Rachelle Gilmour

Rachelle completed her studies in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the University of Sydney (PhD), before undertaking postdoctoral research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Edinburgh. She is currently co-editor for Journal for the Study of the Old Testament and serves on the editorial board for the Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Series for T&T Clark. She has formerly been an editor for the Review of Biblical Literature, Australian Biblical Review and was founder and co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting programme unit, Book of Samuel: Narrative, Theology and Interpretation. Her current projects include “Sex and Sovereignty in the Hebrew Bible” (volume under contract with OUP) and “Politics and Kinship in the Ancient World.”

Current Research Areas

• Literature, language, composition and background of Samuel-Kings.
• Patrimonialism and kinship in Israel and Judah
• Kingship in the book of Chronicles and other postexilic literature
• Social constructions of gender and marriage practice in the ancient world  

Areas for Supervision

• Literature and theology of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.
• Biblical Hebrew language.
• History of Israel and the ancient Near East. 

Publications

Books

• 1 Samuel 1–15, International Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, in press 2025)
• Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021)
• Juxtaposition and the Elisha Cycle, LHBOTS 594 (London: T&T Clark, 2014)
• Representing the Past: A Literary Analysis of Narrative Historiography in the Book of Samuel, VTSup 143 (Leiden: Brill, 2011).  

Edited book

• Politics and Compromise in the Hebrew Bible, edited with Mark G. Brett, Jordan Davis and Benedikt Hensel, FAT II (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, in press 2026).
• Explorations in the Interpretation of Samuel: Intertextuality and Reception, edited with Benjamin Johnson, SBR 26 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024).
• Political Theologies in the Hebrew Bible, edited with Mark G. Brett, Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplement Series (Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 2023). 

Journal articles and book chapters

• “A History of Kissing in Ancient Israel: Evidence from the Hebrew Bible,” Journal of Biblical Literature 144 (2025): 21–41.
• “Structure. Themes, and Theology in the Book of Samuel,” in Book of Samuel, ed. Rachelle Gilmour and Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies (London: Equinox, 2025).
• “Saul’s Idolatry and Divination (1 Sam 15:23a) in Between Fiction and Facts: History and Religion in the Books of Samuel, ed. Johannes Klein and David Shepherd, BWANT 248 (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2025), 127–137.
• "Samuel-Kings" in The State of Old Testament Studies, ed. H.H. Hardy II and M. Daniel Carroll R. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2024), 190–203.
• With Benjamin J.M. Johnson, "Introduction," in Explorations in the Interpretation of Samuel: Intertextuality and Reception, ed. Rachelle Gilmour and Benjamin J.M. Johnson (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2024).
• "Monarchic Collapse: From Solomon to Jehoiachin in the Book of Kings," in The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative, ed. Keith Bodner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2024), 118–135.
• “The Politics of Beauty in the Books of Samuel and Esther,” in Political Theologies of the Hebrew Bible, ed. Mark G. Brett and Rachelle Gilmour, Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplement Series (Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 2023), 54–72. 
• “Sex Scandal and the Politics of David’s Throne,” Journal of Biblical Literature 141 (2022): 89-110.
• “Overturning Sovereignty: Esther in Dialogue with the Book of Samuel,” in Reading Esther Intertextually, ed. David Firth and Brittany Melton, LHBOTS (London: T & T Clark, 2022), 57–67. 
• “King David and the White Bear Justice Park,” in Theology and Black Mirror, ed. Amber Bowen and John Anthony Dunne, Theology, Religion and Popular Culture (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2022), 179–191. 
• “’But he would not listen to her’: Revisiting the story of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13,” in Terror in the Bible: Rhetoric, Gender, and Violence, ed. Robyn Whitaker and Monica Melanchthon (Atlanta: SBL, 2021), 56–66.
• “The Monuments of Saul and Absalom in the Book of Samuel,” in Collective Memory and Collective Identity: Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History in Their Context, ed. Johannes Unsok Ro and Diana Edelman (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), 243–261.
• “From Anxiety to Reverence: Fear of God’s Retribution and Violence in the Book of Samuel,” Die Welt des Orients 51 (2021): 84–91.
• “Rehabilitating Rehoboam,” in Characters and Characterization in 1 and 2 Kings, ed. Keith Bodner and Benjamin Johnson (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), 65–82.
• “The Rejection of Saul and the Obscene Underside of the Law,” The Bible and Critical Theory 15 (2019).
• “Remembering the Future: The Topheth as Dystopia in Jeremiah 7 and 19,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 44 (2019): 64–78.  
• “Divine Violence and Divine Presence: Reading the Story of Uzzah and the Ark in 2 Samuel 6 with Slavoj Žižek,” Biblical Interpretation 27 (2019): 1–19.
• “Jeremiah at the Gate: Identifying the People’s Gate in Jeremiah 17:19,” Biblische Notizen 177 (2018): 75–82.
• “Juxtaposition and reinterpretation in Joshua 1–2,” in Registers and Modes of Communication in the Ancient Near East: Getting the Message Across, ed. Kyle H. Keimer and Gillan Davis (London: Routledge, 2018), 143–155.
• “A Tale of the Unexpected: The Ending of 2 Kings 3 Re–examined,” Australian Biblical Review 65 (2017): 17–29.
• “Reading Jeremiah 19:1–13: Integrating Diachronic and Synchronic Methodologies,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 17 (2017) DOI: 10.5508/jhs.2017.v17.a5.
• “Chapter 15: (Hi)story Telling in the Books of Samuel,” in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative, ed. Danna Nolan Fewell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 192–203
• “The Exodus in the Bible’s Teaching and Our Teaching of the Bible: Helping to Reconcile Faith and Critical Study of the Bible through Threshold Concept Theory,” Journal of Adult Theological Education 13 (2016): 116–127.
• “Who Captured Jerusalem? Reading Historiography and/or Collective Memory in Samuel,” in The Books of Samuel: Stories – History – Reception, ed. Walter Dietrich, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium (Leuven: Peeters, 2016), 63–82.
• “Elisha,” Oxford Bibliographies Online (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).
• “The Function of Place Naming in 2 Samuel 5–6: A Study in Collective Memory,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 39 (2015): 405–431.
• “Reading a Biblical Motif: Gifts of Listed Food Provisions in the Books of Samuel,” Australian Biblical Review 61 (2013): 30–43.
• “A Note on the Horses and Chariots of Fire at Dothan,” Zeitschrift für alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 125 (2013): 308–313.
• With I. Young. “Saul’s Two Year Reign in 1 Samuel 13:1,” Vetus Testamentum 63 (2013): 150–154.
• “Suspense and Anticipation in I Samuel 9:1–14,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9 (2009), DOI: 10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a10. 

Community Engagement

• Forthcoming. “1 Samuel” and “2 Samuel.” In New Oxford Annotated Bible. Sixth Edition. Edited by Michael Coogan, Marc Brettler, Julia O’Brien, and Emma Wasserman. New York: Oxford University Press. 
• “Samuel” Bible Odyssey
• “When Love and Inclusion Conflict in our Churches,” ABC Religion and Ethics.
• “Worship in Exile as an Essential Service,” ABC Religion and Ethics.
• “Change the Narrative,” ABC Religion and Ethics. 
• “The End of the World? 2016, the Year of Living Apocalyptically,” ABC Religion and Ethics.