The Very Beginnings of Midrash: Some Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Very Beginnings of Midrash: Some Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls
The focus of this talk is the biblical story of Noah and the flood. I wish to trace the various ancient (pre-rabbinic) attempts to understand what the first humans had done to cause God to seek to destroy all of humanity. I think this is a particularly enlightening example of ancient biblical interpretation, since it involves a whole series of explanations, each one slightly revising the previous one.
James Kugel, former Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University (1982-2003) and Director of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is a specialist in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Kugel is the author of more than seventy research articles and thirteen books, including The Idea of Biblical Poetry, In Potiphar’s House, On Being a Jew, and The Bible As It Was. His more recent books include The God of Old, The Ladder of Jacob, How to Read the Bible, In the Valley of the Shadow, and A Walk Through Jubilees. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Editor in Chief of Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal.