Help Make Ancient Gaza’s Voices Accessible Through Translation
Over the past year, I’ve been translating literature written by or about Gaza in late antiquity (4th–7th centuries CE). These texts show how Gaza was once a vibrant center of learning, spirituality, and creativity in the ancient Mediterranean and reveal an intellectual world that connected Gaza to places like Alexandria, Constantinople, and Athens. Yet, these texts remain almost entirely inaccessible to readers outside a small circle of specialists who can read ancient Greek or Latin.
Thanks to the generosity of Dar al-Kalima University Press in Bethlehem, this project will soon take shape as a book titled A Workshop of Eloquence: A Collection of Gazan Literature from Late Antiquity. The book will introduce readers to some of the writings of Gaza’s ancient intellectuals, monks, and orators—voices that deserve to be heard more clearly.
To make this work truly accessible, the press and I are committed to publishing an Arabic translation of the book, so that Palestinians and other Arabic-speaking readers can encounter this heritage in their own language. I’ve partnered with a Gazan translator living in Europe, who is passionate about sharing the voices of their city’s ancestors with today’s readers.
I’m crowdfunding support to ensure that the translator is fairly compensated for their work. Every contribution goes directly to them via Wise or XE.
This project is a small yet powerful act of preservation and resistance, celebrating Gaza’s enduring intellectual and spiritual brilliance and helping to keep its stories alive for generations to come.
Your support—through a donation or by sharing—can make that possible.
About Me
I’m Chance Bonar, a scholar of ancient Christianity based in the United States. One of my research interests is the history and literature of ancient Palestine. I’ve written publicly about the history of the word Palestine and one of the earliest self-identified Palestinian authors, and I have forthcoming chapters on slavery in first-century Palestine and on mines and prisons in the fourth-century text On the Martyrs of Palestine.
This work aims to connect the past to the present—to make the histories of ancient Palestine and Gaza part of broader conversations about justice, endurance, and cultural memory today.
