Session #1: Ancient Judaism
Hindy Najman, “Prolegomena to Composition and Pluriformity in Ancient Jewish Texts”
This paper revisits scholarly practices of studying composition and versional differences of textual traditions. The body of evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls has had a transformative impact on how we are able to understand composition and the development of textual traditions, especially with respect to ancient Jewish textual traditions. This is possible because of the textual findings in the Scrolls: we now have textual witnesses to the processes and the practices of composition, transmission, and editing. To be sure, we knew of these processes from contemporaneous Greek traditions, but this was only evidenced in the Jewish traditions from much later Hebrew and Aramaic Masoretic and grammatical traditions. However, with the discovery of the Scrolls and other materials from the Judean desert, we now have not only a much bigger but also a radically different picture of what it means to think about the formation of ancient Jewish traditions in Jewish antiquity. My point then is to describe the ways in which the Dead Sea Scrolls have had a transformative impact on how we might come to understand textual history and textual development. This is important for understanding the textual tradition, and for the study of different versions of the biblical tradition, of hermeneutics, and the very thing that binds traditions and interpretation, namely, performance.
Katell Berthelot: “The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world: Shifting Paradigms”
In an article titled “The Political and Social History of the Jews in Greco-Roman Antiquity: The State of the Question,” published in 1986, Shaye J. D. Cohen stated that there was still a divide in scholarship between the study of ancient Greece and Rome, which was the domain of classicists, and the study of ancient Israel, which had traditionally been the domain of (mostly Christian) theologians. He further noted that “It is not as obvious to us as it was to Josephus and his contemporaries that the Jews, as constituent members of the Greco-Roman world, did what many other Greco-Roman nations did” (41). He thus called for a study of the history of the Jews in Antiquity that would take their Greco-Roman context more fully into account and would involve a comparative approach, leading in some cases to the conclusion that the Jews were less exceptional or unique than previously thought.
In the last two decades, Cohen’s request has been met in many respects. It is even possible to identify a scholarly tendency to minimize the originality of the Jews within the Greco-Roman world, to the point of presenting them as just another ethnos among many. Steve Mason thus wrote in his 2007 article “Jews, Judaeans, Judaizing, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History” that “According to both insiders and outsiders, the ̓Ιουδαῖοι (just like Egyptians, Syrians, Romans, etc.) were an ethnos with all of the usual accoutrement” (484). More recently, Heidi Wendt has also argued that the expulsions of Jews from Rome were in fact aimed at Jewish “freelance experts” whose activities were comparable to those of Chaldeans, Persians, or Egyptians, and that Jews did not particularly attract the attention of the Roman authorities (“Iudaica Romana: A Rereading of Judean Expulsions from Rome”; ead., At the Temple Gates, chap. 2).
However, is this scholarly trend not going too far? Were the Jews really an ethnos “just like Egyptians, Syrians, Romans, etc.”? Beyond the obvious statement that every ethnic group had specific features, this lecture will explore the possibility that Jews formed a people in a way that was quite unique.
Adele Reinhartz: “The New Testament in/and the Study of Early Judaism”
That the New Testament is a Jewish book, or, more precisely, a set of Jewish books, has become a truism in the 21st century study of antiquity. Not only do scholars trace the intersections between New Testament and (other) early Jewish writings, but some argue that most if not all New Testament books should be read and studied “within Judaism.” The truism makes intuitive sense, given the now-widespread (and centuries overdue) recognition that Jesus and Paul, along with the majority of New Testament authors, were themselves Jewish, and that the Jesus movement, which morphed into what we call early Christianity, arose within and drew heavily from a Jewish environment. But what do we mean when we describe the New Testament as Jewish? And how does or should this description inform our understanding of early Judaism itself? My paper will address – if not necessarily answer – these questions, in the hope of providing a clearer and also more nuanced understanding of what it means to describe the New Testament as Jewish.
Hanna Tervanotko: “Scripture Divination as an Intuitive and Technical Method”
Biblical scholars have traditionally analyzed the use of Scriptures to get insights into divine will through the so-called intuitive lens of divination. This means the diviner is assumed to access the divine will through methods, such as dreams, visions, and prophecy. Meanwhile, scholars have yet to consider Scripture divination as a technical method of divination, i.e., an approach that involves systematization of signs and omens by observing physical objects. In this presentation, I will consider the materiality of Scripture divination as an essential aspect of the consultation. I argue it is possible to perceive Scripture divination as both an intuitive and technical divinatory technique.
