Heavenly City in Jewish Apocalyptic Traditions

Dr. Yeshaya Gruber is Professor of Jewish History and Culture at the Israel Bible Center and hosts the Roundtable Talks with leading scholars and authors in Biblical, Second Temple Period, and Jewish-Christian Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University and has held research and teaching positions in Jerusalem, Athens, Sydney, and elsewhere. His extensive travels, coupled with his research and teaching experience, help to enrich his students’ understanding of Jewish-Christian relations, history, and potential future paths.

Pinchas Shir, Israel Bible Center’s Associate Professor of Ancient Cultures, is nearing the completion of his Ph.D. studies in the Department of Religion at Groningen University in the Netherlands. His academic interests focus on ancient dining culture, culinary contexts of the Second Temple period, and particularly on the table interactions between Jews and Gentiles in antiquity. In addition, Pinchas is keenly interested in the archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Mediterranean.

Dr. Carlos Santos Carretero was studying of Judeo-Christian traditions in their most heterodox manifestations: apocalyptic literature, apocryphal texts, and mysticism, especially in its relation to the other Middle East ancient religious traditions. His PhD studies dwells into angelology and demonology in the literary cycle of the antediluvian patriarch Enoch. Since 2013 Carlos teaches Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Jewish Origins of Christianity, and various seminars on Biblical literature. He also teaches Biblical languages in Spain, at CEPOAT (Centro de Estudios del Próximo Oriente y Antigüedad Tardía, University of Murcia, Spain).