Lawrence Schiffman - The Hebrew Bible

About the Course: The Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and to Christians as the Old Testament, is the basis of our tradition of monotheism as well as the main avenue by which the ethics and teachings of the Hebrew spirit entered Western Civilization. In these lectures, eminent scholar Lawrence H. Schiffman discusses how that collection came into being and how it was passed down and interpreted throughout the ages. He provides details on how this tradition developed into the basis of Judaism and Christianity and how it continues to mold our society and culture today.

About the Author: Lawrence H. Schiffman is chairman of New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and serves as Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Professor Schiffman was featured in the PBS Nova television series documentary, Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as in four BBC documentaries on the scrolls, the McNeil-Lehrer program, and a Discovery special. He appears regularly in the popular A&E series Mysteries of the Bible. Professor Schiffman received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in late antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.