22.11.2024
Doctoral thesis on the role and function of Adam in rabbinic sources
Picture by Satu Karmavalo, Studio Koo.
M.Th. Jonatan Ådahl’s doctoral thesis in Exegetics will be put forth for public defence at the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology at Åbo Akademi University.
The thesis is entitled Adam Outside Genesis: Connecting Texts: Three Studies on Rabbinical Reception of Adam.
The public defence of the doctoral thesis takes place on Friday 29 November 2024, at 12PM in the auditorium in Theologiska annexet-building, Theologicum, Piispankatu 16, Turku. Professor Emeritus Günter Stemberger, University of Vienna, Austria, will serve as opponent and Professor Antti Laato, Åbo Akademi.
Summary
Adam, where are you? — God’s question to Adam in Genesis is a question that the Bible reader, the modern as well as the ancient, can identify with. Where is Adam in the other biblical texts? Modern exegesis only claims to find the person Adam outside of Genesis in a few places. However, the ancient interpreters read with other assumptions and under different conditions.
In his dissertation, Jonatan Ådahl investigates the role and function of Adam in rabbinic sources from late antiquity. The rabbinic texts analyzed have based their interpretations on biblical passages taken from outside Genesis 1–5 but understood the biblical texts as referring to the person Adam in creation.
The rabbinic texts investigated are Pesiqta de Rab Kahana 4:3–4, Genesis Rabbah 19:9, and Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 38b, and the main biblical texts functioning as base for the rabbinical interpretations are 1 Kgs 5:11, Ps 8:5, Eccl 8:1, Ezek 28:12–13, and Hos 6:7.
The concept of the “self-evident” is an important tool in the study and together with “keyword association” they show themselves to be crucial in order to understand the rabbinical texts and the network of biblical texts and themes linked together in the ancient interpretations.
Jonatan Ådahl can be reached by email jonatan.adahl jonatan.adahl@abo.fi.
The doctoral thesis can be read online through the Doria publication archive.
Click here for a press photo of the doctoral student. The picture is by Satu Karmavalo, Studio Koo.