Honorary Members

The Society currently has 18 honorary members. Honorary membership is bestowed onto scholars from around the world as a recognition of the excellence of their work. Currently, the following scholars are Honorary members of the society (in alphabetic order; non-emeriti have their institutional affiliation listed).

The Guidelines for the Nomination of Honorary Members can be found here.

Bertil Albrektson

1929  Born in Gothenburg, Sweden

• Studies in the Text and Theology of the Book of Lamentations: with a Critical Edition of the Peshitta Text, Studia theologica Lundensia 21. Lund: Gleerup, 1963.
• History and the Gods: an Essay on the Idea of Historical Events as Divine Manifestations in the Ancient Near East and in Israel, Coniectanea biblica, Old Testament series 1. Lund: Gleerup, 1967 [Reprinted by Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2011].
• En bok om Gamla testamentet. Lund: Gleerup, 1969 [with H. Ringgren; 5th revised edition 1992]
• Text, Translation, Theology: Selected Essays on the Hebrew Bible, SOTS Monographs. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.
• Newton och bibeln: Essäer om bibeltexter, tolkningsfrågor och översättningsproblem. Stockholm: Carlsson Bokförlag, 2015.

Athalya Brenner-Idan

• Samuel, King’s, Chronicles. Texts@Contexts. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2016 (together with Archie C.C. Lee).

Walter Brueggemann

• Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.
• From Whom No Secrets are Hid: Introducing the Psalms. Louiville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.
• Ice Axes for Frozen Seas: A Biblical Theology of Provocation. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014.

Tamara Eskenazi (Hebrew Union College – Los Angeles)

Michael V. Fox

Michael V. Fox studied at the University of Michigan (BA, MA), the Hebrew Union College (rabbinic ordination), the Hebrew University (PhD, 1972), and Liverpool University (postdoc in Egyptology). He taught at the Hebrew University, then at the University of Wisconsin, beginning in 1977. He was Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies and the Halls-Bascom Professor of Hebrew.

His research focused on Wisdom Literature, with books on Proverbs and Qoheleth, and some other topics, with books on the Song of Songs and Esther. For his full CV and list of publications see http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/~mfox/cv. Copies of his articles are available at http://wisc.academia.edu/MichaeFox/. He is currently writing a commentary on Job for the OTL.

Norman Gottwald

Norman Habel

Sarah Japhet

Reinhard G. Kratz (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen)

Born 1957 in Germany

1987 Dr. theol. in Old Testament, University of Zürich
1990 Habilitation, venia legendi for Old Testament, University of Zürich
since 1995 Full Professor for Old Testament at Georg-August-University Göttingen
since 1999 Ordinary Member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities Göttingen

Reinhard Kratz is co-director of the Centrum Orbis Orientalis et Occidentalis – Centre for Oriental and Ancient Studies (CORO) at the University Göttingen and head of two long term projects funded by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities: The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran Lexicon) and the Critical Edition of the Septuagint (Septuaginta-Unternehmen). Prof. Kratz is also the principle investigator in the cooperating German-Israeli project Scripta Qumranica Electronica funded by the German government and administered by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Major recent publications:

• Historical and Biblical Israel: The History, Tradition, and Archives of Ancient Israel and Judah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015 (German edition Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013).
• The Prophets of Israel. CSHB 2. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2015 (German edition Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2003).
• The Composition of the Narrative Books of the Old Testament. London: T&T Clark, 2005 (German edition Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000).
• Kleine Schriften (Selected Articles) I–III. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004–2015 (Vol. I Studien zum Judentum im Zeitalter des Zweiten Tempels, 2004; Vol. II Prophetenstudien, 2011; Vol. III Mythos und Geschichte, 2015).

Homepage: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/56085.html

Bernhard Lang

Born 1946

1971 Élève titulaire de l’École biblique, Jerusalem
1975 Dr. theol., University of Tübingen, Germany
1977 Dr. theol. habil., University of Freiburg, Germany
1977-82 Professor of Ancient Judaism, University of Tübingen
1982–85 Professor of Old Testament, University of Mainz, Germany
1985–2011 Professor of Old Testament and Religious Studies, University of Paderborn, Germany
1999–2003 Professor of Divinity, University of St Andrews, Scotland
2008 Dr. theol. h.c., University of Aarhus, Denmark
2011 emeritus professor

Monographs

• Heaven: A History (with Colleen McDannell), New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988 (2nd ed. 2001).
• The Hebrew God: Portrait of an Ancient Deity, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
• Hebrew Life and Literature: Selected Essays. SOTS Monographs, Aldershot: Ashgate 2008.
• Joseph in Egypt: A Cultural Icon from Grotius to Goethe, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009

Trygve Mettinger

1940  Born in Helsingborg
1960-1978  Studies in Theology, Comparative Literature, Semitic Languages, Assyriology and Egyptology in Lund and Copenhagen
1963  MA Religious Studies, Comparative Literature
1971  Dr of Divinity, Lund
1971-78  Docent of Old Testament Studies, Lund
1978-2003  Professor of Old Testament Studies, Lund

Major recent publications

• • No Graven Image: Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context, Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament Series 42. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1995. [Reprinted Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2013].

