Old Testament / Hebrew Bible

Assistant Director of Graduate Studies: Joel Baden
Teaching Group in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible: Joel Baden (Divinity),  Jacqueline Vayntrub (Divinity), Molly Zahn (Divinity), Eric Reymond (Divinity)

Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (OT/HB) is one of the ten subject fields in the Department of Religious Studies. The program in OT/HB is designed for students who wish to prepare for teaching and research on any facet of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible: its history, literary analysis, interpretation, reception, and more. Students normally do work in all of these areas before specializing in one of them and are also expected to do advanced work in Biblical Hebrew and cognate languages. Students are encouraged to take advantage of Yale’s resources in other relevant fields, such as Jewish Studies, EMWAR, Comparative Literature, NELC, and Anthropology. Students wishing to concentrate solely on the study of the Hebrew language should investigate doctoral programs in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

These guidelines are intended to provide information concerning the program in OT/HB and to assist students in developing a suitable program of study within the field. All students work with the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies for OT/HB (Prof. Joel Baden), the Director of Graduate Studies (Prof. Linn Tonstad), and the entire OT/HB teaching group to define their own program. Students are strongly encouraged to meet with the OT/HB faculty early in their academic program in order to discuss prerequisites and requirements and to design a course of study which will best prepare them for their qualifying examinations and subsequent work.

Contact Information

The Department of Religious Studies
P.O. Box 208287
320 York Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8287
joel.baden@yale.edu