Pieter Willem van der Horst
Encyclopedia
Pieter Willem van der Horst (born 4 July 1946) is a scholar and university professor emeritus specializing in New Testament
studies, Early Christian
literature, and the Jewish
and Hellenistic
context of Early Christianity.
, the Netherlands
. He studied classical philology
and received a doctorate
in theology
in 1978. From 1969 to 2006, he was a research assistant
, junior and senior lecturer, and full professor at the Faculty of Theology of Utrecht University
. He is an editor of the series Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature, published by Walter de Gruyter
, and is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
In 2006, van der Horst became embroiled in a controversy over his retirement
lecture, "The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism," which traced the development of this antisemitic theme from the Hellenistic period
through the Middle Ages
to Nazism
. He planned to conclude by examining the resurgence of the cannibalism
myth in contemporary Islamic media
, including cartoon
s, television program
s, and sermon
s, particularly in Iran
, Syria
, and Palestine
.
The text of the lecture was reviewed in advance by Utrecht University administrators. According to van der Horst, he was asked by the dean of faculty
to delete the passage on what he prefers to call "Islamic Jew hatred." She found the contemporary portions of the lecture to be "pamphlet-like" and "unscientific." When he declined to edit, the dean referred the matter to the rector magnificus Willem Hendrik Gispen, the university's chief administrator. Van der Horst was then asked to appear before a committee composed of the rector, two deans of faculty, and Bas de Gaay Fortman
, who holds Utrecht's unique chair of Political Economy
of Human Rights
. The administration, while not disputing van der Horst's reconstruction of the chain of events, has maintained that he misunderstood the content of that meeting. Van der Horst says that he was given three reasons for editing his lecture:
Van der Horst said that he was given 24 hours to edit the lecture, and left the meeting "in a state of total confusion." In a guest column
for The Wall Street Journal
, he wrote that he had decided, with no independent means to verify any potential risk to himself or others, to proceed with an expurgated version. Because of the challenge to his academic reputation, he said, he also asked several colleagues, including three professors of Islamic Studies
he left unnamed, to review his work from a scholarly perspective. According to van der Horst, none found weakness in the scholarship, nor any statements offensive to Islam
, Muhammad
, or the Qur'an
.
Van der Horst delivered his "castrated" valedictory speech 16 June 2006.
Trouw
, which had been contacted by van der Horst's fellow professors. These included passages that van der Horst himself identified as "polemic
" involving the connection between German fascism
and "Islamic vilification of Jews" in the contemporary Middle East
, with statements such as "the Islamisation
of European antisemitism is one of the most frightening developments of the past decades."
On June 22, rector magnificus Gispen responded to the controversy in an interview with NRC Handelsblad
, another Dutch daily. Gispen maintained that neither "Islamophobia
" nor censorship
was at issue, but rather the quality of van der Horst's work. He attributed van der Horst's response to resentment over having to retire and the "marginalization
" of his academic department
.
Van der Horst's Wall Street Journal column was published June 30. In it, he asserted that despite the publication of the unexpurgated version of his lecture in multiple media outlets, he "did not receive a single negative, let alone threatening, Muslim reaction," though some had criticized him for overgeneralization.
Critics interpreted the university's reaction as part of an excessively conciliatory response
to a perceived Islamist
agenda following the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh
by a Muslim extremist
in late 2004 and subsequent threats against Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali
, who emigrated
to the United States
in 2006. The incident has been compared to Utrecht University's handling of accusations against Peter Debye
, the Nobel laureate after whom the university's Institute of Physics & Chemistry had been named. Debye's name was removed following allegations that he had collaborated with the Nazis while director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
in Berlin
during the 1930s. Gispen himself acknowledged that his position toward van der Horst's lecture had been influenced by the Debye controversy.
