Dr Arjen Bakker

Research

My research focuses on Jewish literature in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek from the Persian and Greco-Roman periods, early Jewish liturgy, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In my first book, The Secret of Time: Reconfiguring Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Brill 2023), I examined how Jewish wisdom texts from the Hellenistic period integrate contemplation on history and cosmological secrets into liturgical practices through a study of the mystery of time. I am currently working on a second book that focuses on the development of early Jewish prayer in relation to the sacrificial cult in the Jerusalem Temple and the emergence of the synagogue in the Hellenistic world.

I also recently started a new project at the Einstein Center Chronoi in Berlin on concepts of time in Jewish philosophical texts from antiquity. I focus on the author Philo of Alexandria whose writings on the origins and organization of the cosmos mark a highly innovative integration of Greek philosophy and Jewish cosmological thinking.

Publications

Key publications:

The Secret of Time: Reconfiguring Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls. STDJ 143. Leiden: Brill, 2023. E-Book: https://brill.com/display/title/63714 (Open Access)

“Early Configurations of Jewish Prayer: Translating Sacrifice in the Second Temple Period,” Journal for the Study of Judaism 55 (2024).

“Die Herausbildung des Subjekts im antiken Judentum.” Co-authored with Hindy Najman. Theologische Literaturzeitung 149.5 (2024): 367–382.

“The Performance of Blessing as Imitation of Divine Beings: Acknowledging the Creator in the Hymns of the Maśkîl and Related Texts.” Dead Sea Discoveries 29 (2022): 325–41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-02903002 (Open Access)

“The Praise of the Luminaries in the Similitudes of Enoch and its Parallels in the Qumran Scrolls.” Meghillot 13 (2017): 1–14. DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26606700 (Hebrew)

Other publications:

Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism. Co-edited with René Bloch, Yael Fisch, Paula Fredriksen and Hindy Najman. JSJS 200. Leiden: Brill, 2021. E-Book: https://brill.com/view/title/60764?language=en(Open Access)

“Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Interpretation.” Pages 141–154 in The Oxford Handbook of Wisdom and the Bible. Edited by Will Kynes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34233/chapter-abstract/290260378?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Dead Sea Discoveries 28/3 (2021). Thematic issue: “Formation of the Subject.” Co-edited with Hindy Najman and Jutta Jokiranta.

Revue de Qumrân 32/2 (2020). Thematic issue: “Dead Sea Scrolls Research in Oxford.” Co-edited with Markus Bockmuehl, Martin Goodman, Hindy Najman and John Screnock.

“The Rule of the Community.” Pages 475–478 in vol. 1 of T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism. Edited by Loren Stuckenbruck and Daniel Gurtner. London: T&T Clark, 2020.

“Sages and Saints: Continuous Study and Transformation in Musar le-Mevin and Serek ha-Yahad.” Pages 106–118 in Tracing Sapiential Traditions in Ancient Judaism. JSJS 174. Edited by Hindy Najman, Jean-Sébastien Rey and Eibert Tigchelaar. Leiden: Brill, 2016. DOI: https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004324688/B9789004324688_009.xml

“קו.” Theologisches Wörterbuch zu den Qumrantexten 3:500–502.

“תכן.” Theologisches Wörterbuch zu den Qumrantexten 3:112–1128.

“The God of Knowledge: Qumran Reflections on Divine Prescience Based on 1 Sam 2:3.” Revue de Qumrân 26 (2014): 361–74. DOI: https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3178218&journal_code=RQ&download=yes