Johannes Seidel
PhD candidate (associated)
Old Testament Studies
Research project
"Thinking Nature in Ancient Israel: An Environmental-Historical Study Using the Example of the Cedar of Lebanon."
The cedar of Lebanon occupies a prominent place in the plant discourse of the ancient Near East, as its dominant presence in the Hebrew Bible and in the Epic of Gilgamesh demonstrates. Wheras previous Old Testament scholarship has primarily examined its numinous and mythical dimensions, the completed dissertation adopts an environmental-historical approach and analyzes the cedar as a paradigmatic object of thought for the relationship between humans and the environment. The Israelite understanding of nature is investigated through three questions: First, the study analyzes which concepts of nature become visible in biblical representations of the forest and the cedar. Second, it asks how the use and processing of cedar as a resource were reflected upon. Third, it focuses on the worldview-related and spatial contexts in which the cedar was embedded.
The findings show that nature was understood not exclusively as creation, but also within the framework of a sociomorphic worldview in which plants were integrated into patterns of social order—as exemplified by Jotham’s fable. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated that the Israelites made differentiated distinctions among types of wood in the sense of an “early natural science.” Forms of synthesis and taxonomic thinking about the cedar also call into question the distinction between “Greek” and “Hebrew” thought. While the first insight is relevant to contemporary discourses on a biblically grounded attitude towards nature, the second reflects the beginnings of scientific inquiry and the importance of botanical knowledge for understanding biblical figurative language. Thus, the study shows that, despite a high level of knowledge, botany alone does not provide the key to understanding plant metaphor in the Bible. Every figurative use of plants requires an integrative archaeobotanical and exegetical analysis in order to reconstruct processes of selection and transformation and to uncover the internal logic of the respective figurative language.
Curriculum Vitae
Completion of the dissertation “Conceiving Nature in Ancient Israel: An Environmental History Study Based on the Example of the Cedar of Lebanon”
Acquisition of Basic Teaching Qualification Certificate at the LehreLernen Service Center of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Research stay at the Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dalit Rom-Shiloni funded by the Sandwich Scholarship
Research Assistant of Prof. Dr. Hannes Bezzel (University of Jena)
Start of the doctorate with the topic: “The cedar tree as key to the understanding of nature in the Hebrew Bible”
Research assistant in a project of the German Israel Foundation: „Between Materiality and Scribal Magic: West-Semitic Textual Amulets from the First Millennium BCE to the Rise of Islam at the Universty of Leipzig
Master Christianity and Culture with the focus on Old Testament Studies and Assyriology as the minor field of studies at the University of Heidelberg
Polyvalenter Zwei-Hauptfachbachelor: Catholic Theology and Mathematics at the University of Freiburg "Abraham als Erzähler seines Aufenthalts in Ägypten – Ein Vergleich der Erzählweise von Gen 12,10-20 und 1QGenAp XIX 10-XXI 4“, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i.B.
Studied Catholic and Protestant theology (Christianity and culture), mathematics, and Assyriology in Basel, Freiburg, Jerusalem, and Heidelberg
Publications
Seidel, Johannes. „Jotham’s Fable: A Call for Resistance“. HeBAI 15, Nr. 2 (2026): 216–31.
Art. Tel Ănāfā, in: WiBiLex (2025)
Art. Golan, in: WiBiLex [in Vorbereitung]
Art. Hermon, in: WiBiLex [in Vorbereitung]
The Cedar Tree and Fears – Substances and Their Effect on Emotions in Rituals, in: Angelika Berlejung und Gideon Bohak (Hgg.), Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity, (ORA 57), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2024, 147–164.
Art. Bet-Horon, in: WiBiLex (2022)
Art. Tekoa, in: WiBiLex (2021),
Presentations
Participation in and presentation at the DPV conference “Current Archaeological and Historical Research in the Southern Levant” in Mainz, presentation topic: “Welche Einblicke geben die Vorstellungen von der Zeder in das Denken der Hebräischen Bibel über Natur? Eine umweltgeschichtliche Untersuchung am Beispiel der Zeder”
Presentation at the colloquium of the DFG Graduate School 2792 “Autonomy of Heteronomous Texts in Antiquity and the Middle Ages” on the topic: “‘Seine Gestalt ist wie der Libanon, auserlesen wie Zedern.’ (Hld 5,15, ELB) – Die Zeder als Zugang zu Naturverständnissen der Hebräischen Bibel”
Presentation at the “Grazer Woche” of the Theological Faculty of the University of Leipzig on the topic: “Die Zeder als Zugang zu Naturverständnissen der Hebräischen Bibel – Die realienkundliche Perspektive”
Presentation: “Jotham’s Fable – A Call to Resistance” Minerva Conference: “Non-Violent Resistance: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives from the Past, Present and Future for Today’s Democracies” an der Universität Bar-Ilan
Presentation: “The Cedar Forest on Fire (Judg 9:15) – An Analysis of a Nature Observation in the Hebrew Bible” Conference: “Conceptualizing Nature in Eastern Mediterranean Cultures of the Second – First Millennia BCE: The Use of Textual and Pictorial Evidence” at the Tel Aviv University
International workshop on FEARS as part of the project of the German Israel Foundation, lecture on “The Cedar Tree and Fear in Ritual Context. Does the Use of the Cedar Reflect a Concern for the Fears of the Participant?”
ATAG in Erfurt, lecture on “Widder, Götter oder eine paradoxe Formulierung? Ein neuer Übersetzungsversuch für אלם in Ps 58,2”
International Workshop about textual amulets as part of the project of the German Israel Foundation, lecture about “Phoenician Amulet Cases”