Faculty members

Dr Katharine Dell

Senior Lecturer, Old Testament Studies; Fellow, Director of Studies in Theology and Tutor, St Catharine's College; Director of Studies in Theology, Christ's College

Chair of OT subject committee, Member of Faculty Board, B Th Management Committee and Degree Committee, Old Testament Seminar Chair

Lecturing on the Wisdom Literature, the Prophets, on the development of monotheism in the Old Testament and on selected Hebrew texts

SBL – Programme chair for a wisdom section and part of the panel of another wisdom consultation

Courses taught this academic year

• D1A Special Subject on Job: two-hour classes in Michaelmas Term
• B1A Hebrew Texts: lectures in Michaelmas Term
• A2 lectures in Lent Term
• B2 lectures in Lent Term
• C2 lectures in Lent Term
• Revision classes for A2, B2 and C2 in Easter Term
• Co-ordinating M.Phil seminars in the Lent Term

Faculty, University and other roles

• Faculty Roles: Academic Secretary (2004-5), Old Testament Seminar Chair (each Easter term)
• University Role: On syndicate of the University Careers Service
• Member of SOTS (on editorial board of the SOTS Monograph series)
• BAJS
• SBL (Programme Chair for a Wisdom section)
• OT Editor of Guidelines to the Bible, a bible reading magazine published by the Bible Reading Fellowship

Research interests

Have written extensively on wisdom literature and done major monographs on Proverbs (CUP, 2006) and Job (Walter de Gruyter, 1991) as well as an introduction to the wisdom literature for students (DLT, 2000 - which can be ordered from me directly at list price). Have just completed an introductory handbook to the Old Testament entitled Opening the Old Testament which is coming out in 2007 with Blackwells. Also written some more popular books in the wisdom literature area, various articles (including on the prophets) and numerous surveys of the field. Currently about to embark on a commentary on Ecclesiastes for Eerdmans.

Publications

Values, Conflict and the Environment, (joint editor with R. Attfield), Oxford: Ian Ramsey Centre, 1989; Second edition Aldershot: Avebury Press; Brookfield VT: Ashgate, 1996.

The Book of Job as Sceptical Literature, BZAW 197, Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1991.

“The Hebrew Conception of the Afterlife”, The New Theologian, Vol. 2/1 (1991), pp. 2-5.

“Ecclesiastes as Wisdom: Consulting Early Interpreters”, Vetus Testamentum XLIV/3 (1994), pp. 301-32.

“Green Ideas in the Wisdom Tradition”, Scottish Journal of Theology 47/4 (1994), pp. 423-451.

“The misuse of forms in Amos”, Vetus Testamentum XLV/1 (1995), pp. 45-61.

“Creation in the Wisdom Tradition”, Priests and People 9/2 (1995), pp. 58-61.

Shaking a Fist at God: Understanding Suffering through the Book of Job, London: Harper Collins, 1995; Ligouri, Missouri: Triumph Books, 1996.

“Reinventing the wheel: the shaping of the book of Jonah”, After the Exile: Essays on Biblical History and Interpretation in Honour of Rex Mason, eds. J. Barton and D Reimer, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press; Kampen: Kok/Pharos, 1996, pp. 85-101.

“On the development of wisdom in Israel”, Congress Volume: Cambridge 1995, ed. J. A. Emerton, Leiden: Brill, 1997, pp. 135-151.

“Recent Books in Old Testament Studies”, Reviews in Religion and Theology, (1997) Vol. 2, pp. 76-80.

“Wisdom Literature makes a comeback: Pursuing the Good Life”, Bible Review XIII/4 (1997), pp. 26-31, 46.

“The King in the Wisdom Literature”, King and Messiah in Israel and the ancient Near East, ed. J. Day, JSOTS 270, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998, pp. 163-186.

“Job”, Guidelines to the Bible 14/2, eds. G. Emmerson and J. Parr, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (1998), pp. 133-153.

“Genesis”, “Noah and the Flood”, “Esther”, “Proverbs”, “Jonah”, The Bible Handbook, London: Dorling Kindersley Adult, 1998, pp. 26-7, 32-3, 166-7, 184-5, 230-1.

