Keynote speaker: Dr Ibolya Balla
Ibolya is the Vice Dean and an associate professor at the Biblical Institute, Pápai Református Teológiai Akadémia in Hungary. She is internationally renowned for her research concerning the Hebrew Bible, Early Christianity, and deuterocanonical literature. Her research fields include Biblical Studies, prophetic literature, and wisdom literature.
Her research outputs include the following:
2011: Ben Sira on Family, Gender, and Sexuality, DCLS, Vol. 8, Berlin: De Gruyter.
2016: “Past, Present and Future in the Book of Ben Sira.” In Construction, Coherence and Connotations: Studies on the Septuagint, Apocryphal and Cognate Literature, edited by Pierre J. Jordaan, and Nicholas P. L. Allen, 51–67. DCLS, Vol. 34, Berlin: De Gruyter.
2017: “Ben Sira on the Piety of Men and the Piety of Women: Binary Opposites in the Taxonomy of Piety?” In Various Aspects of Worship in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature, edited by Géza G. Xeravits, József Zsengellér, and Ibolya Balla, 107–116. DCLY, Berlin: De Gruyter.
2018: “Glimpses into Ben Sira's Society With a View to the Connections between Ben Sira and Amos.” In Figures Who Shape Scriptures, Scriptures That Shape Figures. Essays in Honour of Benjamin G. Wright III, edited by Géza G. Xeravits, and Greg Schmidt Goering, 140–150. DCLS, Vol. 40, Berlin: De Gruyter.
2018: “The Book of Malachi and Wisdom in the Context of the Relationship of Prophetic and Wisdom Literature”, in The Books of the Twelve Prophets: Minor Prophets—Major Theologies, edited by Heinz-Josef Fabry, 157–185. BETL, Vol. 295, Leuven: Peeters.
2020: “Anthropomorphic Language in the Descriptions of God in Ben Sira.” In Theology and Anthropology in the Book of Sirach, edited by Bonifatia Gesche, Christian Lustig, and Gabriel Rabo, 130–172. Atlanta: SBL Press.
2022: “Walking in the Ways of Righteousness: Trauma and Tenacity in the Book of Job and the Book of Tobit.” In Turmoil, Trauma and Tenacity in Early Jewish Literature, edited by Nicholas P. L. Allen, and Jacob J. T. Doedens, 99–115. DCLS, Vol. 50, Berlin: De Gruyter.
Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr Stefan Reif OBE
Stefan is a fellow of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge where he holds a personal chair (emeritus) in medieval Hebrew studies. He is internationally recognised, not only for his critical role as the founding director (1973–2006) of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit (University of Cambridge Library) but also for his extensive seminal research into Jewish liturgy.
To date, Stefan has authored or edited twenty volumes, some four hundred and fifty articles and reviews, and organised various international conferences.
His most important works include the following:
1979: Shabbethai Sofer and his Prayer-book, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1993: Judaism and Hebrew Prayer: New Perspectives on Jewish Liturgical History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1997: Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Library: A Description and Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (assisted by Shulamit Reif).
2000: A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo: The History of Cambridge University's Genizah Collection, Culture and Civilization in the Middle East, London: Routledge.
2006: Problems with Prayers: Studies in the Textual History of Early Rabbinic Liturgy, Studia Judaica, Vol. 37, Berlin: De Gruyter.
2016: Jewish Prayer Texts from the Cairo Genizah: A Selection of Manuscripts at Cambridge University Library, Introduced, Transcribed, Translated, and Annotated, with Images, Cambridge Genizah Studies Series, Vol. 7, Leiden: Brill.
2021: Bouncing Back—and Forward: From Immigrant Household to Cambridge Fellowship, London: Vallentine Mitchell.
Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr Barbara Schmitz
Barbara holds the Chair of Old Testament and Biblical-Oriental Languages in the Faculty of Catholic Theology, Julius-Maximilians—Universität Würzburg in Germany. Her research fields include Biblical Studies, prophetic literature, and deuterocanonical literature.
Some of her most important works include the following:
2008: Prophetie und Koenigtum: Eine narratologisch-historische Methodologie entwickelt an den Koenigsbuchern, FZAT, Vol. 60, Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck.
2014: Judit, HThKAT, Freiburg: Herder Verlag GmbH (with Helmut Engel).
2018: The Early Reception of the Book of Isaiah in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature, edited by Kristin De Troyer, and Barbara Schmitz, 1–4. DCLS, Vol. 37, Berlin: De Gruyter
2020: The Early Reception of the Torah, edited by Kristin De Troyer, Barbara Schmitz, Joshua Alfaro, and Maximilian Haberlein, xi–xiv. DCLS, Vol. 39. Berlin: De Gruyter
2022: Geschichte Israels, UTB, 3rd Edition, Stuttgart: Uni-Taschenbücher GmbH.
Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr Jan Willem van Henten
Jan Willem is Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Amsterdam and Extrordinary Professor of Old and New Testament at Stellenbosch University in South-Africa. He has authored, co-authored and co-edited widely on, inter alia, the Maccabean Books; Jewish and Christian martyrdom; and the works of Flavius Josephus.
Some of his most important research outputs include the following:
2002: Martyrdom and Noble Death: Selected Texts from Graeco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity, The Context of Early Christianity, London: Routledge (with Friedrich Avemarie).
2002: Bible Translation on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century: Authority, Reception, Culture and Religion, edited by Athalya Brenner, and Jan Willem van Henten. The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
2006: Tussen Ambacht en Wetenschap: Vertaalanalyses bij de Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling, edited by Rieuwerd Buitenwerf, Jan Willem van Henten, and Nelleke de Jong-van den Berg. Heerenveen: Jongbloed.
2010 : Powers: Religion as a Social and Spiritual Force, edited by Merten Berend ter Borg, and Jan Willem van Henten. The Future of the Religious Past, No. 2, New York: Fordham University Press.
2012: “Religion, Bible and Violence.” In Coping with Violence in the New Testament, edited by Pieter G.R. de Villiers, and Jan Willem van Henten, 1–21. Studies in Theology and Religion, Vol. 16, Leiden: Brill.
2012: “Violence in a Gospel of Love” (with Jacobus Kok). In Coping with Violence in the New Testament, edited by Pieter G.R. de Villiers, and Jan Willem van Henten, 151–183. Studies in Theology and Religion, Vol. 16, Leiden: Brill.
2013: Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts, edited by Jan Willem van Henten, and Joseph Verheyden. Studies in Theology and Religion, Vol. 17, Leiden: Brill.
2014: Judean Antiquities 15: Translation and Commentary, Leiden: Brill.
2020: “Commemorating World War I Soldiers as Martyrs.” In Martyrdom: Canonisation, Contestation and Afterlives, edited by Ihab Saloul, and Jan Willem van Henten, 153– 179. Heritage and Memory Studies, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
2023: Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity: From the Books of Maccabees to the Babylonian Talmud, edited by Friedrich Avemarie, Jan Willem van Henten, and Yair Furstenberg. CRINT, Vol, 17, Leiden: Brill.