Dutch media covered the controversy through news stories and in editorial
s; the positions of both the rector and van der Horst received support. The controversy also received attention from Anglophone
blog
s that deal with antisemitism or with the effects of "Islamophobia" on academic freedom
. French media are alleged to have underreported the incident, but French commentator Paul Landau stated strongly that in his opinion it "illustrated the level of 'dhimmitude
' elite universities in many European countries have come to today. … Wake up, Erasmus, they've become fools."
Van der Horst went on to publish "The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism: A Chapter in the History of Antisemitism" in Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (English Series), vol. 8 (2008). He traces the origin of the belief — that Jews murder a non-Jew each year to ritually consume the entrails and blood — to Apion
, a 1st-century Alexandrian
scholar who constructed the myth as a conflict between the civilizing Egyptian deity Isis
and the god of the Jews
.
Van der Horst was honored with the publication of Empsychoi Logoi
: Religious Innovations in Antiquity. Studies in Honour of Pieter Willem van der Horst (Leiden: Brill, 2008), as part of the series Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. The volume was edited by Alberdina Houtman, Albert de Jong, and Magda Misset-van de Weg.
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
studies, Early Christian
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
literature, and the Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Hellenistic
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic era describes the time which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was so named by the historian J. G. Droysen. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia...
context of Early Christianity.
Education and career
Van der Horst was born in DriebergenDriebergen
Driebergen is a former village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. Later it became a part of the single town of Driebergen-Rijsenburg. And presently it's part of Utrechtse Heuvelrug....
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. He studied classical philology
Classical philology
Classical philology is the study of ancient Greek and classical Latin. Classical philology has been defined as "the careful study of the literary and philosophical texts of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds." Greek and Latin literature and civilization have traditionally been considered...
and received a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
in 1978. From 1969 to 2006, he was a research assistant
Research assistant
A research assistant is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university or a research institute, for the purpose of assisting in academic research...
, junior and senior lecturer, and full professor at the Faculty of Theology of Utrecht University
Utrecht University
Utrecht University is a university in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Established March 26, 1636, it had an enrollment of 29,082 students in 2008, and employed 8,614 faculty and staff, 570 of which are full professors....
. He is an editor of the series Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature, published by Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG is a scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. Its origins date back to 1749 when it was given the right to print books by King Frederick II of Prussia. -De Gruyter Mouton:...
, and is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
'Jewish cannibalism' controversy
- See also: Blood libel against Jews and Islam and antisemitism.
In 2006, van der Horst became embroiled in a controversy over his retirement
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...
lecture, "The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism," which traced the development of this antisemitic theme from the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic era describes the time which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was so named by the historian J. G. Droysen. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia...
through the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
to Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. He planned to conclude by examining the resurgence of the cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
myth in contemporary Islamic media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, including cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s, television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s, and sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
s, particularly in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
.
The text of the lecture was reviewed in advance by Utrecht University administrators. According to van der Horst, he was asked by the dean of faculty
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
to delete the passage on what he prefers to call "Islamic Jew hatred." She found the contemporary portions of the lecture to be "pamphlet-like" and "unscientific." When he declined to edit, the dean referred the matter to the rector magnificus Willem Hendrik Gispen, the university's chief administrator. Van der Horst was then asked to appear before a committee composed of the rector, two deans of faculty, and Bas de Gaay Fortman
Bas de Gaay Fortman
Bastiaan de Gaay Fortman is a Dutch politician and scholar. He has been a member of both the Dutch House of Representatives and the Senate for the PPR and GroenLinks parties...
, who holds Utrecht's unique chair of Political Economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
of Human Rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. The administration, while not disputing van der Horst's reconstruction of the chain of events, has maintained that he misunderstood the content of that meeting. Van der Horst says that he was given three reasons for editing his lecture:
Van der Horst said that he was given 24 hours to edit the lecture, and left the meeting "in a state of total confusion." In a guest column
Column (newspaper)
A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Columns are written by columnists.What differentiates a column from other forms of journalism is that it meets each of the following criteria:...
for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, he wrote that he had decided, with no independent means to verify any potential risk to himself or others, to proceed with an expurgated version. Because of the challenge to his academic reputation, he said, he also asked several colleagues, including three professors of Islamic Studies
Islamic studies
In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...
he left unnamed, to review his work from a scholarly perspective. According to van der Horst, none found weakness in the scholarship, nor any statements offensive to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, or the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
.
