Biography:
Rob Jones received a Ph.D. in Religious Studies in 2020 from McMaster University. Prior to his current position in Jewish Studies, he held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Penn State from 2022 to 2023. Rob specializes in the Jewish languages, literature, and history of the Persian and Hellenistic periods, with a particular focus on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls and their socio-historical context. His first book, published with Brill in 2023, analyzes how the priesthood, sacrificial cult, and temple are represented in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls. His research interests include the history and theology of the post-exilic priesthood, the origins and development of apocalyptic traditions, and the reception of the Hebrew scriptures in Second Temple Jewish literature.
Education Details:
Publications:
Priesthood, Cult, and Temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran: Analyzing a Pre-Hasmonean Jewish Literary Tradition. STDJ 145. Leiden: Brill, 2023.
“Was There an Enoch Group in the Second Temple Period? The Contribution of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls.” Journal of Ancient Judaism (forthcoming).
“A History of Research on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls.” Currents in Biblical Research 21 (2023): 242–94.
“The Beginnings and Ends of Sacrifice: A Shared Reimagining of the Cultic Past in the Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document” (with Daniel Machiela). Catholic Biblical Quarterly 85 (2023): 440–64.
“Was There a Revival of Hebrew during the Hasmonean Period? A Reassessment of the Evidence” (with Daniel Machiela). Journal of Ancient Judaism 12 (2021): 217–80.
“Priesthood and Cult in the Visions of Amram: A Critical Evaluation of Its Attitude toward the Contemporary Temple Establishment in Jerusalem.” Dead Sea Discoveries 29 (2020): 1–30.
