Stephen Cook, Ph.D. is the Catherine N. McBurney Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature. He joined the VTS faculty in 1996. His areas of expertise include Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy, Prophetic and Apocalyptic Scripture, Social Setting of Scripture, and education technology.
Prior to joining the VTS faculty, Stephen served on the faculty of Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University in New York City for four years. He did his doctoral training in Old Testament at Yale University after completing an M.Div. degree at Yale’s Divinity School, where he also served as an instructor and fellow. His undergraduate work was at Trinity College, Connecticut, where he graduated with honors as a religion major in 1984.
Stephen is the author of several books, including The Apocalyptic Literature (Abingdon, 2003); The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism (Society of Biblical Literature, 2004); and Prophecy and Apocalypticism (Fortress, 1995). Most recently, he has written Reading Deuteronomy (Smith & Helwys, 2015), Conversations with Scripture: 2 Isaiah (Morehouse, 2008), and “The Season of Epiphany” in New Proclamation Year B, 2008–2009, Advent through Holy Week (Fortress, 2008). His other publications include journal articles, introductions and annotations to biblical books for both the New Oxford Annotated Bible and the Harper Collins Study Bible, and several entries for The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. The forthcoming New Interpreter’s One Volume Bible Commentary will contain his commentaries on three biblical books. He maintains a fascinating Bible Blog on the web.
Stephen has served in several capacities as an officer of the Society of Biblical Literature, most recently as a Regional Coordinator for the guild. He is also the Corporation Representative for Virginia Seminary to the American Schools of Oriental Research and a member of such other professional societies as the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars and the Catholic Biblical Association. He is in high demand around the country as a lecturer, seminar speaker, and workshop leader.
He and his wife Catherine, a psychotherapist, live amid the seminary community on its campus in Alexandria, Virginia with their daughter from China, Rebecca.
Linked Publications
“Ezekiel and the Priestly Traditions,” in The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel (ed. Corrine Carvalho; New York: Oxford University Press) online 2022, print version forthcoming
“Moses and a Prophet Like Moses in Deuteronomy,” in The Oxford Handbook of Deuteronomy (ed. Don C. Benjamin; New York: Oxford University Press), online 2021, print version forthcoming
“The Law and the Prophets,” in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law (ed. Pamela Barmash; Oxford Handbooks; New York: Oxford University Press), 275–88.