Van der Horst delivered his "castrated" valedictory speech 16 June 2006.
Media reaction
The next day, the incident began to receive Dutch media coverage. The deleted passages were published by the daily newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Trouw
Trouw
Trouw is a Dutch daily newspaper. "Trouw" is a Dutch word meaning "fidelity", "loyalty", or "allegiance", and is cognate with the English adjective "true"...
, which had been contacted by van der Horst's fellow professors. These included passages that van der Horst himself identified as "polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
" involving the connection between German fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and "Islamic vilification of Jews" in the contemporary Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, with statements such as "the Islamisation
Islamization
Islamization or Islamification has been used to describe the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam...
of European antisemitism is one of the most frightening developments of the past decades."
On June 22, rector magnificus Gispen responded to the controversy in an interview with NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
, another Dutch daily. Gispen maintained that neither "Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
" nor censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
was at issue, but rather the quality of van der Horst's work. He attributed van der Horst's response to resentment over having to retire and the "marginalization
Marginalization
In sociology, marginalisation , or marginalization , is the social process of becoming or being made marginal or relegated to the fringe of society e.g.; "the marginalization of the underclass", "marginalisation of intellect", etc.-Individual:Marginalization at the individual level results in an...
" of his academic department
Academic department
An academic department is a division of a university or school faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline. This article covers United States usage at the university level....
.
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
to a perceived Islamist
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
agenda following the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (film director)
Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and aroused controversy among Muslims...
by a Muslim extremist
Islamic extremism
Islamic extremism refers to two related and partially overlapping but also distinct aspects of extremist interpretations and pursuits of Islamic ideology:...
in late 2004 and subsequent threats against Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...
, who emigrated
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 2006. The incident has been compared to Utrecht University's handling of accusations against Peter Debye
Peter Debye
Peter Joseph William Debye FRS was a Dutch physicist and physical chemist, and Nobel laureate in Chemistry.-Early life:...
, the Nobel laureate after whom the university's Institute of Physics & Chemistry had been named. Debye's name was removed following allegations that he had collaborated with the Nazis while director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in 1911. It was implicated in Nazi science, and after the Second World War was wound up and its functions replaced by the Max Planck Society...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
during the 1930s. Gispen himself acknowledged that his position toward van der Horst's lecture had been influenced by the Debye controversy.
Dutch media covered the controversy through news stories and in editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
s; the positions of both the rector and van der Horst received support. The controversy also received attention from Anglophone
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s that deal with antisemitism or with the effects of "Islamophobia" on academic freedom
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...
. French media are alleged to have underreported the incident, but French commentator Paul Landau stated strongly that in his opinion it "illustrated the level of 'dhimmitude
Dhimmitude
Dhimmitude is a neologism first found in French denoting an attitude of concession, surrender and appeasement towards Islamic demands. It is derived by adding the productive suffix -tude to the Arabic language adjective dhimmi, which literally means protected and refers to a non-Muslim subject of a...
' elite universities in many European countries have come to today. … Wake up, Erasmus, they've become fools."
Van der Horst went on to publish "The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism: A Chapter in the History of Antisemitism" in Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (English Series), vol. 8 (2008). He traces the origin of the belief — that Jews murder a non-Jew each year to ritually consume the entrails and blood — to Apion
Apion
Apion , Graeco-Egyptian grammarian, sophist and commentator on Homer, was born at the Siwa Oasis, and flourished in the first half of the 1st century AD....
, a 1st-century Alexandrian
Alexandrian school
The Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences that developed in the Hellenistic cultural center of Alexandria, Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods....
scholar who constructed the myth as a conflict between the civilizing Egyptian deity Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
and the god of the Jews
God in Judaism
The conception of God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic. God is an absolute one indivisible incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Jewish tradition teaches that the true aspect of God is incomprehensible and unknowable, and that it is only God's revealed aspect that...
