John T. Greene is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. During his twenty-six year career there, he lectured in the history of religions, scriptural and historical studies, and Hebrew language. From 1983 until his retirement at the end of 2006, he directed the university’s Archaeology, History of Religions and Hebrew Language Summer Program in Israel based at Haifa University and the archaeological site of Et-Tell/Bethsaida, where he still serves as one of the excavation’s co-directors. He is the author of The Role of the Messenger and Message in the Ancient Near East and Balaam and His Interpreters, both in the Brown Judaic Studies Series; co-editor of two anthologies with Mishael Caspi, Unbinding the Binding of Isaac and “And God Said: ‘You’re Fired!’”: Elijah and Elisha; an anniversary volume co-edited with J. Harold Ellens entitled Probing the Frontiers of Biblical Studies; and numerous essays. Contributions related to his work in the archaeology of ancient Israel can be found in Bethsaida: A City by the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee and Cities Through the Looking Glass. Professor Greene has participated in excavation projects at Tell Gezer, Tel Halif, Gamla, and Et-Tell/Bethsaida, the latter for over twenty years. He is an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature and is convener of the Seminar in Biblical Characters in Three Traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), and editor of the Seminar’s summer International Meetings proceedings.