David Janzen graduated with a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies with a specialization in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible from Princeton Seminary. His academic books include The Necessary King: A Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic Portrait of the Monarchy, The Violent Gift: Trauma's Subversion of the Deuteronomistic History's Narrative, The Social Meanings of Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of Four Writings, and Witch-hunts, Purity, and Social Boundaries: The Expulsion of the Foreign Women in Ezra 9-10. His articles have appeared in academic journals such as the Journal of Biblical Literature, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and Biblical Interpretation. His work has studied biblical writings including the Deuteronnomistic History (which includes the biblical books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings), the Priestly Writing in the Pentateuch, and Persian Period writings, such as Ezra-Nehemiah, and has approached biblical texts with socio-anthropological methods, trauma theory, and postcolonial analysis. He is currently under contract to complete a two-volume commentary on the biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles for Eerdmans press.
Janzen teaches introducotry courses in biblical literature at North Central College, as well as upper-level courses that include Violence, War, and Peace in the Bible, The Evolution of God, and The Historical Jesus. Before beginning work at North Central in 2005, Janzen taught at the Seminaro Anabautista Latinoamericano in Guatemala City.
Selected Scholarship
Books:
The Necessary King: A Postcolonial Reading of the Monarchy in the Deuteronomistic History. Hebrew Bible Monographs, 57. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013.
The Violent Gift: Trauma’s Subversion of the Deuteronomistic History’s Narrative. Library of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, 561. London: T & T Clark. 2012. Re-released in paperback by Bloomsbury Press, 2013.
The Social Meanings of Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of Four Writings. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 344. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004.
Witch-Hunts, Purity, and Social Boundaries: The Expulsion of the Foreign Women in Ezra 9-10. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, 350. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
Selected articles and essays:
"A Colonized People: Persian Hegemony, Hybridity, and Community Identity in Ezra-Nehemiah." Biblical Interpretation, forthcoming.
“‘What He Did for Me’: David’s Warning about Joab in 1 Kings 2.5.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, forthcoming.
“The Sins of Josiah and Hezekiah: A Synchronic Reading of the Final Chapters of Kings.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 37 (2013) 349-70.
“The Condemnation of David’s ‘Taking’ in 2 Samuel 12:1-14.” Journal of Biblical Literature (2012) 209-20.
“Gideon’s house as the ’āṭād: A proposal for reading Jotham’s fable.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly (2012) 465-75.
“An Ambiguous Ending: Dynastic Punishment in Kings and the Fate of the Davidides in 2 Kings 25:27-30.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 33 (2008) 39-58.
“The Cries of Jerusalem: Cultic, Ethnic, Legal, and Geographic Boundaries in Ezra-Nehemiah” in Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah: Redaction, Rhetoric, and Reader. Edited by Mark J. Boda and Paul L. Redditt. Hebrew Bible Monographs, 17. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008. 117-35.
“Priestly Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible: A Summary of Recent Scholarship and a Narrative Reading” Religion Compass 2 (2008) 38-52.
“Scholars, Witches, Ideologues and What the Text Said: Ezra 9-10 and Its Interpretation” in Approaching Yehud: New Approaches to the Study of the Persian Period. Edited by Jon L. Berquist. Semeia Series. Atlanta: SBL Press. 2007. 55-75.
“Why the Deuteronomist Told the Story of Jephthah’s Sacrifice.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 29 (2005) 339-57.
“The God of the Bible and the Nonviolence of Jesus” in Teaching Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts. Edited by J. Denny Weaver and Gerald Biesecker-Mast. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. 53-63.
“Politics, Settlement, and Temple Community in Persian-Period Yehud.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 64 (2002) 490-510.
“The ‘Mission’ of Ezra and the Persian-Period Temple Community.” Journal of Biblical Literature 119 (2000) 619-43.
“The Meaning of Porneia in Matthew 5.32 and 19.9: An Approach from the Study of Ancient Near Eastern Culture.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 80 (2000) 66-80.