Enduring Job: The Book of Job in Early Medieval Jewish Literature

William Blake, Job Confessing His Presumption to God Who Answers from the Whirlwind, object 1 (Butlin 461)

This project investigates the reception of the scriptural book of Job in early medieval Jewish literature. The study of the Jewish reception of the book of Job has so far been approached either with a focus on the classical literature of the rabbinic period (redacted between the third and seventh centuries CE) or on works composed from the tenth century onward. This project’s aim is to map with the aid of tools of digital humanities the little-known reception of the book of Job in early medieval Jewish literature, identifying and interpreting its traditions on Job in a set of Jewish texts assumed to have been redacted between the seventh and the ninth centuries. Its goal is to find out how the anonymous intellectuals behind these texts envisioned Job and how they tackled the questions the book poses.

Talks

“On the shoulders of wise scriptural giants: Reflections on the relative importance of wisdom according to a late midrash.” 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies. Jerusalem, August 2022. 

“Have you noticed My servant Job? (Job 1:8): On the Gentile, the Patient, the Righteous and the Protester Job in premodern Jewish tradition.” International Jewish-Christian Bible Week. Georgsmarienhütte/Osnabrück, July 2022.

“Enduring Job: The use of Job in Pesiqta Rabbati.” NAPH 2022 International conference on Hebrew Language, Literature, and Culture. Austin, June 2022.

“Rabbinised Job: Revisiting the Job of the Sages.” Lustrumcongress Job in het vroege christendom. Stichting Oudchristelijke Studiën. Driebergen, September 2021.

Publications

“On Seder Eliyahu, Wisdom, and Job.” Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge (accepted for publication).

“Have you noticed My servant Job? (Job 1:8): On the Gentile, the Patient, the Righteous and the Protester Job in premodern Jewish tradition.” European Journal of Jewish Studies (accepted for publication).

With L. Teugels, “Early Jewish Readings of Job.” In Job and Early Christianity, edited by  A.-K. Geljon, P. Rose, and N. Vos. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae. Leiden: Brill (accepted for publication).

Taught Courses

Hiob: Bibel und Nachleben/Job: Bible and Afterlife. Institut für Judaistik, Univ. Wien, 2021.

Hiob: Jüdische Lektüren/Job: Jewish Readings. Institut für Judaistik, FU Berlin, 2022.