Jacob L. Wright
- DrTheol, University of Göttingen, Germany, 2003
- BA, University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1996
Dr. Jacob L. Wright serves as associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Candler and as an associate faculty member at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory. Prior to coming to Candler in 2007, Wright taught for several years at the University of Heidelberg, one of Europe’s oldest universities, renowned for biblical scholarship.
He is the author of many essays, articles, and books. His first book, Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and Its Earliest Readers (de Gruyter, 2004), won a 2008 Templeton prize, the largest prize for first books in religion. Wright published his enhanced e-book, King David and His Reign Revisited with Apple iTunes (2013), billed as the first publication of its kind in the humanities. His book, David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014), received an honorable mention at the 2015 PROSE Awards, administered by the Association of American Publishers, as well as the coveted The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award from American Schools of Oriental Research.
Wright has developed a highly popular MOOC (massive open online course) through Coursera entitled: The Bible's Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future. More than 60,000 students have enrolled in the six-week course since it launched in 2014.
Wright delivered the prestigious 2010-11 lecture in Milieux biblique at the Collège de France in Paris, and was awarded a 2011-12 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. In 2015, he received a $50,000 Templeton Foundation grant to underwrite a new research project with the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, which will examine the highly developed discourse regarding the knowledge of God in the Hebrew Bible, as well as comparative work with the New Testament.
Wright has been named to Emory’s Faculty of Distinction, and is a member of Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta.
Books
War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible, Cambridge University Press, 2020
Co-editor,Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah, Society of Biblical Literature, 2018
Co-editor,Supplementation and the Study of the Hebrew Bible, Brown Judaic Studies, 2018
Co-editor,Warfare, Ritual, and Symbol in Biblical and Modern Contexts, Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2015
David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory, Cambridge University Press, 2015
King David and His Reign Revisited, Aldina Media, 2013
Co-editor and contributor, "Between Nation and State in the Book of Samuel: Ittai the Gittite," Making a Difference: Essays in Honor of Tamara Cohn Eskenazi. Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012
Co-editor,Interpreting Exile: Interdisciplinary Studies of Displacement and Deportation in Biblical and Modern Contexts. Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2011
Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah-Memoir and Its Earliest Readers. De Gruyter, 2004
Chapters and Articles
“'Fear (not)!' –Emotion and Ethics in Deuteronomy," in Journal of Ethics in Antiquity and Christianity, October 2020
"Rahab: Between Faith and Works," in The Bible and Interpretation, August 2020
"Rahab and the Gibeonites," in Worship, Women, and War: Essays in Honor of Susan Niditch. Brown Judaic Studies, November 01, 2015
"War and Peace in the Bible," in The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press, October 17, 2014
"Commensality and Political Consolidation," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archeology. Oxford University Press, July 15, 2013
"Prophets, Kings and Gewaltmonopol in the Ancient Near East," in How does one become a prophet?. Fribourg, January 06, 2014
Selected Awards
Templeton Grant for "Knowing God in the Old Testament," 2015-2016
The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award for David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory, American Schools of Oriental Research
National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, 2011-2012
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Grant (New York), 2009-2010
University Research Grant, 2009-2010
Sir John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, the largest prize for first books in religion, for Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah-Memoir and its Earliest Readers
Faculty of Distinction, Emory University, 2007-present
Emmy Noether Grant for the interdisciplinary project "Early Christian Prayer and Its Jewish Origins," 2000-2002
Honors Award for the highest GPA in the Humanities, UMKC
"How the Authors of the Bible Spun Triumph from Defeat" - The New Yorker, August 21, 2023
"Emory Professor Teaches World About Torah" - Atlanta Jewish Times, May 29, 2020
"What Do We Know About King David and Why Does It Matter" - Candler Practical Ministry Webinars, March 24, 2015
"Coursera: The Bible's Prehistory, Purpose and Political Future" - Coursera class, May 20, 2014
"Professor Jacob Wright Discusses the Origins of Noah" - March 26, 2014
"Ancient Greece and Ancient Israel" - Conference at Tel Aviv University, October 29, 2012
Selected courses
Contextual Education I
Genesis
Exodus
Judges
Interpretational Methods Seminar: Ezra-Nehemiah
Interpreting Prophetic Texts: The Book/s of Jeremiah
Introduction to Political Theology: The Covenant in the Hebrew Bible
Methods in Jewish Interpretation of the Bible: The Book of Judges
Texts of Terror: Strategies for Interpreting Troublesome Texts from the Hebrew Bible