David Noel Freedman (May 12, 1922 – April 8, 2008) was an American biblical scholar, author, editor, archaeologist, and, after his conversion from

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister. He was one of the first Americans to work on the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

. He is the son of the writer

David Freedman David Freedman (April 26, 1898 – December 8, 1936) (aged 38) was a Romanian-born American playwright and biographer who became known as the "King of the Gag-writers" in the early days of radio. Biography David Freedman was born in Botoşan ...

. He died of a heart ailment.

Life

Freedman was born Noel Freedman in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on May 12, 1922, the son of David and Beatrice Freedman. The elder Freedman died in 1936 and Noel adopted his name as a mark of respect. Soon after, he converted to Christianity and became a member of the Presbyterian Church. The New York times misidentified Noel as a girl in David Freedman's obituary. He attended the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and he earned his B.A., after which he entered

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

, where he earned a

Bachelor of Theology The Bachelor of Theology degree (BTh, ThB, or BTheol) is a three- to five-year undergraduate degree in theological disciplines and is typically pursued by those seeking ordination for ministry in a church, denomination, or parachurch organization. ...

degree in 1944. He then went on to study Semitic Languages and Literature at The

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. In 1947, while he was still a graduate student, the excavation of caves near the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

was just beginning to unearth thousands of fragments of texts. He became one of the first American scholars to get access and spent twenty years painstakingly studying and translating a scroll of Leviticus, one of the books of the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

. After earning his doctorate in 1948, he then held a series of professorial and administrative positions at various theological institutions and universities. As the general editor of several distinguished series, including the

Anchor Bible Series The Anchor Bible Series, which consists of a commentary series, a Bible dictionary, and a reference library, is a scholarly and commercial co-venture which was begun in 1956, with the publication of individual volumes in the commentary series. Ov ...

(1956–2008), Eerdmans Critical Commentaries (2000–08), and The Bible in Its World (2000–08), and as the editor and author of numerous other award-winning volumes, including the ''Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible'' (2000), Freedman has produced over three hundred and thirty scholarly books. Recent seminal works as an author include ''The Unity of the Hebrew Bible'' (1991), ''Psalm 119: The Exaltation of Torah'' (1999), ''The Nine Commandments'' (2000) and ''What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why Do They Matter?'' (2007). As editor of the ''Leningrad Codex: A Facsimile Edition'' (1998), Freedman and his colleagues brought the world's oldest complete Hebrew Bible to synagogues, churches, libraries and individuals around the world for the first time in history. In 1995, a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' was published in his honor. ''Fortunate the Eyes That See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday'' included contributions from

Francis Andersen Francis Ian Andersen (28 July 1925 – 13 May 2020) was an Australian scholar in the fields of biblical studies and Hebrew. Together with A. Dean Forbes, he pioneered the use of computers for the analysis of biblical Hebrew syntax. He taught O ...

Adele Berlin Adele Berlin (born May 23, 1943 in Philadelphia) is an American biblical scholar and Hebraist. Before her retirement, she was Robert H. Smith Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Maryland. Berlin is best known for 1994 work ''Poet ...

, Joseph Blenkinsopp,

Baruch Halpern Baruch Halpern is the Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia. He was a leader of the archaeological digs at Tel Megiddo 1992–2007, as well as of an archaeological survey in southeastern Cilicia (Turkey).

, Gary Knoppers, and

Choon-Leong Seow Choon-Leong Seow (; born August 4, 1952), known as C. L. Seow, is a distinguished biblical scholar, semitist, epigrapher, and historian of Near Eastern religion, currently as Vanderbilt, Buffington, Cupples Chair in Divinity and Distinguished Profe ...

. Freedman died on April 8, 2008.

Teaching positions

* 1992–2008: Endowed Chair in Hebrew Biblical Studies at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). * 1989–97: Program Director for the Study of Religion at UCSD. * 1986–92: Teaches at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and UCSD * 1984–92: Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Biblical Studies, Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor * 1971–83: Professor of Biblical Studies, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor * 1966–71: Dean of Faculty at SFTS * 1964–71: Gray Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at San Francisco Theological Seminary (San Anselmo, CA) and the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA) * 1961–64: James A. Kelso Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary * 1948–64: Professor of Old Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA * 1947–48: Assistant Instructor at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland * 1946–47: Teaching Fellow, The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland

Excavations

; Albright Institute of Archaeological Research ( American Schools of Oriental Research), Jerusalem : Annual Director, 1969–70, 1976–77 ; Ashdod Excavation Project : Director, 1962–64

Education

, Baltimore, MD (1945–48), PhD Semitic Languages and Literature *

, Princeton, NJ (1941–44), ThB Hebrew Bible *

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, Los Angeles (1938–39), BA Modern European History *

, New York (1935–38)

References

External links