Book Launch Sacred Literature in Interfaith Contexts

Understanding The Hebrew Bible

15 September, 2025

We are deeply honoured to welcome Revd Prof John Barton, FBA, to discuss his new edited volume, Understanding The Hebrew Bible (OUP), in conversation with Rabbi Prof Tamara Eskenazi, and Prof Jacob L. Wright.

About the book: Understanding The Hebrew Bible presents interdisciplinary coverage of biblical scholarship from archaeological, gender, historical, linguistic, literary, sociological, theological, and visual cultural perspectives. It connects sacred texts and religions of the Mediterranean world, including reception history, literary theory, and commentaries.
Edited by Revd Prof John Barton, FBA, the book features contributions from the following Members of the SOTS (Society of Old Testament Studies): James K. Aitken (†) , John Barton, Richard S. Briggs, George J. Brooke, Caroline Blyth, Kevin J. Cathcart, C. L. Crouch, Eryl W. Davies, Sue Gillingham, John Jarick, Paul M. Joyce, Anja Klein, Ekaterina E. Kozlova, Reinhard G. Kratz, Nathan MacDonald, Tsaurayi K. Mapfeka, Hilary Marlow, Holly Morse, Carol A. Newsom, Hugh S. Pyper, Laura Quick, Deborah Rooke, Mark Scarlata, Joachim Schaper, David J. Shepherd, Katherine E. Southwood, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Jim West, H. G. M. Williamson.
The book provides academics, Bible students, clergy and rabbis, and intelligent general readers with a snapshot of the main approaches and issues in the study of the Hebrew Bible since (approximately) the year 2000.

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About the Editor: Revd Prof John Barton, FBA, is Emeritus Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow, Campion Hall, Oxford, a small Jesuit-run college for postgraduate students in humanities subjects. Revd Prof Barton’s academic career has all been in Oxford. A fellow of the British Academy since 2007 and holder of an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn, Professor Barton is also ordained in the Church of England; besides chaplaincy work in the University of Oxford, he has been an honorary assistant priest in the parish of Abingdon-on-Thames since 1979. Professor Barton has written both academic books and books for the general reader, and in recent years has published A History of the Bible: The Book and its Faiths (2019), and The Word: On the Translation of the Bible (2022), both Penguin.

Panel Members

Rabbi Professor Tamara Eskenazi is the Effie Wise Professor Emerita of Biblical Literature and History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s (HUC-JIR) Skirball Campus in Los Angeles, USA. She was the first woman Professor appointed to the Rabbinical Faculty of HUC-JIR. Before joining the HUC-JIR faculty in 1990, she had been on the faculty of the University of Denver and was also Director of its Institute of Interfaith Studies. In Denver, she co-founded the Jewish Women Resource Center.
Rabbi Prof Eskenazi specialises in the study of the Second Temple Period (the literature and history of the return and reconstruction in Judah after the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE). Rabbi Prof Eskenazi is the Editor of the award-winning book, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (URJ Press, 2008, with Andrea L. Weiss, Associate Editor), the winner of the 2008 Jewish Book of the Year Award (The Everrett Family Foundation Book of the Year Award), given by the National Jewish Book Council. Her book, the JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth (with Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Z’L), won the National Jewish Book Award for Women Studies in 2012. She is also the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her project “Out from the Shadows: Biblical Women in the Persian Period (Sixth to Fourth Centuries BCE).” A volume in her honor, titled Making a Difference: Essays on Bible and Judaism in Honor of Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, edited by David J.A. Clines, Kent Harold Richards, and Jacob L. Wright (Sheffield Phoenix) appeared in 2012.

Prof Jacob L. Wright is a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Candler and associate faculty member at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. Prior to coming to Candler in 2007, he taught for several years at the University of Heidelberg, one of Europe’s oldest universities, renowned for biblical scholarship. Prof Wright is the author of many essays, articles, and books. he has developed a highly popular MOOC (massive open online course) through Coursera entitled: The Bible’s Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future. More than 60,000 students have enrolled in the six-week course since it launched in 2014. Prof Wright delivered the prestigious 2010-11 lecture in Milieux biblique at the Collège de France in Paris, and was awarded a 2011-12 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. In 2015, he received a $50,000 Templeton Foundation grant to underwrite a new research project with the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, which will examine the highly developed discourse regarding the knowledge of God in the Hebrew Bible, as well as comparative work with the New Testament. Prof Wright has been named to Emory’s Faculty of Distinction, and is a member of Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta. HIs most recent book Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origin (CUP, 2024) won the 2024 PROSE Award in Humanities.

Date: 15 September, 2025

15 September, 2025

Panel Members

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