Yochanan Muffs (June 3, 1932 - December 6, 2009) was an American professor of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

and religion at the Jewish Theological Seminary in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Biography

Muffs grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushin ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

. His parents were Barney and Mary Muffs. Muffs had one sister, Civia, an artist. He did his undergraduate degree in Humanities at Queens College and studied for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he began teaching in 1954. He pursued his Ph.D. in

Near Eastern The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Muffs married Yocheved Herschlag in 1970. He succumbed to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, from which he suffered for many decades.

Academic career

Muffs made major contributions in biblical studies, Semitic languages, the history of the ancient Near East, and

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish religion and thought. He strove to reach an understanding of biblical text through comparative philological study. His first book, ''Studies in the Aramaic Legal Papyri from Elephantine'', published in 1969, has been described as a "watershed work." Muffs analyzed legal documents from a colony of Jewish families in fifth century BCE, using comparative evidence from Mesopotamian,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

ian, Jewish and other legal sources to further understanding of life in those days. David Hartman, founder of the

Shalom Hartman Institute Shalom Hartman Institute is a Jewish research and education institute based in Jerusalem, that offers pluralistic Jewish thought and education to scholars, rabbis, educators, and Jewish community leaders in Israel and North America. The institute' ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, described Muffs as a "master of midrashic analysis whose rich theological imagination reveals the gripping realism of the biblical God and the intensity of God's relationship to human history." In ''Love and Joy: Law, Language and Religion in Ancient Israel'', Muffs writes about the core task of the prophet in the

Israelite The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

tradition: The Israelite

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

is given explicit directions from God, but is also "an independent advocate...attempting to mitigate the severity of the decree." In his review of ''The Personhood of God,'' Bishop

Krister Stendahl Krister Olofson Stendahl (21 April 1921 – 15 April 2008) was a Swedish theologian, New Testament scholar, and Church of Sweden Bishop of Stockholm. He also served as dean, professor, and professor emeritus at Harvard Divinity School. Life S ...

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

says the book "embraces unashamedly the ways the Bible pictures God as a person with all the traits of human psychology and even anatomy...and shows convincingly how it enriches both faith and theology, not least by liberating the readers from the stultifying literal readings of the sacred texts." Muffs was a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research.

Ideas

In his essay "Who Will Stand in the Breach?" Muffs explores the role of the biblical prophet, whom he describes as a scolder but also a defender of the people. In the Old Testament, when God wants to destroy Israel for creating the golden calf, Moses confronts God. When Samuel is ordered to divest

Saul Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered t ...

of his kingship, he appeals to God all night. According to Muffs, intimacy with God means standing up to God. In the ''Personhood of God,'' Muffs studies the anthropomorphic evolution of God, from creator of the cosmos to God the father, God the husband, God the king, God the "chess-player," and God the ultimate master. The book further examines how expressions of

divine power Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of ...

, divine will and

divine love Love of God can mean either love for God or love by God. Love for God (''philotheia'') is associated with the concepts of worship, and devotions towards God. The Greek term ''theophilia'' means the love or favour of God, and ''theophilos'' mean ...

in the Bible have impacted on the contemporary human condition.

Published works

*''Studies in the Aramaic Legal Papyri from Elephantine'' *''Love and Joy: Law, Language, and Religion in Ancient Israel'' *''The Personhood of God: Biblical Theology, Human Faith And the Divine Image'' Library Thing: The Personhood of God
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References

External links