Dr. Amy-Jill Levine's Book Selected for Prestigious Award

The book The Pharisees, co-edited by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, HIU's Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, has been selected to receive a 2023 BAS Publication Award in the category “Best Book on the New Testament.” Dr. Levine edited the book with Rev. Dr. Joseph Sievers, who serves as professor of Jewish history and literature of the Hellenistic Period at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) was founded in 1974 as a nonprofit, nondenominational, educational organization dedicated to the dissemination of information about archaeology in the Bible lands and the Bible through its flagship magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR), website, tours, seminars, and publications. 

Covering both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, BAR magazine presents the latest discoveries and controversies in archaeology.

The formal announcement of the award appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review with the following description:

The Pharisees is a landmark volume that tackles a longstanding problem in the field of New Testament studies by bringing together an astonishingly broad variety of relevant scholars with a stunningly wide breadth of expertise—including literary and archaeological perspectives, Jewish and Christian contexts, and ancient and modern purviews. The negative portrayal of Pharisees in the New Testament and its effects on the history of anti-Semitism have been long noted, including in relation to a difficult legacy of anti-Judaism that has been shaped and shaped by the academic study of the New Testament. This volume addresses the problem head-on, updating our historical understanding of this group in light of new data and approaches, while simultaneously modeling the relevance of the academic study of the New Testament for our understanding of our present and past.

Congratulations, AJ!