Research & Development

Prof. Levinson spent the 2012–2013 academic year at the Institute for Advance Studies in Jerusalem, where he co-directed a project titled “Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America, and Europe.” The project brought a small group of international scholars to Jerusalem to conduct research in Pentateuchal studies.

Prof. Levinson's latest book, A More Perfect Torah: At the Intersection of Philology and Hermeneutics in Deuteronomy and the Temple Scroll, published last year (2013) by Eisenbrauns, investigates the relationship between the composition history of the biblical text and its reception history at Qumran and in rabbinic literature. For more information, visit the publisher's website. Current projects under way include a translation and commentary on Goethe’s Zwo wichtige bisher unerörterte biblische Fragen . . . [1773].

Prof. Levinson seeks to bring the results of academic biblical scholarship to the attention of a broader, non-specialist readership. In this vein, he has recently written on the impact of the King James Version of the Bible upon the American Founding; drawn attention in the national press to the role of early feminist Bible scholars like Elizabeth Cady Stanton in helping win the vote for women; and, in his attention to language, has been cited in the major dictionary of the English language.

Further Reading:

Levinson's Fellowship Page on EURIA (Research Project Description and Biography)

“The King James Bible at 400: Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding,” (Co-author Joshua Berman) published in The History Channel Magazine, November 2010.

Reference to Bernard M. Levinson’s work in Oxford English Dictionary (3rd edition; October 2008; online version November 2010).

Bernard M. Levinson’s letter to The New York Times Editor (July 21, 1998) (concerning Elizabeth Cady Stantion).

Levinson’s work cited and discussed on CLR Forum (Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University School of Law). Visit http://clrforum.org/2011/11/02/gerhard-von-rad-state-interference-and-religious-conviction-in-nazi-germany/ to read the full article.