Continuing Seminar:
The Pentateuch

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Description

Pentateuch studies are a vibrant international field of research. A recent shift to Persian and early Hellenistic backgrounds has opened up new perspectives. Moreover, new insights into textual formation have sparked integrated studies of redactional and text historical phenomena. Not least, new narrative and thematic approaches have broadened the scope of studies from source and redaction oriented research. At the same time, research in this field is still characterized by the application of diverging Pentateuch models which coincides with partly disentangled discourses in European and Anglo-Saxon research communities. From a methodological perspective, these different approaches are often utilized in isolation.

For the first two years, we plan to focus on the Book of Numbers. In past generations, Numbers was significantly understudied. While this book has received much more attention in recent years, substantial work remains, especially in understanding its sacrificial and legal systems, its perspective on Levites, the presence of midrashic-type narratives, and its relationship to other Pentateuchal and Biblical books. Significant work also remains on its relationship to extra-biblical literature such as that found in the Judean Desert.

The new Continuing Seminar aims at bringing research on the Pentateuch to the forefront of the AGM’s program. We wish to create a space that brings together Pentateuch scholars from different continents/scholarly communities and enables dialogue between multiple methodological approaches. Moreover, the new Continuing Seminar intends to provide a hub for exchange and joint sessions with other Continuing Seminars and Task Forces.

Seminar Leaders in 2026

• Kirsten M. Schäfers, University of Bonn, Germany
• Hryhoriy Lozinskyy, Saint Anselm College
• Noelle G. Johnson, University of Notre Dame

Program Details for 2026

Focus: The Book of Numbers

• Tommaso Bacci, University of Chicago Divinity School
  "From šipṭu to שְׁפָטִים: Num 33:4, Exod 6:6, 7:4, 12:12, as a Test Case of using Akkadian Evidence for Identifying Strata in the Priestly Work"
  
  
• Attila Bodor, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary (remote paper)
  Provisional title: “Textual Criticism in the Book of Numbers”

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• Eric J. P. Wagner, C.R., Aquinas Institute of Theology, pending
  Invited topic: “Transjordan Narrative Spaces in Numbers”
  
  
• Charles Hughes-Huff, Sacred Heart Seminary & School of Theology, pending
  Invited topic: “Law and Punishment in the Book of Numbers”

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• Giovanna R. Czander, Dominican College NY
  "What Would Moses Do? Apodictic and Casuistic Forms and the Development of Law in Numbers"
  
  
• Dale Launderville, O.S.B., Saint John's University
  “The Levites as Defenders of YHWH’s Holiness: Numbers 3–4  in Light of Ezekiel 44.”

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  History

Established 2026