Lunch and Learn Seminar

Adult Learning (March 2010)

Mystery and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Sunday          April 25, 2010            12:30 pm

Dr. Steven Weitzman, Prof. of Jewish & Religious Studies, Stanford University

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been hailed as the greatest discovery of ancient manuscripts in modern times, but what makes these scrolls so important? What do the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us about the Bible and about the origins of Judaism that was not known before their discovery? Why are these scrolls so controversial? What does this controversy reveal about the challenges of studying ancient texts?

Stripping away the sensationalism, this presentation will introduce the Dead Sea Scrolls, explore their significance for understanding ancient Judaism, and address these areas of controversy.

About the Speaker:
Steven Weitzman received a BA from UC Berkeley in 1987 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1993 in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He joined Indiana University’s Religious Studies Department in 1993, becoming director of its Jewish Studies program before moving to Stanford in 2009 to serve as a professor of Jewish and Religious Studies. He is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls.Drawing heavily on ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman literature, his research reevaluates the relationship between texts and contexts in the Hebrew Bible/early Judaism and poses questions about ritual, religious violence, early Jewish literary practice, and the history of biblical interpretation.
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