.
Selected works
In addition to numerous articles, van der Horst has published, edited or contributed to the following books:- An AlexandrianAlexandrian schoolThe Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences that developed in the Hellenistic cultural center of Alexandria, Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods....
PlatonistPlatonismPlatonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...
against DualismDualismDualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
: Alexander of LycopolisAlexander of LycopolisAlexander of Lycopolis was the writer of a short treatise, in twenty-six chapters, against the Manicheans...
' TreatiseTreatiseA treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...
'Critique of the Doctrines of ManichaeusMani (prophet)Mani , of Iranian origin was the prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion of Late Antiquity which was once widespread but is now extinct...
'. Translation with introduction and notes with J. Mansfeld. Brill 1974. Limited preview online. - The Sentences of Pseudo-PhocylidesPseudo-PhocylidesPseudo-Phocylides is an apocryphal work claiming to have been written by Phocylides, a Greek philosopher of the 6th century. The text is noticeably Jewish, and depends on the Septuagint, although it does not make direct references to either the Hebrew Bible or Judaism...
. Introduction and commentary. Brill, 1978. Limited preview online. - Miscellanea Biblica: Seven Months' Children in Jewish and Christian Tradition. Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 1978.
- ChaeremonChaeremon of AlexandriaChaeremon of Alexandria was a Stoic philosopher, historian, and grammarian.Chaeremon was superintendent of the portion of the Alexandrian library that was kept in the Temple of Serapis, and as custodian and expounder of the sacred books he belonged to the higher ranks of the priesthood...
, Egyptian Priest and StoicSTOICSTOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
Philosopher: The Fragments Collected and Translated. Brill, 1984. Limited preview online. - Aelius AristidesAelius AristidesAelius Aristides was a popular Greek orator , who lived during the Roman Empire. He is considered to be a prime example of the Second Sophistic, a group of showpiece orators who flourished from the reign of Nero until ca. 230 AD. His surname was Theodorus...
and the New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. Brill Archive, 1980. Limited preview online. - The JewsJewsThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
of Ancient Crete. Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1988. - Jews and Christians in AphrodisiasAphrodisiasAphrodisias was a small city in Caria, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. Its site is located near the modern village of Geyre, Turkey, about 230 km from İzmir....
in the Light of Their Relations in Other Cities of Asia MinorAsia MinorAsia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
. Theologische Faculteiten der Rijksuniversiteiten, 1989. - Studies on the Testament of JobTestament of JobThe Testament of Job is a book written in the 1st century BC or the 1st century AD...
. With Michael A. Knibb. Cambridge University Press, 1990. - Studies on the Hellenistic Background of the New Testament. With Gerard Mussies. Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid, Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1990.
- Essays on the Jewish World of Early Christianity. Universitätsverlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990.
- Ancient Jewish EpitaphEpitaphAn epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...
s: An Introductory Survey of a Millennium of Jewish Funerary EpigraphyEpigraphyEpigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
(300 BCE-700 CE). Peeters Publishers, 1991. Limited preview online. - "Jewish Poetical Tomb Inscriptions." In Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy. Editor with J. W. van Henten. Brill, 1994. Limited preview online.
- The Birkat Ha-minim in Recent Research. T. & T. Clark, 1994.
- Aspects of Religious Contact and Conflict in the Ancient World. Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid Universiteit Utrecht, 1995.
- Polyhistor: Studies in the History and HistoriographyHistoriographyHistoriography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
of Ancient Philosophy: Presented to Jaap Mansfeld on His Sixtieth Birthday. Editor with Keimpe A. Algra and David T. Runia. Brill, 1996. Essays from twenty-two contributors. Limited preview online. - Hellenism Judaism Christianity: Essays on Their Interaction. Peeters Press, 1998. Limited preview online.
- Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the BibleDictionary of Deities and Demons in the BibleThe Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible is an academic reference work edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst which contains academic articles on the named gods, angels, and demons in the books of the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint and Apocrypha, as well as the...
