Karel van der Toorn

Karel van der Toorn serves as Professor of Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam, where he conducts research at the intersection of biblical studies and ancient Near Eastern contexts.

His academic foundation includes Theology and Semitic Languages studies at Paris's Institut Catholique and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, culminating in a 1985 PhD from Free University Amsterdam with the dissertation Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia: A Comparative Study.

Professor van der Toorn's research specializes in contextualizing Hebrew Bible texts within broader Mesopotamian and Syro-Palestinian religious frameworks, with particular focus on scribal practices, family religion, and diaspora communities. His methodological approach integrates textual analysis with archaeological evidence to reconstruct ancient religious life.

His major scholarly contributions include Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel (1996), Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible (2007), God in Context (2018), Papyrus Amherst 63 (2018), and Becoming Diaspora Jews (2019), demonstrating consistent engagement with religious transmission across cultural boundaries.

Among his notable essays is Rosh Hashanah with the Early Israelites, which examines New Year celebrations through grape harvest festivals, sacrificial practices, and the ceremonial presentation of the ark as YHWH's physical presence.