Michael Patrick O'Connor (1950,

Lackawanna, New York Lackawanna is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Erie County, New York, Erie County, New York (state), New York, United States, just south of the city of Buffalo, New York, Buffalo in western New York (state), New York State. T ...

– June 16, 2007,

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 censu ...

) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

scholar of the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

and a poet. With the field of ANE studies he was a linguist of

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

, with a focus on

biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

and

biblical poetry The ancient Hebrews identified poetical portions in their sacred texts, as shown by their entitling as "songs" or as " chants" passages such as Exodus 15:1-19 and Numbers 21:17-20; a song or chant () is, according to the primary meaning of the ter ...

Biography

O'Connor received his bachelor's degree in English from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in 1970, and a Masters in creative writing from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in 1972, followed by a Masters in ancient Near Eastern studies (1974) and doctorate in 1978 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 ...

. After working as a freelance scholar for a number of years, he taught at

Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity The Saint Paul Seminary (SPS) is a Roman Catholic major seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. A part of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, SPS prepares men to enter the priesthood and permanent diaconate, and educates lay men and women o ...

of the

University of St. Thomas St. Thomas University or University of St. Thomas may refer to: *Saint Thomas Aquinas University, Colombia *Saint Thomas Aquinas University of the North, Tucumán province, Argentina *St. Thomas University (Canada), Fredericton, New Brunswick *St. ...

then at Union Theological Seminary. In 1997 he joined the faculty of

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

and was appointed an Ordinary Professor in 2002. He is best known from his book on the structure of

Hebrew verse The ancient Hebrews identified poetry, poetical portions in their sacred texts, as shown by their entitling as "songs" or as "chants" passages such as Book of Exodus, Exodus 15:1-19 and Book of Numbers, Numbers 21:17-20; a song or chant () is, acco ...

and his co-authorship of a textbook on

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

. He proposed that the

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

of Hebrew verse was based on constraints in syntax, rather than

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

. He published poems throughout his career, including a book of poetry called ''Pandary'' in 1989. O'Connor was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, he died of complications of liver cancer on June 16, 2007, at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD.

Selected publications

;Books * The 2nd Edition was printed with a new afterword: * ;Edited books * * Note: Includes essays originally published in ''Michigan Quarterly Review'' XXII (3). Summer 1983, a special issue called ''The Bible and Its Traditions''. * ;Papers * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Table of contents with abstracts
* * * * ;Reviews * * * * * * * * * * ;Poetry * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Michael Patrick 1950 births 2007 deaths Historians of antiquity American Assyriologists Linguists from the United States University of Notre Dame alumni University of British Columbia alumni University of Michigan alumni American Roman Catholics 20th-century linguists Assyriologists