Steven L. McKenzie is Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. His research and teaching interests include: the history of ancient Israel, the literature of the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew language and grammar, the Dead Sea Scrolls, methods of biblical interpretation, and archaeology. He is a past president of the board of governors of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis. He worked for ten years with the Middle East Travel Seminar leading academic tours of Syria, Jordan, the Sinai, Israel, and Greece each summer. He founded (with Richard D. Nelson) the Deuteronomistic History Section at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting and has served on numerous editorial boards, including the Journal of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Quarterly. From 2010-2019 he was associate editor of Vetus Testamentum. He has appeared on the Discovery and History channels and in radio interviews as a consultant on King David and on reading and interpreting the Bible. Among his books are King David: A Biography (Oxford, 2000), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation (editor-in-chief, 2013), 1 Kings 16 - 2 Kings 16 (IECOT series, 2018), and ´³´Ç²Ô²¹³ó (with Rhiannon Graybill and John Kaltner, Anchor Yale Bible, 2023). He was also the HB/OT editor for the SBL Study Bible (2023). Current projects include HB/OT editor for the Oxford Bible Commentary series and editor of the Oxford King James Annotated Bible.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
The Chronicler′s Use of the Deuteronomistic History. Harvard Semitic Monographs 33. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985.
The Trouble with Kings: The Composition of the Book of Kings in the Deuteronomistic History. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 42. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991.
All God′s Children: A Biblical Critique of Racism. Westminster/John Knox, 1997.
King David: A Biography. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Covenant. Understanding Biblical Themes series. St. Louis: Chalice, 2000.
1-2 Chronicles. Abingdon Biblical Commentary. Nashville: Abingdon, 2004.
How to Read the Bible: History, Prophecy, Literature—Why Modern Readers Need to Know the Difference and What It Means for Faith Today. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
The Old Testament: Its Background, Growth, & Content. Nashville: Abingdon, 2007. Co-authored with John Kaltner.
The Uncensored Bible: Uncovering the Bawdy Parts of the Good Book. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008. Co-authored with John Kaltner.
Introduction to the Historical Books. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 2010.
The Back Door Introduction to the Bible. Anselm Academic. 2012. Co-authored with John Kaltner.
1 Kings 16 – 2 Kings 16. International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2019.
Sleuthing the Bible: Clues that Unlock the Mysteries of the Text. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019. Co-authored with John Kaltner.
Notes for 1-2 Samuel in the New Oxford Annotated Bible, 3rd-5th editions and for 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings in The Access Bible (Oxford).
Books Edited
To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Critical Methods of Biblical Study. Ed. with Stephen R. Haynes. Westminster/John Knox, 1993. Second, revised edition in press.
The History of Israel′s Traditions: The Heritage of Martin Noth. Ed. with M. Patrick Graham. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplemental Series 182. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.
The Chronicler as Historian. Ed. with M. Patrick Graham and Kenneth Hoglund. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplemental Series 238. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
The Hebrew Bible Today. Ed. with M. Patrick Graham. Westminster/John Knox, 1998.
Those Elusive Deuteronomists: Pan-Deuteronomism in the Hebrew Bible. Ed. with Linda S. Schearing. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplemental Series 268. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
Worship in the Old Testament. Festschrift for John T. Willis. Ed. with M. Patrick Graham and Rick Marrs. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplemental Series 284. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
The Chronicler as Author. Ed. with M. Patrick Graham and Gary N. Knoppers. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplemental Series. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
Historiography in the Ancient World and in the Bible: Essays in Honour of John Van Seters. Ed. with Thomas C. Römer in collaboration with Hans Heinrich Schmid. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 294. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter: Berlin/New York, 2000.
Beyond Babel: A Handbook for Biblical Hebrew and Related Languages. Resources for Biblical Study 42. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.
The Chronicler as Theologian: Essays in Honor of Ralph W. Klein. Ed. with M. Patrick Graham and Gary N. Knoppers. JSOTSup 371. London: T & T Clark, 2003.
New Meanings for Ancient Texts. Ed. with John Kaltner. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2013.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation. Editor in Chief. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Education
B.A., M.Div., Abilene Christian University
