| Robert P. Gordon | |
| Birth Date: | 9 November 1945 |
| Birth Place: | Belfast |
| Alma Mater: | St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
| Thesis Title: | A study of Targum Jonathan to the Minor Prophets from Nahum to Malachi |
| Thesis Year: | 1973 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | John Emerton |
| Website: | www.robertpgordon.co.uk |
Robert Patterson Gordon (born 9 November 1945) is a British scholar who was the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge from 1995 to 2012.[1]
Gordon was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He studied at Methodist College Belfast[2] and at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where as an undergraduate, Gordon placed in the first class of the Oriental Studies Tripos. In 1973 he earned a PhD at the University of Cambridge with a thesis entitled A Study of Targum Jonathan to the Minor Prophets from Nahum to Malachi, under the supervision of Professor J.A. Emerton. In 2001 he was awarded the University of Cambridge’s Litt.D.
While pursuing doctoral studies, Gordon was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Hebrew and Semitic Languages at the University of Glasgow. Teaching Ancient Near Eastern History at Glasgow had a formative influence on Gordon’s subsequent research on the Old Testament. He returned to Cambridge as a Lecturer in Old Testament and Intertestamental Studies in the Faculty of Divinity in 1979. Upon his election as the Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1995, a post he held until his retirement in 2012, Gordon moved to the Faculty of Oriental Studies (now the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies). He is an Emeritus Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
Gordon served on advisory committees for various major Bible translations, including the Revised English Bible, New International Version, English Standard Version, and Antioch Bible.
Identified generally as an Old Testament scholar, Gordon's writing addressed issues presented by the various Old Testaments. These are the Aramaic- (Targums), Greek- (Septuagint), and Syriac-language (Peshitta) traditions that serve as conduits of the text and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Other Gordon’s works addressed the biblical text of the Old and New Testaments directly.
Gordon is a member of the British Society for Old Testament Study and served as the Society's president in 2003. He is a member of the editorial board of Vetus Testamentum, and served as the journal's Book List editor from 1998 to 2009. He was the secretary of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament from 2001 to 2004.
Gordon’s major authored or edited works include:
Gordon married Helen Ruth Lyttle in Belfast in 1970. They raised three children.