Faculty members

Dr James Aitken

Lecturer in Hebrew, Old Testament and Second Temple Studies,
and Director of Studies, Girton College and Corpus Christi

Courses taught this academic year

• Judaism and Hellenism (D2d)
• Judaism in the Greek and Roman Periods (B3)
• Hebrew Psalms (C1a)
• Apocrypha (C3)
• MPhil, Old Testament

Research interests

• Second temple Judaism
• Apocrypha
• The Septuagint
• Book of Judges
• Hebrew language and Lexicography
• Greek language and Lexicography

Postgraduate supervision

Publications

Books

• The Semantics of Blessing and Cursing in Ancient Hebrew (Louvain: Peeters, 2007).
• G.I. Davies, assisted by J.K. Aitken, D.R. de Lacey, P.A. Smith & J. Squirrel, Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Edited books

• The Continuum Companion to the Septuagint (London: T&T Clark/Continuum, forthcoming).
• Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers (edited with T. Rajak, S. Pearce & J. Dines) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
• Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations (edited with E. Kessler) (New York: Paulist Press, 2006).

Recent papers

• 'The Septuagint Translation Legend in a Byzantine Prognosticon', Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies 43 (Winter 2008-09), 32-35.
• 'Context of Situation in Biblical Lexica', in J. Dyk and W. van Peursen (eds), Foundations for Syriac Lexicography III (ISLP; Gorgias Press, 2009), 181-201.
• 'Other Hebrew Lexica: Zorell and Alonso Schoekel', in J. Dyk and W. van Peursen (eds), Foundations for Syriac Lexicography III (ISLP; Gorgias Press, 2009), 251-64.
• 'Phonological Phenomena in Greek Papyri and Inscriptions and their Significance for the Septuagint', in J. Corley and V. Skemp, Studies in the Greek Bible: Essays in honor of Francis T. Gignac, S.J. (CBQMS, 44; Washington DC: CBA, 2008), 256-77.
• 'The God of the pre-Maccabees: Designations of the divine in the early Hellenistic period', in R.P. Gordon (ed.), The God of Israel (University of Cambridge Oriental publications, 64; Cambridge University Press, 2007), 246-66.
• 'Poet and Critic: Royal Ideology and the Greek Translator of Proverbs', in Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers, edited by T. Rajak, S. Pearce, J. Aitken & J. Dines) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
• 'Rhetoric and Poetry in Greek Ecclesiastes', Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies 38 (2006), 55-78.
• 'What does Christianity in Jewish terms mean?', in J.K. Aitken & E.D. Kessler (eds), Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations (New York: Paulist Press, 2006), 203-17.
• 'Sanctus Matthaeus, magister sapientiae, summa cum laude', in Jeremy Corley & Vincent Skemp (eds), Intertextual Studies in Ben Sira and Tobit (CBQMS, 38; Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2005), 264-79.
• 'Hengel's, Judentum und Hellenismus', Journal of Biblical Literature 123 (2004), 331-41.
• 'Introducing the Septuagint', Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies 34 (2004), 20-26.

Contact details

Faculty of Divinity
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9BS

Tel.: +44 1223 763024
Fax: +44 1223 763003
Email: jka12@cam.ac.uk