“Resurrecting the Old Testament”, Guidelines to the Bible 16/1, eds. G. Emmerson and J. Parr, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (1999), pp. 6-9.

“Wisdom in Proverbs and Job” and “Understanding Job”, The Lion Handbook to the Bible, Third edition, Oxford: Lion Publishing, 1999, pp. 352-3, 395.

“Gastfreundschaft im Alten Testament”, RGG, Fourth edition, 2000, p. 475.

Get Wisdom, Get Insight: An Introduction to Israel’s Wisdom Literature, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2000.

“Wisdom in Israel”, Text in Context, ed. A.D.H. Mayes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 348-375.

“The Use of Animal Imagery in the Psalms and Wisdom Literature of Ancient Israel”, Scottish Journal of Theology 53/3 (2000), pp. 275-291.

“Plumbing the Depths of Earth: Job 28 and Deep Ecology”, The Earth Story in Wisdom Traditions, The Earth Bible, Volume 3, eds. N. C. Habel and S. Wurst, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001, pp. 116-125.

“Wisdom Literature”, The Blackwell Companion to the Hebrew Bible, ed. L. G. Perdue, Oxford: Blackwell, 2001, pp 418-431.

Job, The People’s Bible Commentary, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2002.

Seeking a Life that Matters: Wisdom for Today from the Book of Proverbs, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002.

“Wisdom”, The Biblical World, ed. J. Barton, London and New York: Routledge, 2002, pp. 107-128.

“Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Woman’s Bible”, Guidelines to the Bible 18/1, eds. J. Parr and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2002), pp. 138-141.

“Genesis 1-11”, Guidelines to the Bible 18/2, eds. J. Parr and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2002, pp. 37-58.

“Covenant and Creation in relationship”, Covenant as Context: Essays in Honour of E. W. Nicholson, eds. A.D.H. Mayes and R.B. Salters, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 111-133.

“2 Kings”, Guidelines to the Bible 19/2, eds. J. Parr and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2003), pp. 113-136.

“The Promise of Land”, Guidelines to the Bible 19/3, eds. J. Parr and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2003), pp. 21-28.

“Job”, Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, eds. J. Rogerson and B. Metzger, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2004, pp. 337-363.

“How much Wisdom Literature has its Roots in the Pre-exilic period?”, In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel, ed. J. Day, London and New York: T & T Clark International, 2004, pp. 251-271.

“’I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre’ (Psalm XLIX 4 [5]): A cultic setting for wisdom psalms?”, Vetus Testamentum LIV/4 (2004), pp. 445-458.

“Proverbs”, Guidelines to the Bible 20/2, eds. J. Duff and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2004), pp. 6-26.

“Psalms (Book 3)”, Guidelines to the Bible 20/3, eds. J. Duff and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2004), pp. 54-75.

“Hospitality”, Guidelines to the Bible 20/3, eds. J. Duff and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2004), pp 100-106.

Wisdom: The Collected Articles of Norman Whybray, eds. K. J. Dell and M. Barker, SOTS Monograph Series, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. Wrote ‘Introduction’ on pp. xxvii-xxxii

“Does the Song of Songs have any connections to wisdom?”, Perspectives on the Song of Songs, ed. A. C. Hagedorn, BZAW 346, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005, pp. 8-26.

“The Song of Songs”, Guidelines to the Bible 21/1, eds. J. Duff and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2004), pp. 52-59.

“Psalms 102-106”, Guidelines to the Bible 21/2, eds. J. Duff and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2005), pp. 101-107.

The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

“Wisdom”, Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies, eds. J. W. Rogerson and J. M. Lieu, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 409-419.

“Ecclesiastes” in Guidelines to the Bible 23/1, eds. J. Duff and K. J. Dell, Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship (2007), pp. 78-92.

Contact details

Faculty of Divinity
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9BS

Tel.: +44 1223 763038
Fax: +44 1223 763003
Email: kjd24@cam.ac.uk