Biblical composition
Work on the formation of biblical literature, editorial strata, and the history of scriptural redaction.
Idan Dorshav Dershowitz
Research on the Hebrew Bible, biblical religion, scribal and editorial practice, manuscript transmission, and computational methods for studying ancient texts.
Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director, Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation; Acting Research Director, School of Philosophical, Historical, and Indigenous Studies, Monash University
Research
Lines of inquiry
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
Book-length work
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 articles
Articles on biblical composition, law, textual history, and computational methods.
The Forgotten Meaning of אוֹת
Vetus Testamentum (2025), with Na’ama Pat-El
Response to: ‘Was There Ever an Implicit Acceptance of Male Homosexual Intercourse in Leviticus 18?’ by George M. Hollenback
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZAW) 131:4 (2019)
Revealing Nakedness and Concealing Homosexual Intercourse: Legal and Lexical Evolution in Leviticus 18
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI) 6:4 (2017)
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
Digital Humanities
Etnachta, the Kennicott Key, Computerized Source Criticism of the Bible, and the Aleppo Codex digitization project.
Etnachta
Interactive platform for verse-by-verse te'amim grammar, featuring advanced cantillation search, English transliteration, and quizzes.
Kennicott Key
Key according to Kennicott number, with links to the Ktiv catalog and many digitized manuscripts.
Computerized Source Criticism of the Bible
Computational source-criticism work applying algorithmic methods to biblical texts, with attention to authorship signals, textual segmentation, and source-critical analysis.
Aleppo Codex Digitization Project
Project lead for the Aleppo Codex digitization project, a Ben-Zvi Institute collaboration with the University of Haifa's Eliyahu Lab. The project is developing an advanced search interface, aligning searchable HTR text with high-resolution page images, mapping lines and words to their exact locations, and supporting text-reuse detection and future comparison layers.