The Future of the UW-Madison Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Hebrew, Hebrew & Greek, and Hebrew Bible have long been known to be among the most challenging and rewarding in North America. The Bible track at the UW-Madison is intended to produce scholars who study and teach the Bible as an academic discipline based on a wide array of literary and linguistic tools, in particular, a knowledge of Hebrew philology and cognate languages. You can’t finish up a graduate degree at the UW-Madison without attaining a level of competency in Hebrew, Aramaic, and – for many – Hellenistic Greek, far beyond that expected in many institutions. Students in the Department don’t dabble in the field. They immerse themselves in the primary and secondary literature until they almost drown. This is on the theory that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. No wonder so many Madison grads have gone on to be tenured professors in leading institutions around the country.

The Department is in transition. Where is it headed?

Professor Michael Fox has officially retired but will teach through the fall of this year, and will maintain an office in Van Hise, the Tower of Babel. There is no doubt in my mind that Fox will move forward with a number of major projects, first and foremost, his Oxford Hebrew Bible edition of Proverbs and a commentary on Job. Congratulations and best wishes to Michael in this moment of transition. A brief tribute. I remember how Ted Lewis, now Blum-Iwry Professor in Near Eastern Studies in Johns Hopkins' Department of Near Eastern Studies, captured the experience of studying under Fox. He compared Fox to Baal the storm god. It was not especially easy to study under such an awesome scholar.

Professor Cynthia Miller is off to South Africa. She will join the faculty in Afroasiatic Studies at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein. Congratulations and best wishes to Cynthia. A brief tribute. Miller is a scholar’s scholar, a linguist’s linguist. What she doesn’t know, she doesn’t pretend to know. What she knows, she knows better than anyone in the field.

Senior Lecturer Ronald Troxel, soon-to-be Professor and Chairman of the Department, the third member of the trio that has been the mainstay of the graduate faculty in Hebrew Bible, is moving quickly to ensure that the traditional strengths of the department are preserved into the future. Congratulations and best wishes to Ron on his well-deserved promotion. A brief tribute. Troxel is a cogent teacher and writer. He doesn’t overplay his hand. When he presents a thesis, one can be sure he has bullet-proofed it such that it is virtually impossible to shoot it down.

Thanks to the recent addition of Professor Jordan Rosenblum to the department’s faculty, a strength of the graduate program is the opportunity it gives for students to get a thorough grounding in classical Rabbinic texts in the original languages. That makes for an eminently marketable combination: an excellent grounding in Northwest Semitic literature from Ugarit to Qumran; Hebrew Bible; Septuagint and Hellenistic Jewish literature; and classical Rabbinic literature, in Hebrew and Aramaic.   

Fox, Miller, and Troxel: the University of Wisconsin-Madison has long had three de facto professors for the price of two professors and a senior lecturer in the field of Hebrew Bible and cognate literatures. The University is moving quickly to hire a replacement for Prof. Miller (go here). The plan is to find a brilliant young scholar who is not only a top-notch linguist, but an excellent all-around scholar of the literature of the Hebrew Bible.

My best-case scenario for the department goes like this. I speak for myself and no one else. My hope is that the department and her friends (1) find enough endowment monies to allow for three tenured professors to anchor the graduate and undergraduate programs in Hebrew Bible and cognate languages and literatures. I trust that (2) the traditional strengths of the program will be preserved, with Ugaritic, epigraphic Hebrew, biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, Ben Sira Hebrew, and Qumran Hebrew and Aramaic taught according to rigorous standards, with the option of mastering Hellenistic Greek at the same level of proficiency.

I also hope that (3) rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic and (4) a working knowledge of modern Hebrew for the purposes of reading scholarship in that language will become standard elements in the repertoire of graduate students who finish a Masters’ or Ph.D. program at the UW-Madison. That kind of range would make for an unbeatable combination not only on the job market, but in terms of ensuring the health of the field of study of the Hebrew Bible going into the future.

The founder of the department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the UW-Madison, Menahem Mansoor, liked to point to Chaim Rabin as the model Hebraist and linguist (for a full Rabin bibliography, go here). Of course, God broke the mold when he made Rabin, but I can’t help but think that Rabin would have found the company of Michael Fox, Cynthia Miller, and Ronald Troxel – and their many students - very congenial. The department has had a great run. Those who hold the department dear have every reason to expect that it will have a great run in the future. 

Comments

[ed cook]

You should apply!

[JohnFH]

Thank you, Ed, for the suggestion. Many academics find it mysterious that someone like me, who has been offered an academic post on several occasions, would prefer to pursue the life of a pastor-scholar.

But I consider it a great life. It forces me to read the texts we all study with a degree of engagement I might otherwise be tempted to leave to one side.

[Cristian]

Now I understand why you are a pastor-scholar.
I am with you on this one...but I won't hold it against you if you take the Wisconsin position! :)

[Christian]

I just saw this post and realized I should have called when I was in Madison last week!

i had no idea Cynthia was leaving. She taught me in my masters at Wheaton. A great person and, as you said, a scholar's scholar.

[JohnFH]

Cristian,

Thank you for your kind words.

[LP]

John,

What is the difference between a pastor-scholar, and a regular pastor or regular scholar? What makes your vocation different? I'm just curious. Thanks!

[JohnFH]

Practically speaking, it means that, though I am a pastor, I spend a lot of time reading and writing in an academic field, in my case, biblical studies.

Does the combination make me a better scholar and a better pastor? Well, I hope so.