Matthew Suriano (PhD, University of California Los Angeles) specializes in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, ancient Near Eastern religions, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and the archaeology of the Levant. His first book The Politics of Dead Kings: Dynastic Ancestors in the Book of Kings and Ancient Israel (Mohr Siebeck, 2010) examined the motifs used to describe a king's death. His recent book, A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2018), which won ASOR's Frank Moore Cross Award, looks more broadly at death and burial in biblical literature. He is currently collaborating with Jacqueline Vayntrub on a new edition of Hebrew funerary incriptions from Iron Age Judah for the Society of Biblical Literature's series Writings from the Ancient World. His other areas of research include royal inscriptions and the study of kingship. Dr. Suriano is an active member of SBL and ASOR, and has been a fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (AIAR). He has participated in several archaeological excavations in Israel, and is a current member of the Tel Burna excavation project.
Matthew Suriano
“The Samaria Ostraca (4.18).” Pages 82– 85 in Volume Four of The Context of Scripture, edited by K. L. Younger. Leiden: Brill, 2017
“Kingship and Carpe Diem, Between Gilgamesh and Qoheleth.” Vetus Testamentum 67 (2017): 285–306. DOI:10.1163/15685330-12341276
“Sheol, the Tomb, and the Problem of Postmortem Existence.” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 16 (2016), Article 11 DOI:10.5508/jhs.2016.v16.a11.
“Wine Shipments to Samaria from Royal Vineyards.” Tel Aviv 43 (2016): 99–110. DOI:10.1080/03344355.2016.1161371
“The Historicality of the King: An Exercise in Reading Royal Inscriptions from the Ancient Levant.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 2 (2014): 1–24. DOI:10.1515/janeh-2014-0003
“Breaking Bread with the Dead: Katumuwa’s Stele, Hosea 9:4, and the Early History of the Soul.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 134 (2014): 385–405.
“Historical Geography of the Levant,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant (ca. 8000–332 BCE). M. Steiner and A. Killebrew, eds. Oxford University Press: Oxford and New York, 2014.
“A Private Stamped Seal Handle from Tel Burna, Israel,” Co-authored with I. Shai, A. Dagan, S. Riehl, A. Orendi, and J. Uziel. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 130 (2014): 121–137.
“Tetragrammaton.” Pages 751–755 in Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. G. Khan ed. Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2013.
“Ruin Hills at the Threshold of the Netherworld: The Tell in the Conceptual Landscape of the Ugaritic Ba‘al Cycle and Ancient Near Eastern Mythology.” Die Welt des Orients 42 (2012): 210–230. ISSN: 0043-2547
“A Place in the Dust: Text, Topography and a Toponymic Note on Micah 1:10–12a.” Vetus Testamentum 60 (2010): 433–446. DOI:10.1163/156853310X511696
“Death, Disinheritance, and Job’s Kinsman-Redeemer.” Journal of Biblical Literature 129 (2010): 49–66.
“Underworld, Descent into the.” Pages 710–712 in vol. 5 of The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. K. D. Sakenfeld, et al., eds. Abingdon Press: Nashville, 2009.
“Dynasty Building at Ugarit: The Ritual and Political Context of KTU 1.161.” Aula Orientalis 27 (2009): 105–123.
“The Apology of Hazael: A Literary and Historical Analysis of the Tel Dan Inscription,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66 (2007): 163–176.
“A Fresh Reading for ‘Aged Wine’ in the Samaria Ostraca,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 139 (2007): 27–34.