Staff profiles

Prof Timothy H Lim BA MPhil DPhil

Prof Timothy H Lim Chair in Hebrew Bible & Second Temple Judaism

Tel: +44 (0)131 650 8919

My fascination with ancient Judaism first arose out of a recognition that so much of the New Testament could be better understood if I only knew more about the Jewish world in which Jesus and Paul lived.

Having published my first ever article on Paul's understanding of rhetoric, I was well acquainted with the languages, literature, history and conventions of the Graeco-Roman world. But I soon realised that Jewish thought was indispensable, so I devoted myself to the study of ancient Judaism, first as background to early Christianity then for its own sake.

What I find fascinating about research in this area is its ability to surprise, to intrigue and to contribute to historical knowledge. I remember deciphering a Dead Sea Scroll and the rush of excitement that I felt when I worked out how a Jewish scribe two thousand years ago dated the events of the flood story by the use of the 364-day solar calendar. At the time, no one had yet published anything on what became known as 4Q252 or 4QCommentary on Genesis.

Educated in Vancouver, Sydney, Jerusalem and Oxford, I was Lady Davis Fellow in the Department of Bible, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, between 1989-1990, Kennicott Hebrew Fellow at the Oriental Institute, Oxford, and Junior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, between 1991-1993. I came to Edinburgh in 1994, first as Lecturer in Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins, then in 1998 as Reader in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies, and finally as Professor of Hebrew Bible & Second Temple Judaism in 2005.

The hallmark of my approach is the study of the Bible in its historical context and in the original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. I believe that the books of the Old and New Testaments should not only be studied in relation to other canonical books, but also with non-canonical texts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.

I welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students interested in working on aspects of Biblical and Jewish Studies. My own published interests are:

Second Temple Judaism

I have just completed the editing of the Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford: OUP, 2010), a ‘state of the art’ volume that focuses on the debates and ‘hot spots’ in scrolls research. My specific interests in the scrolls centre on the sectarian interpretation (pesharim) of prophetic biblical texts, and their relationship to early Christianity, especially the letters of Paul. I was on the international team that produced the principal editions of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series (Clarendon Press), and I was the main editor of The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Reference Library, Volume 1.

Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

My interests focus on late biblical books and their ancient Jewish reception. I have published studies on the book of Ruth and its literary voice, the origins and emergence of midrash in relation to the Hebrew Bible, and the reception of the book of Deuteronomy in Second Temple Judaism.

I am currently writing a book on the formation of the Jewish canon for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library Series. A by-product of this research is the recent publication of an article in the Journal of Theological Studies on the rabbinic principle that ‘holy scriptures defile the hands’.

Article in Journal of Theological Studies on the rabbinic principle that ‘holy scriptures defile the hands’

Christian Origins/New Testament

My first book compared the use of scriptures in the Qumran commentaries and Pauline letters. I challenged the common assumption that Paul used ‘the Septuagint’, and argued that the Apostle to the gentiles was a multilingual Jew, a former Pharisee, who believed that holy scriptures must be written in Hebrew. He wrote in Greek because the congregations of his churches could only read in that language, but he did not regard translated texts with the same authority as the Hebrew scriptures.

I have since published on methodological issues relating to the study of the scrolls and the New Testament, Paul's use of diatheke, and the sectarian matrix of ‘common Judaism’.

Postgraduate supervision

My former doctoral students have written on various topics, ranging from the use of the Psalms in Jewish and Christian writings, Deuteronomy in the letter to the Hebrews, the literary analysis of the Hodayot or Thanksgiving Psalms, a feminist interpretation of Genesis 34, and the Mishmarot or calendrical texts from Qumran. They occupy academic positions in the UK, USA, Netherlands, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Korea.

Selected publications

Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Available direct from Oxford University Press

Reflection and Refraction: Studies in Biblical Historiography in Honour of A. Graeme Auld (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2007)

The Dead Sea Scrolls. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP, 2005). Translations into Bulgarian, Chinese and Arabic. Also available as an audiobook via Audible.com.

Pesharim. (Sheffield Academic Press/Continuum, 2002)