Diane Sharon

Dr. Diane M. Sharon is a scholar and teacher in Hebrew Bible, comparative religion, and ancient Near Eastern Literature.

She is on the faculty at the Skirball Academy at the Streicker Center of Temple Emanuel, and has also taught at the Academy for Jewish Religion, the Episcopal General Theological Seminary, Fordham University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Dr. Sharon has published and edited books and articles on the Hebrew Bible in its ancient Near Eastern context, comparative religion, literary analysis, and women’s studies.

She is a lively and engaging speaker who has served as a scholar-in-residence in more than 50 synagogues, churches, community centers, and other venues nationwide and has lectured and taught extensively.

Education

• B.A. in English Literature, Stony Brook University
• MBA in Finance, NYU Stern School of Business
• Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, Jewish Theological Seminary

Honors, Awards, and Grants

• Crosscurrents Coolidge Research Fellow
• JTS Faculty Merit Leave Award
• Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellow
• National Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellow
• Charles B. Revson Foundation Fellow
  

Publications and Scholarly Activities

Academic Publications:

Books:

• Patterns of Destiny: Narrative Structures of Foundation and Doom in the Hebrew Bible, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002.
• JPS Commentary on Judges. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society (forthcoming)

Articles:

• “The Mystic’s Experience of God: A Comparison of the Mystical Techniques and Experiences of a 13th Century Jewish Mystic and a 20th Century Indic Yogi,” in The Fifty-eighth Century: A Jewish Renewal Sourcebook, edited by Shohama Harris Wiener, 315-330, Northvale, NJ:Jason Aronson, 1996.
• “A Biblical Parallel to a Sumerian Temple Hymn? Ezekiel 40-48 and the Cylinders of Gudea.” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, 24 (1997):1-11.
• “The Doom of Paradise: Literary Patterns in Accounts of Paradise and Mortality in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East,” in A Feminist Companion to Genesis, vol.2, edited by Athalia Brenner, Sheffield:JSOT Press, 1998, 53-80.
• “Mystic Autobiography: A Case Study in Comparative Literary Analysis” Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, vol.2, 1999, 27-52.
• “When Fathers Refuse to Eat: The Trope of Rejecting Food and Drink in Biblical Narrative.” Semeia 86 (1999), edited by Jan Willem van Henten and Athalya Brenner, 135-148.
• “Rivalry in Genesis: A New Reading,” Conservative Judaism, 53:4, Summer 2001, 19-34.
• “Some Results of a Structural Semiotic Analysis of the Story of Judah and Tamar, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 29.3 (2005) 289-318.
• “Echoes of Gideon’s Ephod: An Intertextual Reading,” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, Vol 30, 2006, 89-102.
• “Choreography of a Thwarted Rape,” in Bringing the Hidden to Light: The Process of Interpretation, Studies in Honor of Stephen Geller, Winona Lake, IN: JTS/Eisenbrauns, 2007, 249-269. Entries in The Torah, A Women’s Commentary, New York:The Women of Reform Judaism URJ Press, 2008
• “Parshat Toledot, Gen 25-28, Another View,” 150; “Parshat Yitro, Exod 18-20, Another View,” 421; and “Parshat Shemini, Levit 9-11, Another View,” 630.
• "In the Wake of the Goddesses: Theology, the Humanities, and the Education of Seminarians," in In the Wake of Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Georgias Precis Portfolios 4, Piscataway, NJ/Georgias Press, 2009, 31-42.

Book Editor:

• Bringing the Hidden to Light: The Process of Interpretation, Studies in Honor of Stephen Geller, Winona Lake, IN: JTS/ Eisenbrauns, 2007, co-editor with Kathryn Kravitz

Popular Contributions:

• Entries in The Bible Through the Ages, Robert V. Huber, gen. ed. Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest, 1996: The Origin of Writing, pp. 32-34, Ancient Near Eastern Archives, pp. 34-35, Descent and Rise of Joseph, pp. 36-38, Hammurabi, pp.47-48