John Screnock (PhD, Toronto) joined Wycliffe Hall as Tutor in Old Testament in 2021. From 2018–2021 he was Research Fellow in Hebrew Bible at Oxford, and from 2015–2018 he was Kennicott Fellow in Hebrew at Oxford. His research interests include the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms, Dead Sea scrolls, Hebrew linguistics, and textual criticism. He is the author of Traductor Scriptor: The Old Greek Translation of Exodus 1–14 as Scribal Activity (Brill, 2017), and articles in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vetus Testamentum, Biblica, Journal of Semitic Studies, Hebrew Studies, Textus, Revue de Qumran, and Dead Sea Discoveries. John's current project, Reading Psalms in the School of the Scribes (OUP), examines scribal activity in the textual witnesses to Psalms for insights into the language, poetics, and interpretation of the Psalms.
Position:
Tutor in Old Testament
Research Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Member, Faculty of Theology and Religion
Associate Member, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Email:
john.screnock@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk
Research Interests:
Hebrew Bible, Psalms, Ancient Hebrew, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Ugaritic
Teaching:
Lectures—Introduction to the Old Testament, Studies in the Old Testament, Elementary Biblical Hebrew, Advanced Old Testament Hebrew
Classes—Dead Sea Scrolls, Deuteronomy, Esther, Psalms, Ugaritic Grammar and Texts
Tutorials—Narrative World of the Bible, Hebrew of the Hebrew Bible
Research Supervision:
Inquiries from prospective DPhil students and postdoctoral researchers—in the areas of textual criticism, ancient Hebrew, Psalms, Esther, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, and Ugaritic—are welcome, via the email address given above.
Current Projects:
Psalms 101–150. The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition. SBL Press.
Reading Psalms in the School of the Scribes: Using Ancient Material Evidence to Inform Modern Biblical Studies. Oxford University Press. Under contract.
Monographs and Other Volumes:
2022. John Screnock with Vladimir Olivero. A Grammar of Ugaritic. SBL Resources for Biblical Studies. Atlanta: SBL Press.
2020. Carmen Palmer, Andrew Krause, Eileen Schuller, and John Screnock, eds. Dead Sea Scrolls, Revise and Repeat: New Methods and Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls. SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature. SBL Press.
2020. Arjen Bakker, Markus Bockmuehl, Martin Goodman, Hindy Najman, and John Screnock, eds. Dead Sea Scrolls Research in Oxford. Thematic issue of Revue de Qumran (32/2). Louvain: Peeters.
2017. Traductor Scriptor: The Old Greek Translation of Exodus 1-14 as Scribal Activity. Vetus Testamentum Supplements. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
2015. John Screnock and Robert D. Holmstedt. Esther. The Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Recent Journal Articles:
2021. “The Septuagint, Scribalism, and Command-Execution Pairing.” Henoch 42 (2020): 150–67.
2021. “Translating and Transcending Textual Criticism,” Textus 30: 1–5.
2020. “A Reading of Psalm 104:1–13 according to the Text Contained in 4QPsalms-d.” Revue de Qumran 32: 251–65.
2020. “Verbal Argument Structure in the War Scroll.” Dead Sea Discoveries 27.
2020. “Some Oddities of Ancient Hebrew Numeral Syntax.” Hebrew Studies 61: 23–44.
2019. “Reading Esther in the Levantine Literary Tradition.” Biblica 100: 321–338.
2018. “Complex Adding Numerals and Hebrew Diachrony.” Journal of Biblical Literature 137: 789–819.
2018. “Is Rewriting Translation? Chronicles and Jubilees in Light of Intralingual Translation.” Vetus Testamentum 68: 475–504.
2018. “A New Approach to Using the Old Greek in Hebrew Bible Textual Criticism.” Textus 27: 229–57.
2018. “The Syntax of Cardinal Numerals in Judges, Amos, Esther, and 1QM.” Journal of Semitic Studies 63: 125–54.
Recent Invited Essays:
2021. “The Use of the Septuagint in Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible.” In Handbook to Septuagint Research (eds. William A. Ross and W. Edward Glenny). Bloomsbury/T&T Clark.
2020. “Assessing the Character of Hebrew in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Historical Linguistics, Numeral Syntax, and the Notion of a Distinct ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ Hebrew.” In Dead Sea Scrolls, Revise and Repeat (eds. Carmen Palmer et al.). Atlanta: SBL Press.
2019. “Some Reflections on the Old Greek of Psalm Four.” In For It Stands in Scripture: Essays in Honor of W. Edward Glenny (eds. Ardel B. Caneday, Anna Rask, and Greg Rosauer). University of Northwestern Berntsen Library.
