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Professor Hindy Najman

Professor Hindy Najman arrived at Oriel in 2015, having previously held the post of Professor of Religious Studies and Classics at Yale University. 

She is currently working on a project entitled ‘Ethical Reading: The Transformation of Text and Self’. The project considers the ethical implications both of ancient reading and writing practices, and of our contemporary practices of reading and writing about ancient texts.

She is also the Director and founder of the Centre for the Study of the Bible at Oriel College.

Research Interests

Dr Najman’s research interests include: 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.

Selected Publications

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

Past Renewals: Interpretive Authority, Renewed Revelation and the Quest for Perfection. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 53. Leiden: Brill, 2010.

Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 77. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Reissued in paperback by the Society of Biblical Literature in April, 2009. Modern Hebrew translation of Seconding Sinai (in production with Hartman Institute). 

‘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.

‘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. 

‘The Vitality of Scripture Within and Beyond the Canon’. Journal for the Study of Judaism 43 (2012): 497–518. German translation, “Die Lebendigkeit der Schrift innerhalb des ‘Kanons’ und darüber hinaus,” will appear in Between Canonical and Apocryphal Texts.

Processes of Reception, Rewriting and Interpretation in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. Edited by Jörg Frey, Claire Clivaz and Tobias Nicklas in collaboration with Jörg Röder; Mohr Siebeck: WUNT, 2015 (in production).

‘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 E. F. Mason, S. I. Thomas, A. Schofield, and E. Ulrich. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 153; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012.

‘The Idea of Biblical Genre’. Pages 308-21 in Prayer and Poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature: Essays in Honor of Eileen Schuller on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday.  Edited by J. Penner, K. M. Penner, and C. Wassen. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah.  Leiden: Brill, 2011.

‘Philosophical Contemplation and Revelatory Inspiration in Ancient Judean Traditions’. Studia Philonica Annual 19 (2007): 101–11.

‘Angels at Sinai: Exegesis, Theology and Interpretive Authority’. Dead Sea Discoveries 7 (2000): 313–33.