The Author: T. J. Betts is Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and at Boyce College in Louisville, and has been a pastor and teacher for over seventeen years. He has written for the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary and The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. His areas of study include Northwest Semitic languages, Old Testament literature, and ancient Near Eastern history and archaeology. He has studied at Jerusalem University College in Israel and received his B.S.Ed. from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and his M.Div. and Ph.D. in Old Testament literature from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.