• • The Riddle of Resurrection: “Dying and Rising Gods” in the Ancient Near East, Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament Series 50. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2001 [Reprinted Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns 2013].

• • The Eden Narrative: A Literary and Religio-historical Study of Genesis 2—3. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2007.

• Reports from a Scholar’s Life: Select Papers on the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Andrew Knapp. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns 2015.

Focus of research: The notions of God, studied in a religio-historical perspective with emphasis on intercultural comparisons.

For Mettinger’s full CV and list of publications see

• • Göran Eidevall and Blazenka Scheuer, eds., Enigmas and Images: Studies in Honor of Tryggve N.D. Mettinger, Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament Series 58. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns 2011

• Reports from a Scholar’s Life (above)

Mettinger’s homepage:   tryggvemettinger.com

Johannes de Moor

1955-61 Study of Theology and Semitic Languages at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and at Universiteit Leiden.

Carol A. Newsom (Emory, Atlanta)

Eduard Nielsen

Kirsten Nielsen

Born 1943.

1969 MA in French (minor).
1970 MA in Religion (major).
1971 amanuensis at the Department for Old Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University.
1976 PhD in Old Testament.
1976 Reader in Old Testament aculty of Theology, Aarhus University.
1984-89 Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Aarhus.
1985 DD in Old Testament.
1995 Professor of Old Testament at the Institute of Biblical Studies, Aarhus University.
2008 PhD honoris causa, Menighetsfakultetet, Oslo, Norway.
2009 Professor emeritus.

Recent publications

• 100 salmer. Et salmebogstillæg. Eksistensen: Frederiksberg C, 2016  [100 Hymns: A Supplement to the Hymn Book].

Monographs

• Yahweh as Prosecutor and Judge: An Investigation of the Prophetic Lawsuit (Rîb-Pattern). JSOTSup 9. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1978.
• There is Hope for a Tree: The Tree as Metaphor in Isaiah. JSOTSup 65. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1989 (Habilitation).
• Ruth, A Commentary. The Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.
• Satan – the Prodigal Son? A Family Problem in the Bible. The Biblical Seminar 50, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press 1998.

Martti Nissinen (Helsinki)

1985-94: Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies.
1994-2002: Research Fellow of the Academy of Finland.
2002-07: Professor of Bible and the Ancient Near East
2007–present day: Professor of Old Testament Studies.
2014-19: leader of the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence “Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions” (www.cstt.fi)

Martti Nissinen also served as translator of the Finnish Bible Translation Commission for two years in the late 1980’s, and as the leader of the Finnish Doctoral Programme of Theology in 2009–14. He is member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and Chairman of the Foundation for the Finnish Institute in the Middle East.

Main and Recent Articles Publications

• References to Prophecy in Neo-Assyrian Sources. SAAS 7. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Corpus Project/University of Helsinki, 1998.
• Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
• Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East. SBLWAW 12; Atlanta: SBL, 2003.
• ‘Biblical Masculinities: Musings on Theory and Agenda’. Pages 271-85 in Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded. Edited by Ovidiu Creangă and Peter-Ben Smit. Hebrew Bible Monographs 62. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014.
• ‘Sacred Springs and Liminal Rivers: Water and Prophecy in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean’. Pages 29-48 in Thinking of Water in the Early Second Temple Period. Edited by Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin. BZAW 461. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014.
•  ‘Since When Do Prophets Write?’. Pages 585-606 in In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes: Studies in the Biblical Text in Honour of Anneli Aejmelaeus. Edited by Kristin de Troyer, T. Michael Law and Marketta Liljeström. Leuven: Peeters, 2014.
• ‘(How) Does the Book of Ezekiel Reveal Its Babylonian Context?’. Die Welt des Orients 45 (2015): 85-98.
• ‘Oracles at Qumran? Traces of Inspired Speakers in the Dead Sea Scrolls’. Pages 165-81 in Crossing Imaginary Boundaries: The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Second Temple Judaism. Edited by Mika S. Pajunen and Hanna Tervanotko. Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society 108. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society, 2015.

Thomas Römer

Rudolf Smend

Former honorary members include:

Menahem Haran (1924-2015), Otto Kaiser (1924–2017), Rolf Rendtorff (1924-2014)