Donald J. Wiseman
| Donald Wiseman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
25 October 1918 Emsworth, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 2 February 2010 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Professor, archaeologist, writer |
Donald John Wiseman OBE FBA FSA (25 October 1918 – 2 February 2010) was a biblical scholar, archaeologist and Assyriologist. He was Professor of Assyriology at the University of London from 1961 to 1982.
Wiseman was born in Emsworth, Hampshire in 1918. His father, Air Commodore P. J. Wiseman had travelled in the Middle East with the RAF and that had led to him writing a number of books on archaeology and the Bible. P. J. Wiseman formulated what is known as the Wiseman hypothesis, suggests that many passages used by Moses or other authors to compose the Book of Genesis originated as histories and genealogies recorded in Mesopotamian cuneiform script on baked clay tablets, handed down through Abraham to later Hebrews. The Wiseman family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren.
Wiseman came under the influence of the Crusaders, an evangelical Christian youth organisation, and professed faith at the age of nine, being baptised by full immersion in 1932. He taught himself the Hebrew alphabet from the section headings of Psalm 119. Martin Selman has pointed out that Wiseman was "first and foremost an evangelical Christian" and that his vision was "based on a deep Christian conviction about the Bible's reliability and relevance."
Selman suggests that Wiseman's "basic thesis" regarding the Old Testament was that "the Bible makes most sense when it is interpreted in the light of its own Near Eastern cultural context."
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