About the Faculty

Siam Bhayro
Lector
Northwest Semitic Languages

Siam Bhayro graduated in 1997 with a First Class Honours degree in Hebrew from the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London. He was also awarded the Faculty of Arts Prize and Medallion for that session. He gained a PhD from the same department in June 2000 for his research into the Book of Enoch. For the next two years he worked on the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew at the University of Sheffield. He has also taught Biblical Aramaic and Biblical History at University College London.

His main areas of interest are Semitic Languages, the Bible and the Ancient Near East.

Education

1993-1997: First Class BA (Hons) in Hebrew (University College London)

1997-2000: PhD (University College London)

Thesis title – A text-critical and literary analysis of 1 Enoch 6-11

Supervisor – Professor M. J. Geller

This research was fully funded by a grant from the British Academy.

It contains a minute analysis of the Ethiopic, Syriac, Greek and Aramaic versions of 1 Enoch 6-11, as well as the publication of an hitherto unedited Karshuni (Christian Arabic) fragment. This analysis then forms the basis for a detailed literary analysis of the narrative.

Languages studied

Sumerian, Akkadian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic (various dialects including Syriac), Ethiopic, Ugaritic, Arabic etc.

Employment

2000-2001: College Teacher in the Dept. of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London

2000-2002: Research Associate for the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Project, Dept. of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield

2002-present: Lector in Northwest Semitic Languages, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University

Subjects taught

Languages: Hebrew, Aramaic (including Syriac), Ugaritic, Ethiopic.

Surveys: Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Near Eastern history and archaeology, Jewish history, Second Temple literature, Early Christianity.

Awards

1996 – Jews Commemoration Prize

1997 – Hester Rothschild Scholarship

1997 – Faculty of Arts Medallion and Rosa Morrison Prize

Learned Societies

American Oriental Society

British Association for Jewish Studies

History of Science Society

Society of Biblical Literature

Conferences

Organized and hosted 2002 Aramith conference on Aramaic Lexicography in Sheffield – also edited conference proceedings in the journal Aramaic Studies.

Current Research

Syriac liturgical fragments from the Cairo Genizah; Syriac medical terminology; Hebrew lexicography; Second Temple literature.

Activities

Secretary of the British Association for Jewish Studies (2001-2002)

Curator of the Schoyen Collection – Aramaic Incantation Bowl Project (1997-2002)

Publications

Dictionaries:

David J. A. Clines (ed.), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew – Vol. V m-n (Sheffield Academic Press).

David J. A. Clines (ed.), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew – Vol. VI s-p (Sheffield Academic Press).

Articles:

2000

“Daniel’s ‘Watchers’ in Enochic Exegesis of Genesis 6:1-4” in George J. Brooke (ed.), Jewish Ways of Reading the Bible (Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 11, Oxford University Press), 58-66.

2001

“A Karshuni (Christian Arabic) Account of the Descent of the Watchers” in Ada Rapoport-Albert (ed.), Biblical Hebrew – Biblical Texts (Sheffield Academic Press), 365-374.

2003

“Matthew 5:17-18 in the light of Qumran Scribal Practice” in A.A. den Hollander, U.B. Schmid & W.F. Smelik (eds), Paratext and Megatext as Channels of Jewish and Christian Traditions: The Textual Markers of Contextualization (Brill), 37-48.

Reviews:

C. Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff (eds), A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic – V: The Catechism of Cyril of Jerusalem in the Christian Palestinian Aramaic Version (Groningen: Styx, 1999) in JAB 2 (2000), 265-268.

E. C. Hostetter, An Elementary Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000) in VT 51 (2001), 563-64.

Philippe Gignoux (ed.), Ressembler au monde: nouveaux documents sur la théorie du macro-microcosme dans l’antiquité orientale (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 1999) in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65 (2002), 561-562.

Eugen J. Pentiuc, West Semitic Vocabulary in the Akkadian Texts from Emar (Harvard Semitic Studies 49; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2001) in Journal of Jewish Studies 53 (2002), 380-381.