Biblical composition
Work on the formation of biblical literature, editorial strata, and the history of scriptural redaction.
Hebrew Bible and textual history
Personal homepage
Idan Dorshav Dershowitz is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose work focuses on the evolution of biblical religion, the techniques employed by biblical scribes and editors, and computational methods for tracing the origins of ancient texts.
Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director, Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation; Acting Research Director, School of Philosophical, Historical, and Indigenous Studies, Monash University
2Books
23Publications
Focus
Areas of work
Research here centers on biblical composition, manuscript history, and computational methods for the study of ancient texts.
Ancient textual history
Research on early witnesses, disputed discoveries, and the transmission history of biblical material.
Computational methods
Digital approaches to authorship, orthography, and the decomposition of composite texts.
Books
Featured books
Two book-length studies anchor recent work on scriptural redaction and the Shapira fragments.
The Dismembered Bible: Cutting and Pasting Scripture in Antiquity
A study of editorial processes behind the Hebrew Bible, with close attention to the seams and errors left behind by ancient redactors.
The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book
An argument that the Shapira Deuteronomy fragments preserve a remarkably early edition of biblical material.
Writing
Selected publications
Books, articles, reference entries, essays, and digital humanities work.
The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021
The Dismembered Bible: Cutting and Pasting Scripture in Antiquity
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021
The Forgotten Meaning of אוֹת
Vetus Testamentum (2025), with Na’ama Pat-El
MORDECAI, SON OF JAIR (HEBREW BIBLE/OLD TESTAMENT)
Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) 18, De Gruyter (2020; forthcoming)
NAOMI (HEBREW BIBLE/OLD TESTAMENT)
Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) 18, De Gruyter (2020; forthcoming)
Four Unidentified Fragments from 4QJoba (4Q99)
Revue de Qumrân (RevQ) 32 (2020), with Rebekka Luther
Press
Selected coverage
Essays, profiles, and media coverage across English, German, and Hebrew outlets.
An die falsche Stelle geklebt
German
כך התגלה שספר התורה הקדום בעולם אינו זיוף
Hebrew
Is a Long-Dismissed Forgery Actually the Oldest Known Biblical Manuscript?
English
The Secret History of Leviticus
English
Resources
Digital projects and reference material
Kennicott material, source-criticism tables, and downloadable PDFs.
Kennicott Key
Key according to Kennicott number, with links to the Ktiv catalog and many digitized manuscripts.
Source Criticism Results
Verse-by-verse source-criticism results together with a summary comparison against scholarly consensus.
Etnachta
Background on the Etnachta project, with a link to the live tool.
Available PDFs
Downloadable publication PDFs and the open-access Valediction volume.
- The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book
- The Forgotten Meaning of אוֹת
- Computerized Source Criticism of Biblical Texts
- Orthography and Biblical Criticism
- Unsupervised Decomposition of a Document into Authorial Components
- Exploiting Synonym Choice to Identify Discrete Components of a Document
- A Land Flowing with Fat and Honey