Lawrence Schiffman
Encyclopedia
Lawrence H. Schiffman was appointed as the Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University
and Professor of Jewish Studies in early 2011. He had been the Chair of New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and serves as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University
(NYU). He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls
, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.
and of the Advisory Board of the Journal Henoch
.
, where the field of Dead Sea Scrolls became organized as a separate field in Judaism in Late Antiquity.
He also played a role in the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the full publication of the scrolls and to the decision of the Israel Antiquities Authority to make them fully available to the academic community. He focuses in his research on showing that the Dead Sea Scrolls
are Jewish texts and do not have far-reaching and dramatic implications for the study of Christianity.
In 1992/3 Schiffman was a fellow of the Annenberg Research Institute in Philadelphia where he was part of a research team working on the unpublished scrolls. Together with a colleague, he served as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (2000). In 1991, he was appointed to the team publishing the scrolls in the Oxford series, Discoveries in the Judean Desert. He edited the journal Dead Sea Discoveries for ten years. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Center for Online Judaic Studies in New York.
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
and Professor of Jewish Studies in early 2011. He had been the Chair of New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and serves as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU). He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.
Education
Professor Schiffman was a graduate of Great Neck North High School. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.Memberships
Lawrence Schiffman is also a member of the University’s Center for Ancient Studies and Center for Near Eastern Studies. He is a past president of the Association for Jewish Studies. During the academic year 1989/90 he was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as part of a research group dealing with the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was a member of the academic committee for the Summer, 1997 celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the 2008 60th anniversary conference, both held in Jerusalem. Dr. Schiffman is a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research and a corresponding fellow of the Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He has been chairman of the Columbia University Seminar for the Study of the Hebrew Bible. He is a member of the board of the World Union for Jewish Studies and the Society for Biblical Literature where he served as chairman of the Qumran section. He is also a member of the Enoch seminarEnoch seminar
The Enoch Seminar is an academic group of international specialists in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins who share information about their work in the field and biennially meet to discuss topics of common interest...
and of the Advisory Board of the Journal Henoch
Journal Henoch
Henoch: Studies in Judaism and Christianity from Second Temple to Late Antiquity is an academic journal established in 1979 by Paolo Sacchi that covers research on Second Temple Judaism in the period following the Babylonian exile, and the interactions between formative Judaism and formative...
.
Film appearances
Schiffman was featured in the PBS Nova series documentary, “Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” as well as in four BBC documentaries on the scrolls, the McNeil-Lehrer program, and a Discovery special. He appears regularly in the popular educational series, “Mysteries of the Bible,” which appears on Arts and Entertainment (A&E), and more recently, in the four-part series “Kingdom of David” on PBS.Visiting professorships
Schiffman served as director of New York University’s program at the archaeological excavations at Dor, Israel, from 1980-82, in conjunction with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Israel Exploration Society. He has served as visiting professor at Yale University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Duke University, Shier Visiting Distinguished Professor in Judaic Studies at the University of Toronto, the Johns Hopkins University, the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, the Luce Visiting Professor at the University of Hartford and the Hartford Seminary, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Queens College and Yeshiva University.Contributions to the field of Dead Sea Scrolls
In 1985, Schiffman helped organize a Dead Sea Scrolls conference at New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, where the field of Dead Sea Scrolls became organized as a separate field in Judaism in Late Antiquity.
He also played a role in the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the full publication of the scrolls and to the decision of the Israel Antiquities Authority to make them fully available to the academic community. He focuses in his research on showing that the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
are Jewish texts and do not have far-reaching and dramatic implications for the study of Christianity.
In 1992/3 Schiffman was a fellow of the Annenberg Research Institute in Philadelphia where he was part of a research team working on the unpublished scrolls. Together with a colleague, he served as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (2000). In 1991, he was appointed to the team publishing the scrolls in the Oxford series, Discoveries in the Judean Desert. He edited the journal Dead Sea Discoveries for ten years. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Center for Online Judaic Studies in New York.
Publications
- Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)(with James C. VanderKam (eds.).
- The Halakhah at Qumran (E. J. Brill, 1975)
- Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Courts, Testimony, and the Penal Code (Scholars Press, 1983)
- Who Was a Jew? Rabbinic Perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism (Ktav, 1985)
- From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav, 1991)
- Halakhah, Halikhah u-Meshihiyut be-Khat Midbar Yehudah (Law, Custom, and Messianism in the Dead Sea Sect) (Merkaz Shazar, 1993)(Hebrew)
- Hebrew and Aramaic Magical Texts from the Cairo Genizah (Sheffield, 1992)(jointly authored)
- Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Jewish Publication Society, 1994; Doubleday paperback, in the Anchor Research Library, 1995)
- Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav, 1998)
- Understanding Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav, 2003)
- The Courtyards of the House of the Lord: Studies on the Temple Scroll (Brill, 2008).