
About Me
I'm Benjamin Kantor. I'm a Hebrew Scholar.
My name is Benjamin Kantor and I currently work as a Research Associate in Biblical Hebrew Philology at the University of Cambridge. I am also a co-author of the forthcoming Oxford Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. I received my Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from the University of Texas at Austin and my B.A. in Classical Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
While I love writing and research, I also have a passion for teaching Biblical Hebrew as a real and living language.
Curriculum Vitae.
Education
- 2017: Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin. Dissertation Title: “The Second Column (Secunda) of Origen’s Hexapla in Light of Greek Pronunciation” Supervisor: John Huehnergard.
- 2012: B.A., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Major: Classical Studies.
Academic Appointments
- 2017–present: Research Associate in Biblical Hebrew Philology, University of Cambridge.
Books and Monographs
- Forthcoming. co-authored with Geoffrey Khan, Christian Locatell, Ambjörn Sjörs, et al. The Oxford Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (based on Gesenius’s Hebrew Grammar). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Forthcoming. A Grammar of Secunda Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Tradition Reflected in the Greek Transcriptions of the Second Column (Secunda) of Origen’s Hexapla. Cambridge: University of Cambridge and Open Book Publishers.
- Forthcoming. τὸ ἑβραϊκόν | TO HEBRAIKON: A Critical Edition of the Second Column (Secunda) of Origen’s Hexapla. Origen’s Hexapla: A Critical Edition of the Extant Fragments. Edited by Peter J. Gentry, Alison Salvesen, and Bas ter Haar Romeny. Louvain: Peeters.
- 2023 (forthcoming). A Short Guide to the Pronunciation of New Testament Greek. Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans.
- 2023 (forthcoming). The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek: Judeo-Palestinian Greek Phonology and Orthography from Alexander to Islam. Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans. 2023 (already submitted)
Journal Articles
- Forthcoming. and James Clackson. “The Use of ει to Represent Etymologically Long ῑ: A Greek Imitation and/or Adoption of a Roman Scribal Practice.” Glotta.
- Forthcoming. “‘Untying the Knots of the Yoke’: Yom Kippur and an Agricultural Allusion to Jubilee in Isaiah 58:6.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly.
- 2022. “The LXX and Historical Greek Phonology: Phonology, Orthography, and Transcriptions.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 53: 1–33.
- 2022. “Reconstructing the Second Column in the Cairo Genizah Hexapla Palimpsest: A Proposed Restoration of the Second Column (Secunda) of Origen’s Hexapla as Attested in the Hexapla Fragment T-S 12.182 (Rahlfs 2005).” Maarav 25 (1/2): 113–151.
- 2022. and Geoffrey Khan. “Waw to Vav: Greek and Aramaic Contact as an Explanation for the Development of the Labio-dental [v] from the Labio-velar [w] in Biblical Hebrew.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 172 (1): 27–55.
- 2020. “מסורת העברית של יהודי איטליה במאה ה-13 לפי תעתיקים יווניים למילים עבריות בדיאלוג דיון נגד היהודים (διάλεξις κατὰ ἰουδαίων) מאת ניקולאוס מן אוטרנטו (“The Hebrew Tradition of the Jews of Southern Italy in the 13th Century according to Greek Transcriptions of Hebrew Words in ‘Disputation against the Jews’ (διάλεξις κατὰ Ἰουδαίων) by Nikolaos of Otranto”) (in Hebrew). Leshonenu 82: 148–184.
- 2019. “Where Does ʔayyē Come From? Proclisis and Affix Pleonasm in the Biblical Hebrew Interrogatives ʔē and ʔayyē.” Journal of Semitic Studies 64 (2): 377–399.
Book Chapters
- Forthcoming. “Jewish Multilingualism in the Hellenistic Era.” In The T&T Clark Handbook to Hellenistic Jewish Literature in Greek. Edited by Marieke Dhont and Sean Adams. London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark.
- Forthcoming. “The Pre-Secunda: A Bi-Columnar Transcription Text of the Jews of Caesarea.” In [vol. on Origen colloquium]. Edited by John Meade and Peter Gurry.
- 2022. “Recitation and Performance in Late Antique Hebrew: Linguistic Hints of a Performance Register in Greek and Latin Transcriptions of Biblical Hebrew from Late Antiquity.” Dead Sea Discoveries 29 (3): 342–365.
- 2022. “Discovering the Secunda: Insights from Preparing a New Critical Edition of the Second Column of Origen’s Hexapla.” In Göttingen Septuagint: Greek and Coptic: Papers presented, inter alia, at the 50th anniversary of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, SBL, Denver 2018. Edited by Felix Albrecht and Frank Feder. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
- 2020. “The Development of the Wayyiqṭol (‘Waw Consecutive’) Verbal Form in Light of Greek and Latin Transcriptions of Hebrew.” In Studies in Semitic Vocalisations and Reading Traditions. Semitic Languages and Cultures. Edited by Geoffrey Khan and Aaron Hornkohl. Cambridge: University of Cambridge and Open Book Publishers.
- 2019. and Philip Zhakevich. “Modern Hebrew.” In The Semitic Languages: Second Edition. Edited by John Huehnergard and Na’ama Pat-El, 571–610. London and New York: Routledge.
Book Reviews
- 2020. “Review of The Reconfiguration of Hebrew in the Hellenistic Period: Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira at Strasbourg University, June 2014.” Edited by Jan Joosten, Daniel Machiela, and Jean-Sébastien Rey. Revue de Qumrân. 32 (1): 149–151.
- 2018. “Review of The Verb in Archaic Biblical Poetry: A Discursive, Typological, and Historical Investigation of the Tense System by Tania Notarius.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 138 (2): 413‒415.