Daniel Edward Fleming is an American biblical scholar and Assyriologist whose work centers on Hebrew Bible interpretation and cultural history, ancient Syria, Emar, ancient religion, and the interplay of ancient Near Eastern societies.Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University Website Retrieved: 2016-03-03. Since 1990, he has served as a professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, where he has spent his whole career.
He completed a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1990.Curriculum Vitae, Academia.edu Website Retrieved: 2017-02-27. After receiving his Ph.D., he was immediately appointed to the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.
Research Fleming works broadly in ancient Near Eastern history, with anchors especially in second-millennium Syria and the first-millennium Levant as a matrix for ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible.ISAW Scholar Retrieved: 2016-03-03. His research involves straddling two separate and sometimes territorial disciplines: Assyriology and biblical studies—both defined by written evidence that must be placed in context based on archaeological and visual sources as well. His framework for treating these domains as part of a whole is ultimately historical, and Fleming's individual projects have probed various aspects of the social fabric and political patterns that characterize the region in broad terms. He collaborated with Sophie Démare-Lafont of the University of Paris law school to create a social history of Emar in Syria, primarily by utilizing practical legal documents from the era. He also worked with Lauren Monroe of Cornell University, to reevaluate the names available in order to explain the politics of the Iron Age before the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible In his 2012 monograph The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition, Fleming puts forth a new theory and methodology for Hebrew Bible scholarship: isolating a tentative repertoire of Israelite traditions that can then be compared with external sources of historical evidence.Yitzhak Feder, "Review: Daniel Fleming, The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics and the Reinscribing of Tradition" Retrieved: 2016-03-03. After letting his theory serve as a catalyst for his doctoral students' research for several years, the publication set a new agenda for future engagement of ancient Israel and Hebrew Bible scholarship with wider study of antiquity. According to Fleming, his theory:
ultimately attempts to bridge between the worlds of biblical scholarship and archaeologically based history ... It addresses the structure and character of the Bible's primary narrative through [his] vision of a particular relationship between a hodgepodge of lore about early Israel that has been taken over and recast radically by generations of scribes from Judah. This Israelite lore, when considered on its own, presents a picture of ancient Israel that contrasts sufficiently with standard "biblical" schemes as to provoke reevaluation of what the Bible may offer historical investigation. It is [his] hope that by taking ever more seriously the biblical division between what comes from the distinct peoples of Israel and Judah, the character of each will come into sharper relief.
Fleming's work has received advanced praise among senior biblical scholars. David M. Carr writes that the monograph is "one of the most important books published in biblical studies in the last decade."Cambridge University Press Website Retrieved: 2016-03-03. Israel Finkelstein calls the book "a classic—a must for anyone interested in the Bible and the history of Ancient Israel." According to Mark S. Smith, Fleming's work "is a superb piece of scholarship," which "no professor or graduate student interested in the Hebrew Bible or ancient Israel can do without."
Grants and awards
Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 2004–2005, "In the Family of Abraham: Israel's Inland Heritage." American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 2004–2005, "Politics and Scribal Traditions in Late Bronze Age Syria." Senior Fulbright Scholar to France, 1997–1998, "Before Democracy: The Public Life of Towns in the Mari Archives." Visiting research scholar at ISAW, 2013–14. Professeur invité à la Société d'Histoire du Droit, l'Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2), December 2013. Four speaking engagements, including two law classes, in French. Hebrew Bible invited plenary speaker, Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountains – Great Plains region, April 2013; "The Bible and the Bronze Age: Benefits from a Chronological Mismatch." Samuel Iwry Lecturer, The Johns Hopkins University, November 1, 2010; "The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible." Professeur invité à la Section des Sciences Historiques et Philologiques de l'École Pratique des Hautes Études (la Sorbonne), Paris, March 2005; "Traditions politiques scribales à Emar et dans la *Syrie du Bronze Récent." Four two-hour seminars led in French. NYU Research Challenge Fund 1995, "The Ritual Calendar of Emar," fully funded. NYU Presidential Fellowship 1994, "The Cycles of Ritual Time at Emar in Ancient Syria." National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend 1991, "Collating Ritual Tablets from Emar at Aleppo, Syria."
Bibliography Monographs The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics, and the Reinscribing of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, July 2012. With Sara J. Milstein, The Buried Foundation of the Gilgamesh Epic: The Akkadian Huwawa Narrative. Cuneiform Monographs 39; Leiden: Brill, 2010. Democracy's Ancient Ancestors: Mari and Early Collective Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner's Archive, Mesopotamian Civilizations 11, Jerrold S. Cooper ed. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2000. The Installation of Baal's High Priestess at Emar: A Window on Ancient Syrian Religion, Harvard Semitic Studies 42. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992.
