Markus Zehnder - Featured Author - EJT April 2018

Dr. Markus Zehnder is professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California, visiting professor at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Leuven, Belgium, and professor II at Ansgar University College and Theological Seminary in Kristiansand, Norway. Until 2017 he was titular professor at the Theological Faculty of the University of Basel, Switzerland. Prior to his move to the USA, he served as Head of Department of Old Testament at the ETF Leuven from 2013-2016.

Earlier, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Since 2013 he has been co-chair of the section on Biblical Ethics at the Society of Biblical Literature. He is also co-chair of the Norwegian Summer Academy of Biblical Studies. Zehnder is a native of Switzerland and an ordained minister of the Reformed Church of Basel.

Zehnder started his career as a researcher in the field of semantic studies of the biblical Hebrew language. After the completion of his dissertation on the way metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, the focus of his research shifted to other topics, some of which have a direct connection to biblical ethics. The primary focus for the last couple of years has been on questions dealing with migration and foreigners. Zehnder observes that the biblical view on these matters is much more sober and complex than most people think. Other areas of interest include: the use of the Old Testament in the discussion of current ethical issues in general, and in the discussion of homosexuality in particular; violence; messianic expectations; biblical historiography; and the relationship between the different Old Testament law collections.

e-mail: markus.zehnder@biola.edu