Israel Knohl
Israel Knohl | |
---|---|
ישראל קנוהל | |
Born | March 13, 1952 |
Nationality | Israeli |
Occupation | Biblical scholar |
Children | 3 |
Israel Knohl (Hebrew: ישראל קנוהל; born 13 March 1952) is an Israeli Bible scholar and historian. He is the Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Biblical studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Senior Fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His books deal with the integration of scientific and archaeological discoveries with the biblical account, early Israelite beliefs, a survey of Israelite cult, and how and where the Israelites originated.
Biography
Israel Knohl was born in Giv'at Aliyah, Israel. After serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) he completed a Bachelor's degree in the Talmud Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For his graduate work he switched to the Bible Department and completed his PhD in 1988 under the supervision of Moshe Greenberg, with a dissertation on the relationship between the Pentateuchal Priestly source and the Holiness code.
Knohl lives in Jerusalem and is the father of the three children. His brother, Elyashiv Knohl, was the rabbi of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion.
Academic career
Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton he joined the faculty of the Bible Department at Hebrew University, where he served as the Chair of the Department from 1999-2001. Presently he is the
Views and opinions
Knohl identifies as a religious Jew and claims that
Published works
Knohl's first book, The Sanctuary of Silence, was originally published in Hebrew. Based on his doctoral dissertation, it relates to his theories about the dating of the Priestly source. Knohl proposes that the Priestly source (P) dates from a much earlier period than is usually assumed and that the Holiness code (H) represents an addition to the law code of P, rather than the standard interpretation which is the reverse. Knohl suggests that H might have been inserted into P as a response of the Temple priesthood to the growing prophetic movements. Knohl's view has been widely accepted by scholars, most notably by Jacob Milgrom in his influential commentary on Leviticus.[2] The book won the Shkop Prize for the best work in biblical literature.
The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Knohl is best known for his theory that Jewish culture contained a myth about a
Where are We From?
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (January 2022) |
In Where are We From? Knohl presents his theory of Israelite beginnings. According to the subtitle the purpose of the book is to crack the genetic code of the Hebrew Bible, or more specifically to address questions regarding the genesis of the Jewish people, the root of its belief system, and how its laws and traditions originated.
Knohl bases himself on archaeological evidence and a critical reading of the biblical text. He claims that the Israelites became a nation in the 12th century BCE through the intertwining of three ethnically related groups, and that the Bible represents an integration of the beliefs of these groups.
The first group is the
The myth of Abraham and his journey to Canaan originated, according to Knohl, with a group that immigrated from Mitanni following the fall of this kingdom at the hands of Shalmaneser I.
A third group were slaves that escaped from Egypt and they were responsible for perpetuating the myth of Israelite slavery in Egypt, the construction of the cities
According to Knohl’s calculation the time that elapsed from the beginning of the Hyksos dynasty until the escape of the Apiru was exactly 430 years, which coincides with time of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt according to Exodus 12:41.
How the Bible was Born
In his 2018 book How the Bible was Born Knohl advanced a new theory about the Exodus, proposing an identification between Moses and Irsu.[8] According to Papyrus Harris I and the Elephantine Stele, Irsu was a Shasu who took power in Egypt with the support of "Asiatics" (people from the Levant) after the death of Queen Twosret; after coming to power, Irsu and his supporters disrupted Egyptian rituals, "treating the gods like the people" and halting offerings to the Egyptian deities. They were eventually defeated and expelled by the new Pharaoh Setnakhte and, while fleeing, they abandoned large quantities of gold and silver they had stolen from the temples. It was originally thought that Irsu was Chancellor Bay, a prominent Asiatic officer who rose to power during the reign of Pharaoh Seti II and later attempted to usurped the throne; however, an IFAO Ostracon no. 1864 found at Deir el-Medina in 2000 states that Bay was executed during the reign of Pharaoh Siptah, well before Irsu's action, thus ruling out such identification.[9]
According to Knohl, the Elephantine Stele and Papyrus Harris I may be the Egyptian propagandistic version of the Exodus story and Irsu may be Moses: in support of his theory, he notes that the
Books
- The Conception of God and Cult in the Priestly Torah and in the Holiness School, (Doctoral Dissertation, 1988).
- The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School, (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1992. Hebrew. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995. English).
- The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls, (Jerusalem: Schocken Press, 2000. Hebrew. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. English).
- The Divine Symphony: The Bible's Many Voices, (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003).
- Biblical Beliefs: The Borders of the Biblical Revolution, (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2007). Hebrew.
