Prof. Joel Baden is a specialist in the Pentateuch, Biblical Hebrew, and disability theory in biblical studies.

He is the author, most recently, of Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby (with Candida Moss; Princeton University Press, 2017). His other books include J, E, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch (Mohr Siebeck, 2009); The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (Yale University Press, 2012); The Promise to the Patriarchs (Oxford University Press, 2013); The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero (HarperOne, 2013); and Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (with Candida Moss; Princeton University Press, 2015). He is the co-editor of the volumes The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary Debate and Future Directions (TVZ, 2009) and Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls (Brill, 2017). His next book will be The Book of Exodus: A Biography (Princeton University Press), as he also slaves away at editing The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch and writing forthcoming commentaries on Deuteronomy (IECOT) and Exodus (Anchor).

Prof. Baden has published numerous scholarly articles and essays in The Journal of Biblical Literature, Vetus Testamentum, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Biblica, and Hebrew Studies, as well as in various edited volumes. He has also written widely for a popular audience, in venues such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, CNN.com, and The Daily Beast.

He received his B.A. (Judaic Studies) from Yale University in 1999; M.A. (Northwest Semitics) from University of Chicago in 2002 and Ph.D. (Hebrew Bible) from Harvard University in 2007.