Articles and chapters "Pastoralism and Nomadism" (20 pages) and "Emar" (30 pages), in Gonzalo Rubio ed., Handbook of Ancient Mesopotamia (Walter de Gruyter), submitted and forthcoming. "The Amorites," in Bill T. Arnold and Brent A. Strawn eds., The World around the Old Testament: The Peoples and Places of the Ancient Near East. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2016, 1–30. "Emar's entu Installation: Revising Ritual and Text Together," in Paul Delnero and Jacob Lauinger eds., Texts and Contexts: The Circulation and Transmission of Cuneiform Texts in Social Space (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015) 29–47. With Sophie Démare-Lafont, "Emar Chronology and Scribal Streams: Cosmopolitanism and Legal Diversity," Revue d'Assyriologie 109 (2015) 45–77. "Living by Livestock in Israel's Exodus: Explaining Origins over Distance," in Thomas E. Levy, Thomas Schneider, and William H. C. Propp eds., Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture, and Geoscienceut. Heidelberg: Springer, 2015, 483–91. "Seeing and Socializing with Dagan at Emar's zukru Festival," in Beate Pongratz-Leisten and Karen Sonik eds., volume on Materiality and the Divine in the Ancient Near East (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015) 197–210. "Chasing Down the Mundane: The Near East with Social Historical Interest," Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 1 (2014) 5-20. "David and the Ark: A Jerusalem Festival Reflected in Royal Narrative," in David S. Vanderhooft and Abraham Winitzer eds., Literature as Politics, Politics as Literature: Essays on the Ancient Near East in Honor of Peter Machinist (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2013) 75–95. "People without Town: The 'apiru in the Amarna Evidence," in Rebecca Hasselbach and Na'ama Pat-el eds., Language and Nature: Papers Presented to John Huehnergard on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2012) 39–49. "Textual Evidence for a Palace at Late Bronze Emar," in Gernot Wilhelm ed., Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East. (CRRAI 54; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2012) 101–9. "The Day of Yahweh in the Book of Amos: A Rhetorical Response to Ritual Expectation," Revue Biblique 117 (2010) 20–38. With Sophie Démare-Lafont, "Tablet Terminology at Emar: 'Conventional' and 'Free Format'," Aula Orientalis 27 (2009) 19–26. "The Heavens Were Not Enough: Humanity and God's Home in the Book of Genesis," in D. A. Barreyra Fracaroli and G. del Olmo Lete eds., Reconstructing a Distant Past: Ancient Near Eastern Essays in Tribute to Jorge R. Silva Castillo. Barcelona: Editorial AUSA, 2009, 103–15. "Kingship of City and Tribe Conjoined: Zimri-Lim at Mari," in Jeffrey Szuchman ed., Nomads, Tribes, and the State in the Ancient Near East: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2009, 227–40. "Reading Emar's Scribal Traditions against the Chronology of Late Bronze History," in Lorenzo d'Alfonso, Yoram Cohen, and Dietrich Sürenhagen eds., The City of Emar among the Late Bronze Age Empires: History, Landscape, and Society. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2008, 27–43. "The Integration of Household and Community Religion in Ancient Syria," in John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan eds., Household and Family Religion in Antiquity. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008, 37–59. "From Joseph to David: Mari and Israelite Pastoralist Traditions," in Daniel I. Block ed., Israel: Ancient Kingdom or Late Invention. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2008, 78–96. "Emar," in Fred Skolnik and Michael Berenbaum eds., Encyclopaedia Judaica Second Edition. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2007, 6.386-90. "Anointing," in Bill T. Arnold and H.G.M. Williamson eds., Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005, 32–6. "Hebrews," in Dictionary of the Old Testament Historical Books, 386–90. "Prophets and Temple Personnel in the Mari Archives," in Lester L. Grabbe and Alice Ogden Bellis eds., The Priests in the Prophets: The Portrayal of Priests, Prophets and Other Religious Specialists in the Latter Prophets. London: T & T Clark, 2004, 44–64. "Southern Mesopotamian Titles for Temple Personnel in the Mari Archives," in John Kaltner and Louis Stulman eds., Inspired Speech: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of Herbert B. Huffmon. London: T & T Clark, 2004, 72–81. "Genesis in History and Tradition: The Syrian Background of Israel's Ancestors, Reprise," in James K. Hoffmeier and Alan Millard eds., The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004, 193–232. "The Sim'alite gayum and the Yaminite li'mum in the Mari Archives," Amurru 3. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2004, 199–212. "Ur: After the Gods Abandoned Us," Classical World 97/1 (2003) 5-18; in papers from Matthew Santirocco ed., Saving the City: Destruction, Loss, and Recovery in the Ancient World (April 11–12, 2002, New York University). "History in Genesis," Westminster Theological Journal 65 (2003) 251–62. "Religion," in T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker eds., Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003, 670–84. "The Jerusalem Emar Tablets and the Excavated Archives," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 45 (2002) 365–76; review article of Joan Westenholz, Cuneiform Inscriptions in the Collection of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem: The Emar Tablets. "Schloen's Patrimonial Pyramid: Explaining Bronze Age Society," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 328 (2002) 73–80; review article of David Schloen, The House of the Father as Fact and Symbol: Patrimonialism in Ugarit and the Ancient Near East.