Ancient Hebrew Literature & Judean Conceptions of God – Dr. Dalit Rom-Shiloni

Are you curious about the development of ancient Hebrew literature and how some of these texts became sacred? And are you curious about how ancient Judeans thought about God?

In this podcast, we learn from Dr. Dalit Rom-Shiloni about ancient Judean literature, scribal traditions in ancient cultures, polytheism and monotheism in ancient Israelite communities, ways the Judean God compared to other ancient near east gods, why the ancient Israelites used anthropomorphic language to describe Yahweh, and why God was portrayed as warrior and enemy in the Hebrew Bible.

She also discusses ways ancient Judeans thought about God amid times of pain, suffering and destruction, which is the subject featured in her important new book: “Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible,” published by Eerdmans.

You can listen (or download) the complete podcast here:

You can subscribe or download this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe to the video series on YouTube.

Here are some video clips from our conversation:

• Ancient Judean Writing
• Scribes in Ancient Near East
• Accuracy & Discrepancies in Copied Manuscripts
• Growth in Compositions & Becoming Sacred Texts
• Hebrew Literature Compared with Other Ancient Traditions
• Judean Conceptions of God
• Polytheism & Monotheism in Ancient Israelite Communities
• Ancient Judean God vs. Ancient Near East Gods
• Anthropomorphism of God in the Hebrew Bible
• God as Warrior & Commands to Destroy Other Nations
• God as Enemy
• Lamenting & Protests to God in Ancient Hebrew Culture

You can catch the full video with Dr. Dalit Rom-Shiloni on ancient Hebrew literature, sacred texts and Judean conceptions of God here.

Dr. Dalit Rom-Shiloni

Dalit Rom-Shiloni is professor of Hebrew Bible at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She writes extensively on Hebrew Bible theology, group-identity conflicts, and the formation of sixth-century BCE literature. Dr. Rom-Shiloni serves as editor-in-chief of the Hebrew-language journal Beit Mikra: Journal for the Study of the Bible and Its World and is the initiator and editor- in-chief of the Dictionary of Nature Imagery of the Bible project.