Wed. Apr 2nd, 2025

Johns Hopkins HB/NWS Alumni Dissertations

For recent JHU NES alumni and their dissertations, see here.

Jason (Jay) Weimar (2024): “Before the Hajj: The haggāt Feasts at Pre-Islamic Dadan (Al-Ula) and Elsewhere in the Near East”

Description forthcoming.

Noah Crabtree (2023): “The Prophet From Anathoth: Benjamin-Judean Identity Negotiation and the Formation of the Book of Jeremiah”

Description forthcoming.

Adam Bean (2022): “Local Cults and National Gods: Divine Identity in Iron Age Levantine Religion”

Description forthcoming.

Greg Church (2021): “The Defilement of the Land in the Hebrew Bible: Exploring the Social Uses of Disgust, Law, and Ritual”

Description forthcoming.

Kathryn Medill (2020): “You Will Know Me by My Writing: The Scribes’ Choice of Goal-Marking Strategies in Biblical Hebrew in the Light of Social, Historical, and Linguistic Correlates”

Description forthcoming.

David J. Rosenstein (2020): “Deuteronomy and Rhetoric: The Art of Practical Argumentation in Ancient Israel”

Description forthcoming.

Rosanne Libermann (2019): “‘Hearts of Flesh’: Collective Identity and the Body in the Book of Ezekiel”

Description forthcoming.

Erin Guinn-Villareal (2018): “Biblical Hebrew qin’â and the Maintenance of Social Integrity in Ancient Israelite Literature”

Description forthcoming.

William Reed (2018): “Yahweh’s ‘Cruel Sword’: The Manifestation of Punishment and the Trauma of Exile”

Description forthcoming.

John Tracy Thames Jr. (2016): “Ritual Revision and the Influence of Empire: The Politics of Change in the zukru Festival of Late Bronze Emar”

Description forthcoming.

Laura Wright (2016): “Glyptic Art Under and After Empire: Late Bronze IIB and Iron I Scarabs and Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant”

Description forthcoming.

Michael Simone (2015): “On Fire: Preternatural and Hypostatic Fire in Ancient Israelite Religion”

Description forthcoming.

Erin Fleming (2013): “The Politics of Sexuality in the Story of King David”

Description forthcoming.

Heather Dana Davis Parker (2013): “The Levant Comes of Age: The Ninth Century BCE through Script Traditions”

Description forthcoming.

Jaime L. Waters (2013): “Threshing Floors as Sacred Spaces in the Hebrew Bible”

Description forthcoming.

Isabel Cranz (2012): “Impurity and Ritual in the Priestly Source and Assyro-Babylonian Incantations”

Description forthcoming.

Heath Dewrell (2012): “Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel and Its Opponents”

Description forthcoming.

Andrew Knapp (2012): “Royal Apologetic in the Ancient Near East”

Description forthcoming.

Annalisa Azzoni (2001): “The Private Life of Women in Persian Egypt”

Advisors: Raymond Westbrook and P. Kyle McCarter Jr.

Tawny Holm (1996): “A Biblical Story-Collection: Daniel 1–6”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as Of Courtiers and Kings: The Biblical Daniel Narratives and Ancient Near Eastern Story-Collections. Explorations in Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations 1. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2013.

William R. Scott (1993): “The Booths of Ancient Israel’s Autumn Festival”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

Eleonora Cussini (1992): “The Aramaic Law of Sale and the Cuneiform Legal Tradition”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp (1992): “Weep, O Daughter of Zion: A Study of the City Lament Genre in the Hebrew Bible”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as Weep, O Daughter of Zion: A Study of the City-Lament Genre in the Hebrew Bible. Biblica et orientalia. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1993.

Rick R. Marrs (1982): “The šyry-hmʿlwt (Psalms 120–134): A Philological and Stylistic Analysis”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

Robert Owens (1981): “The Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as The Genesis and Exodus Citations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, Leiden, vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, 1983.

Suzanne Richard (1978): “The End of the Early Bronze Age in Palestine/Transjordan: A Study of the Post-EB III Cultural Complex”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Some of her results published as “Toward a Consensus of Opinion on the End of the Early Bronze Age in Palestine-Transjordan,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 237 (1980), 5–34.

Michael Barré (1978): “The God-List in the Treaty between Hannibal and Philip
V of Macedonia”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as The God-List in the Treaty between Hannibal and Philip V of Macedonia: A Study in Light of the Ancient Near Eastern Treaty Tradition. The Johns Hopkins University Near Eastern Studies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.

James Lindenberger (1974): “The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar. The Johns Hopkins University Near Eastern Studies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.

David Burke (1974): “The Poetry of Baruch: A Reconstruction and Analysis of
the Original Hebrew Text of Baruch 3:9–5:9″

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as The Poetry of Baruch: A Reconstruction and Analysis of the Original Hebrew Text of Baruch 3:9–5:9. Society of Biblical Literature, Septuagint and Cognate Studies, No. 10. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982.

David Bryan (1973): “Texts Relating to the Marzeah: A Study of an Ancient Semitic Institution”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

Ivan Trujillo (1973): “The Ugaritic Ritual for a Sacrificial Meal Honoring the
Good Gods (Text CTA: 23)”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

David Thompson (1973): “The Order of Adverbal Modifiers in Genesis and Proverbs: A Study in the Syntax of Hebrew Poetry”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

James Rimbach (1972): “Animal Imagery in the Old Testament”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

Thomas Jackson (1970): “Words in Parallelism in Old Testament Poetry”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

J. K. Stark (1968): “Personal Names in Palmyrene Inscriptions”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as Personal Names in Palmyrene Inscriptions. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.

Simon Parker (1967): “Studies in the Grammar of Ugaritic Prose Texts”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers.

Thomas McDaniel (1966): “Philological Studies in Lamentations”

Dissertation directed by Delbert R. Hillers. Published as “Philological Studies in Lamentations. I,” Biblica 49 (1968) 27–53; “Philological Studies in Lamentations. II,” Biblica 49 (1968) 199–220.

Francis I. Andersen (1960): “Studies in Hebrew Syntax”

Dissertation directed by William Foxwell Albright.

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, SJ (1956): “The Syntax of Imperial Aramaic Based on Documents Found in Egypt”

Dissertation advised by William Foxwell Albright. Although the dissertation remained unpublished, a part of it was used in an article, “The Syntax of kl, kl‘, ‘All’ in Aramaic Texts from Egypt and in Biblical Aramaic,” Bib 38 (1957) 170-84; reprinted, A Wandering Aramean: Collected Aramaic Essays (SBLMS 25; Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1979) 205-17.

William L. Moran, SJ (1950): “A Syntactical Study of the Dialect of Byblos as Reflected in the Amarna Tablets”

Dissertation advised by William Foxwell Albright. Republished in Amarna Studies: Collected Writings (Brill: 2003).

William Rosenau (1900): “Hebraisms in the Authorized Version of the Bible”

This dissertation was advised by Paul Haupt, submitted in 1900, and subsequently published by The Lord Baltimore Press in 1902. From the preface: “This investigation contains an examination of the Hebrew influence on the language of the Authorized Version. The subject was suggested to the author by Professor Paul Haupt in the autumn of 1894. Since that time the Authorized Version has been read a number of times and carefully compared with the Hebrew text. While the list of Hebraisms in the appendix is confined to the Old Testament, the New Testament contains a great number, which the author hopes to present for publication at some future time. He takes this means of expressing his thanks to his teacher, Professor Paul Haupt, for many valuable suggestions, and to Professor James W. Bright, who, during the several interviews granted by him, proved of great assistance to the author. W.R.”

Others to be continued.

Description forthcoming.