Jon D. Levenson

Jon D. Levenson is Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. He holds the AB, MA, and PhD from Harvard University.

Levenson is a scholar of the Bible and of the rabbinic midrash, with an interest in the philosophical and theological issues involved in biblical studies. He studies the relationship between traditional modes of Biblical interpretation and modern historical criticism. He also studies the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.

Levenson has been called, “the most interesting and incisive biblical exegete among contemporary Jewish thinkers.” He is described as “challenging the idea, part of Greek philosophy and popular now, that resurrection for Jews and the followers of Jesus is simply the survival of an individual's soul in the hereafter.” Rather, in classical Christianity and Judaism,” “resurrection occurs for the whole person — body and soul. For early Christians and some Jews, resurrection meant being given back one's body or possibly God creating a new similar body after death.”

Books

• Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews (with Kevin J. Madigan), in progress, under contract with Yale University Press.

• Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. xxii + 274.

• Esther. Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1997. xvi + 142 pp.

• The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Paperback, 1995. xiv + 257 pp.

• The Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993. Collection of six revised essays. 192 pp.

• Harper’s Bible Commentary. Associate Editor responsible for Genesis-Esther (according to the Protestant ordering). San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.

• Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988. xvi + 182 pp. 2nd edition, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

• Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Minneapolis: Winston Seabury, 1985.

Paperback, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987. xi + 227 pp.

• Traditions in Transformation: Turning Points in Biblical Faith. Edited with Baruch Halpern. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1981. xiv + 446 pp.

• Theology of the Program of Restoration of Ezekiel 40-48. Harvard Semitic Monograph Series 10. Missoula: Scholars Press, 1976. x + 176 pp.

• The Book of Job in its Time and in the Twentieth Century. LeBaron Russell Briggs Prize Essay in English. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. 80 pp.

• A review essay that covers many of these books has been published by Marvin A. Sweeney, “Why Jews Are Interested in Biblical Theology: A Retrospective on the Work of Jon D. Levenson,” Jewish Book Annual 55-56 (1997-99/5758-59): 135-68.

Prizes and Honors

Henry R. Luce III Senior Fellowship in Theology, 1999-2000 Certificate of Recognition “for dedicated service to the Wellesley College community,” awarded by Acting President Carol Johns, May 1, 1980 Phi Beta Kappa, 1971, Harvard College LeBaron Russell Briggs Prize Essay in English, 1971 First prize, Dante Society of America Essay Contest, 1970 Detur Prize for Academic Excellence, 1970 Harvard College Honorary Scholarship, 1969-70