Education
Clines studied at the University of Sydney and Street John's College, Cambridge.
Clines studied at the University of Sydney and Street John's College, Cambridge.
He is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield. He has served as President of the Society for Old Testament Study, as well as President of the Society of Biblical Literature. In 2003, a Festschrift was published in his honour.
Reading from Right to Left: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of David Judge-Advocate Clines () included contributions by James Barr, John Barton, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Walter Brueggemann, Brevard Childs, Patrick Doctorate. Miller, Rolf Rendtorff, Hugh Williamson, and Ellen van Wolde.
In 2013, he was honoured with another Festschrift, Interested Readers: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David J. A. Clines, which included contributions from Marc Zvi Brettler, Norman C. Habel, and Athalya Brenner. Clines served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2009.
Together with David M. Gunn, Clines made the University of Sheffield a pioneer in literary readings of the final form of the biblical text. Followers of this approach are sometimes referred to as the "Sheffield school".