Dr Sarah Pearce

Dr Sarah Pearce

History
School of Humanities
University of Southampton
Southampton
S017 1BJ

Position: Senior Lecturer. On leave 2009-10.

Research interests

I specialise in the interpretation of Jewish literature and history of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. My particular research interests deal with Jewish religious writings and the interpretation of Scripture by Jews and Christians in antiquity. My previous research and publications focus on the interpretation of Biblical Law in the Second Temple Period, in sources which include the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus and Philo of Alexandria. More recently, my work has been concentrated in two main areas: the allegory of Egypt in the writings of Philo of Alexandria; and the historical context of the Greek Bible translation.

I am Co-Director of the Greek Bible Project, one of the five projects of the AHRC-funded Parkes Centre for the Study of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations. The Greek Bible Project, which runs from 2001-2006, will provide the first full-scale analysis of historical approaches to the interpretation of the Greek Bible, the results of which will be published in a monograph and electronic database. The project also hosted a major international colloquium on Hellenistic Monarchy at Somerville College, Oxford, in March 2003.

Areas where I can offer postgraduate supervision:

Jewish history and literature of the Second Temple Period, especially Jewish Bible interpretation, the Greek Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo of Alexandria, and Josephus.

Contact

Room: 2047
Tel: +44 (0)2380 592 941
Email: sjp2@soton.ac.uk

Publications

Articles and chapters in books:

  • ‘Josephus as Interpreter of Biblical Law: the Representation of the High Court of Deut. 17.8-12 according to Jewish Antiquities 4.218’, Journal of Jewish Studies 46, 1995, pp. 30-42.

  • ‘Flavius Josephus as Interpreter of Biblical Law: the Council of Seven and the Levitical Servants in Jewish Antiquities 4.214’, The Heythrop Journal 36, 1995, pp. 477-92.

  • ‘Echoes of Eden in the Old Greek of Susanna’, Feminist Theology 11, 1996, pp. 11-31.

  • ‘Belonging and Not Belonging: Local Perspectives in Philo of Alexandria’, in S. Jones and S. Pearce (eds), Jewish Local Patriotism and Self-Identification in the Graeco-Roman Period, Sheffield University Press,1998, pp. 79-105.

  • ‘Attitudes of Contempt: Christian Anti-Judaism and the Bible’, in S. Jones, T. Kushner, S. Pearce (eds), Cultures of Ambivalence and Contempt: Studies in Jewish-Non-Jewish Relations, Vallentine Mitchell, pp. 50-71.

  • ‘Josephus and the Witness Laws of Deuteronomy’, in J. Kalms (ed.), Internationales Josephus-Kolloquium Aarhus 1999. LIT Verlag, Münster/ Hamburg/ London, 2000, pp. 122-34.

  • ‘3 Maccabees’, in J. Barton (ed.), The Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 773-775.

  • ‘Contextualising Greek Chronicles’, Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2001, pp. 22-28.

  • ‘Judaea under Roman Rule, in J. Barton (ed.), The Biblical World Volume 1, Routledge, 2002, pp. 458-91.

  • ‘Jerusalem as Mother City in the Writings of Philo of Alexandria’, in J. Barclay (ed.), Negotiating Diaspora: Jewish Strategies in the Roman Empire, T&T Clark, 2004, pp. 19-36.

  • 'King Moses: Notes on Philo's Portrait of Moses as an Ideal Leader in the Life of Moses', in E.Gannagé, P.Crone, M. Aouad, D. Gutas, E. Schütrumpf (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought, Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut, Volume LVII (2004), pp. 37-74.

  • ‘Speaking with the Voice of God: The High Court according to Greek Deuteronomy 17:8-13’, in C. Hempel and J.M. Lieu (eds), Biblical Traditions in Transmission. Essays in Honour of Michael A. Knibb, Brill, 2006, pp. 237-248.

  • ‘Josephus’, ‘Onkelos’, ‘Philo’, ‘Pseudepigrapha’, in E. Kessler and N. Wenborn (eds), A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  • ‘Philo on the Nile’, in J. Frey and D. Schwartz (eds), Jewish Identity in the Greco-Roman World, Brill, 2007, pp. 137-157.

  • ‘Translating for Ptolemy: Patriotism and Politics in the Greek Pentateuch’, in T. Rajak, S. Pearce, J. Aitken and J. Dines (eds), Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers (University of California Press, 2007), 165-189.

Edited books:

  • Jewish Local Patriotism and Self-Identification in the Graeco-Roman Period

  • S. Jones and S. Pearce (eds), Jewish Local Patriotism and Self-Identification in the Graeco-Roman Period (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998). 

  • S. Jones, T. Kushner, S. Pearce (eds), Cultures of Ambivalence and Contempt: Studies in Jewish-Non-Jewish Relations (Vallentine Mitchell, 1998).

    Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers

     

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Books:JThe Land of the Body: Studies in Philo’s Representation of Egypt

  • The Land of the Body: Studies in Philo’s Representation of Egypt. (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament). Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

  • The Words of Moses. Studies in the Reception of Deuteronomy in the Second Temple Period. (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum). Mohr Siebeck, 2007 (forthcoming).
Teaching responsibilities for Dr Sarah Pearce
Module title Module code Discipline Role
Dead Sea Scrolls 1 HIST3045 History Course leader
Dead Sea Scrolls 2 HIST3046 History Course leader
Dead Sea Scrolls 2A (CH Dissertation Route) HIST3047 History Course leader
The Eternal City: the City of Rome, from Foundation to 200AD HIST2055 History Course leader
Alternative Sexualities HIST3121 History Tutor

Publications from e–Prints Soton

Pearce, Sarah (2007) Translating for Ptolemy: patriotism and politics in the Greek Pentateuch? In, Rajak, Tessa, Pearce, Sarah, Aitken, James and Dines, Jennifer (eds.) Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Kingship. Berkeley, USA, University of California Press, 165-189.
Pearce, Sarah (2007) The Land of the Body: Studies in Philo's Representation of Egypt , Tübingen, Germany, Mohr Siebeck, 365pp. (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 208)
Pearce, Sarah (2004) Jerusalem as "Mother-City" in the writings of Philo of Alexandria. In, Barclay, John M.G. (ed.) Negotiating Diaspora: Jewish Strategies in the Roman Empire. London, UK, New York, US, T & T Clark International, 19-37. (Library of Second Temple Studies 45).
Pearce, Sarah (2004) King Moses: notes on Philo’s portrait of Moses as an ideal leader in the life of Moses. (In special issue: The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought: Proceedings of the Conference held at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 16-27 June 2003). Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph, LVII, 37-74.
Pearce, Sarah (2002) Judaea under Roman rule 63-135 CE. In, Barton, John (ed.) The Biblical World. London, UK, New York, USA, Routledge, 458-491.