Diana Lipton

Diana Lipton's research interests range from literary, ideological and theological approaches to a wide variety of Hebrew Bible texts to the use of Bible in rabbinic texts. Her most recent book is Longing for Egypt and Other Unexpected Biblical Tales, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008, which explores seven cases of textual complexity masked by simple readings. One chapter uncovers a counter-intuitive longing for Egypt alongside the Exodus account of liberation from persecution. Another shows how what appears to be a critical attitude in the Bible towards other gods may reflect inner-Israelite tensions rather than principled antipathy toward others. Other chapters variously confront the praise of God as a perfect king with the use of the language of divine kingship for constructive criticism; make a case for reading biblical law as a vehicle for quasi-erotic engagement; reassess foreign women in the Bible; and consider the implication for exegesis of biblical conceptions of Time. Earlier books are a monograph, Revisions of the Night: Politics and Promises in the Patriarchal Dreams of Genesis, Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, and an Oxford Reader in Feminism and Theology, co-edited with J.M. Soskice, OUP, 2003. Diana is currently working on a reception history commentary on Lamentations (with Paul M. Joyce), Blackwell Bible Commentaries (forthcoming); an edited volume on universalism and particularism in Genesis 18-19; and (her main project) a book reassessing the use of the Bible in talmudic narratives. Recent published articles include 'I have always relied on the kindness of strangers: Abraham, Amos, and the Politics of Intervention', forthcoming in a collection on The Bible and Justice (M. Coomber, ed.); 'Feeding the Green-Eyed Monster: Bitter Waters, Flood Waters, and the Theology of Exile', forthcoming in Embroidered Garments: Priests and Gender in Biblical Israel (D.W. Rooke, ed.); 'God's back! What did Moses See on Sinai?' in The Significance of Sinai. Traditions about Divine Revelation in Judaism an Christianity (G. Brooke, H. Najman, L. Stuckenbruck, eds), Brill, 2008. Recent presented papers include 'And we were together' (1 Kings 3:18): Solomon's window on two biblical worldviews' (SBL, Boston); '"Like food for the birds of the sky": Staged death as prophetic intercession' (SBL, Boston); 'The burning question: Rethinking the Akhnai Oven (bBM 59b) in light of its biblical background' (ISBL, Vienna, WCJS, Jerusalem); 'What’s in a Name? The Biblical Background of a Talmudic Martyrdom' (AJS, Washington); and 'Arousing Compassion: Is Rabbinic Intercession Gendered' (AJS, Toronto).

Literary, ideological and theological reading of the Hebrew Bible; rabbinic Torah.