The Biblical Hebrew Reading Group provides an opportunity to read biblical texts under the guidance of great international scholars, junior Research Fellows and advanced postgraduate students. The reading group allows students, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral ones, to improve their fluency in Hebrew and connect the philological working of the biblical text with conceptual frameworks. This group also allows students to engage at all levels—those with more fluency read and translate, and those with less experience contribute to the conceptual work while practicing reading and grammar.
Trinity Term 2026
Weeks 2–8, Mondays, 11:30–12:30,
Harris Seminar Room (Oriel College)
Convened by Hindy Najman and Cian Power
Week 1 (Monday, 27 April)
No session: Conference ‘My Tongue is the Pen of a Skillful Scribe’ (Psalm 45:2): Poetics, Performance, and Philology (26–27 April, Oriel College
Week 2 (Monday, 4 May)
Oliver Geffen (Oriel): Genesis 21:9-20
Week 3 (Monday, 11 May)
Johan Lundberg (Oxford): Genesis 24:1-9
Week 4 (Monday, 18 May)
Weston Library manuscript session, B XII Recto MS.Heb.e.62 Ben Sira 42:11-42:23 (text will be pre-circulated); sign-up form to be circulated. Please note that this session will meet from 13:00-14:00
Week 5 (Monday, 25 May)
Pia Regensburger (Oriel): Exodus 3:4-15
Week 6 (Monday, 1 June)
Weston Library manuscript session, Mekhilta de-Rabi Yishma’el (ff. 152v). Bodleian Library MS. Marshall Or. 24. Catalogue Identifier: Neubauer 151 (text will be precirculated); sign-up form to be circulate
Week 7 (Monday, 8 June)
Joseph Harrison (St. Edmund Hall): Isaiah 13:20-22; 34:11-16
Week 8 (Monday, 15 June)
Avishai Bar-Asher (Hebrew University of Jerusalem):
§§247–251 in the Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur (text will be pre-circulated)
Consult the Oriel College porter’s lodge for the 4-digit code to enter the Harris Seminar Room.
For any enquiries, please write to ocsb@oriel.ox.ac.uk.
For programme updates, please see the website: https://www.centreforbible.oriel.ox.ac.uk/events/biblical-hebrew-reading-group/.