Week 1
Annie Calderbank (KCL), “Networks of Holiness: God, Israel, and the Priestly Imagination”
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Seminar
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).
Conveners:
Convened by Hindy Najman
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.
Schedule for Hilary Term 2026
Week 2
Sidnie Crawford (UNL), “A Codicological Study of Manuscripts A and B of the Damascus Document from the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection”
Week 3
Barbara Schmitz (University of Würzburg), “Loving the Stranger: The Reception of Lev. 19:33-34 MT/LXX in Second Temple Jewish Literature”
Week 4
Rachel Cresswell (Oxford), Title TBA
Week 5
John Day (Oxford), “Was Genesis 1 dependent on Psalm 104 or was it the other way round?”
Week 6
Suzanna Millar (Edinburgh), “Animals, Power, and Intersectionality in the Books of Samuel”
Week 7
Saul Olyan (Brown), “Biblical Rights: Animal and Human”
Week 8
Workshop, Isaiah: Between Materiality and Textuality, 9:00am-6:00pm, Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College
Seminars in Previous Academic Years
Other Events
19 JANUARY TO 15 JUNE
Biblical Hebrew Reading Group
