Ellen van Wolde


Ellen José van Wolde is a Dutch biblical scholar. In her research she focuses mainly on the Hebrew Bible, applying achievements of semiotics and linguistics. She became known to the general public mainly through her oration on the first three sentences of the book of Genesis. Since the summer of 2021 she is Emeritus Professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen.

Education

Van Wolde studied theology at the Catholic University Nijmegen, Biblical studies at the Pontificium Institutum Biblicum in Rome, and semiotics at the Università degli Studi di Bologna. She completed her Master's in Theology and her PhD in Biblical Studies.

Career and research

Van Wolde was given an appointment as assistant professor at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. She later became associate professor there. In 1992, at the age of 37, she was appointed Professor of Exegesis of the Old Testament and Hebrew at the Tilburg Theological Faculty, which was later incorporated into Tilburg University. In 2009, she was appointed Professor of Old Testament Exegesis/Hebrew Bible and Source Texts Judaism at Radboud University Nijmegen. There she headed the Department of Bible Studies and from 2020 to 2021 the Department of Textual, Historical, and Systematic Studies of Judaism and Christianity at Radboud University. She retired in the summer of 2021.
Ellen van Wolde is a Biblical scholar and researches the Hebrew Bible in the context of the Ancient Near East. Her focus is on ideas about the beginning of the universe, about God and about people. She investigates these concepts through language and text research in close connection with the culture and cognition of people in the Ancient Near East. In doing so, she strives to uncover the thought processes and language use of people in the time, place, and culture in which the texts originated. Her insights are captured in her monograph and in the articles she has published, among others on the first verses of the Bible, on the flood story and ‘the rainbow’ after the flood, on ‘the Jacob's Ladder’ and on ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’.

Awards and honours

In 2005, Van Wolde was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands [Academy of Arts and Sciences]. In 2006, she was elected a member of the Royal [Holland Society of Sciences & Humanities]. She was nominated and elected a member of Academia Europaea/Academy of Europe in 2013. From 2010 to 2016 she was a member of the General Board of the KNAW. In 2011 she was appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
On the occasion of the bicentenary of the KNAW, the six-part series "The Magic of Science" was made where one of the documentaries is dedicated to her.

Selected works

Books and Papers

  • A semiotic analysis of Genesis 2–3. A semiotic theory and method of analysis applied to the story of the Garden of Eden
  • Meneer en mevrouw Job. Job in gesprek met zijn vrouw, zijn vrienden en met God
  • Ruth en Noömi, twee vreemdgangers
  • '
  • Verhalen over het begin. Genesis 1–11 en andere scheppingsverhalen
  • Zin in verhalen
  • '
  • Bas van Iersel, Uitgelezen. Studies over de evangelies, ed. Ellen van Wolde
  • ', Vetus Testamentum, 52 528–544
  • '
  • Het paradijs
  • , Biblical Interpretation. A Journal of Contemporary Approaches 16, pp. 1–24
  • '. Eisenbrauns.
  • , in P. Oomen & T. Smedes, Evolutie, cultuur en religie. Perspectieven vanuit biologie en theologie,
  • , with R.C. Rezetko, Journal of [Hebrew Scriptures] 11
  • , In D. Lipton, Universalism and Particularism at Sodom and Gomorrah. Essays in Memory of Ron Pirson, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature
  • , Vetus Testamentum, 63, pp. 124–149
  • Landsman, K., en E. van Wolde, '
  • , Vetus Testamentum 67 611–647
  • ', Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43 453–478.
  • ', The Bible Translator 70 207–222.
  • ', Biblica 100 506–526.
  • ', Vetus Testamentum 69 722–735.
  • ', 'Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 44.4 642–666.
  • ' , Vetus Testamentum 340–360.
  • Various Types of Metaphors and Their Different Functions in Psalm 51, in D.Verde and A. Labahn, Networks of Metaphors in the Hebrew Bible Leuven: Peeters 2020, 193–215.
  • ', in A. Hornkohl and G. Kahn, , 431–453.
  • , Vetus Testamentum 1–17.