Dr. Arjen Bakker

Biography

Arjen Bakker's research focuses on Jewish literature in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Persian during the Greco-Roman periods, alongside early Jewish liturgy and Hellenistic Judaism. He has examined Jewish wisdom texts from the Hellenistic period, integrating contemplation and the history of cosmological secrets into liturgical practices in his book 'Secret Time: Reconfiguring Wisdom' (Brill 2023). Currently, he is working on a book that focuses on the development of early Jewish prayer and the sacrificial cult associated with the Jerusalem Temple, including the emergence of synagogues in the Hellenistic world. Additionally, he has started a new project at the Einstein Center Chronoi in Berlin, exploring concepts of time in Jewish philosophical texts from antiquity. His focus is particularly on the writings of Philo of Alexandria and the origins and organization of the cosmos, marking a highly innovative integration of Greek philosophy and Jewish cosmological thinking. He teaches courses such as 'Shaping Jewish Identity (332 BCE – 70 CE)', 'Judaism in the Graeco-Roman World', 'Intermediate Hebrew', 'Advanced Hebrew', and 'Dead Sea Scrolls' for MPhil students, and welcomes proposals for MPhil and PhD research topics related to Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods.

Research Interests

Courses