Conferences & Seminars

"The Impact of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Discovery of the 'Original' Version of the Ten Commandments upon Biblical Scholarship: The Myth of Jewish Particularism and German Universalism,” in An End to Antisemitism! International conference, co-organize by the University of Vienna, New York University, and Tel Aviv University, with support from and participation by the European Jewish Congress, the European Union, and the Vatican. Vienna, Austria, February 18–22, 2018.

“The Treatment of Biblical Law under National Socialism,” Faculty Work in Progress Colloquium, Law School of the University of Minnesota, March 29, 2018.

“Revisiting the ‘and’ in Law and Covenant in the Hebrew Bible,” Law, Society, and Religion, Memorial Symposium in Honor George Mendenhall, University of Michigan, October 7, 2016.

“The Reception of Deuteronomy in the Second Temple Period as a Window into the Formation of the Pentateuch,” Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Antonio, TX, November 19–22, 2016.

“Reading, (Re)Writing, and Revelation: Exodus 34 and the Temple Scroll,” Association of Jewish Studies Annual Conference, December 18–20, 2016, San Diego, CA.

Presider, "Textual Growth: What Variant Editions Tell Us About Scribal Activity," Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, GA, November 21–24, 2015.

Panel Response, “Methods of Historiography in the Study of Ancient Israel and the Levant,” American Society of Oriental Studies (ASOR) Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, November 21–24, 2015.

“Refining the Reconstruction of Col. 2 of the Temple Scroll (11QTa): The Turn to Digital Humanities and Historical Syntax,” European Association of Biblical Studies Meeting, Cordoba, Spain, July 12–15, 2015.

“A Post-Priestly Harmonization in the Flood Narrative,” European Association of Biblical Studies Meeting, Cordoba, Spain, July 12–15, 2015.

Panel Chair, “Omissions of Words, Sentences and Passages in the Transmission of the Hebrew Bible,” European Association of Biblical Studies Meeting, Cordoba, Spain, July 12–15, 2015.

“Zedekiah’s Release of Slaves as the Babylonians Besiege Jerusalem (Jer 34) and the Formation of the Pentateuch,” The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, March 27–28, 2015.

“‘Du sollst nichts hinzufügen und nichts wegnehmen’ (Dtn 13:1): Rechtsreform und Hermeneutik in der Hebräischen Bibel,” Universität Bern, March 17, 2015.

“The Delegitimation of Autocracy and the Origins of Constitutional Thought in Deuteronomy," The Legitimation of Autocracy in the Ancient World, New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, November 2–3, 2014.

“Correcting the Restorations of Temple Scroll (11Q19) 2:8–9,” Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, CA, November 22–25, 2014.

“The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah,” Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, March 26–28, 2014. “Ancient Israel,” Department of Religion, Amherst College, Massachusetts, October 6, 2014.

Chair, “Reception of Scripture in Second Temple Judaism,” International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Vienna, Austria, July 6–10, 2014.

Paper Respondent, “Jeremiah’s Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, and Transformation,” Ascona, Switzerland, June 22–26, 2014.

“The Pentateuch within Biblical Literature: Formation and Interaction," International Conference, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, May 25–29, 2014. Co-organizers: Jan Christian Gertz (Heidelberg University), Bernard M. Levinson (University of Minnesota), Dalit Rom-Shiloni (Tel Aviv University), and Konrad Schmid (University of Zurich).

“The Conception and Aims of the Research Group, Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory,” Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore, MD, November 23–26, 2013.

“The Goals of a Research Group on Pentateuchal Theory at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies,” The Sixteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, July 28–August 1, 2013.

“The ‘De-Jewing’ of the Old Testament under National Socialism: Gerhard von Rad’s Struggle against the Ideological Transformation of the Discipline,” Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society and Department of Biblical Studies, University of Haifa, June 3, 2013.

Co-organizer (with Konrad Schmid and Baruch J. Schwartz), “Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America, and Europe.” International Conference convened at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem, May 12–13, 2013.

Watch videos of the conference:

“Biblical Law and Interpretation in Second Temple Times,” Graduate Seminar Lecture, University of the Holy Land, Rothberg Institute, Hebrew University, April 22, 2013.

“‘And he Wrote on the Tablets the Words of the Covenant’: Writing, Rewriting, and the Trope of Revelation in Exodus 34,” European Institutes for Advanced Study Annual Meeting, Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study, Uppsala, Sweden, April 19–20, 2013.

“Reading the Bible in Nazi Germany: Gerhard von Rad’s Attempt to Reclaim the Old Testament for the Church,” Livets Ord (Living Word) Theological Seminary, Uppsala, Sweden, April 18, 2013.

