Webinar: Jesse Mirotznik Book Launch

The Portrayal of Pagan Worship in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism, a talk by Jesse Mirotznik with response by Lawrence Shiffman

In Mirotznik’s monograph, The Portrayal of Pagan Worship in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism, he argues that a decisive change took place in ancient Jewish portrayals of the Other around the 3rd century B.C.E. In Israelite/Jewish literature composed up to this point, the worship of other gods and the reverence of their icons is consistently depicted as sincere, and its appeal, whether to Israelites or non-Israelites, is, as a rule, not questioned. At some point around the end of the 3rd century B.C.E., however, a new form of argument arises: that the worship of other gods and the reverence of their icons is, in fact, an entirely unattractive practice, and that even its practitioners must inwardly reject it. Put differently: while the devotees of ‘false gods’ appear to take these deities seriously, even they must know, on some level, that their gods are nonsense. In this lecture, he will attempt to demonstrate some elements of this shift in ancient Jewish portrayals, in particular focusing on greed and sex, and their relationship to idolatry.”

Jesse Mirotznik is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism. He earned his PhD from Harvard University, completed postdoctoral fellowships at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Bar-Ilan University, and is now an Universitätsassistent (Postdoc) at the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Vienna. In his research, he investigates how ancient Israelites and Jews pictured other religions. His first book on this topic, The Portrayal of Pagan Worship in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism, was recently published with Cambridge University Press.

Lawrence H. Schiffman, PhD, is the Global Distinguished Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Director of the Global Institute for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies. A world-renowned specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in late antiquity, and the history of Jewish law, he has authored over 200 articles and numerous seminal books, including Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls and From Text to Tradition. Dr. Schiffman frequently shares his expertise with the public, having been featured in documentaries for PBS, the BBC, A&E, and CNN. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from Brandeis University and is a past president of the Association for Jewish Studies.