Professor Emeritus Robin Baker

Biography

Prof. Robin Baker is Emeritus Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He took his BA at the University of London and his PhD at the University of East Anglia. He has also studied at Stanford University. He is a Fellow of University College London and a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Balkan Studies in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Publications

Books

Robin's latest monograph Mesopotamian Civilization and the Origins of the New Testament was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. It illuminates Mesopotamia's contribution to the formation of early Christology.

His monograph Hollow Men, Strange Women: Riddles, Codes and Otherness in the Book of Judges was published by Brill in 2016 in the Biblical Interpretation Series. In this book, Robin examines the use of riddle and parable to convey esoteric meanings in Judges and how Judges explores the question of otherness. In March 2024, this monograph was the subject of a New Books Network podcast. Find out more about Hollow Men, Strange Women.

He collaborated with Professor Simo Parpola of the University of Helsinki on Professor Parpola's two-volume Etymological Dictionary of the Sumerian Language, published by Eisenbrauns.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• ‘Text-Image Iconicity in Assurnasirpal II’s Northwest Palace’, Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization (in press).
• ‘Backlighting Jeroboam: Form, Content, and Paronomasia in 1 Kings’, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament (in press).
• ‘Narrative Disjunction, Artful Occlusion, and Cryptic Commentary in Joshua 1–12’, Religions 15 (2024): 388; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040388.
• Remarks on the Impact and Date of The Gula Hymn of Bullussa-rabi'. NABU - Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires (2022/3, 122), 253-255
• 'Jeremiah and the Balag-Lament? Jeremiah 8:18-23', Journal of Biblical Literature 138 (2019): 587-604.
• 'A Dream Carries Much Implication': The Midianite’s Dream (Judges VII), Its Role and Meanings", Vetus Testamentum 68 (2018) 1-29.
• 'Double Trouble: Counting the Cost of Jephthah', Journal of Biblical Literature 137 (2018) 29-50
• A Mother's Refrain: Judges 5:28-30 in Cultural Context', Vetus Testamentum 67 (2017) 505-518

Book chapters

“Mother’s Little Helper: Micah and His Big Idea,” in Characters and Characterization in the Book of Judges, ed. Benjamin Johnson and Keith Bodner, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Series (London: T&T Clark, 2023), 189-204.

Forthcoming

Robin has been contracted to write the volume Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah for the New Cambridge Bible Commentary Series (Cambridge University Press, scheduled for 2028).