Egypt

Dr. James K. Hoffmeier is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern History and Archeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He was born in Egypt and lived there until age sixteen, and returns often for research, excavation, and teaching ministry. He served as Professor of Archaeology and Old Testament at Wheaton College and was chair of Wheaton’s Department of Biblical, Theological, Religious and Archaeological Studies. From 1996 to 1999 he was also director of the Wheaton Archaeology Program.

He was an archaeological editor for the English Standard Version Study Bible, and his books include Israel in Egypt: Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1997), Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2005), and The Archaeology of the Bible (Oxford: Lion, 2008).

He directed excavations at Tell el-Borg, Sinai, from 1998-2008, and has appeared in and served as a consultant for television programs on the Discovery, History, Learning, and National Geographic Channels. Dr. Hoffmeier teaches and lectures regularly across the USA and internationally.

Dr. Ralph K. Hawkins is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of History, Political Science and Religion at Averett University, in Danville, Virginia. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the School of Theology at the University of the South, in Sewanee, TN, and a Ph.D. in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology from Andrews University. He has been involved in archaeological fieldwork since 1995, and has been on staff at Tall Jalul and Khirbet ‘Ataruz, both in Jordan. In 2015, he co-founded, with Dr. David Ben-Shlomo, the Jordan Valley Excavation Project, which is conducting ongoing excavations in the region. In addition to numerous articles and reviews in Hebrew Bible and Near Eastern archaeology, he has published The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal: Excavation and Interpretation (Eisenbrauns, 2012), How Israel became a People (Abingdon Press, 2013), Discovering Exodus: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Eerdmans, 2021), and His Inheritance: A Memorial Volume for Adam Zertal (Ugarit-Verlag, 2021). He is also a priest in the Anglican Church in North America.