Prof. Dalit Rom-Shiloni

Role: Founding Director of the Orit Guardians at the Department of Biblical Studies,
Tel Aviv University

Email: dromshil@tauex.tau.ac.il

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Scope of Research:

Hebrew Bible theology, group-identity conflicts, inner-biblical allusion and interpretation, the formation of sixth-century BCE prophetic and poetic literatures (thus on Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, and Psalms).

Academic Background:

BA summa cum laude, Bible Studies and Ancient Semitic Languages, Hebrew University of Jerusalem  (HU)

MA summa cum laude, Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, HU, in a special program on West Semitic Epigraphy and Paleography (under Prof. Joseph Naveh)

MA thesis: “Jacob’s Departure from Laban the Aramaen [Genesis 31]” (under Prof. Sara Japhet).

PhD in Bible Studies, HU: “God in Times of Destruction and Exiles: Hebrew Bible Theology” (under Prof. Sara Japhet).

Faculty member in the Department of Biblical Studies, TAU, since 2011.

Serves as General Editor of the journal Beit Mikra for the Study of the Bible and Its World; and as a member of the SBL Council (the largest professional organization of biblical scholars globally).

Since 2020, the Founding Director of  the Orit Guardians MA and research program, dedicated to the study and research of the Ethiopic Bible Scriptures of Beta Israel. Her study “Orit-Exodus: Manuscripts and Oral Traditions of Beta Israel” is funded by the Israel Science Foundation (2024–2027).

The Orit Guardians train students of Beta Israel (and others) to become experts in the Orit (Pentateuch and Joshua, Judges and Ruth) and other Scriptures. Emphasis is given to textual criticism and history of transmission of manuscripts and to oral translational and interpretive traditions of the Orit over generations. Students learn Ge‘ez and Amharic, as well as anthropological field work, and conduct interviews with the senior Qessoch (priests) who were trained in Ethiopia, to record and preserve their oral traditions.
 

Selected Publications

Books:

• דלית רום-שילוני, אלהים בעידן של חורבן וגלויות: תאולוגיה תנ"כית (ירושלים: מאגנס, תש"ע); 660 עמ׳. 

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Exclusive Inclusivity: Identity Conflicts between the Exiles and the People Who Remained (6th–5th Centuries BCE) (LHB/OTS 543; New York-London: T&T Clark, 2013); 316 pgs.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Jeremiah,” in Jewish Study Bible, second edition, ed. A. Berlin and M. Z. Brettler (Oxford: Oxford Press, 2014), 901–1032; 131 pgs.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2021); 580 pgs.   

Refereed Articles:

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “The Forest and the Trees: The Place of Pentateuchal Materials in Prophecy as of the Late Seventh / Early Sixth Centuries BCE,” in Congress Volume Stellenbosch 2016, edited by L. C. Jonker, G. R. Kotze and C. M. Maier; Vetus Testamentum Supplement 177; Leiden: Brill, 2017), 56–92; 36 pgs.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Prophets in Jeremiah in Struggle over Leadership, Or Rather over Prophetic Authority?” Biblica 99,3 (2018): 351–372; 22 pgs.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Forced/Involuntary Migration, Diaspora Studies, and More: Notes on Methodologies,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel  7,3 (2019): 376–398; 23 pgs.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “From Prophetic Words to Prophetic Literature: Challenging Paradigms that Control Our Academic Thought,” Journal of Biblical Literature 138,3 (2019): 565–586, 21 pgs.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “The Decalogue,” in Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law, edited by P. Barmash (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 135–155; 21 pgs.

• דלית רום-שילוני, ״הטובות התאנים? - בין הידוע למשוער על גורל הגולים היהודאים בבבל, המשכה של שיחה עם יאיר הופמן ז״ל״ בית מקרא סה,ב (תש״פ): 314—359; 48 עמ׳.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Nature Imagery in the Interplay between Different Metaphors in the Book of Ezekiel,” in Networks of Metaphors in the Hebrew Bible, edited by D. Verde and A. Labahn, Bibliotheca Ephmeridaum Theologicarum Lovaniensium (Louvan: Brill, 2020), 93–109; 17 pgs.

     

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Challenging the Notion of ‘Spiritual Metamorphosis’: Conceptions of Divine Presence and Anthropomorphic Language in Jeremiah,”  Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel  10,4 (2021): 353–386. 

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Ezekiel among the Exiles,” in Oxford Handbook of the Book of Ezekiel, edited by C. Carvalho (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 1–35; 35 pgs.        

             https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190634513.013.20

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Jeremiah and Inner-Biblical Exegesis,” in Oxford Handbook of the Book of Jeremiah, edited by L. Stulman and E. Silver (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 282–308; 26 pgs.

   

• Martti Nisinnen and Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Methodological Challenges in the Study of Prophecy and Prophetic Books: A Conversation,” in Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions: Methodological Encounters and Debates, edited by M. Nissinen & J. Jokiranta, SBL series Resources for Biblical Studies (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2024), 103–154; 45 pgs. 

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “’Aśśərtu Qālāt – Oral and Written Beta Israel Traditions of The Decalogue,” Israel Oriental Studies Annual 25 (2025): 150–241; 91 pgs., with a digital Appendix.

Upcoming:

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “The Exodus in Psalms and in the Prayers of Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) – Prayer and Identity Formation among Ethiopian Jewry,” in Prayer in Jewish and Christian Traditions –Identity, Ritual, and Cross-Cultural Contacts, edited by B. Ego, J. Krause, and D. Rom-Shiloni, Kirche und Israel (Tübingen: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2026), 37 pgs.
   
• דלית רום-שילוני, ״אשירה לה' כי גאה גאה״: הנוסחה ותרגומה בתרגומים האתיופיים ובתפילות הישועה על הים של ביתא ישראל״, מחקרים לכבוד משה פלורנטין, עורכים: מ. בר-אשר וח. כהן (ירושלים: האקדמיה ללשון העברית, תשפ״ו); עמ׳ 24.

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Ethiopic Beta Israel Scriptures: Living Manuscripts in Vital Textual & Oral Traditions” Michael  [the Center of Diaspora Studies, edited by Bar Kribus, 2026]

   

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Beta Israel Orits and Orit-Exodus –Texts and Codices,” in S. Delamarter, R. Lee, and D. Rom-Shiloni, The Textual History of Ethiopic Exodus 

Research projects in progress: 

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, DNI Bible Project (Dictionary of Nature Imagery of the Bible) http://dni.tau.ac.il/
  [Founding leader of the project, writing and monitoring the development of the entries (ISF 462/15 for 2015–2019; and ISF 1884/19 for 2019–2022). 
  General Editor of the book series: DNI Bible Supplements, Monograph Series (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark).]

• Dalit Rom-Shiloni, “Orit-Exodus in Beta Israel Manuscripts and Oral Traditions” (ISF 1157/24, 2024–2027).