Dr William Tooman
Senior Lecturer in Old Testament / Hebrew Bible
Director of Research
Biography
Following completion of a comprehensive undergraduate degree in Divinity, William Tooman pursued graduate studies in Northwest Semitic languages and ancient Hebrew literature. He completed his PhD in Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006 under the supervision of Prof Michael V. Fox.
After a brief teaching appointment in Jewish Studies at UW-Madison, Dr Tooman secured his first academic post in 2006 as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Edgewood College, a private Dominican liberal arts college. In 2009, he was appointed Lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at the University of St Andrews, where he has been Senior Lecturer since 2013. He became Director of Research in 2016 and co-director of the Institute of Bible, Theology, and Hermeneutics in 2018.
Teaching
Undergraduate Modules:
DI1003 Old Testament 1: Torah and Prophets
DI2002 Hebrew 2
DI3711 Reading the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
DI4700 Hebrew Prose and Poetry
DI4715 Torah: Covenant and Composition
DI4726 Hebrew Reading and Syntax
Postgraduate Modules:
DI5105 Textual Criticism
DI5106 Advanced Hebrew Readings
Context, Formation, and Meaning of the Biblical Canons (University of Zürich; co-taught with Prof Dr Konrad Schmid)
Research areas
I specialize in the literature and thought of the Hebrew Bible and other Second Temple literatures. The object of my research is to recover, as fully as possible, the full spectrum of literary conventions used by ancient Jewish writers and the competencies of ancient Jewish readers (up to circa 250 CE). This aim has descriptive-historical and theoretical-methodological dimensions. In descriptive-historical terms, my goal is to achieve precise descriptions of the structural and compositional features of this body of literature, including consideration of how those features changed through time and validated by attending to empirical evidence of ancient reading and writing practices. In terms of theory and method, my research requires attention to both synchronic and diachronic methodologies (poetics, intertextuality, historical-criticism, textual-criticism, history of interpretation, and cultural history), which must then be adapted in light of and integrated with the descriptive-historical findings.
PhD supervision
- Tobias Siegenthaler
- Fanos Tsegaye
- Veronica Vandervliet
- Andrew Meeson
- Tamara Knudson
- Ethan Knudson
Selected publications
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Standards of (in)coherence in ancient Jewish literature
Teeter, D. A. & Tooman, W., 27 Jul 2020, In : Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel. 9, 2, p. 94-129 36 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Authenticating oral and memory variants in ancient Hebrew literature
Tooman, W. A., 1 Apr 2019, In : Journal of Semitic Studies. 64, 1, p. 91-114Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Ezekiel: current debates and future directions
Tooman, W. A. (ed.) & Barter, P. L. (ed.), 2017, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 567 p. (Forschungen zum Alten Testament ; vol. 112)Research output: Book/Report ? Book
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The Temple Scroll (11Q19): papers presented at the Society of biblical literature international meeting, St Andrews, july 7-11, 2013
Tooman, W. A. (ed.), 26 Aug 2014, Brescia: Morcelliana. 160 p. (HENOCH: historical and textual studies in ancient and medieval Judaism and Christianity; vol. 36)Research output: Book/Report ? Book
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Wisdom and Torah at Qumran: Evidence from the Sapiential Texts
Tooman, W. A., 2013, Wisdom and Torah : The Reception of ?Torah? in the Wisdom Literature of the Second Temple Period. Schipper, B. U. & Teeter, D. A. (eds.). Leiden and Boston: Brill, p. 203-232 (Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplement Series).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Chapter
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The hermeneutics of scribal rewriting in Targum Jonathan Ezek 1
Tooman, W. A., 1 Dec 2014, In : Journal of Ancient Judaism. 5, 3, p. 393-414 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Gog of Magog: Reuse of Scripture and Compositional Technique in Ezekiel 38-39
Tooman, W. A., 2011, Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck. 354 p. (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reiche; vol. 52)Research output: Book/Report ? Book
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Scriptural Reuse in Ancient Jewish Literature: Comments and Reflections on the State of the Art
Tooman, W. A., 2018, (In preparation) Methodology in the Use of the Old Testament in the New. Allen, D. & Smith, S. (eds.). Bloomsbury T&T ClarkResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Chapter
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Textual History of Ezekiel
Tooman, W. A., 7 Apr 2016, The Textual History of the Bible. Volume 1: The Hebrew Bible. Armin, L., Tov, E. & Fuller, R. (eds.). Leiden: BrillResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
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Ezekiel's Radical Challenge to Inviolability
Tooman, W. A., 2009, In : Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 121, 4, p. 498-514 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article