FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS
How the Bible Became a Book
Friends of ASOR presents the next webinar in our monthly series on March 21, at 7:30 pm EDT, featuring Prof. William Schniedewind. An expert in ancient biblical interpretation, the social history of the ancient eastern Mediterranean world, and sociolinguistics of Classical Hebrew, Dr. Schniedewind will address some fundamental questions: How did the Bible become a book? And why did these texts become scripture? This lecture explores answers about the origins of the biblical literary traditions from an anthropological perspective beginning with the epigraphic and archaeological evidence. Early Israel was originally a pastoral and agrarian society, yet it created an extensive literary tradition. Seminal social and political changes in Jerusalem began in the late eighth century and resulted in an expanded role for writing and the beginnings of biblical literature. But archaeological and epigraphic evidence for Hebrew writing ends with the Babylonian exile and does not reemerge until the late Persian period. Join us for this master class on how to examine the Bible based on its linguistic structure and historical background. Prof. Schniedewind will conclude his webinar with a live Q&A session.
William Schniedewind is a Professor of Biblical Studies at UCLA. He has been the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and held the Kershaw Endowed Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies. He received a B.A. in Religion from George Fox University (1984), a M.A. in Historical Geography from Jerusalem University College, and a Ph.D. in Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis University (1992). He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Hebrew University and a Research Fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. He is the author of six books including How the Bible Became a Book: the Textualization of Ancient Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2004), A Social History of Hebrew: its Origins Through the Rabbinic Period (Yale University Press, 2013), and The Finger of the Scribe: How Scribes Learned to Write the Bible (Oxford University Press, 2019).
ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $5 | Public: $10
To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration” link to register your e-mail address and choose password for our online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event Registration” to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the webinar. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or issues with registering.
You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the lecture on March 21, 2021. If you do not receive the link by the close of business on the Thursday before the webinar, please e-mail membership@asor.org immediately. All webinars are recorded and all paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.
All proceeds from this lecture are used to fund scholarships for members impacted by COVID-19 as well as increasing ASOR’s online resources, which are free to the public.
