This seminar, co-sponsored by the Faculty of Theology and Religion, is the flagship seminar of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament subject area in Oxford. The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Seminar runs each term and hosts an international array of scholars in the field of Biblical Studies. The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Seminar is attended by a variety of faculties across the University of Oxford. Students and faculty participate in the discussion in the formal sessions as well as in more informal discussions each week after the seminars. We create the conditions for students to engage with visiting scholars, and to relate their research to larger research topics across the field. It is essential for our postgraduate community to engage with different methodologies and ways of thinking about the texts they study. Moreover, the students come to engage with scholars from across the UK and the world.
This Hilary and Trinity Term (2026), the seminar is convened by Hindy Najman (Oriel).
In Hilary Term 2026, The Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament Seminar will run on Mondays 14:30 pm – 17:00 pm, weeks 1-8. In Trinity Term 2026, it will meet at the same time during weeks 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8.
Please direct any enquiries to ocsb@oriel.ox.ac.uk.
No session. Conference ‘My tongue is the pen of a skillful scribe’: Poetics, Performance, and Philology, 26–27 April.
No session. Event with Kathryn Stevens, Babylonian Chronographic Texts from the Hellenistic Period (2025); Monday, 4 May, 2:30-5:00pm, Harris Seminar Room. Reception to follow.
Meron Piotrkowski (Wolfson College, Oxford), “‘And you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land’ (Lev 25:10) – Sovereignty and Identity in Jewish Coinage from the Hasmoneans to the Revolts.”
Guy Stiebel (Tel Aviv University), title TBA.
No session.
Orit Peleg-Barkat (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “”A Song of Ascents…Let Us Go to the House of the LORD” (Psalm 122:1): Ascending to the Temple in Late Second Temple Period Jerusalem.”
No session.
Avishai Bar-Asher (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “”To Gaze at the King and the Throne’: Heavenly Chanting, Ritual Magic, and Prayer in Late Antique Visionary Literature (the Hekhalot Literature).”