This week's Featured Fellow is Marc Brettler, a Professor in Judaic Studies at Duke University, and an IIAS Individual Fellow. We spoke to Marc about biblical criticism, pottery, and reuniting with old colleagues…
What research are you working on during your time at the IIAS?
I am in the middle of a large project examining the impact on Judaism of predominantly Protestant biblical criticism—the idea that the Bible should be understood as a book in history, and with a history, like other ancient Near Eastern texts. I am working on this together with Professor Edward Breuer, who is also a Fellow at the Institute.
This project has an unusual form: a collection of 50-60 programmatic pieces written by Jewish scholars from the late eighteenth through the early twenty-first century. Each piece is annotated and introduced, and if necessary, translated into English. We aim to make this material better known to scholars of both biblical studies and Jewish intellectual history, so more people appreciate the wide variety of Jewish attitudes toward biblical criticism, sometimes called the “scientific study of the Bible.” Using a wide variety of material, including lectures, post-cards, books, and articles, we try to show that the Jewish reactions to these critical methods are complex, and cannot be described in a linear fashion, as is often the case. Our texts are penned by professors, rabbis, educators, and community leaders, by a wide variety of individuals living in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Mandatory Palestine, the State of Israel, and the United States.
How did you first get involved in this area of research?
This project is a total (and wonderful) accident. Twelve years ago, Professor Breuer, whom I knew casually from the time we were both graduate students in Massachusetts forty years ago, contacted me. He told me that he was asked to write an article on modern Jewish biblical studies for The New Cambridge History of the Bible, and was looking for a partner to complement his strengths in Jewish intellectual history, and in eighteenth-nineteenth century Jewish history; he approached me since I am a Bible scholar familiar with twentieth-century biblical scholarship. We “clicked;” we had fun researching and writing the article together, but also realized that there is a much longer and complex story to tell, and that many of the striking primary texts dealing with this issue are inaccessible, either because they are not in English, or because their historical context, which is so crucial for understanding them, is not well-known. So we began this project five years ago, and we hope to complete it in about five years.
Can you share an interesting finding that you have uncovered in your research?
The most important Jewish scholar who reacted (negatively) to biblical criticism was, arguably, Nehama Leibowitz (1905-1997), who had a tremendous impact, especially (but not only) in Israel, through her lectures, radio show, classes, and immensely popular written works. Her niece was kind enough to share a (Hebrew and German) postcard that Nehama wrote to her father during her first week as a PhD student in Marburg, Germany, where she notes her impressions of the biblical scholar, Gustav Hölscher, and her logic teacher—Heidegger! I knew Nehama when she was in her seventies, and it was remarkable to read this postcard from her youth.
Were you always interested in going into academia?
Even as an undergraduate I was interested in pursuing an academic career. As a first-year student at Brandeis University, I took a course on the biblical book of Psalms with Nahum Sarna, and was bitten by the Bible bug. The text suddenly became so much richer and more interesting when it was viewed within an academic, historical-critical framework. And there is not much to do with such an interest other than becoming an academic! My older brother was a math professor, so I saw an academic career as something possible and normal.
How has your experience been so far at the IIAS?
This experience has been unlike any of my previous sabbaticals—in a most positive sense. It is great to have an office in a beautiful building containing (real) ancient mosaics and first-century CE storage jars from King Herod’s storerooms. I walk in and I feel the past—where I live. The staff really facilitates getting work done. I was nervous starting, since we “must” come to lunch with the other fellows, and I am a shy person. Aside from some other individual fellows, most of the people here are part of two groups: one on meta-reasoning (a new area in cognitive psychology), the other on Converso identity. I have learned so many things that I never would have learned just by talking to these Fellows over lunch, and have been so enriched and broadened, and have acquired many new, I hope, lifelong friends.
Do you have any hobbies outside of your research?
On and off I have been doing pottery (both wheel and hand building) for the last ten years. One of my favorite projects was fashioning a modern Judean pillar figurine based on ancient models. I love the feel of clay and the challenge of getting it to do what I want—usually the clay, rather than I, wins.
How are you finding living in Israel?
I was twelve years old when I first visited here, and have spent much time here; my partner lives here, so for me Jerusalem is a home in many ways. I was a visiting graduate student at Hebrew University from 1978-1980, and most of my classes were in the Maiser building, which is now the Feldman building, the home of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. Those were two wonderful years—I was not pursuing a degree, and just took all the courses that interested me, at a time when the University was at its strongest in Bible and Semitics. Walking into this building, and to the National Library not even five minutes away—these are my favorite Jerusalem spots.
Lastly, give us a book/podcast recommendation:
I have become addicted to the Three Pines mysteries of Louise Penny. They are fun and psychologically insightful. (The Amazon version, on the other hand…) And I am an NPR (National Public Radio) junkie, especially enjoying “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross; one of my really fun and unexpected experiences was being interviewed on her show.