Assistant Professor of Old Testament

CV | joel.baden@yale.edu Phone:203-432-5338
Denomination: Jewish

Prof. Joel Baden is a specialist in the Pentateuch and Biblical Hebrew.  He is the author of the books J, E, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch (Mohr Siebeck, 2009) and The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (Yale University Press, in press), and the co-editor of the volume The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary Debate and Future Directions (TVZ, 2009).

Prof. Baden has published numerous articles and essays on individual pentateuchal texts, critical methodology, and Biblical Hebrew, in The Journal of Biblical Literature, Vetus Testamentum, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, and Hebrew Studies, as well as in various edited volumes.   Future projects include commentaries on Deuteronomy (IECOT) and Exodus (Anchor).

Quote

What is most necessary in contemporary source-critical scholarship is a return to the simplest possible explanations for the various problems presented by the canonical text of the Pentateuch, based first and foremost on the literary evidence, before any historical or theological conclusions regarding the sources or their combination can be made. This entails carefully reexamining the basic arguments and conclusions on which source-critical scholarship has depended.
- J, E, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch, 313.

Books

1. The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (Yale University Press, 2012)
2. The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary Debate and Future Directions, co-ed. (AThANT 95; Theologischer Verlag, 2009)
3. J, E, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch (FAT 68; Mohr Siebeck, 2009)

Courses

Hebrew Exegesis: Leviticus
Old Testament Interpretation
English Exegesis: The Book of Joshua
Advanced Biblical Hebrew: Poetry
Advanced Biblical Hebrew: Prose
Hebrew Exegesis: Genesis 1-11
Composition of the Pentateuch
Methods of Reading the Pentateuch
Elementary Hebrew