Cutting across disciplinary boundaries and challenging traditional understandings of historical cultures, this handbook examines the ways in which gender, sexuality, and religion were mutually constructed and negotiated in ancient Near Eastern societies. Chapters look at ritual and ceremonial practices, iconographic representations, mythological and divinatory texts, personal beliefs, and piety, using religion as a central category of inquiry to understand gender roles and the intersections of sexualities with religious worldviews.

The volume prioritizes diversity in contributors and topics. It provides case studies rather than proceeding by book or method; instead, it provides broad and interdisciplinary case studies that represent key areas and issues in the field. Each section includes an introduction by the editors with an analysis of developments in the topic area, goals of the research, and examples of how each chapter can be used in relevant courses.
Ranging from in-depth discussions of single texts to cross-cultural anthropological and sociological comparisons, the international contributions showcase the latest work of established scholars as well as emerging voices.

Shawna Dolansky is Associate Professor of Humanitites at Carleton University, Canada. She is the author of Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Magic and Religion (2008, Eisenbrauns) and co-author of The Bible Now (2011, Oxford University Press).
Sarah Shectman is the managing editor for The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization and the author of Women in the Pentateuch: A Feminist and Source-Critical Analysis (2008, Sheffield Phoenix Press).

Introduction
Shawna Dolansky (Carleton University, Canada) and Sarah Shectman (Independent scholar, USA)
Part 1: Gender Roles and Attributions
1. Stephanie Budin (Independent scholar, UK), "Why Is Ishtar a Fertility Goddess?"
2. Noam Cohen (Muhlenberg College, USA), "A Married Woman's Right to Intercourse: Schoolboys, Law, and Female Sexuality"
3. Joanna Töyräänvuori (University of Helsinki, Finland), "Divine Sexuality in the Ugaritic Texts"
4. Omar N'Shea (University of Malta, Malta), "Gender Benders in the Temple of the Goddess Istar: The Case of the Assinnu"
5. Dorothea Erbele-Küster (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany), "Sexuality and Food"
Part II: Ritual and Body
6. Adi Marili (Bar Ilan University, Israel), "The Human Body in Ritual Worship: Performance and Meaning"
7. Jonathan Stökl (King's College London, UK), "Priestly Masculinity in the First Millennium BCE: Fragile Hegemonies"
8. Céline Debourse (Harvard University, USA), "Women in Cultic Functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon"
9. Gioele Zisa (The University of Palermo, Italy), "'Rear up, Make Love to Me! Rear up, Bleat for Me!': Heteronormative Male Sexuality in the Mesopotamian Therapies for the Recovery of Sexual Desire"
10. Joseph Scales (Independent scholar, UK) and Laura Quick (University of Oxford, UK), "The Emergence of Submergence: Women's Bathing Rituals in Ancient Judaism"
11. Amelia Brownridge (University of Toronto, Canada), "The Dual Feminine: An Exploration of the Pregnancy Metaphor in 1QHa 1(?)-18"
12. Sarah Cook (The University of Georgia, USA), "No Body, No Crime: Dressing Yahweh-as-Tabernacle in Exodus 35-40"
Part III: Violence and Power
13. Chontel Syfox (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA), "Rewriting the Rape of Dinah: The Endogamous Exchange of Women and Reproductive Futurism in Genesis 34 and Jubilees 30"
14. Jennifer Lehmann (Graduate Theological Union, USA), "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor HR Violation: Sexual Violence and Masculinity in Genesis 39"
15. Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme (University of Oslo, Norway), "Beauty, Power, and Gender in the Hebrew Bible"
16. Carmen Palmer (Stetson University, USA), "'The Woman Was Very Beautiful': Beautiful Women in Scripture as Purveyors of Tradition"
17. R. Gillian Glass (Aarhus University, Denmark), "Inverted Pathways to Power: Heavenly Knowledge and Authority in the Book of the Watchers and Aseneth"
18. Kelly J. Murphy (Central Michigan University, USA), "'And Aaron was Silent': Priests, Power, and Masculinities"