At the Hebrew University he studied Hebrew Bible and the History of Israel. His teachers in Bible were M.D. Cassuto, Y. Kaufmann, I.L. Seeligmann, S. Talmon, M. Weiss, M. Haran, S.E. Loewenstamm; in History of Israel – B. Mazar, A. Malamat, A. Shalit; in Assyriology – H. Tadmor, in Hebrew Language – N. H. Tur-Sinai, E.Y. Kutscher, Ben-Haim, S. Morag; in History of Religions – D. Flusser, R.J.Z. Werblowsky. Rofe' wrote his dissertation under the supervision of I.L. Seeligmann, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1970.
Rofé taught at the Hebrew University for nearly forty years. He was promoted to full professorship in 1986 and retired in 2000. He had served twice as head of the Department of Bible. He co-edited the series of monographs Jerusalem Bible Studies between the years 1979-1986 and has been editor and coeditor of Textus, Studies of the Hebrew University Bible Project, between the years 1995–2009.
Rofé has contributed to three fields of study in the Hebrew Bible: textual criticism, history of literature, and history of the Israelite religion. In his research he strives to integrate these fields, because each one of them is advanced by perceptions obtained in the other two.
"Joshua 20: Historico-Literary Criticism Illustrated", Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism, ed. by J.H. Tigay, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985, 131-147.
"Ephraimite versus Deuteronomistic History", Scritti in onore di J.A. Soggin, a cura di D. Garrone e F. Israel, Brescia: Paideia, 1991, 221-235. [=G.N. Knoppers and J.G. McConville (eds.), Reconsidering Israel and Judah: Recent Studies on the Deuteronomistic History (Sources for Biblical and Theological Studies 8), Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2000, 462–474]
"Clan Sagas as a Source in Settlement Traditions", Essays in Honor of Burke O. Long, ed. by R.C. Culley & S.M. Olyan, Providence RI :Brown Judaic Studies 325, 2000, 191-203. .
"Historico-Literary Aspects of the Qumran Biblical Scrolls", Proceedings of the International Congress – The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years after their Discovery, ed. by L.H. Shiffman et al., Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society etc., 2000,30-39.
"The Reliability of the Sources about David’s Reign – An Outlook from Political Theory", Mincha: Festgabe fuer Rolf Rendtorff zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. by E. Blum, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2000, 217-227
"The Formcritical Problem of the Hexateuch - Revisited", Altes Testament und Moderne, 10: Das Alte Testament — Ein Geschichtsbuch? , ed. by E. Blum et al., Münster: Lit Verlag, 2005, 41–46
Biblical Law
"Methodological Aspects of the Study of Biblical Law", Jewish Law Association – Proceedings of the Jerusalem Conference 1980, ed. by B.S. Jackson, Atlanta: Scholars, 1986, 1-16.
"Family and Sex Laws in Deuteronomy and in the Book of Covenant", Henoch 9 (1987), 131- 158.
"The History of the Cities of Refuge in Biblical Law", Scripta Hierosolymitana 31 – Studies in Bible, ed. by S. Japhet, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986, 205-239.
"Divorce in the Hebrew Bible and the Meaning of Sefer Keritut", Tarbiẕ 78 (2008/9), 437 – 446 (Hebrew with English abstract).
Joshua and the Book of Joshua
"The End of the Book of Joshua according to the Septuagint" [and the Damascus Document], Henoch 4 (1982), 17-36.
"Joshua 20: Historico-Literary Criticism Illustrated", Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism, ed. by J.H. Tigay, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985, 131-147.
"The Editing of the Book of Joshua in the Light of 4QJosha", New Qumran Texts and Studies – Proceedings of the First Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992, ed. by G.J. Brooke with F. Garcia Martinez, Leiden: Brill, 1994, 73 – 80. # "Giosué figlio di Nun nella storia della tradizione biblica", Ricerche Storico Bibliche 18 (2006), 53–90
Jeremiah: Text and Composition
"Studies in the Composition of the Book of Jeremiah", Tarbiz 44 (1974/5), 1 – 29 (Hebrew, with English abstract).
"Jeremiah, the Book of", The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, 1996, 490-492
"The Arrangement of the Book of Jeremiah", ZAW 101 (1989), 390–398.
"The Name YHWH Seba’ot and the Shorter Recension of Jeremiah", Prophetie und geschichtliche Wirklichkeit im alten Israel – Fs.S. Herrmann, ed. by R. Liwak and S. Wagner, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1991, 307-315. ISBN3-17-011314-3
"Not Exile but Annihilation for Zedekiah's People: The Purport of Jeremiah 52 in the Septuagint", VIII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Paris 1992, ed. by L. Greenspoon and O. Munnich, Atlanta GA: Scholars, 1995, 165-170.
"Text-Criticism within the Philological-Historical Discipline: The Problem of the Double Text of Jeremiah", Tarbiẕ 78 (2008/9), 5 - 25 (Hebrew, with English abstract).
