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Berman Center for

Jewish Studies

Early Judaism Conference

Sol-scaled Hammath Tiberias Synagogue
Mosaic floor zodiac wheel set around an image of Helios in the Hammat Tiberias Synagogue

Studying Early Judaism in the 21st Century

The last several decades have witnessed new approaches to the history and literature of Early Judaism, especially since the beginning of the 21st century. These new insights and methods have prompted fresh questions and different perspectives on Early Judaism. During this conference, an international group of scholars will assess developments from the last 25 years of research and look ahead to where the discipline might be headed. 

Dates: March 24-26, 2025
Location: Linderman 200

Schedule Overview

Monday, March 24, 2025
9:15-9:45 am: Welcome
9:45-11:30 am: Session #1
11:30 am -1:30 pm: Lunch Break
1:30-3:15 pm: Session #2

Tuesday, March 25, 2025
8:30-10:15 am: Session #3
10:15-10:30 am: Coffee Break
10:30 am -12:15 pm: Session #4
12:15-2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2:00-4:00 pm: Session #5

Wednesday, March 26, 2025
9:15-11:15 am: Session #6 and Wrap-up Discussion

Sessions are open to students and the public and take place in Linderman 200 or virtually via Zoom.

Join Virtually

Zoom Webinar Registration
lehigh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN…

Discussion Topics

Day 1: Monday, March 24, 2025

Session #1 (9:45–11:30 am): Ancient Judaism

Benjamin Wright presiding

  • Hindy Najman (Oxford University): Prolegomena to Composition and Pluriformity in Ancient Jewish Texts

  • Katell Berthelot (CNRC, Aix-Marseille University): The History of the Jews in the Greco- Roman World: Shifting Paradigms

  • Adele Reinhartz (University of Ottawa): The New Testament in/and the Study of Early Judaism

  • Hanna Tervanotko (McMaster University): Scripture Divination as an Intuitive and Technical Method

Session #2 (1:30–3:15 pm): Dead Sea Scrolls

Loren Stuckenbruck presiding

  • Esther Chazon (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Revolution and Evolution in the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls: 2000-2025 and Beyond

  • Charlotte Hempel (University of Birmingham, UK): The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Great Outdoors

  • Sidnie Crawford (University of Nebraska): The Cave 2Q Scroll Collection as Part of the Qumran Scroll Collection

  • Erich Gruen (UC Berkeley): The Rewritten Bible

Day 2: Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Session #3 (8:30–10:15 am): Apocalyptic/Apocalypses

Hindy Najman presiding

  • Judith Newman (University of Toronto): Rupture and Re-creation

  • Matthew Goff (Florida State University): Apocalypse Now and Then: Apocalypticism, QAnon and Conspiracy Theories

  • Matthias Henze (Rice University): As It Could Have Been: The Hebrew Bible and Jewish Apocalypses

  • Samuel Adams (Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond): Ben Sira’s Awareness of and Response to Enochic Traditions: A Reappraisal

Session #4 (10:30 am –12:15 pm): Scribes and Wisdom Literature

Sidnie Crawford presiding

  • Greg Schmidt Goering (University of Virginia): Sound and Memory in Sirach: A Case for Investigating the Sensory Worlds of Early Judaism

  • Frédérique Michèle Rey (Université de Lorraine): Categorizing and Quantifying Variants in the Ben Sira Hebrew Manuscript Traditions

  • Thomas Bolin (St. Norbert College): Searching for Scribes in Ancient Roman Judaism

  • Jacqueline Vayntrub (Yale University): From Generation to Generation: Theorizing Transmission through the Materiality of Speech

Session #5 (2:00-4:00 pm): Reception of Scripture

Adele Reinhartz presiding

  • Francis Borchardt (NLA University College, Bergen, Norway): Never Again Shall Masada Fall: The Discovery and Use of Masada in Zionist Discourse

  • Jill Hicks-Keeton (University of Southern California): After ‘the Bible’ and Beyond ‘Reception History’: Studying Ancient Jewish Literature When It’s also Christian  Scripture

  • Eva Mroczek (Dalhousie University): Manuscript Discovery Narratives as Theology and Scripture

  • Liv Ingeborg Lied (Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo): The Modern Academic Coproduction of Ancient Jewish Literature

  • Loren Stuckenbruck (Ludwig-Maximians-Universität, Munich): The Interface of Jewish and Christian Traditions in Ge'ez Manuscripts to 1 Enoch

Day 3: Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Session #6 (9:15–11:00 am): Wrap-up Discussion

Benjamin Wright presiding

Conference Papers

View all of the titles and abstracts from our session speakers.

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