Joshua Berman
Joshua Berman is a professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he teaches and writes on the Hebrew Bible with particular interest in narrative, law, and social thought. After completing his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and advanced training including rabbinical ordination and a doctorate in Bible from Bar-Ilan, he has published widely in both academic venues and broader public forums such as Mosaic Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
His books range across different approaches to biblical texts. In Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism (Oxford University Press, 2017), he explores how ancient literary practices shape our understanding of the Torah’s composition. Earlier work includes Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought (Oxford University Press, 2008), which considers the Hebrew Bible as a source of political ideas distinct from other ancient Near Eastern traditions, as well as Narrative Analogy in the Hebrew Bible: Battle Stories and Their Equivalent Non-battle Narratives (Brill, 2004), which examines patterns of rhetorical shaping within biblical narratives. Links for these titles are included below. He is also the author In Ani Maamin: Biblical Criticism, Historical Truth, and the Thirteen Principles of Faith (Maggid Books, 2020), where he reflects on modern approaches to biblical criticism and belief, as well as a commentary to the The Book of Lamentations in the New Cambridge Bible Commentary series, seeing the book as a series of therapy sessions where a pastoral mentor helps Daughter Zion assimilate the lessons of the destruction of Jerusalem.
He has also served as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., where scholars from diverse disciplines collaborated to review and advise on exhibits and content.