Research Group

poster

Peter Sarnak

FELLOW
IAS Princeton
Peter Sarnak is a professor at the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has made major contributions to number theory and to questions in analysis motivated by number theory.

Research Groups: Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America, and Europe

[RG # 134] Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America, and Europe

Sept. 1, 2012 - July 1, 2013

Organizer:

Bernard M. Levinson (University of Minnesota)
Konrad Schmid (University of Zurich)
Baruch Schwartz (The Hebrew University)

 

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The Pentateuch lies at the heart of western Humanities, and the question of the formation of the Pentateuch represents one of the foundational topics in the discipline of academic bibilical studies. Despite its importance to the discipline, recent scholarship on this question has become increasingly divided on fundamental questions like dating, the existence of literary sources, and the role of authors or editors in shaping the final document. In effect, three separate academic cultures have emerged, those of Israel, Europe and North America, each promoting its own model, and without sufficient intellectual exchange between scholars in the various communities regarding their own assumptions. Our research group was created to address this problem, to bring about greater dialogue among leading proponents of the different scholarly models, and to move towards a shared discourse.

 

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Martin Liebeck

FELLOW
Imperial College, London
Martin is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College, London.
fellow

Jonathan Ben-Dov

FELLOW
University of Haifa
Jonathan is a professor in the Department of Jewish History and Biblical Studies at University of Haifa. His research interests are: Second Temple Jewish literature, biblical literature, ancient Near East, and ancient astronomy calendars.
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Ruth Weintraub

FELLOW
Tel Aviv University
Hagit is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Her research interests are epistemology, decision theory, paradoxes, and David Hume.
men

Haym Soloveitchik

FELLOW
Yeshiva University

Haym is a professor in the Bernard Ravell Graduate School at Yeshiva University, New York. His research interests are medieval Jewish history and history of Jewish law.

fellow

Hagit Amirav

FELLOW
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Hagit is a professor in the Faculty of Texts and Traditions at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research interests are early Christianity and Patristics, particularly biblical exegesis; ancient rhetoric and techniques of literary expression, sociology and ancient history.
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Sara Japhet

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Sara Japhet is Yehezken Kaufmann Professor Emerita of the Bible department at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Among her research interests are Biblical religion and literature, the Restoration period (literature, history and theology), Biblical law and the history of Jewish exegesis.

Encountering Scripture In Overlapping Cultures: Early Jewish, Christian And Muslim Strategies Of Reading And Their Contemporary Implications

[RG #121] Encountering Scripture In Overlapping Cultures: Early Jewish, Christian And Muslim Strategies Of Reading And Their Contemporary Implications

September 1, 2010 - February 28, 2011

Organizers:

Meir Bar-Asher (The Hebrew University)
Mordechai Cohen (Yeshiva University)

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Contemporary critical theory, which highlights the creative dimension of the reading process, is increasingly reorienting the study of the history of scriptural interpretation, situating it within the flux of literary and cultural movements at large. This international research group brings together scholars of Jewish, Christian and Muslim interpretation to conduct a close comparative analysis of shifting encounters with Scripture in three overlapping cultures. Drawing upon diverse yet complimentary perspectives, the participants in this group will investigate five fundamental subjects:

a. The critical role that interpretation played in the formation of Sacred Scripture;

b. Changing conceptions of the "plain sense" of Scripture;

c. The ways in which classical rhetoric and poetics informed scriptural interpretation;

d. Tensions created by the need to transplant Scripture into new linguistic media;

e. The ways in which the Bible has been reconfigured in literature, art and scholarship.

 

 

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