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Bill T. Arnold (Ph.D., Hebrew Union College) is the Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary. While at Asbury, he has held administrative positions, first as Director of Postgraduate Studies and then as Vice President of Academic Affairs/Provost.
His research encompasses Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern studies, both separately and in combination. He specializes in Pentateuchal interpretation and is currently writing a two-volume commentary on Deuteronomy, the first installment of which appeared in 2022. He has written on many aspects of Old Testament interpretation, including Hebrew language and the history of Israelite religion. Past publications have taken up specific portions of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis and 1-2 Samuel), as well as a grammar (“A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax,” with John H. Choi; now in its second edition, 2018), and introductory materials (“Who Were the Babylonians?” and “Encountering the Old Testament,” with Bryan E. Beyer). He co-edited the “Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books” with H. G. M. Williamson, as part of IVP’s widely acclaimed “black dictionaries.” His works have been translated into German, Armenian, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, and Spanish.
Arnold's 2014 volume with Cambridge University Press (Introduction to the Old Testament) approaches the Hebrew Scriptures through the interpretive lenses of monotheism for secular classrooms, aiming to show the relevance of the Hebrew Scriptures for Jews, Christians, Muslims, and secularists, and is now forthcoming in a second edition—The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament (expected early 2026). Other recent works include the edited volume The Cambridge Companion to Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2022); Deuteronomy 12-26: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text (with Paavo N. Tucker, 2022); The World around the Old Testament: The People and Places of the Ancient Near East (edited by Brent A. Strawn; Baker, 2021); and Ancient Israel’s History: An Introduction to Issues and Sources (edited with Richard S. Hess; Baker, 2014). His scholarly contributions have appeared in the following journals: Archiv für Orientforschung, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal of Biblical Literature, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of Theological Interpretation, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages, Vetus Testamentum, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, and Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte.
Arnold served as co-chair of the Genesis Program Unit for the Society of Biblical Literature 2017-2021 (with Professor Naomi Steinberg, DePaul University), and as co-chair of the SBL Deuteronomy Program Unit 2019-2024 (first with Dr. Harald Samuel, then of Oxford University, and later with Dr. Madhavi Nevader, University of St Andrews). Previously, he served on the Board of Trustees of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2007-2011, and ASOR’s Committee on Publications, 2008-2014.
Arnold is General Editor (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) for the New Cambridge Bible Commentary series (NCBC), Editor of the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch (BCOTP), and Series Editor of the New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT).
ORCID No.: orcid.org/0000-0003-3628-6103
Academic Website: Bill T. Arnold
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