David Jobling

David Jobling (born 1941) is a Canadian Old Testament scholar. He was professor of Old Testament language and literature at St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon.

Jobling was a "mediating critic" between the schools of structuralism and the New Criticism in biblical studies.{{cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=David M. |author1-link=David M. Gunn |title=To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Application |date=1999 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |pages=204 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kpDceeylCjYC&pg=PA204 |access-date=26 September 2022 |chapter=Narrative Criticism|isbn=9780664257842 }} He also combined deconstruction with both liberation theology and feminist theology.{{cite book |last1=Beardslee |first1=William A. |author1-link=William A. Beardslee |title=To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Application |date=1999 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |pages=265 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kpDceeylCjYC&pg=PA265 |access-date=26 September 2022 |chapter=Poststructuralist Criticism|isbn=9780664257842 }} Norman K. Gottwald notes that Jobling "has been a leader of literary analysis of the Hebrew Bible", and has "made a great impact in his use of ideological criticism and his engagement with feminist criticism."{{cite book |last1=Gottwald |first1=Norman K. |author1-link=Norman K. Gottwald |title=Social Justice and the Hebrew Bible, Volume One |date=2016 |publisher=Wipf and Stock |page=122 |isbn=9781498290562 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fU5QDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |access-date=26 September 2022}}

Jobling wrote two volumes of The Sense of Biblical Narrative: Structural Analyses in the Hebrew Bible (1978 and 1986). He also wrote a commentary on 1 Samuel in the Berit Olam series (1998). He was President of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies in 1992–93.{{cite web |title=Executive |url=https://csbs-sceb.ca/executive/ |publisher=Canadian Society of Biblical Studies |access-date=27 September 2022}}

In 2006, a Festschrift was published in his honor. Voyages in Uncharted Waters: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Biblical Interpretation in Honor of David Jobling included contributions from Norman K. Gottwald, David M. Gunn, and Norman Habel.