I seek a postdoctoral researcher for the project “Early Jewish Apocalypticism in the Hellenistic Levant” at the Department of Bible, Tel Aviv University. The project studies the myth of the Watchers (Fallen Angels) in early enochic compositions and the Book of Giants, with special emphasis on comparative mythology and on the setting in the early Hellenistic period. The researcher will study any aspect of the myth with relation to the project’s guidelines, including for example: comparative mythology, esp. The Phoenician History by Philo of Byblos but also Babylonian or Greek sources; divine epithets in the enochic corpus; textual history of 1 Enoch; archeology and history of the upper Galilee in the early Hellenistic period; related Aramaic writings; afterlives of Mesopotamian mythology in the West; Greek mythology in the eastern Mediterranean; and more. The project cooperates with the “Mapping Ancient Polytheisms” group at the University of Jean Jaurès, Toulouse.
Researchers will carry their own research in these fields, and will cooperate with the PI (Ben-Dov) and with other team members; will co-organize a conference on the topic of the project, and will interact with the vibrant community of scholars of Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Ancient Near East at Tel Aviv University.
The term starts ideally on October 2022 but earlier dates will also be considered.
Duration: 1 academic year. Possible prolongation by another year.
Sum of Stipend: 70,000 – 100,000 NIS. Applicants are encouraged to apply for competitive matching from TAU.
Candidates should be within 5 years of the approval of their PhD. Researchers are expected to be present at TAU for at least several months during the year of fellowship.
Please submit your CV, sample publication, a letter of intent, and one letter of reference by January 31st 2022.
For further information see for example:
יונתן בן-דב, “מבול ביער הלבנון: שרידים מיתולוגיים מן הלבנט במגילות מדבר יהודה,” מגילות יד (תשע”ט) 203-189
Jonathan Ben-Dov, “Neo-Babylonian Rock-Reliefs and the Jewish Literary Imagination,” in Afterlives of Ancient Rock-Cut Monuments in the Ancient Near East. Carvings In and Out of Time, ed. J. Ben-Dov and F. Rojas, CHANE 123 (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 345-379.