Peter Schäfer


Peter Schäfer is a prolific German scholar of ancient religious studies, who has made contributions to the field of ancient Judaism and early Christianity through monographs, co-edited volumes, numerous articles, and his trademark synoptic editions. He was a Professor of Religion and the Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Judaic Studies at Princeton University from 1998 to 2013. He was the director of the Jewish Museum of Berlin until June 2019 and quit his position amid criticism that the museum had expressed support for boycotting Israel. Subsequently, over 45 Jewish scholars petitioned in favor of his reinstatement, and 445 other public figures signed a companion letter.
From 1983 to 2008 he was Professor for Jewish Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 1993, he has been co-editor of Jewish Studies Quarterly. Schäfer's research interests include Jewish history in late antiquity, the religion and literature of Rabbinic Judaism, Jewish mysticism, 19th- and 20th-century Wissenschaft des Judentums and Jewish magic. He won the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award in December 2006. In 2014 he was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize by the Protestant Faculty of the University of Tübingen.
Religiously, Schäfer is Catholic.

Career

Schäfer contends that Philo's logos was likely derived from his understanding of the "postbiblical Wisdom literature, in particular the Wisdom of Solomon."
In 2018 Schäfer was criticized for inviting a Palestinian scholar to give a lecture at the museum and giving a personal tour to the cultural director of the Iranian embassy. In 2019 he was pressured to resign from his position as director of Berlin's Jewish Museum because of a Twitter post by the museum that allegedly implied support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Major books

Schäfer's books contribute to the understanding of classical Judaism as well as ancient Jewish and Christian relations:
Schäfer has encouraged the study of esoteric subjects in early Judaism through the publication of synoptic editions of ancient texts. These editions collate multiple manuscripts in large-format books that allow for line by line comparison of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts.