Centre for the Study of the Bible - Oriel College, Oxford

In today’s Early Biblical Interpretation seminar, John Ritzema (Oriel) offered an innovative and comparativist approach to how one sees the temple and sees God across Greek, Hebrew and Ancient Near Eastern materiality and textuality.

Thank you Orit Peleg-Barkat (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) for your fascinating presentation in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament seminar about the archaeological evidence for pilgrimages to Jerusalem and how it was innovatively institutionalised in the Second Temple period.

Thank you to Dr. Merchán-Hamann and Professor Najman for another exciting session reading the Cairo Geniza Ben Sira manuscripts during this week’s Biblical Hebrew Reading Group.

Thank you, Max Benster, for your deeply engaging presentation about anthropology and how a range of Jewish texts from the Second Temple imagined the human ability to access and participate in divine knowledge.

Thank you to Dr. Merchán-Hamann and Professor Najman for an exciting introduction to the Cairo Geniza Ben Sira manuscripts during this week’s Biblical Hebrew Reading Group.

Guy Stiebel (Tel Aviv University) gave an illuminating talk about Masada and new perspectives on the archaeological evidence from the site. Thank you so much for such a rich presentation and the discussion that followed!

Many thanks to Dr Hywel Clifford for his illuminating lecture on Philo of Alexandria. The talk was enormously illuminating for understanding the heremenuetical, philosophical, and theological dynamics of philo’s own thinking “God who is One” (Philo, De Opif 100).

Professor Meron Piotrkowski delivered a brilliant lecture in yesterday’s Hebrew Bible/Old Testament seminar about history and numismatics, covering the Persian and Hellenistic periods. It was very exciting to learn about history and creativity through material culture.

We are excited to share that Professor Najman is speaking at the Pontifical Biblical Institute today with Professor Peter Dubovský and Professor Marcello Fidanzio.

We are delighted to share the publication of current DPhil Wenyue Qiang’s article “Separation from the Impurity of Death: a Hermeneutical Reading of the New Burial Law in the Temple Scroll” in R***e de Qumran.