Bernard M Levinson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1424043 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernard M Levinson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernard M |
| FAMILY NAME | Levinson |
| SIGNATURE | LEVINSON B M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2768-8859 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Pedagogy of the Pentateuch
In response to the three questions suggested for this symposium on the pedagogy of the Pentateuch, I focus here less on what we teach and instead emphasize the values within our discipline. Students need to learn how to read the Bible as part of the humanities: as the work of thinkers who were reflecting on their place in the world and considering a system of values that the texts reflect. The Bible both embeds and requires a theory of reading, i…
The Formation of the Pentateuch
The Pentateuch lies at the heart of the Western humanities. Yet despite nearly two centuries of scholarship, its historical origins and its literary history are still a subject of intense discussion. Critical scholarship has isolated multiple layers of tradition, inconsistent laws, and narratives that could only have originated from separate communities within ancient Israel, and were joined together at a relatively late stage by a process of spl…
Formation of the Pentateuch
Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah
The distinctiveness of this commentary lies in its consistent rotation between synchronic and diachronic views. This double perspective is directed toward the three prophetic books as a single entity, toward each individual book, and toward the interpretation of each pericope. The result is a sophisticated picture, on the one hand of the structure and intention of the texts in their final form, and on the other hand of their compositional history…
Der kreative Kanon
Bernard M. Levinson nimmt das Prinzip der generationenübergreifenden Strafe aus dem Dekalog in den Blick, also die Vorstellung, dass Gott Sünder indirekt bestraft und die Bestrafung, die ihnen gebührt, auf drei oder vier Generationen ihrer Nachkommen ausdehnt. Trotz der Stilisierung als göttliches Recht wurde im alten Israel das Gerechtigkeitsproblem deutlich gesehen, das sich aus der Vorstellung ergibt, dass unschuldige Menschen allein dafür bes…
The Right Chorale«
This book contains twelve essays by Bernard Levinson on biblical law, treating it from the perspective of the ancient Near East and the reinterpretation of the Bible in Second Temple literature. His studies are essential for an understanding of the Pentateuch and the Bibles contribution to later western intellectual history.
Forschungen Zum Alten Testament
"The right chorale"
This book presents twelve selected investigations of textual composition, interpretation, revision, and transmission. With these studies, Bernard Levinson draws upon the literary forebears of biblical law in cuneiform literature and its reinterpretation in the Second Temple period to provide the horizon of ancient Israelite legal exegesis. The volume makes a sustained argument about the nature of textuality in ancient Israel: Israelite scribes we…
The Pentateuch as Torah
Since antiquity, the five books of Moses have served as a sacred constitution, foundational for both Jews and Samaritans. However long the process of accepting the Pentateuch as authoritative tōrâ (“instruction”) took, this was by all accounts a monumental achievement in the history of these peoples and indeed an important moment in the history of the ancient world. In the long development of Western societies, the Pentateuch has served as a majo…
The Pentateuch as Torah
"This interdisciplinary collection of essays on the promulgation of the Pentateuch and its acceptance as authoritative Torah includes contributions from international specialists on the Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Samaritan history, colonial theory, Mediterranean studies, the Elephantine Island texts, and comparative legal history. The material gathered here is a state-of-the-art presentation of the issues, raising new questions a…
Du sollst nichts hinzufügen und nichts wegnehmen« (Dtn 13,1)
Cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts must inevitably confront the problem of literary and legal innovation. Ancient Israel's development of the idea of divine revelation of law creates a cluster of constraints that one would expect to impede legal revision or amendment. As a test-case, the article examines the doctrine of trans-generational punishment: the notion that God punishes sinners vicariously and extends the p…
You Must Not Add Anything to What I Command You
For all the debate in the contemporary humanities about the canon, there is little interdisciplinary dialogue on the issue, nor even meaningful input from the perspective of academic biblical studies, the one discipline that specializes in the formation and interpretation of the canon. Seeking to provide such a perspective, this article shows how cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts address the problem of literary and…
Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
This striking new contribution to gender studies demonstrates the essential role of Israelite and Near East law in the historical analysis of gender. The theme of these studies of Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, and Israelite law is this: What is the significance of gender in the formulation of ancient law and custom? Feminist scholarship is enriched by these studies in family history and the status of women in antiquity. At the same time, convent…
Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law
Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation
Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor . Martha T. Roth , Piotr Michalowski
Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation
Calum M. Carmichael's Approach to the Laws of Deuteronomy
In three books and numerous articles, Calum M. Carmichael argues for a radical transformation in the way the laws of Deuteronomy are to be understood. His most recent work, Law and Narrative in the Bible , maintains that the legal corpus of Deuteronomy, far from being “law,” rather constitutes “literature,” in which the Deuteronomistic historian reflects upon the full range of pre-exilic Israelite narrative, Genesis through 2 Kings. In the course…
"McConville's "Law and Theology in Deuteronomy
You Must Not Add Anything to What I Command You
