Dr Suzanna Millar
Chancellor's Fellow in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

Address
- Street
-
New College
Mound Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Availability
I'm happy to meet with any student (in-person or online) at a mutually convenient time. Please email me to organise a meeting.
Background
I wrote my PhD at the University of Cambridge, and then moved to Leeds (Jan 2018) as a teaching fellow in biblical studies. In July 2018, I moved to Edinburgh, to work first as a teaching fellow and now as a chancellor's fellow. I examine the Hebrew Bible in its historical context and original language, as well as applying newer interpretive methods to the text. My research has tended to focus in two main areas: wisdom literature and ecological/animal hermeneutics.
I am fascinated by the wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible, and I am currently co-editing the forthcoming "Cambridge Companion to Wisdom Literature". My PhD thesis analysed the Book of Proverbs, exploring how individual proverbs are open to multiple interpretations and multiple applications (recently published as "Genre and Openness in Proverbs 10:1–22:16" [SBL Press, 2020]). In my work, I examine the literary and poetic complexity of the wisdom books, their rich imagery and nuanced, often ambiguous language. Recently, I have focussed most on the book of Job, especially the language of the non-human world throughout the book.
This brings me to my second main interest: ecology and non-human animals. I am excited to bring interdisciplinary insights - especially from animal studies - to bear on biblical texts, and I currently co-chair the 'Animals and the Bible' research group for the European Association of Biblical Studies. I am working on a research project examining how, in various texts, non-human animals figure in matrix of power relations alongside various groups of marginalised humans (e.g. women, foreigners, the poor). For this I incorporate insights from other contemporary interpretive methods, such as feminist and postcolonial hermeneutics. More broadly, I am interested in the hermeneutical and ethical questions around the interpretation of the Bible.
Qualifications
MA(Cantab), MPhil, PhD
Undergraduate teaching
Prophets and their Oracles
Moses and the Torah
Old Testament Texts
The Hebrew Bible and Contemporary Issues
Introducing Biblical Hebrew
Intermediate Biblical Hebrew
Ethics and Society
Postgraduate teaching
Selected Topics in Biblical Studies
The Hebrew Bible and Contemporary Issues (PG)
Introducing Biblical Hebrew (PG)
Intermediate Biblical Hebrew (PG)
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
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Did Job live “happily ever after”? Suspicion and naïvety in Job 42:7-17
In:
Journal of Theological Interpretation, vol. 17, pp. 77-91
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5325/jtheointe.17.1.0077
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Bitesize chapters give a feast of insight: [Review of] Janling Fu (eds), T&T Clark Handbook of Food in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022. £117.00. pp. xv + 616. ISBN: 978-0-5676-7979-6)
(2 pages)
In:
Expository Times, vol. 134, pp. 140-141
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00145246221139033
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Luxuriant and well-fatted: The meaning of מעדנת in 1 Sam 15:32
(11 pages)
In:
Vetus Testamentum, pp. 1-11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10123
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
The anthropology of Biblical wisdom literature
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Accepted/In press) -
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace
(640 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119424420
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Reading Esther with Proverbs: Complexifying character, theme, and ideology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780567703033.ch-009
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
The multiple genres of wisdom
(23 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108673082.004
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Introduction
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108673082.002
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108673082
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Egyptian wisdom
(21 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108673082.020
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)