Academic Bio
Pardee teaches Biblical Hebrew as well as courses on the inscriptions in pre–exilic Hebrew and in related languages. His principal research is on Ugaritic, the language of the people of Ugarit, an ancient Syrian city north of Israel. It was a culture in which the mythological Baal was an important divinity, though later he did not fit into the monotheistic Yahwism of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
Passages from the Hebrew Bible form the basis for Pardee’s Intermediate Hebrew classes. The three–quarter sequence begins with prose verses, such as portion of the creation story that begins Genesis. The second quarter consists of reading poetry, primarily the Psalms, and the third includes reading manuscripts, including biblical texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
-UChicago News, "2010 Faculty Awards for Excellence in Graduate Teaching"
Recent & Regularly Taught Courses
- HEBR 20001 Hebrew Letters/Inscriptions
- HEBR 20002 Phoenician Inscriptions
- HEBR 20104-05-06 Intermediate Classical Hebrew