(DDD). Editor with Karel van der ToornKarel van der ToornKarel van der Toorn is a Dutch scholar of ancient religions. From 2006 to 2011 he was chairman of the Board at the University of Amsterdam, where he was a professor since 1988 and until he became the chairman of the Board.-Source:...
and Bob Becking. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, 2nd edition. Limited preview online. - PrayerPrayerPrayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
s from the Ancient World: Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian Prayers. With Gregory E. Sterling. University of Notre Dame Press, 2000. Sixty Greco-Roman, Jewish, and early Christian prayers spanning 700 BC to AD 500. - JaphethJaphethJapheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
in the Tents of ShemShemShem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
: Studies on Jewish Hellenism in Antiquity. Peeters Publishers, 2002. Limited preview online. - "Anti-SamaritanSamaritanThe Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
Propaganda in Early Judaism." In PersuasionPersuasionPersuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding or bringing oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means.- Methods :...
and Dissuasion in Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism, and Hellenism. Editor with Maarten J. J. Menken, Joop F. M. Smit, Geert Van Oyen. Peeters Publishers, 2003. Limited preview online. - PhiloPhiloPhilo , known also as Philo of Alexandria , Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Yedidia, "Philon", and Philo the Jew, was a Hellenistic Jewish Biblical philosopher born in Alexandria....
's FlaccusAulus Avilius FlaccusAulus Avilius Flaccus was the Egyptian prefect appointed by Tiberius in 32 C.E. His rule coincided with the Jewish massacre in Alexandria in 38 C.E. According to some accounts, he may have encouraged the outbreak of violence. According to the Jewish philosopher Philo, Flaccus was later arrested...
: The First PogromPogromA pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
. Introduction, translation, and commentary. Brill, 2003. Limited preview online. - Jews and Christians in Their Graeco-Roman Context. Mohr Siebeck, 2006. Limited preview online.
- “Jewish Cannibalism: The History of an Antisemitic Myth”. Telos 144 (Fall 2008). New York: Telos Press.
- Early Jewish Prayers in Greek: A Commentary. With Judith H Newman. Walter De Gruyter, 2008. Text, translation, and commentary for twelve Jewish prayers composed by Greek-speaking communities.
Van der Horst was honored with the publication of Empsychoi Logoi
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
: Religious Innovations in Antiquity. Studies in Honour of Pieter Willem van der Horst (Leiden: Brill, 2008), as part of the series Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. The volume was edited by Alberdina Houtman, Albert de Jong, and Magda Misset-van de Weg.
Selected bibliography
- Cassuto, Carine. "Academic Censorship in the Netherlands." FrontPageMagazine.com, 12-05-2006, online.
- Gerstenfeld, Manfred. "Utrecht University: The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism, Censorship, and Fear of Muslim Intimidation." Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, September 2008, online.
- Koelewijn, Jannetje. "'Ik ben niet bang en van censuur is geen sprake': Rector magnificus Gispen over zijn ingrijpen bij afscheidsrede." NRC Handelsblad, 22 June 2006. English via Google TranslateGoogle TranslateGoogle Translate is a free statistical machine translation service provided by Google Inc. to translate a section of text, document or webpage, into another language.The service was introduced in April 28, 2006 for the Arabic language...
. - van der Horst, Pieter W. "Tying Down Academic Freedom." Wall Street Journal 30 June 2006. Text of the column also reprinted by the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, SAFS Newsletter 44 (September 2006), pp. 7–8, downloadable.
External links
- The text of the lecture "De mythe van het joodse kannibalisme" (in Dutch) in its modified form is available online.
- The uncut text of the lecture (in Dutch) is downloadable only.
- Pieter W. van der Horst, "Tying Down Academic FreedomAcademic freedomAcademic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...
," Wall Street Journal 30 June 2006 online and archive. Text of the column also reprinted by the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, SAFS Newsletter 44 (September 2006), pp. 7–8, downloadable.