A Brief Biography:

James L. Crenshaw is one of the leading interpreters of wisdom literature and has also published widely on biblical prophecy. His Old Testament Wisdom has introduced thousands of students to biblical wisdom, as have his two collections of essays, Urgent Advice and Probing Questions and Prophets, Sages, & Poets. He has written commentaries on Ecclesiastes, Job, Sirach, and Joel, monographs (e.g., Education in Ancient Israel, Defending God, Prophetic Conflict, A Whirlpool of Torment), and numerous scholarly articles. A former editor of SBL Monograph Series, and chair of the section on wisdom literature, he currently edits Personalities of the Old Testament. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Guggenheim fellow, an avid gardener, lucky fisherman, and proud grandfather, he taught at Vanderbilt Divinity School for 18 years and has been at Duke for 20. Presently, he is writing books on Job and Qoheleth, as well as an analysis of twentieth century research on wisdom literature for Brill.