblical narratives, and how do these materials speak to one another? These materials use sexual violence as an event precipitating conflict between members of one family/community over another, which demonstrates the social upheavals of ancient Israel. Therefore, the present research examines narratives that fit the category of forcible intercourse and its relations to the cuneiform and biblical legislations. For this reason, I will employ several exegetical methods: narrative criticism, biblical intertextuality, and gender criticism. Each of these methods will shed a different light on our task.

The research will open with an introduction that seeks to provide the state of my project, it's setting, and its significant features. It will also introduce the thesis, research objectives, research questions, and a review of scholarship that focuses on works that seek to give an account of the interpretation of sexual violence narratives. The first chapter will discuss how the legal materials inform our reading of sexual violence narratives and why the lawgivers framed their legislation in such a way to perpetuate gender-based violence. From the second to sixth chapters, I will analyze specific exemplary sexual and gender-based violence narratives—i.e., the accounts of Lot, Dinah, Joseph, the Pîlegeš Woman, and Tamar—and their relation to the legal materials.[3] The seventh chapter will examine what opportunities for divine justice, or lack thereof, exist for victims of sexual violence. The research project culminates in a conclusion, summarizing the findings and lightening future research paths.

Current research interests

Torah: Genesis / Leviticus; Source Criticism: J.P.[H].E.D.; The ANE and its Relations to the Hebrew Bible; Prophets: Ezekiel / Isaiah; The Qu’ram texts and the Second Temple Period; Gender Perspective in the Hebrew Bible; Pentecostalism; and Violence (divine and human) in the Hebrew Bible.

Affiliated research centres

Conference details

The Bible and Violence, March 2024, The Shiloh Project, Online Conference. 

Paper: "Divine Violence in The General Letters of The New Testament: A Case Study Of Hebrews 10:26–31."

The Scottish Network for Religion and Literature, November 2023, The University of Edinburgh, (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Nugget Presentation: “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Hebrew Bible"

Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods, August 2023, Lund University, (Lund, Sweden).

Paper Title: “An Attempt at Sexual Intercourse: The Case of Joseph (Gen 39:1–20)"

The Scottish Universities Biblical Studies Postgraduate Day Conference, June 2023, The University of Edinburgh, (Edinburgh, Scotland).

Paper Title: “An Attempt at Sexual Intercourse: The Case of Joseph (Gen 39:1–20)"

Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods, Sept 2022, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, (Kiel, Germany).

Paper Title: “Law & Sex: Reading Gen 34 Alongside the Legal Materials” 

Papers delivered

2024                  "Divine Violence in The General Letters of The New Testament: A Case Study Of Hebrews 10:26–31," The Shiloh Project, Online Conference.

2023                 “An Attempt at Sexual Intercourse: The Case of Joseph (Gen 39:1–20),” Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods. Lund, Sweden.

2023                “An Attempt at Sexual Intercourse: The Case of Joseph (Gen 39:1–20), The Scottish Universities Biblical Studies Postgraduate Day Conference. Edinburgh,                                                                Scotland.

2023                “Seminario Textos de Terror en la Biblia Hebrea,” Universidad Theological del Caribe. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

2022                “Law & Sex: Reading Gen 34 Alongside the Legal Materials,” Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods. Kiel, Germany.

 

Quinones-Roman, L. Divine Violence in The General Letters of The New Testament: A Case Study of Hebrews 10:26–31, in The Bible and Violence, eds. Johanna Stiebert, Johnathan Jadamus, Chris Greenough, Mmapula Kebaneilwe, Bloomsbury T&T Clark (in-process).

Quinones-Roman, L. “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: A Case Study of Genesis 34,” in The Scottish Network for Religion and Literature, eds. Erik Tonning, Jack Alison (in-process).

 

 

Quinones-Roman, L. Portraying Violence in the Hebrew Bible: A Literary and Cultural Study, By Matthew J. Lynch, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), in Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological, 1–2 (online access) 

Quinones-Roman, L. Kerygmatic Hermeneutics: Formulating a Pentecostal-Charismatic Practice of Reading Scripture in the Spirit in Community, By Swee Sum Lam, (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021), in Pneuma 45, (2023): 156–159 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. The Spirit as a Gift in Acts: The Spirit’s Empowerment of the Early Jesus Community, By John D. Griffiths, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2022), in Pneuma 45, (2023): 160–164 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel, by Rachelle Gilmour, (New York, Oxford University Press, 2021), in Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological, 43:1, 108–110 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. Receiving Scripture in the Pentecostal Tradition: A Reception History, by Daniel D. Isgrigg, Martin W. Mittelstadt, Rick Wadholm, Jr. (eds.), Pneuma 44, 3–4 (2022): 568–572 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. Divine Violence and the Character of God, by Claude F. Mariottini, Pneuma 44, 3–4 (2022): 564–567 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. Killing for God: An Analysis of Conflict in The Abrahamic Religions, By Stephen Schwalbe, Religious Studies Review48(3), 403 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. The Pentecostal Hypothesis: Christ Talks, They Decide, by Nimi Wariboko, Religious Studies Review 48(3), (March 2022) 131 (online access)

Quinones-Roman, L. Reading Backwards: An Inner-Biblical Interpretation of The Bible, The Expository Times, 133(9), 400–401 (online access)

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