“My work on the name-database has alerted me to the importance of corpora. I realize that most academics believe that their major contribution to world knowledge is their brilliant theses, in which they demolish the work of their predecessors and suggest new understandings of history and the sources that tell it. And indeed, theses are important and new thinking makes us think hard and keep history alive (albeit in a more “modern” or updated version). However, most theses, as brilliant as they may appear at the time they were composed, tend to have a short shelf-life.”
Read MoreRetrospective | My Journey with the Dead Sea Scrolls
4QDeuteronomyⁿ (All Souls Deuteronomy). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
4QDeuteronomyⁿ (All Souls Deuteronomy). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
“I often think that scholarly understanding of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and I grew up together; over the years, and now decades, a paradigm shift has occurred in the field, and my own views have changed along with it.”
Read MoreRetrospective | Timothy Lim
Pesher Habakkuk. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Pesher Habakkuk. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
The books that were eventually included in the canon share “family resemblances” with other books left out of the canon. For instance, just as the same eye colour can be found in people belonging to unrelated families, so too the story of Israel is evident in canonical and non-canonical books.
Read MoreRetrospective on the Intersection of Translation and Commentary in Ancient Judaism and Its Greco-Roman Context | Steven Fraade
Athanasius Kircher, Turris Babel (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Athanasius Kircher, Turris Babel (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
“From my first book to my most recent, comparison (and its pitfalls), both within Judaism and without, has been a constant preoccupation as I continued to focus on texts of legal interpretation, and to struggle with how best to translate the rabbinic texts upon which I was commenting and to what extent either should inform or presume the other.”
Read MoreThe History and Literature of Late Antique Babylonian Rabbis
Richard Kalmin offers a retrospective of his work on the historical analysis of Talmudic narratives.
Read MoreExecution and Irony
Dr. Beth Berkowitz writes a retrospective of her first book, Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures (Oxford UP, 2006).
Read MoreA Wandering Jew: Some Reflections
A fresco found in Dura Europos depicting scenes from the Book of Esther.
A fresco found in Dura Europos depicting scenes from the Book of Esther.
Erich Gruen with a retrospective of his work: “If a consistent thread runs through my studies of Jewish history in the context of classical antiquity, it can be found in resistance to the common portrayal of Jews as victims.”
Read MoreReflections on My Journey with John | A Retrospective from Adele Reinhartz
El Greco, "Saint John the Evangelist" (ca. 1605) | Image Source
El Greco, "Saint John the Evangelist" (ca. 1605) | Image Source
For my part, I am satisfied that I have said what I can, and want, to say about this Gospel. Aside from my growing discomfort with John’s anti-Jewish language, I have gained much from my longstanding relationship with this Gospel, including a community of scholars whom I value and respect.
Retrospective | Martha Himmelfarb
Rutland Psalter. Jacob's dream. 13th century British Library Additional 62925, image 744
Rutland Psalter. Jacob's dream. 13th century British Library Additional 62925, image 744
Dr. Martha Himmelfarb with a retrospective piece on her work with the Book of the Watchers and ancient apocalypses: "Thus I no longer see the ascent apocalypses as an unbroken tradition emanating from the Book of the Watchers as I did in Ascent to Heaven."
Read MoreRetrospective | Jorunn J. Buckley
![Mandaean Incantation Bowl By Daderot (Daderot) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5449167fe4b078c86b41f810/1478699091019-EGE9UO8H23CEULYPFVRB/image-asset.jpeg)
Mandaean Incantation Bowl By Daderot (Daderot) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Mandaean Incantation Bowl By Daderot (Daderot) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
"Most of my contributions to Mandaean studies engage topics in Mandaean texts for these topics’ own sake. That means trying to take the literature on its own terms, in accordance with its own religious logic, and avoiding flights into the hallowed sanctuaries of comparisons."
Read MoreTalmudic Stories, Then and Now: A Retrospective by Jeffrey Rubenstein
A Talmud in Exile: The Continuing Conversation
The Bavli student who also keeps one eye on the Yerushalmi, studying a tractate in both Talmuds, is aware of something else: the two Talmuds’ treatments of the same mishnah...
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