Robert Doran (born 1940)

Last updated

Robert Doran (born 1940) is a scholar of religion, particularly early Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. He held a position of professor of Religion and European Studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts and took emeritus status in 2020. At Amherst, he had the named chair of Samuel Williston Professor of Greek and Hebrew. [1]

Contents

His areas of research include the book 2 Maccabees, which he has published several works and commentaries on, as well as Syrian Christianity including the saint Simeon Stylites and the Edessan community. He has also published on the lost works of Hellenistic era Jewish writers and historians such as Aristeas the Exegete, Pseudo-Eupolemus, Cleodemus Malchus, and Pseudo-Hecataeus. [2] [3] He has also served as an editor at Catholic Biblical Quarterly.

Personal life

Doran earned his Doctorate of Theology from Harvard Divinity School where he studied under John Strugnell among others. [1] Doran's wife, Susan Niditch, is also a professor of Religion at Amherst College and also attended Harvard; they were both appointed to tenure-track positions at Amherst in 1978. [4]

Works

Books
Selected sections in larger works

Related Research Articles

The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in the Koine Greek language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maccabees</span> Group of Jewish rebels in the Seleucid Empire

The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BCE to 37 BCE, being a fully independent kingdom from about 110 to 63 BCE. They reasserted the Jewish religion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest, and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.

1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest history of the independent Hasmonean kingdom. It describes the promulgation of decrees forbidding traditional Jewish practices by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the formation of a rebellion against him by Mattathias of the Hasmonean family and his five sons. Mattathias's son Judas Maccabeus takes over the revolt and the rebels as a group are called the Maccabees; the book chronicles in detail the successes and setbacks of the rebellion. While Judas is eventually killed in battle, the Maccabees eventually achieve autonomy and then independence for Judea under the leadership of the Hasmonean family. Judas's brother Simon Thassi is declared High Priest by will of the Jewish people. The time period described is from around 170 BC to 134 BC.

2 Maccabees, also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt against him. It concludes with the defeat of the Seleucid Empire general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the leader of the Maccabees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simeon Stylites</span> Syrian Christian ascetic (c. 390 – 459)

Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite was a Syrian Christian ascetic, who achieved notability by living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo. Several other stylites later followed his model. Simeon is venerated as a saint by the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholic Churches. He is known formally as Simeon Stylites the Elder to distinguish him from Simeon Stylites the Younger, Simeon Stylites III, and Symeon Stylites of Lesbos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pseudepigrapha</span> Falsely attributed works

Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. The name of the author to whom the work is falsely attributed is often prefixed with the particle "pseudo-", such as for example "pseudo-Aristotle" or "pseudo-Dionysius": these terms refer to the anonymous authors of works falsely attributed to Aristotle and Dionysius the Areopagite, respectively.

Eupolemus is the earliest Hellenistic Jewish historian whose writing survives from Antiquity. Five fragments of his work have been preserved in Eusebius of Caesarea's Praeparatio Evangelica, embedded in quotations from the historian Alexander Polyhistor, and in the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4 Maccabees</span> Book written in Koine Greek

4 Maccabees, also called the Fourth Book of Maccabees and possibly originally known as On the Sovereignty of Reason, is a book written in Koine Greek, likely in the 1st or early 2nd century. It is a homily or philosophic discourse praising the supremacy of pious reason over passion. It is a work that combines Hellenistic Judaism with influence from Greek philosophy, particularly the school of Stoicism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nehemiah</span> Central figure of the biblical Book of Nehemiah

Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia. The name is pronounced or in English. It is in Hebrew נְחֶמְיָה‎, Nəḥemyāh, "Yah comforts".

Bacchides was a Syrian-Greek general and governor (strategos) and friend and advisor (philoi) of King Demetrius I Soter of the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucid Empire was one of the Greek successor states (diadochi) founded after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and was centered in Syria and Babylonia in the Hellenistic era.

Harold William Attridge is an American New Testament scholar known for his work in New Testament exegesis, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, the study of Hellenistic Judaism, and the history of the early Church. He is a Sterling Professor of Divinity at Yale University, where he served as Dean of the Divinity School from 2002 to 2012, the first Catholic to head that historically Protestant school.

Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa region, both founded at the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists.

Mark Stratton John Matthew Smith is an American biblical scholar, anthropologist, and professor.

Robert E. Van Voorst is an American theologian and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origins of Judaism</span>

The origins of Judaism lie in the Bronze Age amidst polytheistic ancient Semitic religions, specifically evolving out of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion, then co-existing with Babylonian religion, and syncretizing elements of Babylonian belief into the worship of Yahweh as reflected in the early prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible.

John J. Collins is the Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School. He is noted for his research in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the apocryphal works of the Second Temple period including the sectarian works found in Dead Sea Scrolls and their relation to Christian origins. Collins has published and edited over 300 scholarly works, and a number of popular level articles and books. Among his best known works are the Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora ; Daniel in the Hermeneia commentary series ; The Scepter and the Star. The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature ; and The Bible after Babel: Historical Criticism in a Postmodern Age.

A biblical canon is a set of texts which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible.

Pheme Perkins is a Professor of Theology at Boston College, where she has been teaching since 1972. She is a nationally recognized expert on the Greco-Roman cultural setting of early Christianity, as well as the Pauline Epistles and Gnosticism.

Daniel R. Schwartz is a professor of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a scholar of Hellenistic Judaism, Flavius Josephus, the Second Temple Period, and the book 2 Maccabees.

Eileen Marie Schuller is a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Schuller is an official editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls. She teaches undergraduate and graduate studies in the Biblical field. Over a span of 30 years, her involvement in the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls has led to numerous contributions in authenticating the discoveries found in the caves near the Ancient Qumran settlement.

References

  1. 1 2 "Robert Doran". Amherst College. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  2. ↑ Doran, Robert (1985). Charlesworth, James (ed.). The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Vol. 2. Doubleday. pp. 855–920. ISBN   0-385-09630-5.
  3. ↑ Doran, Robert (1987). "The Jewish Hellenistic Historians Before Josephus". In Haase, Wolfgang (ed.). Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW) / Rise and Decline of the Roman World. Vol. 20/1. pp. 246–297. doi:10.1515/9783110855715-008.
  4. ↑ "Chronology of Arrival of Women Faculty at Amherst College". Amherst College. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.