Session #2: Dead Sea Scrolls
Esther Chazon: “Revolution and Evolution in the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls: 2000-2025 and Beyond”
The turn of the 21st century marked the mid-point of a revolution in the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which came to fruition in 2009 with the final Discoveries in the Judaean Desert volumes. Viewing the Scrolls in broader contexts and applying new methodologies got underway and continues until the present. Assessing the current state of research, I will suggest directions that I think the field will and should take in the next decade.
Charlotte Hempel: “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Great Outdoors”
This lecture will suggest that the domestic and scholarly pursuits we tend to focus on when we speak of the Dead Sea Scrolls only tell part of the story. Drawing on a recent publication where I emphasize the extent to which communal life is “curated” rather than mirrored in the texts, we will embark on a mental journey outdoors to uncover locations, activities, opportunities, and dangers that have previously been underexplored. Just some of the topics to be explored will be references to kidnappings and the vulnerability of women, men, and children to economic and sexual exploitation including violent harm.
Sidnie White Crawford: “The Cave 2Q Scroll Collection as Part of the Qumran Scroll Collection”
The small collection of scrolls purported to come from Cave 2Q, one of the limestone cliff caves associated with the Qumran settlement, has some unique features, including the only copy of the Wisdom of Ben Sira found at Qumran. The seventeen manuscripts from the classical literature of ancient Israel includes two copies of the book of Ruth, while the Hellenistic-Roman period literature stored there contained two copies of Jubilees, and one each of the Book of Giants, the New Jerusalem, and the Apocryphon of Moses. Strikingly, no sectarian texts were found in 2Q. This unusual profile has raised the question of whether or not the 2Q scrolls were actually part of the Qumran library or could have been a separate deposit. While I will argue that the 2Q scrolls were in fact part of the Qumran library, I will attempt to account for its unique features in the context of all the Qumran manuscript caves.
Erich Gruen: “The Rewritten Bible”
Was there such a thing as a “Rewritten Bible”? This paper traces some the highlights of scholarship on this subject (or pseudo-subject), beginning with Vermes’ coining of the term, and pays brief tribute to the contributions of various scholars from the 1980s to the 2020s, including Philip Alexander. Moshe Bernstein, Hindy Najman, Sidnie White Crawford, James Kugel, Eva Mroczek, and Molly Zahn. The paper addresses issues such as terminology (“rewritten Bible or “rewritten Scriptures” or something else altogether), motives (exegesis, interpretation, or new creation), genre (does it fit into any category?), authority of rewritten texts (replacements or supplements?), and which texts fall properly under the rubric.
Session #3: Apocalyptic/Apocalypses
Judith Newman: “Rupture and Re-creation”
How do memories of rupture leave their mark on textual traditions in early Judaism and to what degree can our manuscripts--physical artefacts--reveal such ruptures or rifts? How are such ruptures overcome whether in the way the past is reimagined in the present in narrative rewritings, or in practices that repair the breach? This paper will consider creation and re-creation as instances of rupture, considering in particular the book of Jubilees and related practices of cursing and blessing.
Matthew Goff: “Apocalypse Now and Then: Apocalypticism, QAnon and Conspiracy Theories”
The goal of the conference is to examine the “state of the study of Early Judaism at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century.” In my paper, I engage a pressing theme in the study of antiquity—how to improve its engagement with the modern world. It will focus on ancient Jewish apocalypticism and the modern right-wing conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon. The paper will suggest that QAnon can be reasonably characterized as an apocalyptic movement, and that this is a helpful way to understand its appeal. Since the beliefs espoused in QAnon are normally characterized as conspiracy theories, this provides a framework for a new appreciation of the texts we study—conspiracy theories as an important ancient epistemological medium for the production of apocalyptic literature.
Matthias Henze: “As It Could Have Been: The Hebrew Bible and Jewish Apocalypses”
The paper begins with a brief discussion of James Kugel’s definition of biblical interpretation in early Judaism. While there are some examples of the use of the Hebrew Bible in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch that fit Kugel’s definition, much of the engagement with Scripture does not. In my talk I will focus on two examples: the imagination of Israel’s past that differs significantly from the history of Israel as we find it in the Hebrew Bible; and the use of certain interpretive themes that can be found in numerous other texts, including later Jewish writings. The paper ends with a methodological consideration: how, then, should we think of the use of Scripture in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch?
