Lester L. Grabbe is a retired American scholar and
Emeritus Professor of
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
at the
University of Hull
, mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status
, type = Public
, endowment = £18.8 million (2016)
, budget = £190 million ...
, England.
[University of Hull me-study group members](_blank)
/ref> As an historian of ancient Judaism, he has authored several standard treatments. He founded and convenes the ''European Seminar on Methodology in Israel's History'', and publishes the proceedings in the sub-series European Seminar in Historical Methodology. Before retirement, he established and taught for several years a module, ''Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust'', and another module, ''Religious Sectarianism in History and the Modern World''.
An alumnus of Claremont Graduate University, he was a student of William H. Brownlee and frequent guest on both Viking Radio
Viking FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Sheffield, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire.
As of September 2022, the ...
and Radio Humberside to discuss such topics as: the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
, the Jewish festivals
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstr ...
, the 4th of July, and Nostradamus and the millennium. Grabbe delivered the 2008 Brownlee Memorial Lecture on the topic: ''Exit David and Solomon? The Current Debate on the History of Ancient Israel.''
At age sixty-five, Grabbe was presented with a Festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
, a memorial book, by editors Philip Davies
Philip Andrew Davies (born 5 January 1972) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley in West Yorkshire since the 2005 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he is the most rebellious se ...
and Diana Edelman, containing a collection of thirty essays by his colleagues and friends, offering "reflections on the practice and theory of history writing, on the current controversies and topics of major interest". The essays show Grabbe's influence on the field of biblical studies and history.
Published works
As of October 2013, Grabbe had: 95 works in 234 publications in 3 languages and 7,650 library holdings listed in WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
.
;Selected Titles[Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) data on ''Grabbe, Lester L.''](_blank)
/ref>
*Israel in transition : from late Bronze II to Iron IIa (c. 1250-850 B.C.E.) (2008)
*Can a 'history of Israel' be written?
*A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period 1: Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah (London/New York: T & T Clark International, 2004) xxi + 471 pp. .
*Judaism from Cyrus to Hadrian: Vol. I: Persian and Greek Periods; Vol. II: Roman Period (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992) lx + 722 pp. British edition in one-volume paperback (London: SCM, 1994) xxxv + 722 pp. (Fortress) (v. 1); (v. 2).
*Exile and restoration revisited essays on the Babylonian and Persian periods in memory of Peter R. Ackroyd
Peter Runham Ackroyd (15 September 1917 – 23 January 2005) was a British Biblical scholar, Anglican priest, and former Congregational minister. From 1961 to 1982, he was the Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University o ...
*Leading captivity captive : "the Exile" as history and ideology
*Judaic Religion in the Second Temple Period: Belief and Practice from the Exile to Yavneh (London/New York: Routledge, 2000) xix + 424 pp.
*Etymology in Early Jewish Interpretation: The Hebrew Names in Philo (Brown Judaic Studies 115; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988) xvi + 268 pp.
*Ancient Israel : what do we know and how do we know it? (2007, rev. ed 2017)
;Works on Second Temple Judaism
*Priests, Prophets, Diviners, Sages: A Socio-historical Study of Religious Specialists in Ancient Israel (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995) xviii + 261 pp.
*An Introduction to First Century Judaism (1996 Grabbe),
*Wisdom of Solomon (1997 Grabbe),
*Ezra and Nehemiah (Readings; London: Routledge, 1998) x + 209 pp. , (paper)
*
*
*
*An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism : history and religion of the Jews in the time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel and Jesus (2010 Grabbe),
References
External links
Lester L. Grabbe's on Academia.edu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grabbe, Lester L.
1945 births
Living people
American biblical scholars
21st-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
Historians of Jews and Judaism
21st-century American male writers
Presidents of the Society for Old Testament Study