Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - IOSOT 2025

09:00–10:40

Paper 1

Paper 2

IOSOT Main Papers I

20

Chair: Julia Rhyder (Harvard University)

Room: UL6 2094 (in person), UL6 2091 (livestream), online via Zoom

Geteiltes Leid: Collective Violence and Memory in Biblical Accounts of the Babylonian Conquest (Sonja Amman)

How Abraham Came to Hebron: On the Difficult Business of Dating Old Testament Texts (Jan Christian Gertz)

11:20–13:00

Paper 3

Paper 4

IOSOT Main Papers I

20

Chair: Julia Rhyder (Harvard University)

Room: UL6 2094 (in person), UL6 2091 (livestream), online via Zoom

Cultural Hybridity in Visual Form: Iconographic Traditions of the Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods in the Southern Levant (Katharina Pyschny)

The Contribution of Recent Excavations in Jerusalem to Biblical Historiography (Yuval Gadot)

14:30–16:00

Short Paper Sessions

Paper 1

Paper 2

Paper 3

Pentateuch 1

21-001

Chair: Andreas Schüle (University of Leipzig)

Room: DOR24 1.101

Connecting themes and concepts between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3 (Benjamin Kilchör)

Gen 2,16-17: Das erste Speisegebot in der Tora? Eine intertextuelle Spurensuche (Jonas Brunner)

Gen 6:1-4: A mytho-analytical approach to explaining an enigmatic text (Michaela Bauks)

Former Prophets 1

21-002

Chair: Veronika Bibelriether (University of Erlangen–Nuremberg)

Room: DOR24 1.102

Theophanic Counterparts: A Narratological Study in Characterization and Identity Between the שר־צבא־יהוה(Josh 5:14) and the מלאך יהוה (Exod 3:2) (Derek Frederickson)

Fathers, Daughters, Oaths, and Commitments: An Analysis of the Structure of the Book of Judges and Its Contribution to Understanding the Book’s Meaning (Orit Avnery)

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Isaiah 1

21-031

Chair: Reinhard G. Kratz (Georg August University of Göttingen)

Room: DOR24 1.103

A Fresh Approach to Isaiah 22:1b–8a (Hugh Williamson)

Justice and Righteousness in Isa 28–33. A Contribution to the Redaction and Composition History of the Book of Isaiah (Ulrich Berges)

Isaiah 35 Revisited (Ronnie Goldstein)

Psalms 1

21-041

Chair: Beat Weber (Theologisches Seminar Bienenberg)

Room: DOR24 1.205

The Conflict Myth Narrative Structure as a Template for the Ordering of the Hebrew Bible Psalter (Clayton Mills)

War cries and peans in the Psalms (Sophie Ramond)

„Sie strauchelten und fielen …“ (Ps 27,2). Irreguläre w-SK-Formen in althebräischer Poesie? (Johannes Schiller)

Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemia, Esther 1

21-043

Chair: Rotem Avneri Meir (University of Helsinki)

Room: UL6 3053

I Can Fix Him, No Really I Can: Good Rule in Chronicles (Haley Kirkpatrick)

Qualified Continuity: Idolatry and the Temple Vessels in the Book of Chronicles (Francisco Martins)

Tensions and Assimilations between “YHWH’s Torah” and “Moses’ Torah” in Ezra-Nehemiah (Zhenshuai Jiang)

Religions of Ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East 1

21-007

Chair: Felix Hagemeyer (University of Oldenburg)

Room: DOR24 1.201

The Babylonian Oracle Procedure: Theory and Practice (Netanel Anor)

napishtu of the gods of Mesopotamia - and the nephesh of YHWH in the Hebrew Bible? (Desiree Zecha)

A deity list or liturgy? KTU1.102 reconsidered (Shirly Natan-Yulzary)

Theology, Ethics, and Hermeneutics 1

21-009

Chair: Rebekah Van Sant (University of Oxford)

Room: DOR24 1.204

Recent Contributions to the Discussion of Bible and Immigration – An Assessment and a Way Forward (Markus Zehnder)

Hospitality in the Jewish Tradition: Lessons for the Contemporary Church (Chase Rodriguez)

Gen 39 as encounter with consequences. Some notes on vulnerability and ethics of migration (Natalie Klimenko)

14:30–16:00

Invited Panels

Paper 1

Paper 2

Paper 3

Paper 4

Documented Evidence for Literary Criticism 1

21-107

Chair: Juha Pakkala (University of Helsinki)

Room: UL6 2093

Documented Evidence and Literary Criticism (Juha Pakkala)

What is a 'Word' and a 'Text'? A Cognitive-Linguistic Critique of the Historical-Critical Method (Raymond F. Person, Jr)

The Absence of “Sectarian Variants” in the "Biblical" Dead Sea Scrolls as Challenge to "Tendenzkritik"

(Benjamin Ziemer)

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Geography and Composition in the Books of Samuel 1

21-111

Chair: Jeremy Hutton (University of Wisconsin–Madison) et al.