Samuel Adams: “Ben Sira’s Awareness of and Response to Enochic Traditions: A Reappraisal”
The interplay between sapiential and apocalyptic discourse has attracted significant attention, especially in recent decades. In considering this important relationship, Ben Sira and the Enochic books have been focal points for discussion. Such attention is warranted, since we can date these works with relative precision, and they have such vivid and lengthy examples of instructional and apocalyptic language. This paper will reexamine the possible interchange, allusion, and opposition in these works, with primary attention to the perspective in Sirach as best as we can understand it. How, if at all, do certain discourses in this instruction respond to Enochic scribal perspectives, and what can we say, however cautiously, about the nature of Ben Sira’s objections to apocalyptic ideas? The discussion will include a review of major scholarly arguments on this point, a careful consideration of social location, generic classification, and how much this type of comparative study sheds light on the perspective in Sirach. Discussions on this issue are ongoing and open to debate, and this is a vital topic for understanding the cultural landscape of Second Temple Judaism.
Session #4: Scribes and Wisdom Literature
Greg Schmidt Goering: Sound and Memory in Sirach: A Case for Investigating the Sensory Worlds of Early Judaism
Modern westerners frequently associate memory most closely with the sense of smell. This association makes physiological sense, given the direct connection between the olfactory bulb and the limbic system, which helps us manage memories. Yet, as sensory anthropologists remind us, sensory experiences and the meanings attached to them are as much cultural as they are physical. In this paper I investigate two passages in the book of Sirach which juxtapose memory not with smell but with hearing. First, in the description of Aaron’s vestments (Sir 45.8-13), the author explains that the sound Aaron’s bells emit as walks in the temple is intended as “a remembrance” for the Israelites, a meaning not found in the Hebrew Bible. Second, in the description of Simon’s temple service (Sir 50.4-21), the author portrays the trumpet sounds the priests make as “a remembrance” before God, an association appearing in the Hebrew Bible only in Num 10.8-10. Engaging in a close textual reading and guided by the concerns of sensory anthropology, I will argue that in both of these cases the book of Sirach associates memory with hearing. Specifically, the various sounds made by priests as they execute their duties in the temple are directed toward the divine ears and are meant to prompt God’s memory, so that he does not forget his covenant with Israel. I will contrast these examples with the more common cultic associations in the Hebrew Bible between divine olfaction and memory. Finally, I will suggest that attending to its sensory worlds should be a central aspect of any attempt to make sense of Early Judaism.
Frédérique Michèle Rey: “Categorizing and Quantifying Variants in the Ben Sira Hebrew Manuscript Traditions”
It's obvious that manuscript traditions vary. But how do they vary, and to what extent? The aim of this paper is to propose a categorization and quantification of variation in the Ben Sira Hebrew manuscript traditions. After (1) a brief review of how scholars have described the phenomenon of variation in textual traditions, (2) a hierarchical classification of variants will be proposed, then (3) the method used to analyze and classify each variant will be presented. Finally, (4) a statistical presentation of the variants and an interpretation of the results in terms of textual transmission and the characteristics of scribal practices highlighted by this analysis will be provided.
Thomas Bolin: “Searching for Scribes in Ancient Roman Judaism”
This paper examines extant epigraphic evidence of the Roman Jewish community from the first three centuries of the Common Era alongside both Jewish and Greco-Roman sources to sketch an outline of likely scribal activity among the Jews of Rome.
Jacqueline Vayntrub: “From Generation to Generation: Theorizing Transmission through the Materiality of Speech”
In the study of transmission, biblical scholars primarily consider literary and manuscript history. Taking the present forms of texts as their starting point, such projects tend to foreground activities of tracing and reconstruction to explain textual histories. This effectively limits what can be considered as transmission, rarely accounting for e.g., the passage of speech and responsibility between individuals. On the background of essays and articles I have already published on the topic (“Like Father, Like Son”; “Wisdom in Transmission”; “Ecclesiastes and the Problem of Transmission”; “Transmission and Mortal Anxiety in the Tale of Aqhat”), I will outline the scope of what a project of theorizing transmission entails across wisdom, narrative, and prophecy in the biblical literary tradition might look like. I will situate these phenomena in the broader context of the West Semitic cultural and literary traditions, specifically, the depiction of intergenerational relations and responsibility (e.g., within the broader tradition of memorial inscription and instruction). I will argue for the centrality of wisdom within this project and how working through the phenomenon of transmission in a broader scope will demonstrate how speech in these literary cultures was understood similarly to objects that can be passed from one individual to another.
Session #5: Reception
Francis Borchardt: “Never Again Shall Masada Fall: The Discovery and Use of Masada in Zionist Discourse”
The story of Masada, known from Josephus, has captured the imaginations of scholars of Judaism and the general public alike. It is told and retold as a tale of heroism and bravery in the face of insurmountable odds. Yet, it was not always so. For nearly two millennia, both the site and Josephus’ story of what occurred there were insignificant. It was only with the identification of the site in the 1800s and its subsequent use in the Zionist discourse of the early 1900s that the Masada became a foundational myth for the identity of Jews in the Holy Land. This paper tells the story of Masada and its significance at three moments in its history: in Josephus’ account, in early Zionist discourse, and in its curation by the state of Israel. In doing so it will highlight how both the story and what it is interpreted to represent has changed over time.
