Philip R. Davies

Philip R. Davies (b.1945) is a biblical scholar with interests in Early Judaism, History of Ancient Israel, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Davies has been labeled a biblical minimalist and associated with the Copenhagen School. He also has an interest in the development of secular scholarship and contemporary cultural issues, as illustrated in his book "Whose Bible Is It Anyway?". Davies has a degree from Oxford (1967) and a doctorate from the University of St. Andrews (1972). His doctoral thesis was on 1QM, the War Scroll from Qumran. He received an appointment at the University of Sheffield in 1974, where he has remained, eventually becoming Research Professor of Biblical Studies. He was a co-founder of Sheffield Academic Press.

Davies has been a provocative writer on biblical subjects, often questioning fundamental assumptions regarding what is known about various biblical issues. His brief book In Search Of "Ancient Israel" poses the idea that the ancient notion of Israel referred to at least three separate entities, a tribal formation at the time of Merneptah, the kingdom of the house of Omri and a later idealized version that united Omride Israel and Judah, thus putting into question the notion of the "united kingdom" and the structure of the biblical narrative. One of the book's conclusions: "On the basis of the biblical and non-biblical data, the social conditions appropriate for the emergence of the biblical Israel appear to be found in Persian period Yehud." Many of his suggestions in this book have subsequently come to be accepted as normative, even by some of his most vociferous critics such as the biblical archaeologist William Dever, as Davies showed in his review of two of Dever's own recent publications ( ‘Crypto-Minimalism’, Journal of Semitic Studies 50 (2005), pp. 117–136).

A Festschrift has been produced marking his 65th birthday: In Search of Philip R. Davies: Whose Festschrift Is It Anyway?, D. Burns and J. W. Rogerson (eds) (London and New York: T. & T. Clark, 2010) ISBN 0567027171

Works

• Whose Bible Is It Anyway? (London and New York: T. & T. Clark Publishers, Ltd. 2004) ISBN 0567080730
• The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls, written with George J. Brooke, Phillip R. Callaway (London: Thames & Hudson, June 2002) ISBN 0500051119
• Copper Scroll Studies edited with George J. Brooke (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002) ISBN 0826460550
• Scribes and Schools (Westminster John Knox, 1998) ISBN 0664227287
• In Search Of "Ancient Israel" (London and New York: T. & T. Clark Publishers, Ltd. 1992) ISBN 0567080994
• The Damascus Covenant (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1982) ISBN 0905774515
• 1QM, the War Scroll from Qumran: Its Structure and History (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1977)
• Cities of the Biblical World: Qumran (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1982)
• Daniel (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985)

External links

• Are There Ethics in the Hebrew Bible? (2009)
• Whose Bible? Anyone's? (2009)
• Biblical History and Cultural Memory (2009)
• Do We Need Biblical Scholars? (2005)
• Final Comments on Minimalism (2003)
• Minimalism, "Ancient Israel," and Anti-Semitism
• The Origin of Biblical Israel
• Abstract: The Judaism of the Damascus Sect
• Some of the essays from his festschrift have been made available by T & T Clark.