Richard D. Nelson is professor emeritus of Biblical Hebrew and Old Testament Interpretation at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. His teaching career on the college and seminary level has spanned more than thirty-five years. He is the author of nine books on biblical themes, including The Historical Books (Abingdon Press, 1998) and Historical Roots of the Old Testament (1200–63 BCE). He has published commentaries on Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and 1–2 Kings. Professor Nelson has been a visiting scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Tyndale House, Cambridge, England. He is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.