Interdisciplinarity in the Study of the Hebrew Bible

This chapter asks whether the study of the Hebrew Bible constitutes a discipline and argues that, like Shakespeare Studies, it is defined less by a unified method than by sustained engagement with a particular cultural canon. Because these texts have been authoritative for diverse communities over two millennia, their study is intrinsically interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, history, archaeology, literary theory, sociology, anthropology, and reception history. The chapter traces the emergence of “Hebrew Bible” as a scholarly category distinct from “Old Testament,” outlines three broad interpretive orientations—behind the text, in the text, and in front of the text—and assesses the benefits and risks of interdisciplinarity, including methodological distortion and intellectual overreach. A concluding case study on Job’s wife illustrates how interpretation is shaped by disciplinary borrowing, reception history, and contemporary concerns.