David Noel Freedman

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David Noel Freedman (1922- ) is a biblical scholar, "bookmaker" (author and editor), archeologist, advocate, and initiator of inter-faith cooperation. The son of Romanian and Russian immigrants, he has made numerous outstanding and creative contributions which illuminate and preserve a world heritage— the Hebrew Bible. Current occupant of the Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies at the University of California San Diego, he has been an ordained Presbyterian minister since 1944 (M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary). As the general editor of several distinguished series, including the Anchor Bible Series (1956- ), Eerdmans Critical Commentaries (2000-), and The Bible in Its World (2000- ), and as the editor and author of numerous other award-winning volumes, including the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000), Freedman has produced over three hundred and thirty scholarly books. Recent seminal works as an author include The Nine Commandments (2000); Psalm 119: The Exaltation of Torah (1999); and The Unity of the Hebrew Bible (1991). Yet, his single most significant contribution to the modern era is perhaps a copy of a manuscript written and edited by others. As editor of the Leningrad Codex: A Facsimile Edition (1998), Freedman orchestrated the process by which this beautiful codex—which is the oldest complete and most important extant manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in the world—became available to countless synagogues, churches, libraries and individuals for the first time in history.

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[edit] Teaching positions:

University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Professor, Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies, 1986-present
Director, Program for the Study of Religion, 1989-97
Visiting Professor, Department of History, 1985-1986
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Professor of Biblical Studies, 1971-92
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Biblical Studies, 1984-92
Director, Program on Studies in Religion, 1971-91
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
Professor of Old Testament, 1964-71
San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California
Gray Professor of Old Testament Exegesis, 1970-71
Acting Dean of Seminary, 1970-71
Professor of Old Testament, 1964-70
Dean of Faculty, 1966-70
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
James A. Kelso Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, 1961-64
Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, 1960-61
Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, 1951-60
Assistant Professor of Old Testament, 1948-51
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
Assistant Instructor, 1947-48
Teaching Fellow, 1946-47

[edit] Excavations

Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (American Schools of Oriental Research), Jerusalem
Annual Director, 1969-70, 1976-77
Ashdod Excavation Project
Director, 1962-64

[edit] Education

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Baltimore, MD 1945-1948 Ph.D. Semitic Languages and Literature

PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Princeton, NJ 1941-1944 Th.B. Hebrew Bible

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES Los Angeles, CA 1938-1939 B.A. Modern European History

CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK New York, NY 1935-1938

[edit] See also