Ehud Ben Zvi

Professor Emeritus

Phone: 780.492.7183
Email: ehud.ben.zvi@ualberta.ca
Website: Ehud Ben Zvi
Mailing Address: History and Classics
University of Alberta
2-28 Tory Building
Edmonton AB Canada T6G 2H4

Education

Ph.D. Emory University, Atlanta, GA
M.A. Tel Aviv University; summa cum laude
B.A. Open University, Ramat Aviv
B.Sc. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Expertise & Research Interests

  • Ancient Israelite intellectual history
  • Social Memory in ancient Israel
  • Ancient Israelite historiography
  • Ancient Israelite past and future construing texts
  • Ancient reading communities
  • Ancient societies

Ehud Ben Zvi's research interests include ancient Israelite history and historiography, social memory in ancient societies and particularly in ancient Israel, the latter's intellectual history, and the prophetic and historiographical books that eventually became part of the Hebrew Bible. His work focuses mainly on the Persian/early Hellenistic period literati of Yehud (the Persian province of Judah), their social mindscape and their historical importance. He has authored, co-authored or edited more than thirty volumes and written well above one hundred academic articles, essays and the like.


Ehud Ben Zvi is very much interested in open dissemination of knowledge in his field and thus in open access initiatives. He was the founder and general editor of the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (1996-2013) and is a founding editor of the SBL series Ancient Near East Monographs (ANEM/MACO), both of which are open access. He has served in central position in main academic associations in his field, including in the position of President of the European Association of Biblical Studies (2016-2018), president of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (2001-2002), and (founding) head of the International Cooperation Initiative of the Society of Biblical Literature (2006-2013). He has co-founded and co-chaired international research programs/units on topics such as Israel and the Production and Reception of Authoritative Books in the Persian and Hellenistic Periods, the Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts, the Deuteronomistic History and co-directed with Christoph Levin (University of Munich) international workshops on themes such as "Exile in Ancient Israel," "Remembering and Forgetting in the Early Second Temple period," "Thinking of Water in the Early Second Temple Period," "Centre and Periphery Models in Early Second Temple Period."

For more information about Ehud Ben Zvi, including a list of publications, access to some essays and to his "Assisting You to Learn" teaching website go to www.ualberta.ca/~ebenzvi/

 

Fields of Graduate Supervision

  • Ancient Israel (History, Social Memory, Worldviews and Imagination, Past/Future Constructing Texts: Historiographic and Prophetic Texts)
  • History of Early Judaisms (Second Temple Period)
  • Social Memory approaches to ancient world