Jack M. Sasson


Jack M. Sasson is the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Emeritus and previously Professor of Classics at Vanderbilt University. From 1977 to 1999, he was a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His research focuses primarily on Assyriology and Hebrew Scriptures, writing on the archives from eighteenth century BC found at Mari, Syria, by the Euphrates, near the modern-day Syria-Iraq border as well as on biblical studies.

Biography

Born in Aleppo, Syria, on October 1, 1941, Sasson immigrated to the United States in 1955 after a significant stay in Lebanon where he attended the Alliance Israélite Universelle schools. In the United States, Sasson enrolled in Abraham [Lincoln High School (Brooklyn, New York)|Abraham Lincoln High School] in Brooklyn, New York, and then Brooklyn College, which later became a constituent school of the City University of New York college system. He received his B.A. in history in 1962 from Brooklyn College.
Immediately after completing his undergraduate education, Sasson accepted a scholarship to pursue his graduate studies at Brandeis University. At Brandeis, he focused first on Islamic Studies, earning an M.A. in Mediterranean Studies in 1963. He went on to earn his doctorate in Ancient Near Eastern Studies in 1966, writing his dissertation under Cyrus Gordon.
Sasson taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, moving up the rank and becoming a full professor of Religious Studies in 1977. In 1991, Sasson was appointed to the prestigious William R. Kenan Chair in Religious Studies where he remained until joining the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1999.
Sasson served as president of the American Oriental Society from 1996 to 1997 and of the International Association for Assyriology from 2005 to 2009. He also established and directed the Jewish Studies program at Vanderbilt University from 2002 to 2005.

Selected works

Articles and chapters

  • "," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 343 : 179-196.
  • "" The Biblical Archaeologist. 56.1 : 3-7.
  • "" Mari: Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires. 1 : 151-67.
  • "" Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 25.2 : 59-78.
  • "" Drinking in Ancient Societies; History and Culture of Drinks in the Ancient Near East. Ed. Lucio Milano. Padua: Sargon srl, 1994. 399-419.
  • "" Vetus Testamentum. 18.3 : 380-7.
  • "" Tzi Abusch, ed. Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen. : 211-28.
  • "" Journal of the American Oriental Society. 86.2 : 126-138.
  • "" Interpretation. 30 : 415-419.
  • "" Studies in Honor of Harry A. Hoffner, Jr., on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Eds. Gary Beckman Richard Beal, and Gregory McMahon. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003. 329-40.
  • "" Bulletin of the [American Schools of Oriental Research]. 190 : 46-54.
  • "" Vetus Testamentum. 26.2 : 199-207.
  • "" Journal of the American Oriental Society. 118.4 : 453—470.
  • "" Love and Death in the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of Marvin H. Pope. Eds. John H. Marks and Robert M. Good. Guilford, CT: Four Quarters Publishing Company, 1987. 205-09.
  • "" Journal of the American Oriental Society. 107.4 : 733—739.
  • "" Journal of the American Oriental Society. 103.1 : 283—293.
  • "" Journal of the American Oriental Society. 103 : 233-35.
  • "" Bible Review. 21.3 : 32-41, 52-54.
  • "" Journal of the American Oriental Society. 100.4 : 453-460.
  • "" Barry M. Gittlin, ed. Sacred Time, Sacred Place: Archaeology and the Religion of Israel. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002. 63-70.
  • "" Birkat Shalom: Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Postbiblical Judaism Presented to Shalom M. Paul on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Eds. Chaim Cohen Victor A. Hurowitz, Avi Hurvitz, Yochanan Muffs and others. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008. 149-68.
  • "" Florilegium marianum, 2: Recueil d'études à la mémoire de Maurice Birot . Eds. D. Charpin and J.M. Durand. Paris: Nouvelles assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires, 1994. 299-316.
  • "" The Spire; Vol. 22 No. 01, 2001. 28-32.
  • "" University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 23 Sept 2001. Lecture.
  • "" Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Chicago: Univ of Chicago Press. 65.4 : 241-265.
  • "" Bible Review. 19.6 : 41-43, 50-51.
  • "" Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 9.3 : 161-81.
  • "" Biblical Archaeologist. 47.2 : 110-20.
  • "" Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 20.1 : 90-113.
  • "" Jewish Quarterly Review. 93.1/2 : 314-316.
  • "" Utopia and Dystopia in Prophetic Literature. Ed. Ehud Ben Zvi. Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society, 2006. 27-40.
  • "" Mari: Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires. 5 : 577-89.
  • "" Mari: Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires. 4 : 437-52.
  • "" Biblical Archaeologist. 47.4 : 246-52.
  • "" Nouvelles assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires. 3.116 : 91-92.