James Kugel, Harvard University professor emeritus and one of the world's foremost biblical scholars, will deliver Syracuse University's 2007-08 B.G. Rudolph Lecture in Judaic Studies on Sunday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. at the Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life, 102 Walnut Place.
The lecture will be followed by a reception; both the lecture and the reception are free and open to the public. Parking is available on the street or in the nearby parking lot. For further information, visit http://jsp.syr.edu or contact Pamela Paul at 443-5671 or papaul@syr.edu.
Kugel's lecture, "Adam and Eve in the Garden of Biblical Interpretation," will explore the very different ways in which the story of Adam and Eve has been interpreted throughout history. He will discuss its interpretation first by ancient interpreters, a group of scholars who flourished in the closing centuries BCE, and who, in a certain sense, are the creators of the Hebrew Bible, and second by modern biblical scholars, who, relying on archeological data, have arrived at a different understanding of this seminal story.
Kugel was Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard from 1982-2003. Currently, he is professor of Bible and director of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar Llan University in Israel. He is the author of 11 books, including "How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now" (Free Press, 2007), "The God of Old" (Free Press, 2003) and "The Bible As It Was" (Belknap Press, 1987).
The annual B.G. Rudolph Lecture in Judaic Studies was inaugurated by B.G. Rudolph in 1962. Since then, his son, Jay Rudolph, along with others, has helped to support the University's Judaic Studies Program at Syracuse University.
