Steed Davidson
Steed Vernyl Davidson is Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago Illinois. He serves as the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty. He is also the Executive Director of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). His academic interests centered around prophetic literature and imperial discourses in the Hebrew Bible. His work has examined structured domination in the Hebrew Bible using postcolonial and other critical enquiries. The author of Empire and Exile: Postcolonial Readings of Selected Texts of the Book of Jeremiah and Writing/Reading the Bible in Postcolonial Perspective, his most recent publication is a co-authored work, Prophetic Otherness: Constructions of Otherness in Prophetic Literature.
Presenter at
BAS Scholars Series, March 20, 2025
Nation Oracles in Prophetic Books: Can we Continue to Pretend they Don’t Exist
For many years, scholars ignored the so-called “nation oracles” that appear in several of the Hebrew Bible’s prophetic books, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Filled with retributive violence, these biblical diatribes seemed inconsistent with the traditional picture of the Hebrew prophets as guardians and advocates of social justice. While additional study has helped place these oracles in the context of similar ancient literature, scholars still puzzle over how they should be understood relative to the core redemptive message of the prophetic books. This presentation explores these changing trends in scholarship and offers new proposals for understanding how the role of the “nation oracles” evolved within prophetic literature to meet changing social and imperials contexts.
Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest 2022, April 2 – 3, 2022
Sexting Empire: Erotic Imperial Discourses in the Hebrew Bible
An exploration of visual imperial propaganda that deploys erotic depictions of imperial domination in the ancient Near East. To what extent have these visuals images influenced textual representations of imperial discourses in the Hebrew Bible? Where can sexualized images be seen in the Hebrew Bible in relation to imperial representations and what interpretive conclusions can be drawn from these representations.
