Robert Rezetko: New Visiting Researcher at the Department of Biblical Exegesis
Over the past 17 years, Rezetko has worked closely with Associate Professor Martin Ehrensvärd and the collaboration is now being formalized, initially over three years, 2022-2024.
Rezetko, together with Ehrensvärd and postdoc Martijn Naaijer, is associated with the department's project on machine learning and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which takes place in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science.
As a guest researcher, Rezetko will, in addition to minor works on literary, text-critical and linguistic topics, work on the following books:
- Misquoting Moses: The Problem of the Old Testament’s Words, and Why It Matters
- Misusing Scripture: What Are Evangelicals Doing with the Bible?
Rezetko’s PhD dissertation and first book were about textual criticism and especially about the narratives about the Ark of the Covenant. But he is better known for his work on historical linguistics with Ehrensvärd and Ian Young. One of their main points is that Hebrew, contrary to the practice of many colleagues, should be studied as other historical languages, without the special status that Hebrew, strangely, still often gets. Another point is to process all relevant data, which is still a shortcoming in research. A third point is a much deeper integration of textual criticism in the work of reconstructing language history.