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Professor David Shepherd

Professor (School of Religion)

 shepherd@tcd.ie

 


Research Tags

  Ancient bible translation   Aramaic Studies   Bible and Popular Culture   Bible and the Moving Image   Critical theory and Theology   Deuteronomistic History   Early Israelite history and religion   Ezra-Nehemiah   Jewish studies   Judges   Wisdom Literature

Research Projects

 Rediscovering Ancient Hebrew Imagery in Irish Stained Glass
 The Silents of Jesus: Representations of the life and passion of the Christ in the early Cinema'

Representations

Details Date
Co-Editor, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament (one of the two leading journals in my discipline) 2016 -
Committee Member, Bible and Visual Art program unit, Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting 2023 -
Committee Member, Book of Samuel: Narrative, Theology and Interpretation Program Unit, Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting 2023 -
External Member, Appointment Panel for an academic post in Hebrew Bible, University of Aarhus, Denmark Mar 2021
Member, Expert Accreditation Panel, Institute of Theology of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (on behalf of the Estonian Quality Agency for Education) Mar 2023
PhD Examiner, St Mary's University, Twickenham Jan 2023
PhD Examiner, University College London Jan 2023
PhD Examiner, Durham University Oct 2019
Vice-President, International Organization for Targum Studies 2018 -
Secretary, Society for Old Testament Study (UK and Ireland) 2015 - 2021
Co-Chair, Bible and Visual Culture program unit, Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting 2016 -
Vice-President, Irish Biblical Association 2015 - 2018
Committee Member, International Organisation for Targum Studies 2013 - 2018
Co-Chair, The Bible and the Moving Image programme unit, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature 2011 - 2015
External Examiner, Durham University, PG programmes (biblical studies) 2016 - 2019
External Examiner, University of Sheffield, UG programme (biblical studies) 2011 - 2015
PhD Examiner, Manchester University 2015
PhD Examiner, University of Aberdeen 2014
Member, Editorial Board, Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha 2015 - 2019

Languages

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Medium Basic Basic
German Basic Basic Basic
Hebrew Fluent Basic Basic

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
Member, Society of Biblical Literature 1998 present
Member, Society for Old Testament Study 2000 present
Member, Irish Biblical Association 2005 present
Member, International Organization for Targum Studies 1998 present
David J. Shepherd and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer (eds.), Oxford Handbook of King David, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2024, Book, APPROVED
The Reception of the Hebrew Bible in Literature, Theatre and Film in, editor(s)John Barton , Understanding the Hebrew Bible: Essays by members of the Society for Old Testament Study, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2024, [David J. Shepherd], Book Chapter, IN_PRESS
David Shepherd, King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023, Book, PUBLISHED
David J. Shepherd, Response, Panel Review Session devoted to my monograph, King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt (OUP, 2023), Society of Biblical Literature, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, Nov 19-21, 2023, 2023, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David J. Shepherd and Richard S. Briggs (eds.), Remember their Sin No More? Forgiveness and the Hebrew Bible, Eugene, OR, Wipf & Stock, 2022, 1-162pp, Book, PUBLISHED
"The Trespass of Your Servant" Looking for Forgiveness in the Story of David, Abigail, and Nabal in, editor(s)David J. Shepherd and Richard S. Briggs , Remember their Sin No More? Forgiveness and the Hebrew Bible, Eugene, OR, Wipf & Stock, 2022, pp39 - 51, [David J. Shepherd], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
David Shepherd, Jan Joosten, Michaël van der Meer (co-editors), Septuagint, Targum and Beyond: Comparing Aramaic and Greek Versions from Jewish Antiquity , Leiden, Brill, 2020, Book, PUBLISHED  DOI
David J. Shepherd and Nicholas E. Johnson, Bertolt Brecht and the David Fragments (1919-1921): An Interdisciplinary Study, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020, 1 - 224pp, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
Knowing Abner in, editor(s)Keith Bodner and Benjamin J.M. Johnson , Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel, London, Bloomsbury Academic (T&T Clark), 2020, pp205 - 225, [David J. Shepherd], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
'See God and Die? Job's Final Words (42:6) according to His First Aramaic and Greek Interpreters' in, editor(s)David Shepherd, Jan Joosten, Michaël van der Meer , Septuagint, Targum and Beyond: Comparing Aramaic and Greek Versions from Jewish Antiquity, Leiden, Brill, 2019, pp228 - 248, [David Shepherd], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

