Joshua Berman

Joshua Berman (Hebrew: יהושע ברמן; born February 29, 1964) is an Orthodox rabbi and professor of bible at Bar-Ilan University. He is known for his views on the history of Jewish belief, and on biblical source criticism, arguing that "knowledge of the cultural context of the ancient Near East" is required in understanding the scriptures. Berman earned his A.B. at Princeton University in 1987 and his PhD at Bar-Ilan University in 2002. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion for eight years. Before completing his PhD, Berman taught Bible at the Nishmat Midrasha for several years. Berman is a frequent contributor to Mosaic Magazine, a magazine for Jewish ideas, religion, politics, and culture, and has written there on a variety of topics including most commonly the Israelite exodus out of Egypt and the current state of biblical studies, where he has drawn both agreement and disagreement from other scholars. Berman began as a strong proponent of the documentary hypothesis and late Persian authorship, but became convinced of the reliability of the Hebrew Bible after years of research.