Dr Samuel Hildebrandt

Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies (Old Testament), Director of Research, and MA Programme Lead.

Meet Samuel

With roots in Germany, Canada, and Scotland, I joined NTC in 2019 and have since then been happily researching and teaching across a wide range of Old Testament materials and Hebrew language. In recent years, I have published the book Vast as the Sea: Hebrew Poetry and the Human Condition (2023), which reads the Bible alongside psychological research about anxiety, trauma, and mental health. I have also written several studies and co-edited two books on loneliness in the Bible (LHBOTS, 2025 and 2027). I currently serve as the SOTS Book List editor and write a commentary on the reception history of the Book of Numbers. When away from the classroom and the bookshelves, I enjoy family life, bicycle touring, and every good conversation I can find — on that note, I welcome inquiries about MA and PhD studies at any time.

Email Samuel

Education, teaching and research

Teaching experience and supervision

2015 Accreditation with the Higher Education Academy (Associate Fellowship)

Undergraduate Coursework
OT Torah / Prophets / Psalms & Wisdom (L5), Introductory Hebrew, Hebrew Texts; Studies in Isaiah, Studies in Hebrew Poetry, Law and Narrative, Prophets (L6), Theological German, Bible and Mental Health, Introduction to the New Testament, Introduction to Linguistics, German Grammar & Culture

Postgraduate Coursework
Pentateuch, Psalms, Advanced Hebrew Texts, Christian Holiness in Biblical Perspective, Context of Scripture: Second Temple Period, OT Poetry and the Hermeneutics of Mental Health and Trauma

PhD Supervision
Dr Hing Seng Weng, “‘Not with our Fathers did YHWH cut this Covenant but with us.’ A Rhetorical Study of Covenant Continuity and the Identity of God’s People in Deuteronomy 4:9-24, 5:1-5, 9:7-10 and 29:1-14.” Successfully completed May 2023. Primary supervisor.
Dr Jon Darby. “Shaping Text through Song: The Influence of Singing on Processes of Textual Interpretation and Variation in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Successfully completed July 2023. Secondary supervisor.
Kengoro Goto. “In Search for Criteria for Identifying Israelite Texts: An Analysis of Hebrew Dialects and Other Northwest Semitic Languages.” Start Jan 2023. Primary supervisor.
Lindi Wells Martsolf. “A Blessing or a Curse? Redeeming Birth in the Old Testament.” Start Jan 2021. Primary supervisor.
Sarah Legreid. “2 Corinthians and Religious Trauma.” Start Sept 2023. Secondary supervisor.

MA Supervision
I have supervised several MA dissertations on topics such as the reception history of the violence of Phineas (Num 25), anxiety in Psalm 139, the imago dei in Genesis 1–11, prophetic lament and police brutality in the US, Christian thoughts on the afterlife, reading Esther as Christian scripture, the anthropology of Ps 139, Papyrus Amherst and Ps 20: Adaptation and Editorial Strategy, violence and genocide in Deut 7, and reading Ezek 37 in Burma.

BA Supervision
I have supervised several BA dissertations on topics such as the leadership of Deborah in Judges 4-5, God and the devil in the book of Job, the cosmology of Jonah 2, Numbers 5 and the Trial of the Sotah, the Unity of Ecclesiastes 4, Vegetarianism in the Old Testament, Menstrual Sex in Leviticus, Eve’s Role in Genesis 3, Psalm 142 and the Language of Loneliness.

Leadership and administration

since Jan 2019 Contributing Member of Faculty, Academic Board, UG Working Group Leadership of Academic Malpractice Committee
Pathway lead for BA Biblical Studies & MA Biblical Studies MA programme lead (since March 2024)

Monographs Edited Volumes

Vast as the Sea: Hebrew Poetry and the Human Condition

Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2023.

Numbers through the Centuries

Oxford: Wiley–Blackwell (contracted for 2028).

Perspectives on Loneliness in the Hebrew Bible

Edited with Ekaterina Kozlova. LHBOTS. London: Bloomsbury (contract for 2024).

Interpreting Quoted Speech in Prophetic Literature: A Study of Jeremiah 2.1–3.5 Vetus Testamentum Supplements 176. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

From Words to Meaning: Studies in Old Testament Language and Theology for David J. Reimer Edited with Kurtis Peters and Eric Ortlund. Hebrew Bible Monograph 100. Shef_ield Phoenix Press, 2021.

Journal Articles
“A Whirling Tempest: The Past, Present, and Future of Chaos in Jeremiah.”
Vetus Testamentum (online first publication in 2024)

“‘I am a Lonely Bird:’ Psalm 102 and the Psychology of Loneliness.”
Biblical Theology Bulletin 53 (2023): 68–76.

“‘I Sat Alone.’ The Language of Loneliness in the Hebrew Bible.”
Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 133 (2021): 512–25.

“Are God’s ‘Good Plans’ not Good Enough? The Place and Significance of Jer 29.15 in Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles.”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45 (2021): 561–75.

