To understand Jesus, you have to understand the Jewish world in which he lived. So argues the internationally renowned scholar of biblical literature, Dr. Elizabeth Schuller, O.S.U. In this lecture, Sr. Schuller will talk about Judaism in the Greco-Roman period and how our understanding of this Jewish world can affect our understanding of Jesus. She will pay particular attention to developments in the study of Judaism during the time of the Second Temple, as this field of studies has changed dramatically since World War II. In particular, she will focus on the new evidence found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and explore why the discovery of these 800 manuscripts in 1947 has been so important to our understanding of the Jewish world that produced Jesus of Nazareth.
Dr. Elizabeth Schuller, O.S.U.
A member of the Ursuline Religious of Chatham, Ontario, Dr. Schuller has her Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization of Harvard University. She is recognized around the world for her contribution to an international effort to translate, edit and publish the Dead Sea Scrolls. dr. Shuller is an Associate Editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls Encyclopedia, a two-volume encyclopedia to be published by Oxford University Press in the year 2000. She also served as Associate Editor for the harperCollins Study Bible. She is the author of the book, “Post-Exilic Prophets”(1988). In 1994-95, she served as the President of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. She now teaches courses in biblical studies in the Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University.