Biblical World Hosts
Chris McKinny is a Research Fellow with Gesher Media. Passionate about the archaeology, history, and geography of the Biblical world, he has written extensively on these subjects in both academic and popular publications. Chris is a senior staff member at the Tel Burna Archaeological project and regularly leads study tours to the lands of the Bible. He is the author of My People as Your People: A Textual and Archaeological Analysis of the Reign of Jehoshaphat (Peter Lang, 2016), and has co-edited several volumes, including The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages of Southern Canaan (De Gruyter, 2018) and Tell it in Gath: Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel: Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday (Zaphon, 2018).
Amy L. Balogh is Lead Lecturer of the Humanities at the Regis University School for Professional Advancement. She holds a BA in Biblical Studies from Patten University, a MA in Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages from Jewish Theological Seminary, and a PhD in Religious and Theological Studies with a concentration in Biblical Interpretation from the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology. Her first book Moses among the Idols: Mediators of the Divine in the Ancient Near East (Lexington Books/Fortress Press, 2018) offers a new reading of Moses’ status by comparing and contrasting him with Mesopotamian idols, and her second book, which she is currently working on, brings the Hebrew Bible together with myth in a way that offers insight into humankind’s relationship with nature. Amy also regularly works with Lexham Press and is the founding president of the Religion & Bible Society of the Rocky Mountain Great Plains Region, as well as the founder and co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature program unit Comparative Method in Biblical Studies.
Mark Janzen is Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana College and Research Associate with the Lanier Center for Archaeology at Lipscomb University. He has loved history for as long as he can remember, particularly ancient history and biblical history. He is also the deputy director of the Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall project, an epigraphic mission at Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt. His research interests include Egyptian history and culture, Egyptian epigraphy, the historicity of the Exodus, and the intersection of archaeology and biblical studies. He is the editor of Five Views of the Exodus (Zondervan, 2021).
Mary Buck is adjunct professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Shepherds Theological Seminary. Adjunct Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at Shepherds Theological Seminary. She teaches courses focused on Northwest Semitic philology, Comparative Semitics, and Middle Eastern Civilizations. Dr. Buck completed her PhD at the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations under the tutelage of Dr. Dennis Pardee. She also completed her MA in Northwest Semitic Philology, her MA in Education, and her BA in History. Mary was first introduced to the world of the Middle East in 2005 when she had the privilege of studying and traveling in the region, including a month working in Dubai and Oman. She has since lived in the Middle East for several years, traveling extensively, joining several excavations, studying Quranic Arabic, and receiving a FLAS grant for the study of Modern Hebrew. She recently published two works, The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit, which traces the Middle Bronze Age Amorite origins of the Ugaritian society, and The Canaanites, which provides a historical overview of the Canaanites based upon archaeology and inscriptions. She is currently working on a book series intended for middle-grade readers which aims to bring the history of the ancient world to life for kids.
Oliver Hersey is the president of Jerusalem University College in Jerusalem, Israel, an institution committed to helping students engage the geography, history, archaeology, languages, and cultures of the biblical world. He loves providing students opportunities to see the contours of the Holy Land and teaching them about the cultural backgrounds, history, and literary traditions of the ancient Near East, particularly as they inform our understanding of the Bible. His research interests lie in comparing ancient Near Eastern texts with biblical texts. Exemplary of this is his dissertation titled “The Marriage at Mount Sinai: Reading Exodus in the Context of ancient Near Eastern Diplomatic Marriages.” Hersey completed his PhD in Old Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and has taught at North Park University in Chicago.
Kyle Keimer is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, where he was Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, History, and Language of Ancient Israel. He also lectures at Jerusalem University College. For over 20 years he has been excavating in Israel and Cyprus and was co-director of the Khirbet el-Rai excavations. He loves digging as much as he loves working with ancient texts, especially the books of 1-2 Samuel and Isaiah. His research currently focuses on the early Israelite monarchy in text and archaeology. He’s co-edited Registers and Modes of Communication in the Ancient Near East (Routledge) and The Ancient Israelite World (Routledge), and he’s published articles in various journals.