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Books by Phillip Michael Lasater

FAT II/104 (Mohr Siebeck)

Editorial activity by Phillip Michael Lasater

Table of Contents for 2012–2018

Papers by Phillip Michael Lasater

Vetus Testamentum

Psalm 40 is best understood in the intellectual context of Second Temple discussions of law and s... more Psalm 40 is best understood in the intellectual context of Second Temple discussions of law and self. But some priorities in form-critical scholarship have made the point unnecessarily hard to see. Ill-conceived, or sometimes ideological, premises concerning form have encouraged scholars to presume that the text is incoherent and in need of repair, as well as that the text has little or nothing to say about how law relates to selfhood. This paper challenges scholarship’s division of Psalm 40. It is a single text of two parts that fit together: one part praise, one part lament. Dividing it has tended to be based on problematic assumptions, which have fostered competing recreations of its original shape. In this liturgical text, praise and lament work together theoretically, literarily, and theologically. Psalm 40 portrays deliverance being followed by a crisis. It has a cluster of linguistic and conceptual resemblances to other texts: writing on the heart; subject formation; perfection; and law. Psalm 40 is a critical or reserved voice in a discussion of how legalities relate to the self. It invites comparison with texts in the book of Jeremiah about law as a way to perfect the self (esp. Jeremiah 30–33). Writing has permanent effects in Jeremiah 31, but not in Psalm 40. Whether or not there is a direct literary link between these two texts, they display divergent logic on law’s relation to human flourishing, which helps us differentiate between viewpoints in antiquity. After situating these issues of law and self within an ancient, multifaceted discourse, I turn to a study of Psalm 40.

Dead Sea Discoveries (Brill), 2021

This article discusses the "heart" as part of the terminology for selfhood in ancient Jewish lite... more This article discusses the "heart" as part of the terminology for selfhood in ancient Jewish literature. After discussing a couple of criticisms of studies of the self and showing how these criticisms fail to persuade, the paper examines a range of texts in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and beyond for conceptions of the moral self. Special attention is given to the legal S tradition in the Scrolls as a fruitful illustration of how the self and law are recurring conceptual companions. In this legal tradition, a universalizing conception of selfhood and agency is rooted in local, practical concerns of a community.

The Journal of Religion (The University of Chicago Press), 2020

Whether the scope is the canon or wisdom literature alone, Qohelet has often been designated, rig... more Whether the scope is the canon or wisdom literature alone, Qohelet has often been designated, rightly or wrongly, as an independent voice over and against tradition, someone who is marginal or peculiar in his outlook on authority, moral order, and people's connection to the deity. 1 In the book of Ecclesiastes, an issue where these matters coincide is the motif of ‫י‬ ‫ר‬ ‫א‬ ‫ת‬ ‫א‬ ‫ל‬ ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ‫ם‬

Journal of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter), 2019

Although Hannah Arendt only explicitly references the book of Ecclesiastes in order to contrast i... more Although Hannah Arendt only explicitly references the book of Ecclesiastes in order to contrast its views with her own, she and Qoheleth parallel each other on substantive issues. After showing how an influential translation of a key motif from Ecclesiastes led Arendt to misapprehend Qoheleth, this study unpacks their intellectual common ground on matters of affirming worldly life; the nature of action; and critical views of the human heart. Yet this third area which addresses human nature also highlights a divergence between them on how thinking relates to the problem of evil.

Harvard Theological Review (Cambridge University Press), 2017

Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (De Gruyter), 2015

Judging from the intertextual activity between Psalm 86 and the earlier text blocks of Exodus 32-... more Judging from the intertextual activity between Psalm 86 and the earlier text blocks of Exodus 32-34 and Jeremiah 30-33, this psalm likely originated in the exilic or post-exilic period. An overlooked issue in the petition of Ps 86,11 is the notion of the »divided« heart, which, according to the psalmist, is an ethical and theological problem that can only be solved by receiving instruction from Yhwh -an endowed, »unifying« instruction inseparable from divine ‫.חסד‬ By attending to the psalmist's reapplication and reworking of other texts, as well as to the Rabbinic reception of Psalm 86, one can see how this text is part of an exilic and post-exilic discussion of human sinfulness as a problem that is internal to human beings and that impairs moral agency.

Jeremiah’s Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, and Transformation (Brill), 2016

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology (Oxford University Press), 2015

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter), 2016

Events organized by Phillip Michael Lasater

Thematik/Durchführung Die alttestamentliche Forschung wird seit mehr als 40 Jahre durch intensive... more Thematik/Durchführung Die alttestamentliche Forschung wird seit mehr als 40 Jahre durch intensive Untersuchungen zur Bildwelt Palästinas/Israels bereichert. Altorientalische und ägyptische Bildtraditionen haben in diesem Rahmen eine wesentliche, erschliessende Funktion. Textwelt und Bildwelt müssen aus exegetischer Sicht zu einander ins Verhältnis gesetzt werden. Im Rahmen eines Blockseminars sollen zum einen Spezialistinnen und Spezialisten der Universitäten Zürich, Fribourg und Bern zu Wort kommen, die einschlägige Forschung zur Themenstellung betrieben haben. Ausgiebige Diskussion-und Rückfrage-runden sind stets Teil des Programms. Zudem gewährt ein Auswärtstermin in Fribourg Einblicke in die Forschung und Vermittlung des Bibel+Orient Museums. Einblicke "hinter die Kulissen" des Museums und Detailstudien mit physischer Nähe zu Text-und Bildobjekten helfen, die Theorieeinheiten prak-tisch (haptisch) zu ergänzen.

The manuscript, in its wide variety of forms and physical carriers, is the primary medium of sour... more The manuscript, in its wide variety of forms and physical carriers, is the primary medium of source material for studying the pre-modern world across disciplines and cultures. The existence of shared concepts and methods in the field of manuscript studies suggests the potential of an integrated approach to manuscript traditions in a broader cross-cultural comparative perspective. This lecture series, structured as a set of six lectures concluded by a roundtable discussion, fosters such a comparative perspective by inviting experts on three manuscript traditions (Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew) to address a few key questions in the field of manuscript studies. The main focus of the series will be on the manuscript as a physical object, the interaction and dialogue of its materiality with the written text, the circumstances of its production, reproduction and transmission down through the ages, and on its function and use at different times and places in the history of oral and written communication.

Book reviews by Phillip Michael Lasater

Review of Biblical Literature, 2020

Review of Biblical Literature, 2019