Skip to content

Professor of Classical & Near Eastern Studies
Berman Family Chair in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible
Professor, University of Minnesota Law School

University of Minnesota
Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies
245 Nicholson Hall
216 Pillsbury Drive SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
E-mail:levinson@umn.edu

Research Interests

  • Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
  • Biblical and cuneiform law
  • Pentateuchal theory
  • Literary approaches to the Bible

Selected Publications

Books

legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient IsraelLegal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel.
New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

 

 

The Right Chorale“The Right Chorale”: Studies in Biblical Law and Interpretation.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 54; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.

 

 

L'Hermeneutique de l'innovation: Canon et exegese dans l'Israel biblique L’Herméneutique de l’innovation: Canon et exégèse dans l’Israël biblique.
Preface by Jean Louis Ska.  Le livre et le rouleau 24.  Brussels: Éditions
Lessius, 2005.

 

Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation. Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation.
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997; paperback, 2002.
Salo W. Baron Award for Best First Book in Literature and Thought,
American Academy for Jewish Research, 1999.

 

Edited Volumes

The Pentateuch as Torah The Pentateuch as Torah:
New Models for Understanding Its Promulgation and Acceptance.
Gary Knoppers, co-editor.
Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2007.

 

Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform law Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law:
Revision, Interpolation, and Development.
Classic Reprints series, Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2006.

 

Judge and Society in AntiquityJudge and Society in Antiquity.
Edited by Aaron Skaist and Bernard M. Levinson. Special double issue
of MAARAV: A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic
Languages and Literatures 12.1–2 (2005).

 

Recht und Ethik Recht und Ethik im Alten Testament: Beiträge des Symposiums “Das Alte
Testament und die Kultur der Moderne” anlässlich des 100. Geburtstags
Gerhard von Rad (1901–1971).
Eckart Otto, co-editor, with Walter Dietrich.  Münster/London: LIT, 2004.

 

Gender and Law Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. 
Victor H. Matthews and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, co-editors.
JSOTSup 262.  Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998; paperback, 2004.

 

Bible Commentary

“Deuteronomy.” In The Jewish Study Bible. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 356–450.

“Deuteronomy.” In New Oxford Annotated Bible.  Third edition.  New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, 240–313.

Recent Articles

"Reading the Bible in Nazi Germany: Gerhard von Rad's Attempt to Reclaim the Old Testament for the Church," Interpretation 62.3 (July, 2008): 238-53.

“The First Constitution: Rethinking the Origins of Rule of Law and Separation of Powers
in Light of Deuteronomy.” Cardozo Law Review 27:4 (2006): 1853–1888. 
Click here for full text of article.

“‘Du sollst nichts hinzufügen und nichts wegnehmen’ (Dtn 13,1): Rechtsreform und
Hermeneutik in der Hebräischen Bibel.” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 102
(2006): 157–183.

“The Manumission of Hermeneutics: The Slave Laws of the Pentateuch as a Challenge to Contemporary Pentateuchal Theory.”  In Congress Volume Leiden 2004.  Edited
by André Lemaire.  Vetus Testamentum Supplements 109.  Leiden: E. J. Brill,
2006, 281–324.

“The Birth of the Lemma: Recovering the Restrictive Interpretation of the Covenant
Code's Manumission Law by the Holiness Code (Lev 25:44–46).” Journal of
Biblical Literature 124 (2005): 617–639.

“The Metamorphosis of Law into Gospel: Gerhard von Rad's Attempt to Reclaim the Old
Testament for the Church” (with Douglas Dance). In Recht und Ethik im Alten
Testament. Edited by Bernard M. Levinson and Eckart Otto. Münster/London:
LIT Verlag, 2004, 83–110.

“Is the Covenant Code an Exilic Composition? A Response to John Van Seters.” In In
Search of Pre-Exilic Israel: Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar.
Edited by John Day. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement
Series, vol. 406.  London & New York: T. & T. Clark, 2004, 272–325.

 “‘You Must Not Add Anything to What I Command You’: Paradoxes of Canon and
Authorship in Ancient Israel.” Numen: International Review for the History of
Religions 50:1 (2003): 1–51.

“Revelation Regained: The Hermeneutics of כי and אם in the Temple Scroll” (Co-author:
Molly M. Zahn). Dead Sea Discoveries: A Journal of Current Research on the
Scrolls and Related Literature 9:3 (2002): 295–346.

Courses

  • Biblical/Classical Hebrew (all levels)
  • Bible: Context and Interpretation
  • Biblical Law and Jewish Ethics
  • Scripture and Interpretation in Israelite Religion and Judaism
  • Prophecy in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
  • Silencing the Gods