Ancient World Seminar: Bärry Hartog (Groningen), "Jubilees and Hellenistic Encyclopaedism"

Abstract

The book of Jubilees is a Jewish apocalyptic work commonly dated to the 2nd century BCE. Though having its origins in the Hellenistic period, scholars differ on Jubilee's attitude towards Hellenistic intellectual culture. In this paper I will argue that Jubilees is fully conversant with broader intellectual developments in the Hellenistic period and exhibits a type of encyclopaedic rhetoric similar to non-Jewish scholarly writings from this period. At the same time, as Jubilees also emphasises the timelessness and distinctiveness of the Judaean nation and its customs, the book must be understood as a paradoxical or “glocalised” work that intricately combines global intellectual tendencies with local interests.

About the speaker

P.B. (Bärry) Hartog is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Protestant Theological University in Groningen and CRASIS board member. He studied Theology, Religious Studies, and Semitic Languages in Leiden and received his PhD in Religious Studies from KU Leuven (2015). A revised version of his doctoral thesis has recently appeared as Pesher and Hypomnema: A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period (Leiden: Brill, 2017). Hartog's main research interests are the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Judaism in its Hellenistic and Roman context, and ancient travel literature. He is co-editor of The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Hellenistic Context (thematic issue of Dead Sea Discoveries; Leiden: Brill, 2017) and The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Study of the Humanities (Leiden: Brill, 2018).

After the lecture there will be drinks in the nearby located ‘t Van Swinderenhuys, to celebrate the start of the partnership with the PThU.