David J. A. Clines

David John Alfred Clines (21 November 1938 – 8 December 2022) was a biblical scholar. He served as professor at the University of Sheffield.

Education Clines was born in Sydney, Australia, and studied at the University of Sydney and St John’s College, Cambridge.

Career He served as president of the Society for Old Testament Study, as well as president of the Society of Biblical Literature. In 2003, a Festschrift was published in his honour. Reading from Right to Left: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of David J.A. Clines included contributions by James Barr, John Barton, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Walter Brueggemann, Brevard Childs, Patrick D. Miller, Rolf Rendtorff, Hugh Williamson, and Ellen van Wolde. In 2013, he was honoured with another Festschrift, Interested Readers: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David J. A. Clines, which included contributions from Marc Zvi Brettler, Norman C. Habel, and Athalya Brenner.

Clines served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2009. Together with David M. Gunn, Clines made the University of Sheffield a pioneer in literary readings of the final form of the biblical text. Followers of this approach are sometimes referred to as the "Sheffield school".

Clines died on 8 December 2022.

Honours In 2015, Clines was awarded the Burkitt Medal by the British Academy "in recognition of his significant contribution to the study of the Hebrew Bible and Hebrew lexicography".

Selected works Books

sources of bibliography

Edited by

Chapters

Journal articles

Reprinted in On the Way to the Postmodern: Old Testament Essays, 1967–1998 (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), Vol. 2, pp. 830–839.

Festschriften