Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

David Wright

Professor of Bible and Ancient Near East

Degrees

• University of California, Berkeley, PhD

• University of California, Berkeley, MA

• University of Utah, BA

Profile

David Wright is a professor of Bible and Ancient Near East in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department. Professor Wright's specialties are primarily biblical studies, and the languages and literatures of the ancient Near East, as well as Near Eastern ritual and law. He offers courses on Hebrew Bible; Biblical and Near Eastern Ritual, Law and History, and Northwest Semitic Languages (Aramaic, Ugaritic, Northwest Semitic dialects), as well as courses on Comparative Semitic Linguistics and Hittite.

Selected Publications

Professor Wright's articles have appeared in a variety of academic journals and edited collections. He is the author of Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature, and Ritual in Narrative: The Dynamics of Feasting, Mourning, and Retaliation Rites in the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat.