Liane Feldman

Assistant Professor

Bio

Liane Feldman joined the NYU faculty in 2018. Her research aims to understand the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish texts through the lenses of literary theory, ritual studies, and the methods of historical criticism. Her work focuses primarily on the Pentateuch and the priestly literature, with an emphasis on the literary representation of sacrifice and sacred space. She pays particular attention to the interplay between ritual and narrative, compositional history, and the relationship between texts and historical religious practice in the ancient Near East

Teaching and Scholarship

What would you like prospective grad students to know about you, your teaching, and your scholarship?
While my research focuses heavily on issues of religious practice and sacred space in the Hebrew Bible, my teaching has largely been focused on language and theory, two things that I consider to be essential for graduate students to master no matter what their specific project or interests might be. I ask a lot of my students in terms of their class preparation, and aim to expose them to as broad a range of ancient texts and modern approaches as possible. My classes are as much focused on the content at hand as they are on larger skills related to professional development. For example, students in my graduate classes have given SBL-style seminar papers, completed book review assignments, been tasked with designing lesson plans, and asked to peer-review their classmates' paper drafts, alongside more traditional assignments or exams.

What types of undergraduate courses do you teach and why might students be interested in these classes?
In all of these classes, my aim is to introduce students to familiar texts from a new perspective. Nearly all of these classes are thematically-based and work through a series of different topics or questions over the course of the semester. My classes are driven by student interests and student questions as much as possible, and because of that they change a bit each time I teach them.

Areas of Research

Hebrew Bible

Pentateuch

Priestly literature

Ritual and sacrifice

Literary theory

Biblical law

Courses Taught

Graduate
HBRJD-GA 1115: Ugaritic I: Historical Hebrew and Ugaritic Grammar
HBRJD-GA 1116: Ugaritic II: Ugaritic Literature
HBRJD-GA 3311: Topics in the Bible: The Priestly Narrative
HBRJD-GA 1061: Advanced Biblical Hebrew
HBRJD-GA 2020: Topics in Ancient Judaism: Third Century BCE Literature (with Annette Reed)

Undergraduate
HBRJD-UA 949: Topics in the Bible and Ancient Near East: Sacrifice: From Moses to the Modern Era
HBRJD-UA 23: The Bible as Literature
CORE-UA 514: Cultures and Contexts: Ancient Israel

Education

  • 2018 Ph.D. The University of Chicago
  • 2012 M.A. Yale University
  • 2009 M.A. Boston College
  • 2006 B.A. Northeastern University

PUBLICATIONS

Books

2020                The Story of Sacrifice: Ritual and Narrative in the Priestly Source. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 141. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Recipient of the 2021 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise

2023               The Consuming Fire: The Complete Priestly Source, From Creation to the Promised Land. World Literature in Translation. Berkeley; Los Angeles: The University of California Press (in press, expected 2023).

(2024)               The Consuming Fire: The Complete Priestly Source, From Creation to the Promised Land, with Hebrew Text Included. World Literature in Translation. Berkeley; Los Angeles: The University of California Press (under contract).

Peer Reviewed Articles

Forthcoming      “Rethinking the Place of the Pentateuch in Late Persian and Hellenistic-era ‘Priestly’ Literature,” Journal of Ancient Judaism.

2022                  “Challenging a Priestly Credit Theology: A New Translation of Niphal חשב,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 84.2: 183– 201.

2020                  “Sanitized Sacrifice in Aramaic Levi’s Law of the Priesthood,” Journal of Ancient Judaism 11.3: 343–368.

2020                  “The Idea and Study of Sacrifice in Ancient Israel,” Religion Compass 14.12: 1–14.

2020                  with Candida Moss, “The New Jerusalem: Wealth, Ancient Building Projects, and Revelation 21–22,” New Testament Studies 66.3: 351–366.

2017                  “Ritual Sequence and Narrative Constraints in Leviticus 9:1–10:3,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 17: 1–35.

2013                  “The Composition of Numbers 32: A New Proposal,” Vetus Testamentum 63: 408-432.

Invited Essays and Other Writings

Forthcoming      “Sidebar: Ritual and Narrative in Leviticus,” Harper Collins Study Bible, 3rd Edition (New York: Harper Collins).

Forthcoming      “Misplaced Places: Redaction and the Priestly Wilderness Itinerary” in Untitled Festschrift, ed. Joel Baden and Jeffrey Stackert (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck).

 

2022                  “The Literary Representation of Sacrifice in Biblical Narrative,” in New Perspectives on Ritual in the Biblical World, ed. Laura Quick and Melissa Ramos (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark): 183–197. 

 

2022                  “Adaptation to the Story World: a Response to Nathan MacDonald,” Ancient Jew Review, February 14, 2022. https://www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2022/2/2/adaptation-to-the-story-world

2020                  “Scapegoat,” Bible Odyssey, May 6, 2020. https://www.bibleodyssey.org/passages/related-articles/scapegoat

2019                  “Dissertation Spotlight: Story and Sacrifice: Ritual, Narrative, and the Priestly Source,” Ancient Jew Review, March 6, 2019. http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2019/3/6/dissertation-spotlight-story-and-sacrifice-ritual-narrative-and-the-priestly-source

2018                  “Gad and Reuben Receive Land in the Transjordan: A Documentary Approach,” TheTorah.com, July 11, 2018. https://thetorah.com/gad-and-reuben-receive-land-in-the-transjordan-a-documentary-approach/

2014                  “On the State of Pentateuchal Criticism,” Ancient Jew Review, November 30, 2014. http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2014/11/30/bible-and-babel-on-the-state-of-pentateuchal-source-criticism