Ethan Schwartz
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
Villanova University
Ethan Schwartz studies the Hebrew Bible in both the ancient Near Eastern setting in which it emerged and the Second Temple setting in which it became Jewish and Christian scripture. His research focuses on the prophetic literature, with interests in the representation of prophetic authority and social critique, the comparative study of biblical and ancient Near Eastern prophecy, the relationship between biblical prophecy and the political history of the region, the redaction of the prophetic corpus, and the reception of the prophetic literature in Judaism and Christianity. Other areas of research include the Pentateuch, the ancient Jewish context of the New Testament, and the intellectual history of academic biblical studies. In much of this work, he brings biblical texts into historical-critical conversation with the philosophical literature of classical Greece. He is also an active participant in Jewish-Christian dialogue.
Recent Publications
“Wisdom, Truth, and the Limits of Speech in Job and in Plato’s Gorgias,” Interpretation 80 (2026) 118–28.
“Members of the Scribe,” review of Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes, by William M. Schniedewind, The Jewish Review of Books 17, no. 1 (2026) 9–11.
Unity and Disunity in Isaiah (Cascade Companions), Wipf and Stock, 2026.
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Upcoming Presentations
“Wanting What the Gods Want: Critique of Cultic Worship in the Biblical Prophets and in Plato’s Euthyphro,” Catholic Biblical Association 2026 Annual General Meeting
Current/Upcoming Courses
Fall 2026
On research leave as a fellow of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
Spring 2027
Faith, Reason, and Culture
(Undergraduate Foundation Course)
Empire in Biblical History
(Undergraduate)