Psalm 44 and the Book of Job: God on Trial

13 July, 2023

We are deeply honoured to welcome Professor Ignacio Carbajosa, Professor in Old Testament at San Dámaso University, Spain, to lead a session of the Psalms in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group.

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Here are the details of this fascinating session.

Topic: Psalm 44 and the Book of Job: God on Trial

Abstract: Several times in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the latter Prophets, we find a God’s “lawsuit” against his unfaithful people (depicted as an adulterous wife or a rebellious son). Psalm 44 and the book of Job are two of the few examples of Israel’s “lawsuit” against God, with the same structure of the original model. In these two examples, Israel puts God on trial, showing a unique relationship with his God, with no parallel in the Ancient World. This session will discuss the stages of Israel’s lawsuit in Psalm 44 with its parallel passages in the book of Job.

Speaker: Professor Ignacio Carbajosa, Professor of the Old Testament at San Dámaso University, Madrid, Spain.

Speaker’s biography: Professor Ignacio Carbajosa was born in 1967 in Cartagena, Spain. He was ordained Catholic priest in 1997 for the Archdioceses of Madrid. He completed his PhD at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome, 2005) with a dissertation entitled The Character of the Syriac Version of Psalms. A Study of Psalms 90-150 in the Peshitta (Leiden: Brill, 2008). He is a Full Professor of the Old Testament at San Dámaso University (Madrid).

Professor Carbajosa’s main field of research is Textual Criticism and Ancient Versions of the Hebrew Bible, especially Syriac versions. He has been area editor of Syriac Translations for The Textual History of the Bible vol. 1A-C (General editors Armin Lange and Emanuel Tov; Leiden: Brill, 2016-2017), and currently is the editor area of Syriac Biblical Manuscripts for the Handbook of Biblical Manuscripts inside the series Textual History of the Bible Handbooks (Brill).

Professor Carbajosa has been the chief editor of the Journal Estudios Bíblicos from 2007 to 2021. He is member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Textus, a Journal on Textual Criticism and of the Journal Vetus Testamentum, and member of the Editorial Board of the series Monographs of the Peshitta Institute (Brill), Textual History of the Bible Handbooks (Brill), Supplements to the Textual History of the Bible (Brill) and Eric Voegelin Studies: Supplements (Brill – Fink).

Professor Carbajosa has written a Commentary on the book of Psalms (in Spanish, first volume 2018, second volume forthcoming 2023). Among his books in English the following stand out: Hebraica veritas versus Septuaginta auctoritatem. Does a Canonical Text of the Old Testament Exist? (forthcoming 2023, Wipf & Stock); Faith: the Fount of Exegesis. The Interpretation of Scripture in Light of the History of Research on the Old Testament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2013); The Character of the Syriac Version of Psalms. A Study of Psalms 90-150 in the Peshitta (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

Professor Carbajosa has been Visiting Scholar at the Catholic University of America, Oxford University and Harvard University.

Chair: Dr Aaron Maniam, Senior Fellow of the Oxford Interfaith Forum, Fellow of Practice and Director of Digital Transformation Education at the Blavatnick School of Government, University of Oxford.

Date: 13 July, 2023

Time: 18:00-19:00 BST | 19:00-20:00 CEST | 10:00-11:00 PDT | 13:00-14:00 EDT

Venue: online