Research Profile
Dr Nathan MacDonald is an Old Testament scholar, working particularly on the Pentateuch and the intersection between history of Israelite religion and Old Testament theology. His current interests include the book of Numbers, the history of the priesthood and Israelite rituals. He previously worked at the University of St Andrews and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
Teaching Profile
Dr MacDonald teaches a range of courses in Old Testament and Hebrew, including David: Israel’s Greatest Hero?; Intermediate Hebrew; Literature, History and Theology of the Exilic Age; and Master’s courses on Joshua and Advanced Pentateuchal Criticism.
Selected Publications
Priestly Rule: Polemic and Biblical Interpretation in Ezekiel 44 (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 476; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015).
Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
What did the Ancient Israelites Eat? Diet in Biblical Times (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).
Deuteronomy and the Meaning of ‘Monotheism’ (Forschungen zum Alten Testament, II/1; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003).
‘The Beginnings of One-ness Theology in Late Israelite Prophetic Literature’, in N. MacDonald and K. Brown (eds.), Monotheism in Late Prophetic and Early Apocalyptic Literature (Forschungen zum Alten Testament, II/72; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), pp. 103–123.
‘A Text in Search of Context: The Imago Dei in the First Chapters of Genesis’, in D. Baer and R.P. Gordon (eds.), Leshon Limmudim: Essays in the Language and Literature of the Hebrew Bible in Honour of A.A. Macintosh (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies; The Hebrew Bible and its Versions; London: T&T Clark International, 2013), pp. 3–16.
‘The Spirit of God: A Neglected Conceptualization of the Divine Presence in the Persian Period’, in N. MacDonald and I.J. de Hulster (eds.), Divine Presence and Absence in the Persian Period (Forschungen zum Alten Testament, II; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), pp. 95–120.
‘Numbers and Deuteronomy: Common Narratives Concerning the Wilderness and Transjordan’, Journal of Ancient Judaism 3 (2012), pp. 141–165.
‘The Hermeneutics and Genesis of the Red Cow Ritual in Numbers 19’, Harvard Theological Review 105 (2012), pp. 351–371.
Contact
Faculty of Divinity
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9BS
UK
Phone: +441223763002
Email: nm10011@cam.ac.uk
Homepage: http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/directory/nathan-macdonald
