Takamitsu Muraoka
Education. After studying general linguistics and biblical languages under the late Prof. M. Sekine at Tokyo Kyoiku University, he studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, completing his dissertation "Emphasis in Biblical Hebrew" with the late Prof. C. Rabin as supervisor, and obtaining his Ph.D. in 1970. Career. He taught Semitic languages including Modern Hebrew as Lecturer in Manchester University, U.K. (1970–80), as Professor of Middle Eastern studies at Melbourne University (1980–91), Australia, then moved in 1991 to Leiden University (1991-2003), The Netherlands, as Professor of the Hebrew Language and Literature, the Israelite Antiquities, and the Ugaritic  language. In addition, he was editor of "Abr-Nahrain" [now "Ancient Near Eastern Studies"] 1980-92, and also edited or co-edited volumes on Ancient Hebrew Semantics, Qumran Aramaic, and Qumran Hebrew. His comprehensive syntax of Septuagint Greek appeared in 2016. He co-founded, in 2000, Dutch-Japanese-Indonesian Dialogue against the background of the Pacific War. He is Representative of The Japanese Language Biblical Church in The Netherlands. Honors. In the academic year 2001-02 he was a Forschungpreisträger of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and in that capacity a visiting professor at the Faculty of Divinity at Göttingen University , Germany. He is Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, and since 2006 Honorary Fellow of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. On 27 September 2017 he was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Hebrew Bible Studies by the British Academy, which judged that over the past six decades he had made outstanding contributions to the study of the Hebrew grammar and syntax, and the Septuagint (an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament). Francis Crawford Burkitt (1864-1935) was a distinguished Cambridge professor with significant contributions on the textual criticism of the New Testament and Eastern churches. In memory of  his achievements the Academy has been awarding a medal since 1925 in alternating years to New Testament and Old Testament scholars for their outstanding contributions. Retired. Since retiring in 2003 from the Leiden chair, he has been visiting every year, teaching biblical languages and the Septuagint as a volunteer a minimum of five weeks in Asian countries which suffered under Japanese militarism in the 20th century. His thoughts and reflections on this yearly teaching ministry up to the year 2015 can now be read in English in "My Via dolorosa: Along the trails of the Japanese imperialism in Asia" (AuthorHouse  U.K. 2016). Selected publications. Muraoka's major publications (only English publications are mentioned) include: