Joshua Berman (born February 29, 1964) is an

Orthodox rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and professor of bible at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic ...

. He is known for his views on the history of Jewish belief, and on biblical source criticism, arguing that "knowledge of the cultural context of the ancient Near East" is required in understanding the scriptures. Berman earned his A.B. at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

in 1987 and his PhD at

in 2002. He studied at

Yeshivat Har Etzion Yeshivat Har Etzion (YHE; ), commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush", is a hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced Tora ...

for eight years. Before completing his PhD Berman taught Bible at the

Nishmat Nishmat ( he, נִשְׁמַת or 'the soul of every living thing') is a Jewish prayer that is recited during Pesukei D'Zimrah between the Song of the Sea and Yishtabach on Shabbat and Yom Tov. It is also recited during the Passover seder. Sho ...

Midrasha A ' (Hebrew: , pl. ') is an institute of Torah study for women, usually in Israel, and roughly the equivalent of a yeshiva for men. A "seminary" (Hebrew ''seminar'', sometimes ''seminaria'')

for several years. Berman is a frequent contributor to '' Mosaic Magazine'', a magazine for Jewish ideas, religion, politics, and culture, and has written there on a variety of topics including most commonly the Israelite exodus out of Egypt and the current state of biblical studies, where he has drawn both agreement and disagreement from other scholars. Berman began a strong proponent of the

documentary hypothesis The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). A vers ...

and late Persian authorship, but became convinced of the reliability of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

after years of research.

Publications

*''Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought'', Oxford University Press *''Narrative Analogy in the Hebrew Bible: Battle Stories and their Equivalent Non-battle Narratives'', Brill *''Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism'' (2017) Oxford University Press *''Ani Maamin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth, and the Thirteen Principles of Faith'', 2020, *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Joshua Living people Old Testament scholars Princeton University alumni Bar-Ilan University faculty Bar-Ilan University alumni Orthodox rabbis Yeshivat Har Etzion 1964 births