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Shabbat Lecture Series: Shabbat Services, Dinner and Lecture by Dr. Matthias Henze

Friday, January 24, 2025 24 Tevet 5785

6:15 PM - 9:00 PMIn person at Brith Shalom

Service is in person in the Brith Shalom Sanctuary and on YouTube.
Dinner and Lecture are in person only.

Dr. Matthias Henze will present during dinner (for those who sign up for dinner).
Dinner cost is $36.00 per person. Please register below by Tuesday, January 21 at 6:00 PM

Title: Groups and Sects in Early Judaism: The Evidence from Josephus.

Description: The heyday of Jewish sectarianism lasted from the second century BCE to the first century CE. Flavius Josephus, our main source of the time, describes what he calls three "schools of thought," the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. We will look at Josephus's description of these three groups and then supplement them with texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament.

Bio: Matthias Henze was born and raised in Hanover, Germany. In 1992 he earned a Master of Divinity from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. After completing his doctorate in 1997, Dr. Henze joined Rice’s department of religion, where he is now the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism.

His areas of interest include the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Jewish literature and thought at the time of the Second Temple, apocalyptic literature, and the Qumran fragments. In particular, Dr. Henze focuses on those early texts that never became part of the Jewish Bible - often subsumed under the labels ‘Apocrypha’ and ‘Pseudepigrapha’ – and what we can learn when these texts are read side by side with the canonical writings.

Dr. Henze has written and edited ten books. While at Rice he has won five teaching/mentoring Awards. He was also named a founding fellow of Rice’s Center for Teaching Excellence. In 2009 he founded Rice’s Program in Jewish Studies, of which he continues to serve as director.

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Sun, February 9 2025 11 Shevat 5785