Why a Rhinoceros?

The rhinoceros that represents our institute is not a decorative choice, but a deliberate homage to the work of David Flusser, a historian of ancient Judaism and early Christianity whose ideas shaped an entire generation of scholarship.

In one of his most striking suggestions, Flusser proposed that the fourth beast in the Book of Daniel could be envisioned as a rhinoceros: an animal of unyielding strength, solitary presence, and a form that defies easy classification. This interpretation— bold yet philologically grounded—captured a method of reading that confronts ancient texts without fear of their strangeness or difficulty.

In the year of Flusser’s passing, our institute adopted the rhinoceros as its emblem. The animal stands for a way of working: disciplined, uncompromising, and resistant to intellectual fashions. It reminds us that true scholarship does not domesticate the text but allows it to speak in its own terms, even when it challenges our assumptions.

The symbol therefore has a double function. It honors a scholar whose influence endures, and it expresses a commitment to a mode of inquiry grounded in precision, rigor, and the willingness to face the untamed aspects of the ancient world.