Daniel E. Fleming

Daniel Edward Fleming is an American Assyriologist and biblical scholar whose work centers on Hebrew Bible interpretation and cultural history, ancient Syria, Emar, ancient religion, and the interplay of ancient Near Eastern societies.^[2] Since 1990, he has served as a professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, where he has spent his whole career.^[2]

Career

Fleming received his B.A. at Stanford University in 1979 and his Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1985 before earning his doctoral degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1990.^[2] After receiving his Ph.D., he was immediately appointed to the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.^[2] Fleming is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (2004-05), the American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (2004-05), Senior Fulbright Fellowship to France (1997-98) and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend (1991).^[3] He currently serves as a Senior Fellow for the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University.^[2] He also serves on the editorial board for The World of the Bible.^[3]

Research

Fleming works broadly in ancient Near Eastern history, with anchors especially in second-millennium Syria and the first-millennium Levant as a matrix for ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible.^[4] His research involves straddling two separate and sometimes territorial disciplines: Assyriology and biblical studies—both defined by written evidence that must be placed in context based on archaeological and visual sources as well.^[4] His framework for treating these domains as part of a whole is ultimately historical, and Fleming's individual projects have probed various aspects of the social fabric and political patterns that characterize the region in broad terms.^[4]

The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible

In his 2012 monograph The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition, Fleming puts forth a new theory and methodology for Hebrew Bible scholarship: isolating a tentative repertoire of Israelite traditions that can then be compared with external sources of historical evidence.^[5] After letting his theory serve as a catalyst for his doctoral students' research for several years, the publication set a new agenda for future engagement of ancient Israel and Hebrew Bible scholarship with wider study of antiquity.^[5] According to Fleming, his theory:

ultimately attempts to bridge between the worlds of biblical scholarship and archaeologically based history... It addresses the structure and character of the Bible's primary narrative through [his] vision of a particular relationship between a hodgepodge of lore about early Israel that has been taken over and recast radically by generations of scribes from Judah. This Israelite lore, when considered on its own, presents a picture of ancient Israel that contrasts sufficiently with standard "biblical" schemes as to provoke reevaluation of what the Bible may offer historical investigation. It is [his] hope that by taking ever more seriously the biblical division between what comes from the distinct peoples of Israel and Judah, the character of each will come into sharper relief.^[6]

Fleming's work has received advanced praise among senior biblical scholars. David M. Carr writes that the monograph is "one of the most important books published in biblical studies in the last decade."^[7] Israel Finkelstein calls the book "a classic—a must for anyone interested in the Bible and the history of Ancient Israel.”^[7] According to Mark S. Smith, Fleming's work "is a superb piece of scholarship," which "no professor or graduate student interested in the Hebrew Bible or ancient Israel can do without."^[7]

Bibliography

Monographs

• The Installation of Baal's High Priestess at Emar: a window on ancient Syrian religion, (Scholars Press, 1992)
• Time at Emar: the cultic calendar and the rituals from the diviner's archive, (Eisenbrauns, 2000)
• Anticipating Ancient Democracy: the political world of Mari, (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
• Democracy's Ancient Ancestors: Mari and Early Collective Governance, (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
• The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic: the Akkadian Huwawa Narrative (with Sara J Milstein), (Brill, 2010)
• The Ancient Near East: an anthology of texts and pictures (with James B Pritchard), (Princeton University Press, 2011)
• The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition, (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
• Forthcoming: Between Judah and Joseph: The People of Benjamin and the Development of “Israel” (with Lauren Monroe)^[8]

Articles and Chapters

• "'house'/'city': an Unrecognized Parallel Word Pair." Journal of Biblical Literature. 105.4 (1986): 689-693.
• "Job: the Tale of Patient Faith and the Book of God's Dilemma." Vetus Testamentum. 44.4 (1994): 468-482.
• "More Help from Syria: Introducing Emar to Biblical Study." The Biblical Archaeologist. 58.3 (1995): 139-147.
• "Mari and the Possibilities of Biblical Memory." Revue D'assyriologie Et D'archéologie Orientale. 92.1 (1998): 41-78.
• "If El Is a Bull, Who Is a Calf? Reflections on Religion in Second-Millennium Syria-Palestine." Eretz-israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (1999)
• "Mari's Large Public Tent and the Priestly Tent Sanctuary." Vetus Testamentum. 50.4 (2000): 484-498.
• "Schloen's Patrimonial Pyramid: Explaining Bronze Age Society" Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. (2002): 73-80.
• "Ur: After the Gods Abandoned Us." The Classical World. 97.1 (2003): 5-18.
• "The Integration of Household and Community Religion in Ancient Syria." (2009): 37-59 (in Household and Family Religion in Antiquity)
• "Living by Livestock in Israel’s Exodus: Explaining Origins Over Distance" (2015): 483-491 (in Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective)
• "Chasing Down the Mundane: the Near East with Social Historical Interest." Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History. 1.1 (n.d.)
• "Psalm 127: Sleep for the Fearful, and Security in Sons." Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 107.3 (n.d.).

References