On January 28, 2011, Professor Hindy Najman delivered a lecture on Jewish responses to the destruction of the First and Second Temples, “Overcoming Destruction in Ancient Judaism”, at King’s University College at Western University, Canada.

In this lecture we will explore the struggles of ancient Jewish communities to redefine themselves in the aftermath of the destruction of the first and second temples.  What role did prayer and interpretation play in their literary witnesses from this period?  Was human-divine interaction still understood as imaginable when the Jewish community was bereft of its temple, land and independence?

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Biblical Exegesis in Second Temple Literature (Bar Ilan)

Below are videos of the papers from the “Biblical Exegesis in Second Temple Literature” section of the conference “Biblical Exegesis through the Ages” at Bar-Ilan University on May 9, 2018.

דבורה דימנט (אוניברסיטת חיפה) ‘כתוב בספר’: ספרים ולוחות בספרות ארמית יהודית מימי הבית השני

Moshe J. Bernstein (Yeshiva University), “Reading the Genesis Apocryphon as Biblical Commentary”

 

Michael Segal (Hebrew University), “Early Biblical Exegesis in the Septuagint”

 

אסתי אשל (אוניברסיטת בר-אילן), “ושאלו להון ספרא וחכמתא וקושטא” :לימוד והעברת ידע במגילה החיצונית ובספרות קרובה

Lawrence H. Schiffman (New York University), “Biblical Exegesis in the Temple Scroll”

James Kugel (Bar-Ilan University), “The Legendization of Midrash in Second Temple Time”

 

Yair Zakovitch on the Song of Songs versus Biblical Narrative

On February 21, 2018, Professor emeritus Yair Zakovitch (Hebrew University) delivered the first 2018 Lagrange lecture at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, entitled “On Love and Beauty: The Complex Relations between the Song of Songs and Biblical Narrative.”

For decades it has been customary—indeed nearly academic dogma—to isolate the literary traditions of the Song from wider biblical traditions, especially prophetic literature and the scriptural narratives recounting Israel’s story. Recently, however, some scholars have begun to press arguments for recognizing inter-biblical allusions in the Song, working to re-integrate this unique specimen of biblical love-poetry within a broader biblical thought-world. The presentation of Prof. Zakovitch belongs within this budding debate and provided a sneak preview of material that will soon appear in his forthcoming study: The Song of Songs: Riddle of Riddles (T&T Clark, September 2018).

Adela Yarbro Collins on Scripture and Women in Revelation

Professor Adela Yarbro Collins delivered the 29th Carmichael-Walling Lectures at Abilene Christian University on November 12, 2015. Videos of both lectures are available.

The book of Revelation is rich in both Scriptural allusion and symbolic imagery. The first lecture will provide an overview and critical assessment of scholarship on intertextuality in Revelation, highlighting the book’s use of Scripture. The second lecture will consider female symbols in Revelation, particularly focusing on the symbolic woman of Revelation 17 often referred to as “The Whore of Babylon.”

Intertextuality in the Book of Revelation

Women as Symbols in the Book of Revelation

Rachel Rosenthal on Ruth and Peloni Almoni

Rachel Rosenthal delivers a lecture at the 2013 Limmud Conference, “It’s Not Right, But It’s OK: A Characterization of Wisdom and Halachah”, which examines the Book of Ruth and the mysterious figure “Peloni Almoni” (Bug-a-Lugs).

 

 

Steve Moyise on N.T. Wright’s Misunderstanding of Paul’s Use of the Old Testament

Professor Steve Moyise presents a lecture on “NT Wright’s understanding of Paul’s use of scripture” at Newman University, Birmingham, on February 12, 2015.

An mp3 audio file of the lecture is available.

A handout containing the text of the lecture is available, in pdf format.

A second lecture by Steve Moyise examines the question, “Was the Birth of Jesus According to Scripture?”

Lecture notes are available: Birth of Jesus Newman handout.

Powerpoint slides of Was the Birth of Jesus are available in pdf format.

 

h/t: Newman Research Centre for the Bible and its Reception

James Kugel: How to Read the Bible

Professor James Kugel (Harvard University) discusses Jewish interpretation of the Bible, in two lectures for the Eshkolot project, May 29-30, 2011.

Prof. of Literature James Kugel (Harvard) talks of how the Jewish tradition of textual interpretation evolved and how, in its, turn, it changed our understanding of the Bible.

Part 1:

Part 2:

A handout is available in Russian.

Jon D. Levenson on Teaching the Binding of Isaac

‘Teaching the Binding of Isaac: Balancing Bible and Midrash’ is a lecture by Jon D. Levenson delivered at Villanova University (8 September, 2008)

James Kugel – From Text to Interpretation: How the Bible Came to Mean Some of the Strange Things It Means

James Kugel delivered a 2013 lecture in the Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society series, on the topic of the rewriting or reinterpretation of the Bible in the period ca. 300 BCE to 200 CE. The lecture, “From Text to Interpretation: How the Bible Came to Mean Some of the Strange Things It Means“, is available in audio and video formats.

James Kugel, director of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar Ilan University, argues that the Hebrew Bible was, from the beginning, the Interpreted Bible. In the third and second centuries B.C.E. – well before the last books of the Bible were written – groups of interpreters were puzzling over the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau, and other ancient figures. Their interpretations were often fanciful, and sometimes wildly inventive, but their grasp of the very idea of the Bible is still with us and continues to influence today’s readers.