Michael V. Fox (1940–2025) was an American-Israeli biblical scholar. He was the Halls-Bascom Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Fox was described as a "highly regarded authority on biblical wisdom literature."

Education

From 1962 Fox holds a B.A. and from 1963 a M.A. from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. Fox received his rabbinical ordination from

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

, then studied

Biblical Studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

and

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Ancient Greek, Greek , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian History of Egypt, history, Egyptian language, language, Ancient Egypt ...

at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, receiving a PhD in 1972 – the first American to earn this degree at the University.

Academic work

He taught in Israel for several years and in 1977 moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he taught in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies for the next 33 years (1977–2010). Named Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor in 1991 in Jewish Studies and Halls-Bascom Professor of Hebrew in 1999, he took a sabbatical in Israel in 2006 and then taught as George Mosse Exchange Professor at the Hebrew University.

Published works

A bibliographical article by L.J. Mykytiuk reviewing the publications of Michael V. Fox appeared in Fox's Festschrift.

Books

*Proverbs 1-9 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries) (tree of Life) *Proverbs 10-31 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries) *Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther Second Edition with a New Postscript on A Decade of Esther Scholarship *Ecclesiastes: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (The Jps Bible Commentary) *The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs *A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Rereading of Ecclesiastes

Articles

Fox's articles are available at his Academia.edu profile.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Michael V. Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni American biblical scholars American male writers Old Testament scholars Bible commentators Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion alumni 1940 births Presidents of the Society of Biblical Literature