Professor Christopher A. Rollston was educated as an historian and philologist of the ancient Near East, with the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), textual criticism, Syro-Palestinian archaeology, ancient Semitic inscriptions, the Old Testament Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls as his strongest emphases. He works in more than a dozen ancient and modern languages, especially the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), as well as Ugaritic, Phoenician, Akkadian, Ammonite, and Moabite. He was a full-time faculty member in the Dept. of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University for two years (as a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Northwest Semitic), where students consistently noted his strong teaching abilities. He came to the Emmanuel faculty in the autumn of 2001. He is currently the Toyozo Nakarai Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Studies at Emmanuel School of Religion, a graduate seminary of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Dr. Rollston is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He holds the MA and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, and the MAR degree from Emmanuel School of Religion. He has conducted research at museums and collections in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. His research has received funding from several organizations, especially the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Society of Biblical Literature and the Dorot Foundation. Dr. Rollston presents papers on a regular basis at meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Schools of Oriental Research. He has delivered special lectures at several institutions, including Vanderbilt University, Columbia University, and the University of Judaism. He is the co-chair of the “Ancient Inscriptions” session of the American Schools of Oriental Research (with Annalisa Azzoni of Vanderbilt University) and he is the co-chair of the Palaeography session of the Society of Biblical Literature (with Jonathan Rosenbaum of Gratz College). Currently, Dr. Rollston is a member the American Schools of Oriental Research Committee on Publications. He is the editor of MAARAV, a specialized journal publishing articles in the field of Northwest Semitic languages and literature. He served as the guest editor for two recent sequential issues of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, namely BASOR 344 (2006) and BASOR 345 (2007), both of which were devoted to the subject of epigraphy. He holds membership in several learned societies, including, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and Israel Exploration Society. He has participated as a staff member in archaeological excavations at Tell Umm el-Marra (Syria) and Tel Megiddo (Israel). He has published articles, notes, and reviews in various venues, including the Journal of Biblical Literature, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Near Eastern Archaeology, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, and the Journal of Law and Religion. Among his most important recent contributions are “Scribal Education in Ancient Israel: the Old Hebrew Epigraphic Evidence,” BASOR 344 (2006): 47-74; “Non-Provenanced Epigraphs I: Pillaged Antiquities, Northwest Semitic Forgeries, and Protocols for Laboratory Tests,” MAARAV 10 (2003): 135-193; “Non-Provenanced Epigraphs II: The Status of Non-Provenanced Epigraphs within the Broader Corpus” MAARAV 11 (2004): 57-79; and “Ben Sira 38:24-39:11 and the Egyptian Satire of the Trades: A Reconsideration,” JBL 120 (2001): 131-139. He also has an article on the Old Hebrew script and an article on the Phoenician script in a forthcoming Festschrift honoring distinguished Harvard Professor Frank Moore Cross (the volume, to be published by Eisenbrauns, is entitled An Eye for Form: Epigraphic Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross). Dr. Rollston also published a number of articles in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans, 2000), New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon, 2006-), and The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History (Westminster John Knox, forthcoming). Dr. Rollston is currently finalizing two monographs, namely, The Art of the Scribe in Israel and Judah: The Script of Iron Age Hebrew Ostraca and Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel (Brill). In addition, he is under contract with the Society of Biblical Literature for a volume entitled Northwest Semitic Royal Inscriptions. Several years ago, Rollston edited a New Testament volume entitled The Gospels of Michael Goulder: A North American Response, among the contributors are Krister Stendahl, Alan Segal, John Kloppenborg, and Bruce Chilton (Trinity Press International, 2002). He is also working on the republication of the Old Hebrew inscriptions from Samaria and the Old Hebrew inscribed jar handles from Gibeon. Finally, Dr. Rollston is also serving as one of the editors for a Festschrift honoring his Doktorvater, namely, P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Rollston is also a member of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, and is on the editorial board of Stone-Campbell Journal. He holds ordination in the Christian Church (NACC) and Full Ministerial Standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Beyond the classroom, he enjoys traveling, swimming, hiking, antique furniture restoration, oriental rugs, African art, and antique tools. Most of all, he delights in spending time with his wife Carolyn, their three daughters, Melissa, Rachel, and Rebekah, as well as with a Labrador Retriever (Emirah) and two German Shorthaired Pointers (Thor and Diamante). |
Dr.
Ramsaran
Contact the Dean’s Office at Emmanuel: DeanOffice@esr.edu or (423)461-1520
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