Trito-Isaiah
"Isaiah 66:1-4: Judean Sects in the Persian Period as Viewed by Trito-Isaiah", Biblical and Related Studies Presented to Samuel Iwry, ed. by A. Kort and S. Morschauser, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1985, 205-217.
"How Is the Word Fulfilled? Isaiah 55:6-11 within the Theological Debate of its Time", Essays in Honor of B.S. Childs, ed. by B.M. Tucker et al., Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988, 246-261.
"Isaiah 59:19 and Trito-Isaiah’s Vision of Redemption", BETL 81 – The Book of Isaiah, ed. by J. Vermeylen, Leuven: Peeters, 1989, 407 – 410.
"The Piety of the Torah-Disciples at the Winding-up of the Hebrew Bible: Josh 1:8; Ps 1:2; Isa 59:21", Bibel in juedischer und christlichen Tradition – Festschrift J. Maier, ed. by H. Merklein et al., Frankfurt a.M.: Hain, 1993, 78-85.
"The Extent of Trito-Isaiah according to Kuenen and Elliger: Chaps. 54–66", Henoch 26 (2004), 128–135.
The Late Narrative
"The Battle of David and Goliath – Folklore, Theology, Eschatology", Judaic Perspectives on Ancient Israel, ed. by B.A. Levine and J. Neusner, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987, 117-151.
"The Vineyard of Naboth – the Origin and Message of the Story, VT 38 (1988), 89-104.
"An Enquiry into the Betrothal of Rebekah", Die hebraeische Bibel und ihre zweifache Nachgeschichte – Fs. R. Rendtorff, ed. by E. Blum et al., Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1990, 27-39.
"Not by Language Alone: Non Linguistic Arguments for the Dating of Biblical Documents", Houses Full of All Good Things – Essays in Memory of Timo Veijola, edited by J. Pakkala and M. Nissinen, Helsinki – Göttingen 2008, 656-665.
"Defilement of Virgins in Biblical Law and the Case of Dinah (Genesis 34)", Biblica 86 (2005), 369-375.
"Elders or Youngsters? Critical Remarks on 1 Kings 12" , One God – One Cult - One Nation: Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives, ed. by R.G. Kratz and H. Spieckermann (BZAW 405), Berlin 2010, 79-89.
Wisdom and Psalmody
"The Valiant Woman, gunh_ suneth& and the Redaction of the Book of Proverbs", Vergegenwaertigung des Alten Testament (Festschrift für Rudolf Smend),ed. by Chr. Bultmann et al., Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002, 145-155.
"The Wisdom Formula 'Do not say…' and the Angel in Qoh.5.5", Reading from Right to Left: Essays …in Honour of David J.A. Clines, ed. by J. Ch. Exum and H.G.M. Williamson, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003, 364-376.
"The Text-Criticism of Psalm 80 – Revisited", VT (forthcoming)
Religion and Text
"The Historical Significance of Secondary Readings", The Quest for Context and Meaning – Studies in Biblical Intertextuality in Honor of J.A. Sanders, ed. by C.A. Evans and S. Talmon, Leiden: Brill, 1997, 393 – 402.
"The History of Israelite Religion and the Biblical Text: Corrections Due to the Unification of Worship", Emanuel: Studies…in Honor of Emanuel Tov, ed. by Sh. Paul et al., Leiden: Brill, 2003, 759-793
"No Ephod or Teraphim – oudè hierateías oudè dē&lōn: Hosea 3:4 in the LXX and in the Paraphrases of Chronicles and the Damascus Document", Sefer Moshe: The Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume, ed. by Ch. Cohen et al., Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004, 135-149.
"Correzioni del TM dettate dal postulato dell'amore di Dio per Israele: Amos 6:8; Osea 1:6; Geremia 31:32", Rivista Biblica (in press)
Midrash and Text
"The Acts of Nahash according to 4QSama", IEJ 32 (1982), 129-133.
"The Nomistic Correction in Biblical Manuscripts and its Occurrence in 4QSama", RdQ 54 (December 1989), 247-254.
"Elisha at Dothan ( 2 Kings 6:8-23) Historico-Literary Criticism Sustained by the Midrash", Ki Baruch Hu, Studies in Honor of Baruch A. Levine, ed. by R. Chazan et al., Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns 1999, 345-353.
"Moses' Mother and her Slave-Girl according to 4QExodb", DSD 9 (2002),1-6.
"4QMidrash Samuel? - Observations concerning the Character of 4QSama", Textus 19 (1998), 63-74.
"The Scribal Concern for the Torah Evidenced by the Textual Witnesses of the Hebrew Bible", Mishneh Todah: Studies in Deuteronomy and Its Cultural Environment in Honor of Jeffrey H. Tigay, edited by N. Sacher Fox et al., Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009, 229-242.
"Midrashic Traits in 4Q51 (so-called 4QSama", Archaeology of the Books of Samuel: The Entangling of the Textual and Literary History, edited by Ph. Hugo and A. Schenker: SVT 132, Leiden: Brill, 2010, 75 – 88.
