Call for Papers “Continuity, Change and Canonicity: Literary Forms from Biblical to Rabbinic Literature”

European Association of Biblical Studies
Early Judaism and Rabbinics Research Programme

A Call for Papers

Continuity, Change and Canonicity:
Literary Forms from Biblical to Rabbinic Literature

The 2006 EABS Conference will be held at Budapest, 6 – 9 of August.

The division of early Judaism and Rabbinics will discuss the continuity and change of literary forms from biblical to Rabbinic Literature and its affect on the canonization of Biblical and Rabbinic literary corpuses.Late Antiquity was the era of canonization: The final closure of the Old and New Testament; The evolution of Rabbinic Literature, and the Canonization of patristic literature. What was the role and function of literary form in those processes?

Papers are invited that describe the development and evolution of literary forms from biblical writing through Second Temple and Qumran texts to rabbinic literature. Papers may refer to the variety of literary genres demonstrated in Jewish literature of antiquity and late antiquity: prose, poetry, historiography, epistles, law, etc. Discussions of developments in the field in its wider context will be encouraged. These might include: the relations of form and canonicity; comparative discussions; the influence of oral vs. written transmission of texts and of scribal methods and techniques; literary forms as identity defining measures within Jewish groups and sects or in the relation of Jewish groups to other cultures and societies; and the relationship of form and meaning.

The Proceeding of the essays are expected to be published in the Brill series ‘Jewish and Christian Perspectives’.

Proposals to be submitted to:

Dr Moshe Lavee,
EABS Early Judaism and Research Programme Chair
Senior Lecturer in Rabbinic Literature,
Leo Baeck College,
The Sterenberg Centre for Judaism
80 East End Road,
Finchley N3 2SY, London, UK
email: Moshe.Lavee@lbc-cje.ac.uk
Tel: 00-44-20-83495614; Fax: 00-44-20-83495619.

For other research programmes and conference divisions see the EABS website: http://www.shef.ac.uk/bibs/eabs1/research.htm

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.