- Where Are We From?: The Genetic Code of the Bible, (Tel Aviv: Dvir Press, 2008). Hebrew.
- Messiahs and Resurrection in 'The Gabriel Revelation, (London: Continuum, 2009).
- Ha-Shem: The Secret Numbers of the Hebrew Bible and the Mystery of the Exodus from Egypt, (Tel Aviv: Dvir Press, 2012). Hebrew
- How the Bible was Born (Kinneret - Dvir, Modi'in, 2018). Hebrew.
- The Messiah Controversy: Who Are the Jews Waiting For? (מחלוקת המשיח), (Tel Aviv: Dvir Press, 2019). Hebrew.
- The Messiah Confrontation: Pharisees versus Sadducees and the Death of Jesus (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2022).
Articles
- 'The Acceptance of Sacrifices from Gentiles', Tarbiẕ, 48 (1979), pp. 341–345 (Heb.)
- 'A Parasha Concerned with Accepting the Kingdom of Heaven', Tarbiẕ, 53 (1983), pp. 11–32 (Heb.)
- 'The Priestly Torah Versus the Holiness School: Sabbath and the Festivals', HUCA, 58 (1987), pp. 65–118.
- ‘The Priestly Torah Versus the Holiness School: Ideological Aspects’, Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem 1990, pp. 65–118.
- 'The Sin-Offering Law in the 'Holiness School', Tarbiẕ59 (1990), pp. 1–10 (Heb.).
- 'Post-Biblical Sectarianism and Priestly Schools of the Pentateuch: The Issue of Popular Participation in the Temple Cult on Festivals', Tarbiẕ60 (1991), 139-146 (Heb.).
- 'נגלות ונסתרות' - 'Uncovering and Concealment of Torah' JQRSupplement 1994 pp. 99–104.
- 'Biblical Attitudes to Gentiles Idolatry' Tarbiẕ, 64 (1995), pp. 5–12 (Heb.)
- 'Between Voice and Silence: The Relationship between Prayer and Temple Cult' Journal of Biblical Literature 115 (1996) pp. 17–30.
- ‘Re-Considering the Dating and recipient of Miqsat Ma’ase ha-Tora’, Hebrew Studies 37 (1996), pp. 119–125.
- ‘In the Face of Death’ in: A. Baumgarten (ed.), Self, Soul and Body in Religious Experience, Numen Sup. 78, Leiden 1998, pp. 87–95.
- ‘On “The Son of God”, Armillus and Messiah Son of Joseph’, Tarbiz, 68 (1998), 13-38.
- ‘The Guilt Offering of the Holiness School’, Vetus Testamentum, 54 (2004), pp. 516–526.
- 'Studies in the Gabriel Revelation', Tarbiẕ76 (2007), 303-328
- "By Three days Live", Messiahs, Resurrection and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel, The Journal of Religion 88 (2008), 147-158.
- 'Coupling of Holiness Concepts and Broadening of Holiness Circles in the Editorial Layer of the Torah', Tarbiz 78:4 (2009), 9 pp. (Heb.).
- 'Sacred Architecture: The Numerical Dimensions of Biblical Poems', VT 62 (2012), pp. 189–97.
- 'Psalm 68: Structure, Composition and Geography', Journal of Hebrew Scriptures; (2012), Vol. 12.
- 'The Original Version of Deborah's Song and its Numerical Structure', VT 66 (2016), pp. 45–65.
- 'From the Birth of the Bible to the Beginnings of Kabbala', Kabala 36 (2017), 193-226.
- 'Jacob-el in the Land of Esau and the Roots of Biblical Religion', VT 67 [2017] 481-484.
Co-authored articles
- Israel Knohl and S. Talmon, 'A Calendrical Scroll from a Qumran Cave: Mismarot Ba, 4Q431' in: D. Wright, D. N. Freedman and A. Hurvitz (eds.), Pomegranates and Golden Bells, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1995, pp. 267–301.
- Israel Knohl, and S. Talmon 'A Calendrical Scroll from a Qumran Cave 4' in: M. V. Fox et al (eds.) Text, Temples, and Traditions, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1996, pp. 65–71.
- Israel Knohl and S. Naeh, 'Studies in the Priestly Torah: Lev. 7:19-21', in: S. Japhet (ed.), The Bible in the Light of its Interpreters, Jerusalem 1994, pp. 601–612.
- Israel Knohl and S. Naeh, 'Milluim Ve-Kippurim', Tarbiẕ, 62 (1992) 17-44 ( Heb.).
