Although the text of the Bible was fully “standardized” only in the 8th–9th century CE, the books of the Bible have been written down more or less in their final form much earlier and were known already by 200–100 BCE. Therefore, it is fascinating to look at other authors who re-tell the biblical stories (in particular the Torah stories) that we are all familiar with. In this course we will look at two such re-tellers who are not connected and are at least 500 years apart. On one hand we will look at the way the historian Josephus Flavius re-tells the biblical stories in his book The Antiquities of the Jews, written around 93–94 CE. We will compare it with the way the Quran (told and written down around 609–650 CE) re-tells these stories. As we will see, while by the time of Josephus, the Jewish Midrash was not yet fully developed and therefore has little influence on his writings, by the time Muhammad re-tells the stories and tailors them to his theology, the impact of Jewish Midrash on these stories is substantial.

Gideon Amir was born in Holland to Holocaust survivors. The family went to Israel in 1947.  He grew up in Jerusalem.  Like all Israelis, after finishing high school, Gideon joined the Israeli army where he volunteered and served in the Paratroopers. Gideon received a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rechovot. In 1980, he moved to the United States, where he worked as a manager in several companies including Sperry Univac, British Telecom and Cisco Systems. In 1999 he followed his old interest in Judaic Studies.  He enrolled in a full-time graduate program at Baltimore Hebrew University, where, in May 2001, he received a Master’s Degree (with honors) and completed further studies.  As such, he re-directed his passion for teaching from computer science to the teaching of Jewish and Bible subjects at various adult education programs like the Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies, Osher at Johns Hopkins University and Oasis, for whom he has been teaching for years now, continuously. He is also a regular teacher in synagogues, churches, and other organizations. 

$36/members; $50/nonmembers

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