Rate My Professor Koert van Bekkum

Prof. Dr. Koert van Bekkum serves as Professor of Old Testament, Chair of the Department of Old Testament, and Academic Vice Dean for Research at the Evangelische Theologische Faculteit (ETF) in Leuven. He joined ETF Leuven in 2018 as part-time Associate Professor of Old Testament, was promoted to full Professor effective 1 October 2020, and assumed the department chairmanship in 2019. Concurrently, since 2018, he has been Associate Professor of Old Testament at the Theological University Utrecht (previously Theological University Kampen), where he previously served as Assistant Professor (2012–2018) and Postdoc Fellow (2011–2012). Van Bekkum earned his PhD in 2010 from the Theological University Kampen with the highest grade for the thesis From Conquest to Coexistence: Ideology and Antiquarian Intent in the Historiography of Israel’s Settlement in Canaan, published by Brill in 2011. He holds a Drs. theol. degree from the same institution (1997), participated in the Megiddo Expedition (1998, 2000), and was a Visiting PhD Candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Archaeological Institute (2000). In 2018, he was a Visiting Research Scholar at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Earlier, he worked as a journalist for over a decade.

Van Bekkum’s research centers on the literary, historical, and theological significance of the biblical books from Genesis to 2 Kings, encompassing archaeology of the Southern Levant, biblical history, biblical covenants and treaties in ancient Near Eastern contexts, chronology of ancient Israel, violence in the Hebrew Bible, monsters in biblical texts, and Reformed hermeneutics of historical narratives. Key publications include Violence in the Hebrew Bible: Between Text and Reception (ed. with Jacques Van Ruiten, Brill, 2020), Playing with Leviathan: Interpretation and Reception of Monsters from the Biblical World (ed. with Jaap Dekker, Henk van de Kamp, Eric Peels, Brill, 2017), Biblical Hebrew in Context: Essays in Semitics and Old Testament Texts in Honour of Professor Jan P. Lettinga (ed. with Gert Kwakkel, Wolter H. Rose, Brill, 2018), and his inaugural lecture “But as for Me and My House, We Will Serve YHWH:” Joshua 24 and Christian Theology in a Context of Religious Plurality (ETF Leuven, 2021). Recent contributions cover neo-Calvinism, biblical chronology, and land division in Joshua. His scholarship, cited 123 times on Google Scholar, reflects memberships in the Society of Biblical Literature (2012–), American Schools of Oriental Research (2019–), Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap (2013–), and roles on the Executive Board of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (2017–).