Adele Berlin is an American biblical scholar and Hebraist. Before her retirement, she was Robert H. Smith Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Maryland.

Berlin is best known for 1994 work Poetics and interpretation of biblical narrative (ISBN 1575060027). She has also written commentaries on Song of Songs, Zephaniah, Esther, and Lamentations. A Festschrift in her honor, "Built by Wisdom, Established by Understanding": Essays in Honor of Adele Berlin, was published in 2013.

Berlin has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and President of the Society of Biblical Literature. Along with Robert Alter and Meir Sternberg, Berlin is one of the most prominent practitioners of a literary approach to the Bible. In 2004, the Jewish Book Council awarded Berlin along with co-editor Marc Zvi Brettler the scholarship category award for the Jewish Publication Society and Oxford University Press book, The Jewish Study Bible. A decade later the two editors offered its second edition.[citation needed]

Works

Multiple works published:-

Books

  • Berlin, Adele (1979). Enmerkar and Ensuhkešdanna, A Sumerian Narrative Poem. Occasional Publications of the Babylonian Fund. Vol. 2. Philadelphia, PA: The University Museum. ISBN 9780934718295. OCLC .
  • ——— (1983). Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative. Bible and literature series. Vol. 9. Sheffield, UK: Almond Press. ISBN 9780907459231. OCLC .
  • ——— (1985). The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253318503. OCLC .
  • ——— (1991). Biblical Poetry Through Medieval Jewish Eyes. Indiana studies in biblical literature. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780585106120. OCLC .
  • ——— (1994). Zephaniah: a new translation with introduction and commentary. Anchor Bible. Vol. 25A. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 9780385266314. OCLC .
  • ——— (2001). Esther: the traditional Hebrew text with the new JPS translation. JPS Bible Commentary. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 9780827606999. OCLC .
  • ——— (2001). Esther. Miḳra le-Yiśraʼel Commentary. Tel Aviv: Am Oved. ISBN 9789651313257. OCLC .
  • ——— (2002). Lamentations: A Commentary. Old Testament library. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664218492. OCLC .
  • [Jeffrey Tigay], and Adele Berlin, eds. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021. (Content available free digitally at )
  • ——— (2023). The JPS Bible Commentary: Psalms 120–150. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 9780827609402.
  • ——— (2025). Song of Songs: A Commentary. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. ISBN 9780800699017. OCLC .

Edited by

  • ———; Brettler, Marc Zvi, eds. (2014). The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199978465. OCLC .

External links