Room: UL6 1070

“Judah” and the Scribal Imagination in the Books of Samuel (Mahri Leonard-Fleckman)

David at Hebron: Reading Samuel Among the Ruins (Daniel Pioske)

In Search of the Early Philistines (Ido Koch)

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Mystery and Esotericism 1 (IOQS-IOSOT-Joint Session)

21-114

Chairs: Arjen Bakker (University of Cambridge), Hindy Najman (University of Oxford)

Room: UL6 2097

Ethicisation of Ritual and Esotericism in the Levi Traditions (Christoph Nihan)

Holiness and Mystery: A Reexamination of their Relation in Priestly Texts (Annie Calderbank)

(A Hymn) Pregnant with Meaning: Life and Death of the inner self in Hodayot Column XI (Christine Rosa De Freitas)

Grasping the Unfathomable: Hidden Knowledge in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (Noam Mizrahi)

Scribal Culture and the Hebrew Bible 1

21-119

Chairs: Nathaniel Greene (University of Aberdeen), Matthieu Richelle (University of Louvain)

Room: UL6 2094

A Day in the Life...How to Situate Writing Within the Chaîne Opératoire of Iron Age Vessels (Alice Mandell)

Gab es institutionelle Schulen in der Welt des alten Israel? (Erhard Blum)

The Contribution of Undeciphered Ancient Middle Eastern Scripts to the History of the Alphabet (Madadh Richey)

How old are the Ethiopic letter names? And why does it matter for the study of Northwest Semitic Epigraphy? (Aren Wilson-Wright)

Demotic Egyptian Papyri and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible

21-125

Chair: Bernd Schipper (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Room: UL6 2091

Beyond Closure: Transtextuality and Openness in the Ending of the Judean and Egyptian Novella (Joseph Cross)

The many Uses of Demotic and Late-Egyptian Literature for Biblical Research (Meike Röhrig)

Scribal strategies and similarities between Demotic wisdom instructions and Hebrew Proverbs (Robert Kade)

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Jakob Wöhrle's Contribution to Hebrew Bible Scholarship

21-127

Chair: Ruth Ebach (Université de Lausanne), Friederike Neumann (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen)

Room: UL6 1072

Pentateuch and Political Interpretation (Mark Brett)

Literary history and the Book of the Twelve Prophets (Anselm Hagedorn)

Israelite History and Archaeology (Oded Lipschits)

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16:30–18:00

Short Paper Sessions

Paper 1

Paper 2

Paper 3

Pentateuch 2

22-001

Chair: Andreas Schüle (University of Leipzig)

Room: DOR24 1.101

“That’s What She Said:” A Legal and Narrative Analysis of Hagar and Sarah (Riane McConnell)

Jacob, his sons and the people living in the land: a troubled relationship (Suzana Chwarts)

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Former Prophets 2

22-002

Chair: David Toshio Tsumura (Japan Bible Seminary)

Room: DOR24 1.102

... Everyone Did as He Pleased (Jud 17:6; 21:25): Depicting Biblical Chaos (Nili Wazana)

Is there a covenant making in 1 Samuel 10:25? (Michael Avioz)

Military Strategy and Disinformation in 1 Samuel 13–14 (Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer)

Isaiah 2

22-031

Chair: Reinhard G. Kratz (Georg August University of Göttingen)

Room: DOR24 1.103

Incantation Parodies in the Book of Isaiah (Juliane Eckstein)

You are my witnesses (Isaiah 43:9): Between Trial Witnesses and Covenant Keepers (Orit Malka)

Ways Through the Wilderness: Poetics and Problematics in the Study of Isaiah (Rebekah Van Sant)

Psalms 2

22-041

Chair: Beat Weber (Theologisches Seminar Bienenberg)

Room: DOR24 1.205

Polyphony of Existential Interpretations in Psalms 35-41 (Judith Gärtner)

Dressing up Yhwh as Warrior in Psalm 76 (David Ray)

An un(w)holy stone leading to Spiritual transformation. Reading Mark 12:1-12 in the light of Psalm 118:22-23 (Lodewyk Sutton)

Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemia, Esther 2

22-043

Chair: Rotem Avneri Meir (University of Helsinki)

Room: UL6 3053

Ezra 2 as Grafted and Molded Ways of Thinking with a Twist (Kristin Joachimsen)

