Dr. Matthew McAffee

Matthew McAffee serves as Provost at Welch College and teaches in the area of Biblical Studies for the School of Theology. His M.A. and Ph.D. are from the University of Chicago in Northwest Semitic Philology. He is also a graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Welch College (B.A.).

He has published articles and book reviews in such journals as Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Journal of Biblical Literature, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Bulletin for Biblical Research, and others. He is author of Life and Mortality in Ugaritic: A Lexical and Literary Study (Pennsylvania State University Press), and co-author of Going Deeper with Biblical Hebrew: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the Old Testament (B&H Academic). He is currently working on an Ugaritic beginning grammar (Zondervan) and a book on the Hebrew conception of the soul (Hendrickson).

He has ministered in Free Will Baptist churches in Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, and Canada. He is married to Anna, with whom he has five children (Abigail, Lydia, Samuel, Marianne, and Jonathan Isaac).

Education

• Ph.D. in Northwest Semitic Philology, University of Chicago (2015)
  Dissertation: “Life and Mortality in Ugaritic: A Lexical, Literary, and Comparative Analysis”
• M.A. in Northwest Semitic Philology, University of Chicago (2008)
• M.Div. in Biblical Studies, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2002)
• B.A. in Biblical and Ministerial Studies, Welch College (1999)

Areas of Interest

• Old Testament 
• Hebrew
• Ugaritic

Select Publications

• Life and Mortality in Ugaritic, A Lexical and Literary Study (Eisenbraums)
• Going Deeper with Biblical Hebrew (B&H Academic)
• “The Sale of Joseph in Genesis 37:18-26: Narrative Cohesion and Coherence” (Journal of Hebrew Scriptures)
• “Biblical King Og and the Ugaritic Deity Rāpiʾu: Sorting out Two Figures in Light of the Rephaim and the Toponyms Ashtaroth and Edrei,” in “Like ʾIlu Are You Wise”: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)

Select Courses

• Old Testament Survey: Law and History
• Old Testament Survey: Poetry and Prophecy
• Biblical Hebrew
• Biblical Hermeneutics
• Issues in Old Testament Studies