Dead Sea Scrolls Scholars Drs. Hanan and Esther Eshel Visit TWU
Drs. Hanan and Esther Eshel, Dead Sea Scrolls scholars, visited TWU September on 9-10, 2009 as guests of the M.A. In Biblical Studies Program.
Wednesday, September 9, 2:00 - 4:30 p.m., Alumni Hall
M.A. in Biblical Studies Graduate Seminar
Guest Speaker: Dr. Hanan Eshel
Topic: "How Can We Learn Political History from the Dead Sea Scrolls?" (Abstract)
Thursday, September 10, 2:35 - 5:15 p.m, Board of Governors Hall
M.A. in Biblical Studies Graduate Seminar
Guest speaker: Dr. Esther Eshel
Topic: "The Kuntillet Ajrud Inscriptions" (Abstract)
Thursday, September 10, 7:30 - 9:00 p.m., Northwest Auditorium
Public Popular Lecture for the Community
Guest speaker: Dr. Hanan Eshel
Topic: "The Archaeology of the Dead Sea Scrolls"
This free public lecture was co-sponsored by the Canada Research Chair in Dead Sea Scrolls Studies and the M.A. In Biblical Studies program at Trinity Western University.
Dr. Hanan Eshel
Dr. Hanan Eshel is an Associate Professor and former head (2002-2004) of the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University and has directed a number of excavations in Israel, including Qumran and Ein Gedi. His publications include The Bar-Kokhba Refuge Caves (Hebrew) and The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State and over 200 articles.
Professor Hanan Eshel got his academic training at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: His B.A. at the Institute of Archaeology (1982-1984); and his M.A. (1985-1988) and Ph.D. (1989-1993) at the Jewish History Department. The title of his M.A. thesis was: "The Historical Background of Building Temples for the God of Israel in Bethel and Samaria Following the Destruction of the First Temple", under the supervision of Professor I. Eph'al. The title of his Ph.D. Dissertation was: "The Samaritans in the Persian and Hellenistic Periods: The Origins of Samaritanism", written under the supervision of Professor I. Eph'al and Professor D.R. Schwartz.
In 1990 Eshel started teaching in the department of Land of Israel Studies and Archeology at Bar-Ilan University. In 1996 he was appointed as a senior lecturer. In 1999 Eshel was appointed as an associate Professor with tenure. Between 2002 and 2004 he served as the chair of the department.
After finishing his Ph.D. he was appointed as a Harry Starr Fellow at Harvard University (1994). In 1998 he came back to Harvard, now as a visiting scholar teaching courses on the Jewish background of Christianity at the Harvard Divinity School. In 2004 he was the Louis and Helen Padnos Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
In his research Professor Eshel tries to combine archeological finds with historical sources, as well as field work and library research. Most of his excavations were conducted in the Judean Desert, but he also directed, together with partners, five seasons of excavations at Tel Yatir, near Arad (1995-1999).
Dr. Hanan Eshel's Full Academic Profile
Dr. Esther Eshel
Dr. Esther Eshel is an editor in the Discoveries in the Judean Desert series, the official publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls. She is involved in two main areas of research: (1) the late books of the Hebrew Bible, as part of an interest in Jewish literature of the Second Temple period, including early Jewish exegesis; and (2) epigraphy.
As a member of the international team formed in 1991 to publish the Dead Sea Scrolls, she was responsible for the publication of 13 scrolls that were found in Cave 4 at Qumran. These scrolls deal with a variety of subjects, some historical, such as a text containing a prayer for the welfare of King Alexander Jannaeus, or another briefly summarizing the life of Antiochus IV, apparently used as a source of Daniel 12:7; or various texts that shed light on the worldview of the Qumran sect; a passage reciting the prayer said before immersion in a ritual bath; a text containing a list of transgressions by members of the sect; and a passage that includes a hymn written in the name of the High Priest who will lead the sect at the End of Days. Dr. Eshel also published an ostracon from the first century CE, which records, as it seems, the transfer of property from a new member to the Qumran sect. Recently she published 14 small fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls that had been in the hands of various antiquities collectors. They are primarily biblical verses, but include also a papyrus fragment of an additional manuscript of the Book of Enoch.
Dr. Eshel is interested in the Second Temple period interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, specifically those on the Book of Genesis. In this area of study she has published, together with Prof. Michael Stone and the late Prof. J. C. Greenfield from the Hebrew University, an annotated scientific volume on the “Aramaic Levi Document,” which records the life of Levi son of Jacob. Fragments of the document were found at Qumran, in the Cairo Geniza, and in a Greek manuscript translated from Aramaic.She has also studied the different versions of biblical texts uncovered at Qumran, and their use as a basis for sectarian exegesis; as well as the apocryphal psalms from the Second Temple period.
As an epigraphist, Dr. Eshel has published a number of important inscriptions, including a Hebrew inscription from the seventh century BCE unearthed at Maresha; a juglet bearing a Phoenician inscription from the Persian period from Jaffa; an Idumaean marriage contract from 176 BCE from Maresha; scribal exercises written on bowls from the Hellenistic period, including fragments of previously unknown Edomite wisdom literature; and an assortment of documents found at Ketef Jericho recording economic transactions during the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt.
Soon to be released is a monograph presenting 65 Hellenistic ostraca discovered at Maresha, written in Aramaic, Phoenician, and Idumaean, with her translations and commentary. Lately, she has received for publication over 200 ostraca from the same period, most written in Aramaic, found recently during excavations at Maresha. These inscriptions are to be published in an additional monograph.
Dr. Eshel also published 34 Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions from the First and Second Temple periods, discovered by the late Professor Nahman Avigad in the Upper City excavations of Jerusalem.