PROJECT 1 :

GREEK SCRIPTURE AND THE RABBIS

Project Leader: Dr Alison Salvesen

Up to the present, views of Scripture in Judaism from antiquity to the rise of Islam have been shaped by the fact that rabbinic literature is written in Hebrew and Aramaic, even though many Jews in the eastern Mediterranean and their religious leaders knew only Greek. Even the recent Cambridge History of Judaism (2006) failed to include a chapter on the role of Greek language and literature. The purpose of the project will be an investigation of Jewish Greek versions of the Bible among Jewish communities of the first to sixth centuries CE, both from rabbinic sources and from internal indicators in what remains of the translations themselves.

Further information on this project may be downloaded here.

Project details

PROJECT 2 :

THE READING OF HEBREW AND JEWISH
TEXTS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

Project Leaders: Dr Joanna Weinberg, Dr Piet van Boxel

The purpose of the research project will be to examine how the study of Hebrew and Jewish texts in the early modern period affected relations between Christian and Jewish scholars. The research will focus on the phenomenon of Hebraism: the scientific study of Hebrew and Aramaic and methods of exegesis and legal discourse, as well as on central figures in Jewish tradition - Maimonides and Abravanel - whose works were read and admired by diverse and learned Christian scholars. In addition, attention will be given to other literary remains such as dedicatory poems, Hebrew letters of diplomats and belles lettres. Underlying the specific topics of research will be the larger question: to what extent did the study of a shared tradition affect a change in attitudes of Christians towards Jews and Judaism, and of Jews towards Christians and Christianity?

Further information on this project may be downloaded here.

Project details