Prof. Sue Gillingham (Oxford), ‘What is reception history and how do we do it? Jewish and Christian responses to Psalm 8’

‘Reception History’ is a relatively new approach to Biblical Studies and encompasses a number of disciplines, including the reception of texts through liturgy, poetry, music and art. The Book of Psalms is an ideal text to this end, not least because over the last two millennia it has been used by both Christians and Jews in very different ways. In my paper I intend to show how this approach can bring to light several levels of meaning resonant in just one text: to this end I have chosen a controversial and fairly brief psalm, namely Psalm 8.