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The Benita and Sigmund Stahl Lecture Series

  Begetting Rabbinic Judaism:

  Moments of Religious Transformation

  in Second Temple Judaism

   Professor Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame

Gary Anderson is the Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Notre Dame.  His area of academic specialization is the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and its reception in early Jewish and Christian thought.  He is the author of a widely acclaimed book on the interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve, The Genesis of Perfection:  Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination.  The book followed the history of this most famous of Biblical stories in traditional commentaries as well as in artistic and literary sources.  His most recent book:  Sin: A History (Yale, 2009) traced the way in which ideas about sin shifted during the Biblical era and how that led to dramatically new practices in the early post-biblical era.  His forthcoming book will focus on the development of the concept of charity in early Jewish religion and how those concepts influenced Christianity and eventually even Islam.  

Anderson’s work, though beginning with careful readings of the Biblical text, is broadly interdisciplinary and follows Biblical developments into the realms of art history, liturgy, and literature.  In the end, his goal is to illustrate the ways in which Biblical ideas have shaped the evolution of Western culture.

Anderson is currently a joint fellow of the Tikvah Center of Law & Jewish Civilization and the Strauss Institute for Advanced Study of Law and Justice at New York University

About the 2011 lectures

The first two lectures will focus on two transformative themes in Second Temple Judaism:  the resurrection of the dead and the binding of Isaac.  The third lecture will consider the ways in which Second Temple Judaism shaped the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.  Most Jews or Christians think of the formative influences on their faith tradition as being grounded in the formative books of the Hebrew Bible.  Yet what is often forgotten is the way in which Second Temple Judaism provided the lens through which Rabbinic Judaism would reshape its biblical past.  Perhaps the most famous of those works would be the Dead Sea Scrolls, but there are dozens of other works that were authored in this period that did not make it into the canon that prepared the way for later Talmudic ideas.  In these lectures we shall examine a set of beliefs that are at the very core of the Jewish tradition, beliefs that get little attention in the Hebrew Bible itself but grow in stature in the first few centuries after the official canonization or promulgation of that book. 

The Binding of Isaac

Thursday, April 7 6pm

19 University Place, Room 102

No Biblical text has been more widely commented upon than this.  It is part of the daily liturgy in the Jewish prayer and the subject of more artistic representations than almost any other text.  Yet at the same time the text has become terribly controversial in the modern period.  In this lecture we shall examine some of the radical ways in which this story was read and reread.

The Resurrection of the Dead

Tuesday, April 12 6pm

19 University Place, Room 102

This is one of the most important doctrines of early Rabbinic Judaism.   The Mishnah declared it a fundamental tenet of the Jewish faith and it became the foundation stone of the Christian movement. Yet the idea can only be found once or twice in the Hebrew Bible, and only then in very late contexts.  In this lecture we shall ask what the resurrection from the dead means in the Hebrew Bible and how was it understood in the Second Temple Period.

Jesus the Jew

Thursday, April 14 6pm

19 University Place, Room 102

Modern historical research has uncovered a treasure trove of new data that casts new light on the Jewishness of Jesus.  In this lecture we shall examine what that Jewish data is and how similar some of the teachings of Jesus are to the contemporary Judaism of his day.

Lectures are free and open to the public.  RSVP is required.  Please email fas.hjst.events@nyu.edu or call 212-998-8981 to reserve a place.  Please include your name and lecture you would like to attend.

Lunch Time Seminars

All seminars are 12:30-1:45pm at the King Juan Carlos I Center, 53 Washington Square South, Room 428

Thursday, April 7 12:30pm:  The Akedah in the Synagogue mosaic from Sepphoris

Tuesday, April 12 12:30pm:  How does almsgiving deliver one from death?

Thursday, April 14 12:30pm:  Is the idea of purgatory Jewish?

Due to space limitations, the seminars are open to members of the NYU community only (faculty and students).  To reserve a space for the seminar, please email fas.hjst.events@nyu.edu or call 212-998-8981.  Please include your name, the seminar you would like to attend and contact information.