For all the debate in the contemporary humanities about the canon, there is little interdisciplinary dialogue on the issue, nor even meaningful input from the perspective of academic biblical studies, the one discipline that specializes in the formation and interpretation of the canon. Seeking to provide such a perspective, this article shows how cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts address the problem of literary and…
Calum M. Carmichael's Approach to the Laws of Deuteronomy
In three books and numerous articles, Calum M. Carmichael argues for a radical transformation in the way the laws of Deuteronomy are to be understood. His most recent work, Law and Narrative in the Bible , maintains that the legal corpus of Deuteronomy, far from being “law,” rather constitutes “literature,” in which the Deuteronomistic historian reflects upon the full range of pre-exilic Israelite narrative, Genesis through 2 Kings. In the course…
"McConville's "Law and Theology in Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation
Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor . Martha T. Roth , Piotr Michalowski
Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation
Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
This striking new contribution to gender studies demonstrates the essential role of Israelite and Near East law in the historical analysis of gender. The theme of these studies of Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, and Israelite law is this: What is the significance of gender in the formulation of ancient law and custom? Feminist scholarship is enriched by these studies in family history and the status of women in antiquity. At the same time, convent…
Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law
You Must Not Add Anything to What I Command You
For all the debate in the contemporary humanities about the canon, there is little interdisciplinary dialogue on the issue, nor even meaningful input from the perspective of academic biblical studies, the one discipline that specializes in the formation and interpretation of the canon. Seeking to provide such a perspective, this article shows how cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts address the problem of literary and…
Du sollst nichts hinzufügen und nichts wegnehmen« (Dtn 13,1)
Cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts must inevitably confront the problem of literary and legal innovation. Ancient Israel's development of the idea of divine revelation of law creates a cluster of constraints that one would expect to impede legal revision or amendment. As a test-case, the article examines the doctrine of trans-generational punishment: the notion that God punishes sinners vicariously and extends the p…
The Pentateuch as Torah
Since antiquity, the five books of Moses have served as a sacred constitution, foundational for both Jews and Samaritans. However long the process of accepting the Pentateuch as authoritative tōrâ (“instruction”) took, this was by all accounts a monumental achievement in the history of these peoples and indeed an important moment in the history of the ancient world. In the long development of Western societies, the Pentateuch has served as a majo…
The Pentateuch as Torah
"This interdisciplinary collection of essays on the promulgation of the Pentateuch and its acceptance as authoritative Torah includes contributions from international specialists on the Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Samaritan history, colonial theory, Mediterranean studies, the Elephantine Island texts, and comparative legal history. The material gathered here is a state-of-the-art presentation of the issues, raising new questions a…
The Right Chorale«
This book contains twelve essays by Bernard Levinson on biblical law, treating it from the perspective of the ancient Near East and the reinterpretation of the Bible in Second Temple literature. His studies are essential for an understanding of the Pentateuch and the Bibles contribution to later western intellectual history.
Forschungen Zum Alten Testament
"The right chorale"
This book presents twelve selected investigations of textual composition, interpretation, revision, and transmission. With these studies, Bernard Levinson draws upon the literary forebears of biblical law in cuneiform literature and its reinterpretation in the Second Temple period to provide the horizon of ancient Israelite legal exegesis. The volume makes a sustained argument about the nature of textuality in ancient Israel: Israelite scribes we…
Der kreative Kanon
Bernard M. Levinson nimmt das Prinzip der generationenübergreifenden Strafe aus dem Dekalog in den Blick, also die Vorstellung, dass Gott Sünder indirekt bestraft und die Bestrafung, die ihnen gebührt, auf drei oder vier Generationen ihrer Nachkommen ausdehnt. Trotz der Stilisierung als göttliches Recht wurde im alten Israel das Gerechtigkeitsproblem deutlich gesehen, das sich aus der Vorstellung ergibt, dass unschuldige Menschen allein dafür bes…
The Formation of the Pentateuch
The Pentateuch lies at the heart of the Western humanities. Yet despite nearly two centuries of scholarship, its historical origins and its literary history are still a subject of intense discussion. Critical scholarship has isolated multiple layers of tradition, inconsistent laws, and narratives that could only have originated from separate communities within ancient Israel, and were joined together at a relatively late stage by a process of spl…
Formation of the Pentateuch
Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah
The distinctiveness of this commentary lies in its consistent rotation between synchronic and diachronic views. This double perspective is directed toward the three prophetic books as a single entity, toward each individual book, and toward the interpretation of each pericope. The result is a sophisticated picture, on the one hand of the structure and intention of the texts in their final form, and on the other hand of their compositional history…
The Pedagogy of the Pentateuch
In response to the three questions suggested for this symposium on the pedagogy of the Pentateuch, I focus here less on what we teach and instead emphasize the values within our discipline. Students need to learn how to read the Bible as part of the humanities: as the work of thinkers who were reflecting on their place in the world and considering a system of values that the texts reflect. The Bible both embeds and requires a theory of reading, i…
Philosophy (12 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (11 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (9 works) · History (6 works) · Theology (6 works) · Historical and Linguistic Studies (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Linguistics (4 works) · Old Testament (4 works)