22 Top (Non-WASPM) Scholars of the Hebrew Bible/OT

Luis Alonso Schökel

Adele Berlin

Joseph Blenkinsopp

John J. Collins

Cheryl Exum

Michael Fishbane

Michael V. Fox

Moshe Greenberg

Menahem Haran

Bernd Janowski

Jon D. Levenson

Bernard Levinson

Oded Lipschitz

Norbert Lohfink

Roland Meynet

Jacob Milgrom

Shemaryahu Talmon

Jeffrey Tigay

Emanuel Tov

Phyllis Trible

Moshe Weinfeld

Erich Zenger

The impact of each of these scholars on the field surpasses or will surpass, when the day is done, no disrespect intended, that of Norman Gottwald, John Van Seters, Thomas L. Thompson, and William Dever (all four show up on Halton’s Top Ten list).

Comments

[Michael Westmoreland-White]

Well, I agree with most of your critique and substitutes--except for Gottwald. A contemporary giant that both of you have overlooked is Walter Brueggemann.

[Jim Getz]

Yes! This looks much more like my bookcase(s) than Christopher's list.

[Charles Halton]

These are all excellent scholars. I think you have underestimated Gottwald's influence. I definitely disagree with Michael's suggestion of including Brueggemann in this list. I read everything Brueggemann writes and I value him, but his scholarship is so trendy that about a decade after it is written it is passe.

Scholars that I did not include in my list, but in my opinion may be more influential than some scholars in your list (except Tov and Lohfink which I admit might have been oversights on my part): S. R. Driver, Graf, Mowinckel, Gustavo Gutierrez, Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Kung, and Otto Eissfeldt. Lists like these are always hard, but I appreciate your critique and insight.

Some of our disagreement might come from our academic focus. Your list causes me to think that you might be more focused upon history of interpretation while my training is centered more in philology and ancient history. This might have biased my list.

[Justin Richter]

I enjoy your blog. It has helped me in my study of Hebrew tremendously. One thing though, how come there is no love for Bruce Waltke? I think he has written one of the best grammars in the last 30 years. Just wondering.

[JohnFH]

Hi, Justin.

That's an amazing blog you link to. Do you write for it as well? I couldn't find an "about" page.

Bruce Waltke is a very fine evangelical OT scholar. The Syntax of which you speak, co-authored with Michael O'Connor is a magnificent achievement. On the other hand, since it is a subject matter I am passionate about, I could nitpick or worse on just about every page.

My purpose here was to focus on non-WASP scholars.

[Justin Richter]

Yeah, that makes sense I should have taken your purpose into mind. I guess I overlooked the the non-WASP in the title.

I share that blog with some friends from New Mexico, where we grew up together. We all are pursuing further our graduate studies in different places so it gives us a chance to connect and share ideas that we are thinking about.

Thanks again.

[M. Reim]

How accurate is the writing of the 10 commandments in the movie
The 10 Commandments with Carlton Heston?
Thank you