Professor Hindy Najman

Biography:

 Hindy Najman is the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oriel College, University of Oxford.  Her research interests encompass Composition and Author Function; Construction and Imitation of Biblical Figures; Practices of Pseudepigraphy and Pseudonymous Attribution; Revelation, Divine Encounter and Prophecy; Idealized Sage and Perfectionism; Philology and Philological Practices; Diaspora and Exile; Authority and Tradition; Allegorical Interpretation and Midrash; Destruction and Recovery; Collection and Canon; the History of Biblical Interpretation; and Scholarly Practices of Reading the Bible and Biblical Traditions.  She has written on the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic Literature and Pseudepigrapha.  Her publications include Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra, Past Renewals: Interpretive Authority, Renewed Revelation and the Quest for Perfection, Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism, and a recent essay entitled “Ethical Reading: The Transformation of Text and Self.” She is currently completing on a new book entitled: Reading Practices and the Vitality of Scripture (Oxford University Press).

Research Area/s:

Biblical Studies: Old Testament, Study of Religions

Research Interests:

Philology; Diaspora and Exile; Authority and Tradition; Allegorical Interpretation and Early Midrash; Destruction and Recovery; Collection and Canon; Composition and Author Function; Construction and Imitation of Biblical Figures; Practices of Pseudepigraphy and Pseudonymous Attribution; Revelation, Divine Encounter and Prophecy; Idealized Sage and Perfectionism.

Research Centres & Projects: 

Centre for the Study of the Bible in Oriel College

Editorships: 

Dead Sea Discoveries, Thematic Issues Editor; Editorial Board Journal for the Study of Judaism; Associate Editor Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplement Series; Editorial Board Revue de Qumran; Advisory board for Themes in Biblical Narrative Series; Advisory Board for the Journal of Early Christianity

Links: 

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Publications & Research Outputs: 

Monograph

Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 

Essays

1) “Imitatio Dei and the Formation of the Subject in Ancient Judaism.” Journal of Biblical Literature (accepted and in press 2021) 

2) “Exemplarity and Its Discontents: Hellenistic Jewish Wisdom Texts and Greco-Roman Didactic Poetry.” Co-authored with T. Reinhardt. Journal for the Study of Judaism 50 (2019):1-37. 

3) “Ethical Reading: The Transformation of the Text and the Self.” Journal of Theological Studies 18 pt. 2 (2017): 507–529.

4) “Unity after Fragmentation.” Co-authored with Eibert Tigchelaar. Revue de Qumrân 26 (2014): 495-500. 

5) “A Preparatory Study of Nomenclature and Text Designation in the Dead Sea Scrolls.”  Co-authored with E. Tigchelaar. Revue de Qumrân 103 (2014): 305–325.

6) “Traditionary Processes and Textual Unity in 4Ezra.” Pages 99–117 in 4Ezra and 2Baruch, Proceedings from the Sixth Enoch Seminar. Edited by Gabriele Boccaccini and Matthias Henze. Leiden: Brill, 2013. 

7) “The Vitality of Scripture Within and Beyond the Canon.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 43 (2012): 497–518. 

8) “Philosophical Contemplation and Revelatory Inspiration in Ancient Judean Traditions.” Studia Philonica Annual 19 (2007): 101–111.

Selected publications 

1) “Conceptualizing Wilderness: Poetic Processes and Reading Practices in the Hodayot and the Apostrophe to Zion.” 16th Orion Symposium (accepted and in press 2021) 

2) “Biblical Interpretation in the Second Temple Period.” In the Oxford Bible Commentary. Edited by Katharine Dell, David Lincicum and Alison Salveson. Oxford University Press 2020. (accepted and in press 2021)

3) “Philology as Hermeneutics: Poetic Processes, Composition, and Collection in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond.” preparation for VTSS for IOSOT Proceedings, 2020. (in press, 2021)

4) “Pseudepigrapha as an Interpretive Construct.” Co-authored with Irene Peirano.  In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Fifty Years of the Pseudepigrapha Section at the SBL, eds. Matthias Henze and Liv Ingeborg Lied. Early Judaism and Its Literature 50 (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019), 331-355. 

5) “Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Period: Towards the Study of a Semantic Constellation.” In Is There a Text in this Cave? Studies in the Textuality of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Honour of George J. Brooke. Pages 459–72. Edited by Charlotte Hempel and Ariel Feldman. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 119. Leiden: Brill, 2017. 

6) “Philo’s Greek Scriptures and Cultural Symbiosis.” In Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World. Edited by Mladen Popovic, Myles Schoonover, and Marijn Vandenberghe. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 178. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

7) “Dethroning David and Enthroning Messiah: Jewish and Christian Perspectives.” Co-

8) “Configuring the Text in Biblical Studies.” Pages 3–22 in A Teacher for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam, Volume One. Edited by Eric F. Mason et al. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 153. Leiden: Brill, 2012.