His first book, "Sephardic Speculation" (written in Hebrew), examines the Talmudic methodology of Isaac Canpanton (1360-1463, Spain). Boyarin's first English book, "Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash" (1990), is often credited with introducing Literary Theory into the field of Rabbinics. . "Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture" (1993) applies the methods of New Historicism to the subject of Rabbinic attitudes toward sexuality. "A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity" (1994) argues that misreadings of Paul the Apostle's universalist philosophy eventually led to violent coercion.