Hans Decker is an American academic working as a postdoctoral researcher focused on issues related to hermeneutics, tradition, and ethical reading in the book of Jonah. He did his doctoral work with Professor Hindy Najman at University of Oxford, where he worked on issues related to hermeneutics and moral formation in the biblical wisdom tradition. Prior to that, he earned a Master of Theology degree with Peter Machinist and Jon Levenson at Harvard University, with a thesis on metaphor in Qohelet. He came to biblical studies through the study of classical and modern literature, which continues to inform his methodological approach and his research interests.

Hermeneutics, ethical reading, narrative, tradition, literary criticism, cultural criticism

Biblical studies publications

• Biblical Wisdom and the Hermeneutics of Nostalgia. Oxford Theological Monographs Oxford: Oxford University Press. Forthcoming.
• “Facing the Monsters: Protestant Antisemitism in Readings of Jonah.” Hebrew Bible in Ancient Israel 14.1 (2025): 16–41.
• “Scurvy.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Berlin: De Greyter. Forthcoming.
• “Anthology as Intertext: Ambiguity and Generative Interpretation in Qohelet.” Pages 113–130 in Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2019.

Invited papers

• “Reading with a Past.” University of Oxford, Panel on Antisemitism in Biblical Scholarship, March 2025.
• “Idealism and Imagination: On the Miniature Form of the Proverb.” University of Oxford, Ethical Reading Seminar, Oxford, February 2023.
• “Telling ‘Good’ Stories: Understanding Proverbial Ethics through Narrative.” Cambridge University Hebrew Bible Seminar, Cambridge, February 2022.

Conference and seminar papers

• “What’s Eating Jonah: Moral Injury and the Traumatised Prophet,” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, San Diego, November 2024.
• “A Prophet Adrift: Narrative Ambiguity and Ethical Meaning in Jonah.” League of European Research Universities, Theology and Religious Studies Group, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, September 2024.
• “Memories of Wisdom: Creative Recollection through Rereading the Proverbs,” European Association of Biblical Studies Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, July 2024.
• “Unravelling Narrative Tradition as a Reading Strategy in Jonah.” University of Zürich Hebrew Bible Seminar, Zürich, May 2024.
• “Miniaturisation and Imagination: The Poetics of Brevity in the Wisdom Tradition.” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, San Antonio, November 2023.
• “Facing the Monsters: Protestant Antisemitism in Readings of Jonah.” European Association of Biblical Studies Conference, Syracuse, Sicily, July 2023.
• “Making Wisdom through Narrative: Proverbs as a Mode of Storytelling.” University of Zürich Hebrew Bible Seminar, Zürich, December 2022.
• “Recovering Wisdom through the Hermeneutics of Nostalgic Desire.” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, Denver, November 2022.
• “Telling ‘Good’ Stories: Understanding Proverbial Ethics through Narrative.” Cambridge University Hebrew Bible Seminar, Cambridge, February 2022.
• “Breaking and Remaking Wisdom: The Proverb as Fragmentary Knowledge.” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, San Antonio, November 2021.
• “Wisdom from its Fragments: Reimagining the World at the Edges of the Mashal.” Ethical Reading Workshop, Oxford, March 2021.
• “Rereading Proverbial Ethics: Narrative as a New Hermeneutical Model.” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, Digital Platform, November 2020.
• “Retelling Proverbs: Narrative as a New Hermeneutical Model.” Hermeneutic Interventions and Practices of Reading Workshop, University of Oxford, December 2019.
• “Interpreting Ethical Narratives: Rereading Samuel through Its Proverbs.” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, San Diego, November 2019.
• “Multum in Parvo: Brevity as Commentary.” British Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, Oxford, July 2019.
• “Spinning Narratives from משלים : Proverbs as Interpretations of Reality in 1 Samuel 24.” Wisdom and Ethics Workshop, University of Oxford, June 2018.
• “Anthology as Intertext: Ambiguity and Generative Interpretation in Qohelet.” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, Boston, November 2017.
• “Generative Interpretation: Rereading to Make New Meanings in Qohelet 10:8–11.” Oxbridge Biblical Studies Conference, University of Cambridge, April 2017.

Active peer reviewer for Journal of Biblical Literature and Journal of Hebrew Studies

Specialist in biblical wisdom and prophetic literature

Society of Biblical Literature

European Association of Biblical Studies