Dr. Nati joined the JST community as Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible & Old Testament Studies in 2019. He holds a PhD from Yale University (2019), MAR from Yale Divinity School (2013), and BA from the University of Michigan (2011).
His research focuses on the textual traditions of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and more specifically on the development of these traditions in the Second Temple period (500 BCE –100 CE). His first book, Textual Criticism and the Ontology of Literature in Early Judaism: An Analysis of the Serekh ha-Yahad, takes a text from the Dead Sea Scrolls – the Community Rule – as a test case for considering how biblical texts developed, and it asks how ancient scribes might have understood the nature of their developing literature. James is particularly interested in ideas of originality and authenticity as they were understood by biblical authors and early Jewish scribes. He has published articles and book reviews in Revue de Qumran, Dead Sea Discoveries, the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, and in a number of edited volumes. James is currently at work on a commentary on the Community Rule (with John J. Collins; Oxford University Press).
His teaching interests span the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and early Jewish literature, but he focuses on Wisdom and Apocalyptic literature, the Deuterocanonical books, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and biblical languages.
Dr. Nati is a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty in the GTU's Department of Sacred Texts and Their Interpretation, and an affiliated faculty member at the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies.
- Wisdom in Ancient Israel
- What is Scripture?
- How to Read the Book of Job
- Advanced Biblical Hebrew: The Dead Sea Scrolls
- The Book of Daniel: Apocalypse Amidst Empire
- Textual Criticism and the Ontology of Literature in Early Judaism: An Analysis of the Serekh ha-Yahad (JSJSupp 198; Leiden: Brill, 2022).
- “‘But they Maintain the Fabric of the World’ (Sir 38:34): Wisdom and the Dignity of Work in the Book of Sirach,” forthcoming in Explore.
- “‘As for the Doer of His Will, May They Ascend as a Fine Fragrance’: A Note on Jubilees 2:22,” Journal of Ancient Judaism 12 (2021): 175-184.
- “Ancient Hebrew Literature Beyond ‘The Bible’:” Metatron 1.1-2 (2021). Edited by James Nati and Seth L. Sanders.
- “The Rolling Corpus: Materiality and Pluriformity at Qumran, with Special Consideration of the Serekh ha-Yaḥad,” Dead Sea Discoveries 27 (2020): 161-201.
- “On 'True' Editions: Pluriformity and Authority Between Psalms and Serekh,” in Scribal Practice, Text and Canon in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essays in Memory of Peter W. Flint (Eds. J. J. Collins & A. Geyser-Fouche; STDJ 130; Leiden: Brill, 2019), 90-107.