Anthologies
- ' From Fear to Love', in: L. Mazor (ed.), Job in the Bible, Thought and Art, Jerusalem 1995, pp. 89–103 (Heb.).
- ‘Human Freedom in the Bible’ in: Human Dignity and Freedom in the Jewish Heritage, Proceedings of the President’s Study Group on the Bible and Sources of Judaism, Jerusalem 1995, pp. 60–70 (Heb.).
- ‘Two Aspects of the “Tent of Meeting"', in: M. Cogan, B. Eichler and J. H. Tigay (eds.) Tehillah le-Moshe, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1997, pp. 73–79.
- ‘Cain – The Forefather of Humanity’, in: C. Cohen et al (eds.), Sefer Moshe, The Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana 2004, 63-68.
- ‘Religion and Politics in Psalm, in S. M. Paul et al (eds.), Emanuel, Studies in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov, Leiden 2003, pp. 725-727.
- ‘Sin, Pollution and Purity: Israel', in S. I. Johnston (ed.), Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2004, 502-504.
- ‘New Light on the Copper Scroll and 4QMMT’, in: G. J. Brooke and P. R. Davis (eds.), Copper Scroll Studies, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series 40, Sheffield 2002, pp. 233–257.
- ‘Axial Transformations within Ancient Israelite Priesthood’ in: J. P. Arnason, S.N. Eisenstadt, and B. Wittrock (eds.), Axial Civilizations and World History, Brill, Leiden 2004, pp. 199–222.
- ‘Cain: Son of God or Son of Satan’, in: N. B. Dohrmann and D. Stern (eds.), Jewish Biblical Interpretation in a Comparative Context, The University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2008, 37-50.
- ‘Nimrod Son of Cush, King of Mesopotamia, and the Dates of P and J’, in: V. A. Hurowitz (ed.) Birkat Shalom, S. Paul Jubilee Volume . Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana, 2008, 45-52.
- "The Figure of Melchizedek in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament’ in : R. A. Clements and D. R. Schwartz (eds.), Text, Thought and Practice in Qumran and Early Christianity – Proceedings of the Ninth International Orion Symposium, Brill, Leiden 2009, 255-266.
- 'The Bible Reworked at Qumran: The Temple Scroll and 4QReworked Pentateuch', in: M. Kister (ed.) The Qumran Scrolls and their World, Vol. 1, Yad Ben-zvi Press, Jerusalem 2009, 143-156 (Heb.).
- God's Victory over ‘The Olden Gods’: Theological Corrections in Deuteronomy 33.12, 27, in: A. Brenner and F. H. Polak (eds.), Words, Ideas, Worlds, Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit, Sheffield 2012, 145-149.
- 'A Hurrian Myth in a late Jewish Text: Sepher Zerubavel', in: G. Bohak, R. Margolin and I. Rosen – Zvi, (eds.), Myth, Ritual and Mysticism, Tel Aviv 2014, 73-84 [Heb.].
- 'P and the Traditions of Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia' in: F. Landy, L. Trevaskis & B. Bibb (eds.) Text, Time, and Temple edited, Sheffield 2015, 63-69.
References
- ^ Knohl, Israel. "Between Belief and Criticism". www.daat.ac.il. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ Milgrom, Jacob (1998). Leviticus 1-16.
- ISBN 9780691142159. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
- ^ Eakin, Emily. "Proposing A Messiah Before Jesus". Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ Israel Knohl, "The Apocalyptic and Messianic Dimensions of the Gabriel Revelation in Their Historical Context", in Matthias Henze (ed.), Hazon Gabriel: New Readings of the Gabriel Revelation (Early Judaism and Its Literature 29), Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011, p. 43 n. 12
- ^ Bronner, Ethan. "Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection". Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
- ^ "Exodus: The History Behind the Story - TheTorah.com". www.thetorah.com. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
- ISSN 0255-0962.
- ^ Exodus 12:35–36
- ^ Exodus 13:8
- ^ Exodus 1:9–10
- ^ Josephus, Against Apion, Book I, Chapter 28
- ^ "Exodus: The History Behind the Story". www.thetorah.com. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
External links
- Homepage at Hebrew University
- Homepage at Shalom Hartman Institute
- 'The Messiah Before Jesus' at Shalom Hartman Institute
- "Pharaoh’s War with the Israelites: The Untold Story," Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation41 (Summer 2010)
- https://huji.academia.edu/israelknohl