This course will look at the way the Hebrew Bible came together across centuries of ideas and experiences from the social groups behind the texts.  It will examine familiar motifs and tales such as creation, the Exodus, law, wisdom, and sacrifice, but will also discuss the role of cultural memory, social cognition, language, and the function of media and art in the world standing behind the creation of these texts.  The authors and audiences in antiquity left their imprint on the literature that survived them, and the course will explore the relationship between this literature and the communities that they formed over countless generations of readership. 

Mark Leuchter is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism at Temple University in Philadelphia.  He researches the social history of ancient Israel, scribal traditions, prophecy and priesthood, and cognitive approaches to the study of religion. His most recent book is entitled An Empire Far And Wide: The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period (Oxford University Press, 2024).