Teaching Outside Siena College (2001–)
I have been asked to teach a PhD seminar on the “Theologies of Creation in the Ancient
Near East” at The Princeton Theological Seminary (Spring 2013)
Univerzita Karlova v Praze Evangelická Theologická Fakulta, Spring 2010 Visiting
Professor of Hebrew Bible in Prague, where I taught a PhD. Seminar on Northwest
Semitic Inscriptions and a M.A. class in the Evolution of Monotheism in Israel.
Pontificio Istituto Biblico (Rome), Fall 2006 Visiting Professor for the Catholic Biblical
Association. I taught doctoral students a course on the “Nineveh Prophets” Nahum,
Zephaniah, Micah, and Jonah.
Univerzita Karlova v Praze Evangelická Theologická Fakulta, 2005–6 Visiting Professor of
Hebrew Bible in Prague. I also taught Akkadian religious texts at the West Bohemian
University in Plzen (Atra-Hasis) and at Univerzita Karlova (Mīs Pî).
Theologicum, Lunds Universitet, Sweden, 2001 (spring) Fulbright Visiting Professor of
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Religions
Recent Publications (2001–)
Books:
The Mīs Pî Ritual: The Critical Edition of the Ritual Tablets and Incantations. (With CDROM Photographs) Michael B. Dick and Christopher Walker of the British Museum. in
State Archives of Assyria 2001 University of Helsinki Press.
Reading the Old Testament: An Inductive Introduction.(With CD-ROM exercises) 2008
Hendrickson Publishers.
Articles:
I have submitted six articles requested by the editor for the new Cambridge Dictionary of
Ancient Religions: benay El, Shamash, Ashur, Anunaki, Anu, The Opening of the Mouth
Ritual.
“Memories of the Fall of Nineveh: Mid Second Century B.C.E.,” submitted to the Journal of
Biblical Literature in February of 2012.
"Royal Dynasticism as Divine Legitimization," Enigmas and Images: Studies in Honor of
Tryggve N. D. Mettinger (Coniectanea Biblica: Old Testament Series 58; ed. Gören
Eidevall and Bla enka Scheuer; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011), 163-202.
“Babel–Bibel Controversy”, an article in the new Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its
Reception (Verlag Walter de Gruyter).B volume, Pp. 254-56.
“Foreign Languages and Hegemony,” Languages in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of
the 53e Rencontre assyriologique internationale, Vol 1, Part 2 (Orientalia et Classica:
Russian State University of the Humanities xxx/i Babel und Bibel 4/2; ed. L. Koogan, N.
Koslova and S. Loesov, Tishchenko; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2010) 1137-46.
“Statues, Statuary,” The New Interpreter's Dictionary to the Bible 5: S-Z (ed. K. D.
Sakenfeld; Nashville: Abingdon, 2009) 372-75.
“Mezopotámské kultické sochy: svátostné setkání s božským,” Tesáno do kamene, psáno
na pergamen, tišteno na papír : príspevky ke starozákonní hermeneutice (Studie a texty
Evangelické teologické fakulty 13; ed. M. Prudký and P. Sláma; Jihlava: Mlýn, 2008/2).
“Ukázka akademického Ekumenismu,” Společnost Křesťanů a Židů 55(2006) 27.
“The Royal Lion Hunt and God’s Answer to Job,” Journal of Biblical Literature 125(2006)
243-270.
“Pīt Pî and Mīs Pî: The Opening of the Mouth Ritual” Encyclopedia article in X Band of
Reallexikon der Assyriologie,(de Gruyer: 2006) pp. 580-585.
“CBS 8241: An Neo-Sumerian Ritual Tablet for Statues,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies
(2005) 271-280.
“The Poetics of the Book of Obadiah” Journal of Northwest Semitic Literature 31(2005).
“The Mesopotamian Cult Statue: A Sacramental Encounter with Divinity,” Cult Image and
Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East (ASOR Books 10; ed. N. H. Walls;
Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005) 43-67.
“The ‘History of David’s Rise to Power’ and the Neo-Babylonian Succession Narratives” in
David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts (B. Batto Editor).
(Eisenbraun’s: 2004) 3-19..
“A Babylonian Response to Second Isaiah and the Making of Cult Images” May 2002 issue
of the Biblical Archaeological Review.
Current Projects:
I am writing a book on the Theology of The Fall of Nineveh (612 BCE) in the Mesopotamian
and Hellenistic Historiography, the Bible, Jewish, Christian, and Moslem Traditions
scheduled for completion in 2013. I have completed almost 180 pages of this
manuscript. It is slow going because I am translating the latest relevant texts, many of
which are unavailable to the non-specialist.
K. Lawson Younger, the editor of the fourth volume of The Context of Scripture (E. J. Brill)
has asked me to translate the ritual; tables (Babylonian and Ninevite) of Mīs Pî . The
Context of Scripture, Volume 4 is conceived as a supplementary volume that continues
the work done in the first three volumes. It will present translations of texts that did not
appear in those volumes and further illuminate the texts that helped form the background
to the literature of the Hebrew Bible.
I am working with the University of Pennsylvania to establish a web publication of our 2001
book The Mīs Pî Ritual: The Critical Edition of the Ritual Tablets and Incantations. (With
CD-ROM Photographs) Michael B. Dick and Christopher Walker of the British Museum.
in State Archives of Assyria 2001 University of Helsinki Press. This web version will
incorporate corrections and suggestions made by book reviewers as well as additional
cuneiform texts found at the British Museum and in Berlin. This electronic version will
then allow the next generation of scholars vetted additional texts to add to this electronic
critical edition, which will always represent the most up to date version of that series.
Academic Papers Presented:
“Mīs Pî and the Creation of the Human in Genesis 2-3,” November 22 at the 2011 San
Francisco Society of Biblical Literature Meeting.
“The Book of Job and Forensic Justice,” a Colloquium with Robert Alter, October 16-17,
2011 Jewish Christian Institute at Siena College, Loudonville New York.
“Beyond 612 BCE: The Afterlife of Nineveh,” SBL Assyriology and the Bible Section (Society
of Biblical Literature; ed. J. Scurlock; Atlanta, GA, 2010).
“Heredity as a Factor in Legitimizing Ancient Near Eastern Monarchs,” 2008 Society of
Biblical Literature Meeting in Boston, MA. An expanded version of this presentation will
be in the 2011 Festschrift for my good friend Tryggve Mettinger of Lund university
(Sweden) who hosted me for my Fulbright.
“The Perception of Foreign Languages in Assyria and Judah in the 8-7th centuries,” for the
53rd Rencontre assyriologique international (2007) in Moscow–St. Petersburg. The article
was chosen by referees to appear in the Proceedings.
“Namburbi Texts and Old Testament Apotropaic Magic,” invited address at a Dutch,
German, Czech Bible Colloquium (2006) on the Hebrew Bible at the Protestant Faculty
of the Charles University in Prague.
“Nimrod as a Symbol of the Neo-Assyrian King” delivered at the 2005 meeting of the
Society of Biblical Literature in Philadelphia.
“The Neo-Assyrian Royal Lion Hunt and Yahweh’s Response to Job in Job 39-42.” given at
the 2004 Rencontre assyriologique internationale in South Africa in August.
“Nabonidus’ Apologiae for Usurping the Babylonian Throne and David’s Rise to Power,”
Toronto Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, November 2002.
“A Neo-Sumerian Religious Ritual from the University of Pennsylvania Collection: The
Oldest Ritual Tablet for Mīs Pî” given at the International Meeting of the SBL in Rome
(July 2001)