Roger Whybray

July 26, 1923 (age 74)

East Molesey, Surrey, United Kingdom

Roger Norman Whybray's first curacy was in Basingstoke and from there he was appointed to teaching posts, first at General Theological Seminary, New York and then at Queen's College, Birmingham. His most important contribution to theological education came with his long period as Professor of the Old Testament and Hebrew at Central Theological College, Tokyo, from 1952 to 1965. During that period in Japan, where one suspects that his experience as a cultural outsider proved formative for his human sympathies and his courage to be different. In 1965 he accepted a post as Lecturer in Theology in the University of Hull, becoming Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies in 1978. It is an open secret that the public arena was not his forte, and the thought of becoming Head of the Department of Theology in Hull when Anthony Hanson retired was far from attractive. In 1982 he took the decision to retire early, in order to devote himself to his scholarly writing, and his outstanding productivity since that time proved the wisdom of that decision. Roger Norman Whybray issued his book Wisdom in Proverbs while at Hull. In 1974 he began six years as editor of Book List, the annual publication of the Society for Old Testament Studies. In 1982 he became president of the Society; he retired later that year. Among his other books are Aendai no Kyukaku Seisho Kenkyu Aaikan (title means “A Survey of Modern Study of the Old Testament”), The Succession Narrative, The Book of Proverbs, The Intellectual Tradition of the Old Testament, and Thanksgiving for a Liberated Prophet. He also edited a series of textbooks called Old Testament Guides for Sheffield Academic Press.

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Works

book

The succession narrative: A study of II Samuel 9-20; I Kings 1 and 2

1968

The Heavenly Counsellor in Isaiah xl 13-14: A Study of the Sources of the Theology of Deutero-Isaiah

(One of the most rewarding of recent approaches to the stu...)

1971

The Book of Proverbs

(Dr. Whybray's volume, like the others in the series, cont...)

1972

The Intellectual Tradition in the Old Testament

1974

Isaiah 40-66

1981

Second Isaiah

(Originally published as part of the acclaimed Sheffield G...)

1983

The Making of the Pentateuch: A Methodological Study

1987

Ecclesiastes

(Ecclesiastes is at once a strange book and a modern one, ...)

1989

The Composition of the Book of Proverbs

1994

Introduction to the Pentateuch

(Whybray provides a straightforward introduction to the co...)

1995

Job

(This commentary on the book of Job is a non-technical com...)

1998

Reading the Psalms as a Book

(This book discusses the theory that the Psalter was compi...)

1999

Wisdom in Proverbs

2009

Thanksgiving for a Liberated People: Interpretation of Isaiah 53 1978

Roger Norman Whybray

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educator priest theologian author

Background

Roger Norman Whybray was born on July 26, 1923, in East Molesey, Surrey, United Kingdom.

Education

Roger Norman Whybray was educated at Kingston Grammar School. When he was 18 he came up to Oxford to read first French and then Theology in the last years of the war. Once he had graduated, he trained for the Church of England at Lincoln Theological College in 1944-1945 and was ordained Deacon in 1946 and Priest in 1947. He came back to Oxford for two years in 1960-1961 to prepare his Doctor of Philosophy under the supervision of the distinguished biblical and oriental scholar G.R. Driver.

Education period of Roger Whybray in Oxford University

Education period of Roger Whybray in Lincoln Theological College

Career

Roger Norman Whybray's first curacy was in Basingstoke and from there he was appointed to teaching posts, first at General Theological Seminary, New York and then at Queen's College, Birmingham. His most important contribution to theological education came with his long period as Professor of the Old Testament and Hebrew at Central Theological College, Tokyo, from 1952 to 1965.

During that period in Japan, where one suspects that his experience as a cultural outsider proved formative for his human sympathies and his courage to be different. In 1965 he accepted a post as Lecturer in Theology in the University of Hull, becoming Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Studies in 1978. It is an open secret that the public arena was not his forte, and the thought of becoming Head of the Department of Theology in Hull when Anthony Hanson retired was far from attractive. In 1982 he took the decision to retire early, in order to devote himself to his scholarly writing, and his outstanding productivity since that time proved the wisdom of that decision.

Roger Norman Whybray issued his book Wisdom in Proverbs while at Hull. In 1974 he began six years as editor of Book List, the annual publication of the Society for Old Testament Studies. In 1982 he became president of the Society; he retired later that year. Among his other books are Aendai no Kyukaku Seisho Kenkyu Aaikan (title means “A Survey of Modern Study of the Old Testament”), The Succession Narrative, The Book of Proverbs, The Intellectual Tradition of the Old Testament, and Thanksgiving for a Liberated Prophet. He also edited a series of textbooks called Old Testament Guides for Sheffield Academic Press.

Achievements

Roger Norman Whybray was a key figure in the life of the Society for Old Testament Study for over thirty years. He was a memorable President of the Society in 1982, and Editor of its Book List from 1974 to 1980, during which time its standing was greatly enhanced by his diligent and methodical editorship. And his services to biblical scholarship in Britain were recognized by the award of the Burkitt Medal of the British Academy in 1997. For his seventieth birthday in 1993, seventeen colleagues - from Denmark, Italy, France, Israel, Ireland, and the United States, as well as from the United Kingdom - contributed to a Festschrift, entitled Of Prophets' Visions and the Wisdom of Sages.