Academics
Doctoral Program in Biblical Theology
The doctoral program in Biblical Theology is intended to provide advanced students with rigorous and comprehensive training in the study of the Bible and its contemporary relevance, within its historical, literary, theological, and Jewish contexts.
The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature
This course explores the complex, multifaceted relationship between the New Testament and rabbinic literature. The first part focuses on how rabbinic texts may shed light on the background to various aspects of the New Testament, including law (halakha) and biblical commentary, while the second part examines a range of rabbinic responses – primarily polemical – to Jesus and early Christian traditions. Taught jointly by Dr. Yakir Paz and Prof. Pino di Luccio, the course features guest lectures by leading scholars as well as collaborative study sessions with graduate students from the Departments of Talmud and Religious Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The course will also include several excursions, mainly in Jeusalem and its surroundings.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will gain a foundational knowledge of rabbinic literature composed in Palestine and Babylonia from the 2nd to the 6th centuries CE and learn to utilize it critically in comparative study with the New Testament. Additionally, students will become familiar with the main scholarly approaches regarding the relationship between the New Testament and rabbinic literature.
Contents (Selected Topics):
Jesus and Halakha
The "Son of God" in the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature
The Sadducees in the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature
Midrashic Techniques in the New Testament
The Depiction of Jesus in Rabbinic Literature
Rabbinic Reactions to Paul’s Approach to the Law
Allusions to and Parodies of Gospel Passages in Rabbinic Literature
Methodology:
Close reading of primary texts with an emphasis on hermeneutics, redaction criticism, and historical contextualization.
Means of evaluation: to be defined
Bibliography
Bieringer, Reimund, Florentino García Martínez, Didier Pollefeyt, and Peter J. Tomson, editors. The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature. Brill, 2010.
Flusser, David. Judaism and the Origins of Christianity. Magnes Press, 1988.
Schäfer, Peter. The Jewish Jesus: How Judaism and Christianity Shaped Each Other. Princeton University Press, 2012.