Jill Hicks-Keeton: “After ‘the Bible’ and Beyond ‘Reception History’: Studying Ancient Jewish Literature when it’s also Christian Scripture”
This paper outlines how “scripturalization” offers a useful paradigm for examining the cultural histories of ancient Jewish literary works after “the Bible” became conceptually available as an organizational tool and authorizing mechanism. Second Temple-period Jewish writers took up figures from Israel’s mythic past and crafted new stories—new scriptures—as a means of explaining their own present and of envisioning, in competing ways, collective futures. These texts, in turn, have long afterlives in both Judaism and Christianity, the study of which is typically described as “biblical interpretation” or “reception history.” Scripturalization, as an alternative framework, invites scholars of ancient Judaism to redescribe such activity within the discipline of religious studies as the making and maintenance of scriptures.
Eva Mroczek: “Ancient Judaism and Its Medieval Heirs: Opening the Canon of Comparison with a Focus on Exile and Loss”
While scholars of Ancient Judaism have presented its vibrant, expanding, and diverse literary world beyond the biblical canon, we tend to place it on a historical timeline with a fairly constrained selection of comparanda from later traditions, primarily classical rabbinic literature. But other types of literary creativity flourished in late antiquity and the middle ages beyond the canon of classical rabbinics. In conversation with Benjamin G. Wright III's work on Sirach and the medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira, as well as methodological groundwork laid by Michael Stone, John Reeves, Annette Yoshiko Reed, and others, this paper will chart some new possible lines of inquiry in the development of traditions from ancient to medieval Hebrew and Aramaic literature. With a special focus on traditions about exile, destruction, and lament that appear in texts less commonly studied by scholars of early Judaism, like the Khazar correspondence and the Zohar Hadash, I will suggest that looking backwards to early Jewish texts from some more "marginal" later examples can reveal a broader range of interpretive potential they could have held for their readers.
Liv Ingeborg Lied: “The Modern Academic Coproduction of Ancient Jewish Literature”
In this paper, I invite all of you to think with me about my new book project. I don’t (at all!) have the “elevator pitch” ready for it yet, so bear with me.
In this book-in-progress, I aim to explore case studies of the 18th-21st, academic coproduction of ancient Jewish literature. The term “coproduction” is inspired by ongoing discourses in the History of Science and the perspectives of Karen Barad, in particular. It refers to the way researchers are “meeting the universe halfway” (Barad’s concept) when observing “the object of research.” In other words, scholarly practices with their various “instruments” (categorizations, tools, etc.) become part of the object/the object depending on the practice.
The book project will focus on the literature that has been transmitted by Christian communities but that scholars have explored as ancient Jewish works (focus so far: “Pseudepigrapha,” but this may change). I am eager to find out how scholars have co-produced their sources (i.e., what counts as source), for example, by categorizing sections in host texts as “quotes” or as “fragments,” thus creating “works” and “wholes.” I will be looking for the ways in which the tools of textual scholarship (e.g., images of manuscripts, facsimiles and critical editions) have formatted the co-production by their mediation. And, I will explore the common (early)-modern practice of non-engagement with manuscripts and how later chains of citations referring back to the early co-productions that were the results of these practices have developed lasting maps that may not fit the territory.
Loren Stuckenbruck: "The Interface of Jewish and Christian Traditions in Ge'ez Manuscripts to 1 Enoch"
Recent discoveries and developments in the research of manuscripts to 1 Enoch have opened up new avenues of research. One of these is the question of how this originally Jewish collection of works, related to the ideal figure of Enoch, was and is being received, not only in the Ethiopian and related Orthodox Church traditions but also among the Jewish Beta Israel communities in Israel today. In particular, it is oral commentary traditions (many of which are codified in Amharic "Andemta," published in 2007) and paratexts in both Christian and Jewish copies and adaptations of the text which yield valuable insights. On the one hand, there are Christian, sometimes (but not always) anti-Jewish comments to what was an originally Jewish tradition; on the other hand, there are some details which reflect decidedly contemporary non-Christian Jewish ways of interpreting the textual tradition. In the latter case, it is especially interesting that available textual Jewish witnesses to "the Book of Enoch" derive from copies earlier produced in Christian scribal circles. Thus, a consideration of some relatively "late" instantiations of the Enochic tradition in text and commentary offers insight into ways Jews and Christians with origins in the Horn of Africa mark their respective identifies, especially since they uniquely share a long-standing regard for Enochic tradition as sacred.