Senior Fellow
Professor Jacob L. Wright holds the Hebrew Bible Professorship at the Candler School of Theology, and associate faculty membership at the Centre for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University. Previously, he taught at the University of Heidelberg, one of the oldest universities in Europe.
Prof Wright’s most recent book, Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins (CUP, 2023), has won multiple awards, including the 2024 PROSE Award, and was included in The New Yorker’s ‘Best Books we read in 2023’. Oxford Interfaith Forum hosted the Book Launch and interfaith conversation with Revd Prof John Barton, Emeritus Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford, chaired by Prof Anna Abulafia, Emeritus Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at the University of Oxford. (A recording is available below.)
Prof Wright’s David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory (CUP, 2014), received one of the most coveted book prize, The 2015 Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award, from American Schools of Oriental Research, and honourable mention at the 2015 PROSE Awards, administered by the Association of American Publishers.
In 2015, Prof Wright received a 50,000 USD Templeton Foundation grant, with the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, for examining the highly developed discourse regarding the knowledge of God in the Hebrew Bible, and its comparative analysis with the New Testament.
Prof Wright’s 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. His enhanced e-book, King David and His Reign Revisited with Apple iTunes (2013), was billed as the first publication of its kind in the humanities.
In addition to the vast list of publications, Prof Wright has developed a highly popular Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) 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.
Prof Wright is frequently invited to deliver keynote addresses and special lectures. He 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.