Ronald Hendel

Ronald Hendel is Norma and Sam Dabby Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a visiting scholar at Oxford, Cambridge, and Jerusalem. He has written many books and articles on biblical religion, literature, language, and culture. He is general editor of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition.

The project

Title: Abraham in the cultural memory of western civilization; Genesis manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls

"This is a collaborative project with Thomas Römer, professor and administrator of the Collège de France. We will address the reception and reinterpretation of the biblical story of Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, including secular representations in modern culture. Our goal is to trace the political, theological, exegetical, philosophical, and artistic modalities of Abraham in the western mind.  Our sources include late antique Jewish and Christian texts (Jubilees, Testament of Abraham, Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, the New Testament, Augustine, Origen, rabbinic midrash), medieval mystical literature, the Qur’an, and material representations in various media (e.g., Roman-era mosaics, medieval and modern painting, sculpture, and cinema). This research draws on Römer’s work on Abraham and the reception-history of the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Genèse 11,27-25,18: L'histoire d'Abraham [2024]), and my work on these subjects (e.g., Remembering Abraham: Culture, Memory, and History in the Hebrew Bible [Oxford, 2005]; The Book of Genesis: A Biography [Princeton, 2013])."

Hosting institution: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Selective Bibliography

• Steps to a New Edition of the Hebrew Bible (2016)
• How Old is the Hebrew Bible: A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study (2018)
• Genesis 1-11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (2024)
• Cultural Memory in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis to Kings (2026)