Iain Provan
{{Short description|British Old Testament scholar}}
{{BLP sources|date=December 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Iain William Provan
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| caption = Dr. Iain Provan
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1957|05|06|df=y}}
| birth_place = United Kingdom
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| nationality = British
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| title = Former Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College
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| education = University of Glasgow, London Bible College
| alma_mater = University of Cambridge (PhD)
| thesis_title = The David and bamot themes of the books of Kings
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| thesis_year = 1986
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| doctoral_advisor = Hugh G. M. Williamson
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| workplaces = Regent College
University of Edinburgh
King's College London
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Iain William Provan (born 6 May 1957) is a British Old Testament scholar, now living in Canada. He was Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College in Vancouver from 1997 until his retirement on December 31, 2022.
Education
Provan holds degrees from the University of Glasgow, London Bible College (now London School of Theology), and the University of Cambridge. His PhD thesis at Cambridge was published as Hezekiah and the Books of Kings (BZAW 172; Berlin: De Gruyter, 1988). He previously lectured at King's College London and then, after holding a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wales, at the University of Edinburgh.{{cite web|title=Iain W. Provan|url=http://www.regent-college.edu/faculty/full-time/iain-w-provan|publisher=Regent College|accessdate=4 August 2015}}
Career
Provan has written numerous academic essays, many of the earlier of which are included in his Against the Grain: Selected Essays (ed. Stacey L. Van Dyk; Vancouver: Regent Publishing, 2015). He has also published commentaries on Lamentations, 1 and 2 Kings, and Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, as well as co-editing (with Mark Boda) Let Us Go Up To Zion (2012), a Festschrift for his Cambridge PhD supervisor, Hugh G. M. Williamson. His other books include Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World That Never Was (2013), Discovering Genesis: Content, Interpretation, Reception (2015), The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (2017), Seeking What is Right: The Old Testament and the Good Life (2020), and Cuckoos in our Nest: Truth and Lies about Being Human (2023). The 2003 co-authored volume A Biblical History of Israel (with V. Philips Long and Tremper Longman III) was the winner of the 2005 Biblical Archaeology Society prize for the best popular book on archaeology; it has now appeared in a second edition (2015). Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says, and Why It Matters (2014) won the 2016 R. B. Y. Scott Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, recognizing an outstanding book in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East.{{cite web | url=http://www.csbs-sceb.ca/index.php/annual-meetings/awards-prizes/rby-scott-award | title=R.B.Y. Scott Award – Canadian Society of Biblical Studies }} Provan has been awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship on five occasions, and (once) a Lilly Foundation Theological Research Grant. He was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1993, and has been a Life Member of the college since that time. He is a member of the Society for Old Testament Study, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, and the Humboldt Association of Canada. He is also a minister of the Church of Scotland. He is married with four adult children. His hobbies include fly-fishing.
Works
=Thesis=
- {{cite thesis |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |title=The David and Bamot Themes of the Books of Kings |type=Ph.D. |location=Cambridge |publisher=University of Cambridge |date=1986 }}
=Books=
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |title=Hezekiah and the Books of Kings: A contribution to the debate about the composition of the Deuteronomistic history |series=Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft |volume=172 |location=Berlin; New York |publisher=W. de Gruyter |date=1988 |isbn=978-0-899-25461-6 | doi=10.1515/9783110849424}} {{ISBN|978-3-11-011557-4}}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Lamentations |series=New Century Bible Commentary |location=London; Grand Rapids, MI |publisher=Marshall Pickering; Eerdmans |date=1991 |isbn=978-0-551-02323-9 |oclc=23985616 }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=1 and 2 Kings |series=New International Biblical Commentary, Old Testament series |location=Peabody, MA; Carlisle, Cumbria |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers; Paternoster Press |date=1995 |isbn=978-1-565-63053-6 |oclc=32203288 }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Ideologies, Literary and Critical: Reflections on recent writing on the history of Israel |location=Vancouver, BC |publisher=Regent College Publishing |date=1997 |isbn=978-1-573-83094-2 |oclc=44503490 }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs: From biblical text ... to contemporary life |series=NIV Application Commentary |location=Grand Rapids, MI |publisher=Zondervan |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-310-21372-7 |oclc=45418930 }}
- {{cite book |author1-last=Provan |author1-first=Iain W. |author1-mask=3 |author2-last=Long |author2-first=V. Philips |author3-last=Longman III |author3-first=Tremper |title=A Biblical History of Israel |location=Louisville, KY |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-664-22090-7 |oclc=52055642 |edition=1st }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Tenants in God's Land: Earth-keeping and people-keeping in the Old Testament |series=Grove Ethics Series |volume=E148 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Grove Books |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-851-74676-7 |oclc=221562488 }}
- {{cite book |editor1-last=Provan |editor1-first=Iain W. |editor1-mask=3 |editor2-last=Boda |editor2-first=Mark J. |title=Let Us Go Up To Zion: Essays in honour of H.G.M. Williamson on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday |series=Supplements to Vetus Testamentum |volume=153 |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=Brill |date=2012 |isbn=978-9-004-21598-6 |oclc=801777561 }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Convenient Myths: The axial age, dark green religion, and the world that never was |location=Waco, TX |publisher=Baylor University Press |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-602-58996-4 |oclc=826895211 }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament really says and why it matters |location=Waco, TX |publisher=Baylor University Press |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-481-30022-3 |oclc=854612649 }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Discovering Genesis: Content, interpretation, reception |location=London |publisher=SPCK Publishing |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-281-07085-5 |oclc=923368815 }}
- {{cite book |author1-last=Provan |author1-first=Iain W. |author1-mask=3 |author2-last=Long |author2-first=V. Philips |author3-last=Longman III |author3-first=Tremper |title=A Biblical History of Israel |location=Louisville, KY |publisher=Westminster, John Knox Press |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-664-23913-8 |oclc=913572963 |edition=2nd }}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture |location=Waco, TX |publisher=Baylor University Press |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-481-30608-9}}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Seeking What is Right: The Old Testament and the Good Life |location=Waco, TX |publisher=Baylor University Press |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-481-31288-2}}
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |title=Cuckoos in our Nest: Truth and Lies about Being Human |location=Eugene, OR|publisher=Cascade Books |date=2023 |isbn=978-1-6667-6870-1}}
=Chapters=
- {{cite book |author-last=Provan |author-first=Iain W. |author-mask=3 |chapter=Pain in childbirth?: Further thoughts on "an attractive fragment" (1 Chronicles 4:9-10) |editor1-last=Provan |editor1-first=Iain W. |editor1-mask=3 |editor2-last=Boda |editor2-first=Mark J. |title=Let Us Go Up To Zion: Essays in honour of H.G.M. Williamson on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday |series=Supplements to Vetus Testamentum |volume=153 |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=Brill |date=2012 |isbn=978-9-004-21598-6 |oclc=801777561 |pages=285–96}}
For a full list of all book chapters and journal articles, see [http://iainprovan.ca iainprovan.ca].
References
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{{Regent College}}
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Category:British biblical scholars
Category:Old Testament scholars
Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Category:Alumni of the London School of Theology
Category:Alumni of Clare Hall, Cambridge
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Academics of King's College London
Category:20th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland