Prof GF Snyman

Qualifications

• DTh (Old Testament) Unisa (1991)
• ThM (Old Testament) NWU (1987)
• ThB NWU 1984
• BA Honours (Semitic Languages) NWU 1984
• BA Honours (French) UJ 1980
• BA (Law) UJ 1978

NRF Rating

Fields of academic interests

• Old Testament.
• Early Second Temple
  Literature: Esther, Chronicles, Obadiah, Malachi
• Hermeneutics, African vs Western hermeneutics, decolonial theory, racism, critical whiteness studies, rhetoric, reception theory

Field of Specialisation

• Old Testament.
• Narrative readings of the Old Testament
• Hermeneutics: Western, African, Decolonial

Books

• 2007.   Die Etiek van Bybellees. Om die Bybel anders te lees. Griffel-Media, Pretoria. Online: https://www.academia.edu/22133611/_n_Etiek_van_Bybellees_en_n_hermeneutiek_van_weerloosheid.

Book chapters:

• 2019.  "The Chronicler's Narrative on Saul. (1 Chron. 10:1-15): A Decolonial Reading of Chronicles." Pages 175-194 in the Postcolonial Bible (ed. Hemschand Gossai; Bloomsbury: London)
• 2016.   “‘Utopia where it is to be hoped the coffee is a little less sour’‒ Doctor Who’s “Utopia” and Chronicles. ” Pages 36-56 in Worlds that could not be (ed. Steven MacKenzie and Frauke Uhlenbruch, Bloomsbury: London).
• 2016.   “Obadiah and a hermeneutic of vulnerability,” Pages 45-63 in Obadiah. Readings: A New Biblical Commentary (ed. Bob Becking, Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield).
• 2012.   Collective Memory and Coloniality of Being and Power as a Hermeneutical Framework: A Partialised Reading of Ezra-Nehemiah. Pages 359-380 in Postcolonial Perspective in African Biblical Interpretations. Global Perpsectives in Scholarship 13. Edited by Musa W. Dube, Andrew M. Mbuvi and Dora Mbuwayesango; SBL, Atlanta, 2012.
• 2011.   “Why Asa was not Deemed Good Enough. A Decolonial Reading of 2 Chronicles 14-16.” Pages 241-269 in Contexts and Readings: Explorations into Historiography and Identity Negotiation in Persian Period Yehud (Ed. Louis Jonker; Mohr Siebeck, Tubingen). Peer-reviewed conference proceedings.

Journal articles

• 2019.  "Cain and migration: Opportunity amidst punishment>" HTS79(3) 2019:1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i3.5167
• 2017.   "Read as/with the Perpetrator: Manasseh’s vulnerability in 2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20," Scriptura 116(2): 188-207. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7833/116-2-1318
• 2017.   “Figuring out Cain: Darwin, Spangenberg, and Cormon," OTE 30(2): 421-442. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2017/v30n2a14
• 2016.   “A Hermeneutic of Vulnerability: Edom in Malachi 1:2-5,” JSEM 25(1): 595-629.
• 2016.    “Cain and Vulnerability: The reception of Cain in Genesis Rabbah 22 and Targum Onkelos, Targum Neofiti and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan,” OTE 29(3): 601-632. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2016/v29n3a14 
• 2015.   “Totius: die ironie van vergewe en vergeet,” LitNet Akademies (Godsdienswetenskap) 12(2): 211-235. Online : http://www.litnet.co.za/Article/totius-die-ironie-van-vergewe-en-vergeet
• 2015    “Responding to the decolonial turn: Epistemic Vulnerability,” Missionalia 43(3): 266-291. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7832/43-3-77
• 2015    “A Hermeneutic of Vulnerability: Redeeming Cain?” Stellenbosch Theological Journal 1 (2/3): 633–665. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2015.v1n2.a30
• 2014.   “Esther and African Biblical Hermeneutics: A Decolonial Inquiry,” OTE 27 (3): 1035-1061.
• 2013.   ‘Sensed fittingness between act and consequence: The last acts of Esther in the book of Esther and Grace in the film Dogville’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 69(1), Art. #1972, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v69i1.1972
• 2013. “When the Maidens Were Gathered for a Second Time” – Some Notes on the Text of Esther 2:19a, Journal for Semitics 22(2) 2013: 480-501.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

• General editor Old Testament Essays (New Series) (2009-present)
• NRF Rated researcher: C2
• Member of Old Testament Society of South Africa, New Testament Society of South Africa, American Academy of Religion, Society of Biblical Literature
• Visiting researcher: Milieux Biblique, Collège de France (March-April 2016)
• Visiting researcher: School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger, Norway (May 2016)
• Visiting researcher: Catholic University, Leuven (October-December 2016)
• Visiting researcher: Catholic University, Leuven (October-December 2012)

Projects

• Apartheid Perpetrator discourse:
  • How does the biblical text depict perpetrators?
    • Cain, Edom/Esau, Judas
• Decoloniality and critical whiteness studies:
  • Cain and masculinity