Jonas C. Greenfield Explained

Jonas Carl Greenfield
Birth Date:	October 20, 1926
Birth Place:	New York City
Death Place:	Jerusalem
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	scholar of Semitic languages
Discipline:	Ancient linguistics
Sub Discipline:	Semitic languages
Education:	Yale University
Thesis Title:	The Lexical Status of Mishnaic Hebrew
Thesis Year:	1956
Workplaces:	Brandeis University University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jonas Carl Greenfield (October 20, 1926 in New York City – March 13, 1995 in Jerusalem) was an American scholar of Semitic languages, who published in the fields of Semitic epigraphy, Aramaic studies, and Qumran studies, and a distinguished member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.^[1]

Education and career

Greenfield studied at Yale University, receiving a Master of Arts in 1951 and his doctorate in 1956 (with a dissertation on "The Lexical Status of Mishnaic Hebrew"). He taught at Brandeis University (1954–56), University of California, Los Angeles (1956–1965), the University of California, Berkeley (1965–71), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1971–1995). In 1990 he became Caspar Levias Professor of Ancient Semitic Languages at the Hebrew University.

He was a member of the committee of translators of the Ketuvim (the "Writings") for the New JPS Translation of the Tanakh.^[2]

In 1995 a festschrift was published in his honor, Solving Riddles and Untying Knots. Biblical, Epigraphic, and Semitic Studies in Honor of Jonas C. Greenfield.^[3] In 2000 the American Oriental Society established a prize to honor his memory, the "Jonas C. Greenfield Prize For Younger Semitists".^[4] The Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, has held the Jonas C. Greenfield Scholars’ Seminar since 1999. Israel Exploration Journal 45 no. 2–3 (1995) 61–200 was issued as the "Jonas C. Greenfield Memorial Volume." Obituaries, in addition to the latter, pages 83–84, include Ziony Zevit, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 298 (May 1995) 3–5 and Mark S. Smith, American Schools of Oriental Research Newsletter 45 no. 1 (Spring 1995) 1–2. For an appreciation of his work on Qumran and related texts see Baruch A. Levine, "The Contribution of Jonas Greenfield to the Study of Dead Sea Literature." Dead Sea Discoveries, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Mar. 1996), pp. 2–9

Selected works

Books

• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . Freedman . David Noel . David Noel Freedman . New Directions in Biblical Archaeology . registration . Garden City, NY . Doubleday Anchor Books . 1969 . 1-111-21308-9 . 23032 .
• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . Greenberg . Moshe . Moshe Greenberg . Sarna . Nahum M. . Nahum M. Sarna . Book of Job: a New Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text . Philadelphia . Jewish Publiscation Society . 1980 . 978-0-827-60172-7 .
• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum. Pt.1. Vol.5. Texts 1, Inscriptions of ancient Iran. The Aramaic versions of the Achaemenian inscriptions, etc. The Bisitun inscription of Darius the Great: Aramaic version . London . Lund Humphries . 1982. 978-0-853-31458-5 . 830850725 .
• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . Lewis . Naphtali . Naphtali Lewis . Yadin . Yigael . Yigael Yadin . The Documents From the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Greek Papyri . Judean Desert Studies . Jerusalem . Israel Exploration Society : Hebrew University of Jerusalem : Shrine of the Book . 1989 . 978-9-652-21009-8 . 21262733 .
• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . Stone . Michael E. . Michael E. Stone . Eshel . Esther . Esther Eshel . The Aramaic Levi Document: Edition, Translation, Commentary . Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha . 19 . Leiden;Boston . Brill . 2004 . 978-9-004-13785-1 . 56066393 .

Shorter writings

• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . 'Al Kanfei Yonah: Collected Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic Philology . Paul . Shalom M. . Shalom M. Paul . Stone . Michael E. . Michael E. Stone . Pinnick . Avital . Avital Pinnick . Leiden . Brill . 2001 . 978-9-004-12170-6 . 46505115 . in 2 vols

Chapters and articles

• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . The Texts from Naḥal Ṣe'elim (Wadi Seiyal) . Barerra . J. Trebolle . Montaner . L. Vegas . The Madrid Qumran Congress: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Madrid 18–21 March 1991 . 2 . Madrid; Leiden . Editorial Complutense; Brill . 1992 .
• Book: Greenfield . Jonas C. . 3 . The Wisdom of Ahiqar . Day . John . John Day (Old Testament scholar) . Gordon . Robert P. . Robert P. Gordon . Williamson . H. G. M. . Hugh G. M. Williamson . Wisdom in Ancient Israel. Essays in Honour of J.A. Emerton . Cambridge . Cambridge University Press . 1995 . 0-521-42013-X . 43–54 .

Festschrift

• Book: Zevit . Ziony . Ziony Zevit . Gitin . Seymour . Seymour Gitin . Sokoloff . Michael . Solving Riddles and Untying Knots. Biblical, Epigraphic, and Semitic Studies in Honor of Jonas C. Greenfield . Winona Lake, IN . Eisenbrauns . 1995 . 978-0-931-46493-5 . 32392922 .

Notes and References

1. https://www.academy.ac.il/Index2/Entry.aspx?nodeId=835&entryId=18407 About Greenfield
2. The New JPS Translation of the Tanakh, (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society 1985), p.xxvi.
3. Solving Riddles and Untying Knots. Biblical, Epigraphic, and Semitic Studies in Honor of Jonas C. Greenfield, ed. Z. Zevit, S. Gitin, and M. Sokoloff (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraun's, 1995).
4. Web site: Jonas C. Greenfield Prize For Younger Semitists . 2009-09-07 . 2015-03-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150319192219/http://www.umich.edu/~aos/greenfield.html . dead .