“When Words become too Violent: Silence as a Form of Nonviolent Resistance in the Book of Jeremiah.”
Biblical Interpretation 29 (2021): 187–205.

“‘Woe is Me!’: The Book of Jeremiah and the Language of Despair.”
Journal of Biblical Literature 139, no. 3 (2020): 479–497.

“Whose Voice is Heard? Speaker Ambiguity in the Psalms.”
Catholic Biblical Quarterly 82 (2020): 197–213.

“Living in Tension: Exilic Identity in Jeremiah 29 and 1 Peter.”
Didache: Faithful Teaching 20 (July 2020)

“Who Speaks to Whom? Tracking with Prophetic Polyphony.”
Didaktikos: Journal of Theological Education (January 2019)

“The Servants of Saul: “Minor” Characters and Royal Commentary in 1 Samuel 9–31.”
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 40 (2015): 179-200.

Book Chapters
“It’s Good to be Alone? Loneliness in Lamentations 3.”
In Loneliness in the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Samuel Hildebrandt and Ekaterina Kozlova. LHBOTS. Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2024.

“Quoting the Word of God: Language and Theology in Jeremiah 4.10 and 32.25.”
Pages 130–144 in From Words to Meaning. Studies in Old Testament Language and Theology for David J. Reimer. Edited with Kurtis Peters and Eric Ortlund. Hebrew Bible Monograph 100. Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2021.

“The Proof–and–Play of Quoted Speech in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37-50).”
Pages 39-56 in Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis. Edited by Elizabeth Hayes and Karolien Vermeulen. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016.

Dictionary Articles
“Tahpanhes”; “Anat”; “Adad-Nirari I, II, III.”
Lexham Bible Dictionary (Logos Bible Software, 2015)

Reviews
I have reviewed over 50 books, English and German, for Review of Biblical Literature, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Expository Times, European Journal of Theology, and Canadian Theological Review.

Selected Presentations & Workshops
“Language for a Shattered World: Job 3 and the Poetry of Trauma.” Erhardt Seminar (University of Manchester, Oct 2023)

“‘Before the Bad Days are Coming:’ Ecclesiastes and the Psychology of Time.”
Hebrew Bible Research Seminar (University of Cambridge, Nov 2022)

“A Whirling Tempest: The Past, Presence, and Future of Chaos in the Book of Jeremiah.”
SBL Annual Meeting (Denver, Nov 2022)

“‘So I took the cup from the LORD’s Hand:’ Reading Jeremiah 25 with the Confessions.” EABS Annual Meeting (Toulouse, July 2022)

“The Earth Mourns: Reading Jeremiah’s Prophecies Amidst our Warming World.”
Christian Hope, Science, and the Warming World Conference (Manchester, Feb 2022)

“Place, People, Persona, Presence: Jeremiah’s Jerusalem at the Crossroads.”
EABS Annual Meeting (Wuppertal, Aug 2021)

“The Bird on the Roof, the City on the Hill: Images of Isolation in the Hebrew Bible.”
Erhardt Seminar (University of Manchester, Mar 2021)

“Restoration Rejected: Reading Jeremiah 29.11 in Context.”
OakHill PG Seminar (London, Dec 2020)

“‘Woe to us, for we are ruined!’ Expressions of Despair in Jeremiah 4.”
SBL Annual Meeting (Denver, Nov 2018)

“Whose Voice is Heard? Speaker Ambiguity in the Psalms.”
CSBS Annual Meeting (Regina, May 2018)

“Quoting God against God: Jeremiah’s YHWH-Quotations in Jer 4.10 and 32.25.”
SBL Annual Meeting (Boston, Nov 2017)

“Quoted Speech in Context: Quotation and Communication in Jeremiah 2-6.”
Biblical Studies Research Seminar (Edinburgh, Feb 2015)

“The Role of Silence in the Proclamation of Jeremiah.”
Society for the Study of Theology, “Speech and Silence” Conference (Durham, Apr 2014)

Membership in Professional Societies
Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS)
Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
Higher Education Academy (HEA) | Associate Fellowship
European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS)
Fellow of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre

Editorial Work
SOTS Book List Editor
I have been elected by the Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS) in Sept 2023 to the role of the SOTS Book List editor. The Book List is published annually by SAGE as the fifth annual volume of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament and contains 300–500 reviews of recent publication in the field. My responsibilities include the selection of books appropriate to review, obtaining review copies from publishers, soliciting reviews from members of the society, and producing the edited manuscript for publication.

Consultation and Translation
I have been employed to provide editorial support to the publication of P. Greer and C. Horst, The Gift of Disillusionment (2022) and for the translation from German to English of several studies of Prof. Georg Fischer SJ (Universität Innsbruck), including Jeremiah Studies: From Text and Contexts to Theology (Mohr Siebeck, 2020). I have reviewed manuscript submissions for the journals AABNER (Advances in Ancient Biblical and Near Eastern Research) and Biblical Theology Bulletin, as well as for Baylor University Press.