My View

Old Testament scholars do not generally lead colorful lives. It will suffice to say that since the late fifties I have been attached to seven different institutions in three countries. Having taught Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and related areas for over three decades, I welcome this opportunity to take a brief backward and forward look before hurrying off.

When asked how I got interested biblical studies, it would be pleasant to answer, as some previous contributors to this column have done, that it all started in my earliest days at home or in school. This, however, was not the case with me. My interest developed gradually while reading history at the University of London, teaching at grammar schools near London and Oxford and studying theology in England and Italy.

This interest developed at least in part as a reaction against the rather jejune version of Christianity to which I had been introduced. In addition, I became intrigued with some historical problems—the early history of the Ark of the Covenant, the Gibeonites and the reign of Saul. Eventually I wrote my D. Phil. dissertation at Oxford on “Gibeon and the Gibeonites from the Settlement Solomon.” I was delighted to have survived the scrutiny of the redoubtable H. H. Rowley.