Temple Restoration in Ezra 1-6: How does it contribute to the cultic-political debates of the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods? (Louis Jonker)

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Religions of Ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East 2

22-007

Chair: Davide D’Amico (University of Lorraine)

Room: DOR24 1.201

Playing for God? Scenic Processes in Divine-Human Communication: A Case Study of שׂחק/צחק Pi‘el and Jer 27f (Judith Filitz)

Sukkot and the Kingship of God (Oliver Dyma)

On the language of the concept of praise God in the Hebrew Bible: A critical synthesis of the state of the art (Marcus Joubert)

Theology, Ethics, and Hermeneutics 2

22-009

Chair: Thomas Hieke (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

Room: DOR24 1.204

Decolonizing Western Biblical Hermeneutics - a potential Project? (Benedikt Collinet)

Contextually reading the Bible in the context of Homophobic Hate Crime in South Africa (Charlene Van der Walt)

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16:30–18:00

Invited Panels

Paper 1

Paper 2

Paper 3

Paper 4

Documented Evidence for Literary Criticism 2

22-107

Chair: Juha Pakkala (University of Helsinki)

Room: UL6 2093

Changing Places: Reading David’s Last Words in Different Contexts (Cynthia Edenburg)

Manuscript Evidence on the Editing of the Book of Ezekiel (Reettakaisa Sofia Salo)

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Geography and Composition in the Books of Samuel 2

22-111

Chair: Jeremy Hutton (University of Wisconsin–Madison) et al.

Room: UL6 1070

1 Samuel and Its Geographie(s) of Belonging (Ekaterina Kozlova)

The place names of the second part of the Biblical account of David (Wolfgang Zwickel)

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Mystery and Esotericism 2 (IOQS-IOSOT-Joint Session)

22-114

Chairs: Arjen Bakker (University of Cambridge), Hindy Najman (University of Oxford)

Room: UL6 2097

Unsearchable Light: The Quest for Knowledge in 4Q392 (“Works of God”) and Second Isaiah (Ruthanne Brooks )

In Praise of Darkness – rituals of mystery and initiation from Ancient Egypt (Robert Kade)

The Spirit of the Sofer and the Gathering of the Lost Tribes: Scriptural Mysteries in the Pesher on Psalms (4Q171) and 4 Ezra (Florian Neitman)

Secrets of Prayer: Esotericism in the Book of Daniel (Sarah Wisialowski)

Scribal Culture and the Hebrew Bible 2

22-119

Chairs: Nathaniel Greene (University of Aberdeen), Matthieu Richelle (University of Louvain)

Room: UL6 2094

Paleographic networks: Towards automated paleographic dating (Eythan Levy, Silas Klein Cardoso)

Statistical Analysis of Orthographic Use Patterns in the Isaiah Scroll (Barak Sober)

The Multimodality of Royal Inscriptions: The View from Ancient South Arabia (Mario Tafferner)

Scribes and/as Ritual Specialists: Writing Prayer in the Iron Age Levant (Spencer Elliott)

Theorizing Transmission and Textuality in Biblical Literature

22-121

Chair: Jacqueline Vayntrub (Yale University)

Room: UL6 1072

Josiah’s Books: Depicted and Actual Transmission in 2 Kings 22-23 (Tim Hogue)

Textualization, New Mediations of Material Religion (Ingrid Lilly)

Now and Forever: Textual Transmission and the Poetics of Change (Francis Borchardt)

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Perspectives and Prospects on a Scroll Approach to the Formation of the Hebrew Bible

22-124

Chair: Joseph Cross (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Room: UL6 2091

Prospects and Problems for a Scroll Approach (Drew Longacre)

A Scroll Approach to the Books of the Prophets (Nathan Mastnjak)

How Long Can Egyptian Texts on Papyrus Get (Joachim Quack)

Response (David Carr)

First results of the Berlin-Chicago-Beersheba excavations at Tell Keisan (Israel)

22-128

Chair: Aren Maeir (Bar-Ilan University)

Room: BUR26 013

Excavations at Tell Keisan: Tracing Phoenician Development and Mediterranean Interactions (Gunnar Lehmann)

The absolute chronology of Tell Keisan: initial radiocarbon results from the Late Bronze through early Iron Age strata (Lyndelle Webster)

A Petrographic Characterization of Iron Age IIA Pottery from Tell Keisan and Horbat Rosh Zayit in Western Galilee (Charles Wilson)

Sheep and Goat Mobility at Iron Age IIC Tell Keisan through Sequential Oxygen, Carbon and Strontium Isotope Analyses (Stefanie Eisenmann)