Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Israelite History in its Ancient Near Eastern Context

The History of Religions in the Ancient Near East: “Israel and Egypt” / Elephantine

 

This research project investigates the historical and religio-historical connections between ancient Israel and pharaonic Egypt. Current emphases include the investigation of historical contacts during the late monarchic period in Judah as well as in the Persian-period “Jewish” colony on the island of Elephantine in the southern Nile. Regarding the latter, a project supported by outside funding is being planned in collaboration with Prof. Reinhard G. Kratz (University of Göttingen) and Prof. Bob Becking (University of Utrecht). This project is also connected to the current classification and (re-)cataloguing of the Elephantine Papyri at the Ägyptisches Museum in Berlin by Prof. Verena Lepper.

 

Recent presentations and publications:

 

Bernd U. Schipper, “Joseph, Ahiqar, and the ‘Jewish’ Colony in Egypt: A New Interpretation of the Joseph Story,” lecture given at Yale Divinity School, Februrary 20, 2014.

 

Bernd U. Schipper, Chair of a Panel on Elephantine with Bezalel Porten, SBL International Meeting, St. Andrews, Scotland, July 8–9, 2013.

 

Bernd U. Schipper, “Egypt and Israel: The Ways of Cultural Contact in the Late Bronze- and Iron-Age,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 4 (2012): 30–47.