Rolf Furuli

Rolf Johan Furuli (born 19 December 1942) is a Norwegian linguist who was a lecturerTemplate:Sfn in Semitic languages at the University of Oslo;Template:Sfn he retired in 2011. Furuli has taught courses of Akkadian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ugaritic at the University of Oslo and at The Norwegian Institute of Paleography and Historical Philology.

Life

Education

Furuli started his studies of New Babylonian chronology in 1984. In 1995 he graduated from the University of Oslo with a Master of Arts degree, with a thesis on the system of verbs in classical Hebrew.Template:Sfn In 2005 he received his Doctor of Arts with a thesis on definite and indefinite verbs in the Hebrew Bible.Template:Sfn In 2005, Furuli defended his doctoral thesis suggesting a new understanding of verbal system of Classical Hebrew.Template:Sfn

In a review of the thesis, professor Elisabeth R. Hayes of Wolfson College, Oxford, wrote: "While not all will agree with Furuli's conclusions regarding the status of the wayyiqtol as an imperfective form, his well-argued thesis contributes towards advancing methodology in Hebrew scholarship."Template:Sfn Old Testament lecturer David Kummerow stated that Furuli's research "has gone astray in that his methodology has assumed too much", adding that "the value of Furuli's research is not to be found in his 'new understanding' but rather in the helpful extended cataloguing of non-prototypical and construction-dependent functions of the verbal conjugations of [biblical Hebrew]".Template:Sfn Professor John A. Kaltner said:

Semantic considerations have long dominated in treatments of the Hebrew verbal system, and Furuli's call to take into account pragmatic factors is an important one that is worth considering. How his alternative model will be received remains to be seen, but at the very least his work might encourage some to think of more than just semantics when trying to understand the Hebrew verb.Template:Sfn

Teaching

From 1999 Furuli held a position as assistant professor at the University of Oslo,Template:Sfn before retiring in 2011.

Religious affiliation

Furuli was a Jehovah's Witness and served as an elder for 56 years, also holding positions as a circuit overseer and a district overseer.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 2020, Furuli published a book entitled My Beloved Religion—and the Governing Body in which he maintains that the denomination's core doctrines and interpretations of biblical chronology are correct, but challenges the authority of the Jehovah's Witnesses' leadership.Template:Sfn Subsequently, on 17 June 2020 he was disfellowshipped from the denomination.Template:Sfn

Religious views

Furuli has defended the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn including their view that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC rather than the broadly recognised dating of its destruction in 587 BC. In response, in a 2004 issue of Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Lester L. Grabbe, professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull, said of Furuli's study: "Once again we have an amateur who wants to rewrite scholarship. ... F. shows little evidence of having put his theories to the test with specialists in Mesopotamian astronomy and Persian history."Template:Sfn

Works

Furuli has written works about Bible translation and biblical issues. He has translated a number of documents from Semitic languages and Sumerian into Norwegian.Template:Sfn

Theses

• Template:Cite thesis (362 pages).
• (504 pages).

Books

• (334 pages).
• (201 pages).
• (251 pages)
• (370 pages).
• (376 pages).
• (475 pages).
• (413 pages).
• (502 pages).
• (250 pages).
• (1550 pages).
• (363 pages).
• (233 pages).

Translations

• (translated from Akkadian into Norwegian).
• (translated from Ge'ez into Norwegian)
• (translated from Hebrew and Aramaic into Norwegian)
• (translated from Sumerian into Norwegian)
• (translated from Ge'ez into Norwegian)
• (translated from Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Hebrew into Norwegian)

See also

• Atra-Hasis
• Bible chronology
• Book of Enoch
• Dead Sea scrolls
• Egyptian chronology
• Gilgamesh
• Hebrew verb conjugation
• New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
• Waw-consecutive