Nahum Sarna (1923–2005)

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Eminent Bible scholar Nahum M. Sarna, one of the first academics to meld the study of the Hebrew Bible and post-Biblical sources such as the Talmud and medieval Jewish commentaries, died in June at the age of 82. Sarna was a member of BAR’s Editorial Advisory Board.

In his studies and his work, Sarna bridged the gap between traditional approaches to the Bible and modern scholarship. The study of the Bible was more than intellectual to Sarna—it was spiritual and moral. He utilized archaeology, ancient social customs and cultural history to create a deeper understanding of his subject matter. To him studying the Bible was not just “performing autopsy, in dissecting a literary corpse” as he called it in a column he wrote for our sister magazine Bible Review in June 1988. Studying the Bible was, rather, “interpreting a living literature of enduring vitality that for two and a half millennia has been a dynamic force in human history.”

Sarna was born March 27, 1923 in London to Jacob and Millie Sarna. His father was a learned book dealer and a Zionist leader; scholars were frequent guests in the Sarna home. By the age of seven, Sarna was studying at an intensive after-school Talmud Torah class (Talmud Torahs are schools that focus on traditional Jewish texts), and he went on to an all-day Jewish secondary school and a yeshiva, a Talmudic academy. Sarna then attended the University of London, where he studied rabbinics, Semitic languages and the Bible, and received a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He also studied at Jew’s College (the London School of Jewish Studies) and was exposed to the 19th-century Jüdische Wissenschaft movement, which was devoted to the scientific study of Jewish culture and which utilized modern scholarly approaches to the Hebrew Bible.

Sarna was ordained a rabbi in 1947. Two years later he immigrated to Israel to study the literature and cultures of the Near East but the situation in that country so soon after its War of Independence made an academic career difficult.

Immigrating to the United States in 1951 with his wife Helen and young son, David, Sarna studied at Dropsie College in Philadelphia (now the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania), where he received his Ph.D. in Biblical studies and Semitic languages. A second son, Jonathan, was born in 1955.

Sarna taught at Gratz College, the oldest academic institution of Jewish studies in the United States, served as the scholar-in-residence at Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia, and as the librarian at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York before accepting his appointment as the Dora Golding Professor of Biblical studies at Brandeis University in 1965. He taught at Brandeis for 20 years and then retired to Florida. Sarna abandoned his retirement 019to help establish Florida Atlantic University’s Judaic Studies program with his wife, a Hebraist and Judaica librarian.

In 1966 Sarna published Understanding Genesis, a book intended for Bible teachers. It reached a much broader audience, however, and firmly established Sarna as a leading Bible scholar. He went on to write almost a dozen books and hundreds of articles, including “Song of the Heart,” for the August 1993 Bible Review and “The Last Legacy of Roland De Vaux” (BAR, July/August 1980). He served on the committee of the Jewish Publication Society that translated the Writings (Kethuvim), the third section of the Hebrew Bible in Jewish tradition. He also wrote works expounding the books of Exodus (Exploring Exodus, 1986), and Psalms (Songs of the Heart: An Introduction to the Book of Psalms, 1993).

Sarna’s lectures were a mix of intellect and humor. He peppered his talks with puns and plays on words, making himself and his knowledge even more accessible. He was at the forefront of training a new generation of Bible scholars, and his influence will continue through the works of his students, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in Bible studies and related fields.—K.E.M.

Eminent Bible scholar Nahum M. Sarna, one of the first academics to meld the study of the Hebrew Bible and post-Biblical sources such as the Talmud and medieval Jewish commentaries, died in June at the age of 82. Sarna was a member of BAR’s Editorial Advisory Board.