James Muilenburg (1 June 1896 – 10 May 1974) was a pioneer in the field of

rhetorical criticism Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate. Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how well they work, and ho ...

of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

. Muilenburg was born in Orange City, Iowa, and studied at Hope College, the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He taught at Mt. Holyoke College and the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

before successive appointments as Billings Professor of Old Testament literature and Semitic Languages at the

Pacific School of Religion The Pacific School of Religion (PSR) is a Private university, private Protestant seminary in Berkeley, California. It maintains Covenant (religion), covenantal relationships with the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the ...

(1936-1945), Davenport Professor of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages at Union Theological Seminary (1945-1963), and Gray Professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary (1963-1972). Muilenburg was also one of the original translators of the

Revised Standard Version The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation is a revision of the American St ...

. Muilenburg had two ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

en'' published in his honor: ''Israel's Prophetic Heritage : Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg'' (1962) and ''Rhetorical Criticism : Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg'' (1974). Contributors to the former included Walther Eichrodt, G. Ernest Wright,

Martin Noth Martin Noth (3 August 1902 – 30 May 1968) was a German scholar of the Hebrew Bible who specialized in the pre-Exilic history of the Hebrews and promoted the hypothesis that the Israelite tribes in the immediate period after the settlement in Can ...

, and H. H. Rowley; while contributors to the latter included

Walter Brueggemann Walter Albert Brueggemann (March 11, 1933 – June 5, 2025) was an American Christian scholar and theologian who is widely considered an influential Old Testament scholar. His work often focused on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the sociop ...

, and Norman Gottwald.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muilenburg, James 1896 births 1974 deaths Presidents of the Society of Biblical Literature Old Testament scholars Translators of the Bible into English People from Orange City, Iowa Hope College alumni University of Nebraska alumni Yale University alumni Mount Holyoke College faculty University of Maine faculty Union Theological Seminary faculty San Francisco Theological Seminary faculty 20th-century translators