“The Struggle for the Old Testament in Nazi Germany: The Untold Story of Gerhard von Rad at the University of Jena under National Socialism (1934–1945),” 3D–Discourse, Dialogue, and Debate in the Bible in Honor of Frank Polak, Tel Aviv University, Israel, December 12, 2012.

“‘Unto the Fourth Generation’: Transgenerational Punishment within the Israelite Canon,” Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, November 19, 2012. See flyer.

“Ancient Greece and Ancient Israel: Interactions and Parallels (10th-4th Centuries BCE),” Conference on cultural contact in the ancient Mediterranean, Panel Discussant, Tel Aviv University, Israel, October 28–30, 2012.

“The Discipline of Theology under National Socialism,” Faculty Symposium Marking the Jahrzeit for Dr. Raphael Weiss, Department of Bible, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, October 24, 2012.

"Neo-Assyrian Influence upon Deuteronomy and Its Significance," The Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition, Israel, August 15, 2012.

“‘You Must Not Add Anything To What I Command You’: Paradoxes of Canon And Authorship in Ancient Israel,” 56th Annual Guest Lecture, Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, May 2, 2012.

"The Struggle for the Old Testament in Nazi Germany: The Untold Story of Gerhard von Rad," Or Emet: Minnesota Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, St. Louis Park, MN, April 27, 2012.

"The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich.” This interdisciplinary symposium brought together thirteen specialists from Europe and North America to examine the transformation of the major disciplines of the humanities under National Socialism and the lasting legacy of those changes into the present. Bernard Levinson, Co-organizer (with Bruno Chaouat), University of Minnesota, April 15–16, 2012.

• • Post on Ancient Hebrew Poetry: "Anti-Jewish Bias in Today’s University."

  • See, Conference Report: “Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich,” (Bernard M. Levinson and Melissa Kelley), Association of Contemporary Church Historians (ACCH) Quarterly 18:2 (2012) 28–30.

‘“This is the Manner of the Remission”: Legal Exegesis and Eschatological Syntax in 11QMelchizedek,” joint presentation with Michael Bartos, Upper Midwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Luther Seminary, March 30–31, 2012.

“Goethe and the Ten Commandments: Germans and the Myth of Jewish Exclusiveness,” Bet Shalom Congregation, Minnetonka, MN, March 1, 2012.

“From Redaction to Composition in Biblical Literature,” King's College London, February 9, 2012.

“The Religious Vow in Ancient Israel,” University of Cambridge, February 10, 2012.

“The King James Bible: Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding,” Manifold Greatness Colloquium, University of Minnesota, February 3, 2012.

“Reception History as a Window into Composition History: Deuteronomy’s Law of Vows as Reflected in Qoheleth and the Temple Scroll,” Wisdom and Torah: The Status of Torah and its Reception in Wisdom Literature in the Second Temple Period, Humboldt University, Berlin, September 13, 2011.

“Reception History as a Window into Composition History: Deuteronomy’s Law of Vows,” as part of a special new panel, Textual Growth: What Variant Editions Tell Us About Scribal Activity, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, CA, November 19–22, 2011.

“The Application of Ritual Theory to the Study of Ancient Israel’s Festival Calendar: A Response to Nathan MacDonald,” Panel on the David Noel Freedman Award for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, CA, November 19–22, 2011.

“‘You May Neither Add to It or Take Away From It’ (Deut 13:1): Legal Revision and Hermeneutics in the Hebrew Bible,” Norm and Noumenon: Religious Law and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, April 29, 2011.

“Disciplinary Narratives: Analyzing the Study of the Old Testament in Nazi Germany,” Narratives of Jewish Life and Culture, and Jewish Studies, Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas, April 3–4, 2011.

“Goethe’s Influence on Biblical Scholarship,” German Jewish Studies Workshop, Durham, North Carolina, March 20, 2011.

“Gab es eine Bundestheologische Redaktion des Deuteronomiums?” Plenary lecture, Historische Bibelkritik: Die Vitalität der Glaubensüberlieferung in der Moderne, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, December 8, 2010.

“‘And He Wrote on the Tablets the Words of the Covenant’: Writing, Rewriting, and the Trope of Revelation in Exodus 34,” Plenary address for “Ecritures et réécritures”: Colloque international du RRENAB (Réseau de recherche en analyse narrative des textes bibliques), Institut romand des sciences bibliques. Universités de Genève et Lausanne, June 10, 2010.

“The Development of the Jewish Bible,” Plenary address, What is Bible? International conference co-organized by the University of Vienna and the University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany, June 1, 2010. To hear this and other presentations from the conference, click here.

“The Revelation of Redaction: Exodus 34:10–26 as a Challenge to the Standard Documentary Hypothesis,” The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research, Theologisches Seminar, Universität Zürich, January 11, 2010.