Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Christopher A. Rollston

Education
MA., Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University

Narrative Bio
Professor Rollston was educated as a critical historian, a philologist of ancient Near Eastern languages, with Northwest Semitic epigraphy, ancient scribes and scribal practices, Hebrew Bible, textual criticism, Second Temple Jewish Literature, inscribed ossuaries, personal names, and the Dead Sea Scrolls as his strongest emphases. He works in more than a dozen ancient and modern languages, especially the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), as well as Ugaritic, Phoenician, Akkadian, Ammonite, and Moabite. He was a full-time faculty member in the Dept. of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University for two years (as a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Northwest Semitic), where students consistently noted his strong teaching abilities. He is currently the Visiting Professor of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures at George Washington University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Dr. Rollston authored the volume entitled Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010). This volume was selected by the American Schools of Oriental Research (in November 2011) as the recipient of the prestigious “Frank Moore Cross Prize for Northwest Semitic Epigraphy,” a prize named for Harvard University Professor Frank Cross. Rollston’s volume entitled The Art of the Scribe in Israel and Judah: The Script of Iron Age Hebrew Ostraca soon will be at press. In addition, he is under contract with the Society of Biblical Literature (in the Writings from the Ancient World series) for a volume entitled Northwest Semitic Royal Inscription, a volume which is slated for publication by late 2012. He is also under contract with Eerdmans Publishing Company for a volume tentatively entitled An Introduction to Northwest Semitic Epigraphy (forthcoming 2013). Several years ago, Rollston edited a New Testament volume entitled The Gospels of Michael Goulder: A North American Response, among the contributors are Krister Stendahl, Alan Segal, John Kloppenborg, and Bruce Chilton (Trinity Press International, 2002). In addition, he is working on the republication of the Old Hebrew inscriptions from Samaria and the Old Hebrew inscribed jar handles from Gibeon. Finally, he is also serving as one of the editors for a Festschrift honoring his Doktorvater, namely, P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. of Johns Hopkins University.

Rollston was invited to participate in, and fully funded for, Princeton’s Symposium on the “Talpiyot Tomb” in January 2008 (Jerusalem, Israel), Duke University’s symposium entitled “Archaeology, Politics, and the Media” April 2009, and Brown University’s symposium entitled “Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics” in December 2010. He lectured on the Qeiyafa Ostracaon at Vanderbilt University in November 2010. Recently he lectured at Tel Aviv University (January 2012), the University of Wisconsin (March 2012), and Baylor University (March 2012). During the coming months, he will be lecturing at the University of Michigan, Brigham Young University, and Amherst College. He presents papers on a regular basis at meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Schools of Oriental Research and he is the co-chair of the “Ancient Inscriptions” session of the American Schools of Oriental Research (with Annalisa Azzoni of Vanderbilt University) and was for many years the chair of the “Palaeography Session” of the Society of Biblical Literature. Dr. Rollston is a member of the editorial board of BASOR.  He is the editor of MAARAV, a specialized journal publishing articles in the field of Northwest Semitic languages and literature. He served as the guest editor for two recent sequential issues of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, namely BASOR 344 (2006) and BASOR 345 (2007), both of which were devoted to the subject of epigraphy. He holds membership in several learned societies, including, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and Israel Exploration Society. During January of 2007 Rollston testified as a Palaeographic Expert in Israel as part of the Epigraphic Forgery Trial (this was done at the behest of the District Attorney of Jerusalem). During 2011, he also served in an advisory capacity for National Geographic for the finds from a Jewish Tomb in East Talpiyot (Jerusalem).