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David J. Shepherd, How modern vendettas compare with blood vengeance in the age of King David, The Conversation (Feb 19, 2024), 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
David J. Shepherd, Now you see him, now you don"t: Moses and the Burning Bush in the stained glass of the Church of Ireland and Presbyterian Church in Ireland, New Illuminations: Stained Glass in Ireland and Beyond, Trinity Centre for Biblical Studies (School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies), Sept 21-23, 2023, 2023, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David J. Shepherd, `The Devil's in the Detail: William Burges' Job Window in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork,", The Book of Job and its Afterlives, St. Patrick's Maynooth, February 19, 2022, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David Shepherd, 'Deliver Me from `Bloods'': The Problem of Bloodguilt in 2 Samuel 11:12 and Psalm 51, International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament, University of Zurich, August 9-11, 2022, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David Shepherd, 'Lost in Translation': A Fresh Analysis of One Aspect of the Aramaic Bisitun Inscription in Its Wider Aramaic Context , Society of Biblical Literature, Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, November 19-21, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David Shepherd, 'There Will Be Blood': Amnon, Tamar, and the "Innocence" of Absalom, Society of Biblical Literature, Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, Nov 19-21, 2022, 2022, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David Shepherd, Bones of Contention: David, Rizpah and the Problem of Bloodguilt in 2 Sam 21:1-14, Seminar, Örebro Teologiska Högskola - Sweden, Feb 11, 2022, 2022, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
David Shepherd, Deliver me from `bloodguilt': For what might the superscription's David be hoping in Psalm 51?, HOPE FOR THE WORLD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, Tyndale Fellowship (Symposium held online), June 29, 2021, 2021, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
David Shepherd, Put him to death for the life of his brother: the peculiar death of Absalom and the problem of bloodguilt, Faculty of Divinity Research Seminar, University of Glasgow, October 10, 2019, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
David J. Shepherd, Put him to death for the life of his brother: the peculiar death of Absalom and the problem of bloodguilt, Biblical Studies Research Seminar, New College, University of Edinburgh, October 11, 2019, Faculty of Divinity, Invited Talk, PRESENTED

  

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Awards and Honours

Award Date
Fellow of Trinity College Dublin 2018
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) 2012

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

My research is focused in three distinct streams within biblical studies: Ancient Translation My recent and current work on the Jewish translation of the Bible in antiquity builds on my first monograph in which I argue that the Aramaic version of Job found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls is quite distinct from other ancient Jewish translations. Recent articles, the doctoral work I supervise, and a collection of essays I've recently edited seek to extend my analysis to earlier Aramaic translations and Greek versions in preparation for a larger research project exploring the genesis and development of Bible translation in antiquity. Leadership, Violence and Antiquity Prompted by the perennial importance of leadership in society, my recent work on the Hebrew Bible in its ancient context focused on the representation of leadership in the post-exilic figures of Ezra and Nehemiah (see 'PR Publications' for articles and book). The interface of ethics and leadership visible in this work appears in a more fully-fledged form in my book, King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt (forthcoming April 2023, OUP) which will be followed by a wider project (2024-25) considering the dynamics of kingship and violence in antiquity more generally. Visualizing and Performing the Bible in the 19th and 20th c. This work began with my monograph (CUP, 2013) and edited collection (Routledge, 2016) on the Bible and silent film, was extended to include the Bible and theatre (play and book [Bloomsbury, 2020]) and is now being extended further to include the Bible and stained glass (AHSSBF grant, IRC New Foundations grant and most recently Templeton grant). I have now been invited to apply for following on grant funding from Templeton (up to $1,000,000) to continue this work, paving the way for an ERC Advanced grant focusing on 'The Bible and Artistic Modernism'.