Rolf Furuli

Rolf Johan Furuli (born 19 December 1942) is a former lecturer^[1] in Semitic languages at the University of Oslo until his retirement in 2011. He has translated a number of documents from Semitic languages and Sumerian into Norwegian.^[2]

Furuli started his studies of New Babylonian chronology in 1984. He became a magister artium in 1995 and doctor artium in 2005. Based on his studies, Furuli has attempted to defend the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses—of which Furuli is a member^[3]—including their view that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC rather than the broadly recognised dating of its destruction in 587 BC.^[4]

In a 2004 issue of Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Lester L. Grabbe, professor of theology at the University of Hull, said of Furuli's study: "Once again we have an amateur who wants to rewrite scholarship. ... F. shows little evidence of having put his theories to the test with specialists in Mesopotamian astronomy and Persian history."^[5]

In 2005, Furuli defended his doctoral thesis suggesting a new understanding of verbal system of Classical Hebrew. In a review of the thesis, professor Elisabeth R. Hayes of Wolfson College, Oxford, wrote: "While not all will agree with Furuli's conclusions regarding the status of the wayyiqtol as an imperfective form, his well-argued thesis contributes towards advancing methodology in Hebrew scholarship."^[6]

Writings

He has written works about Bible translation and biblical issues.

• 1995 – Imperfect consecutive and the Verbal system of Biblical Hebrew (thesis, magister artium, University of Oslo)
• 1997 – The Problem of Induction and the Hebrew verb in Elie Wardini (ed.) Built on solid Rock. ISBN 82-7099-283-6
• 1999 – The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation with a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses ISBN 0-9659814-4-4
• 2000 – Modern models and the study of dead languagesMotskrift NTNU, Trondheim pp. 83–86 (in Norwegian)
• 2001 – The study of new religious movements with a stress on the mental health of Jehovah's Witnesses (with Leon Groenewald and Johan Nerdrum) Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening, 2, pp. 123–128. (In Norwegian)
• 2001 – Gilgamesh and Atrahasis two Babylonian Heroes (with Jens Braarvig and Tor Åge Bringsværd)
• 2002 – Science and Bible translation – "Christianizing" and "mythologizing" of the Hebrew text of the Bible ISBN 82-994633-1-9 (In Norwegian and Danish)
• 2002 – The NWT's translation of the Hebrew verbal system with particular stress on waw consecutive (33 pages), in Tony Byatt and Hal Fleming's (eds) Your Word is Truth—The Fiftieth Anniversary of the New World Translation ISBN 0-9506212-6-9
• 2003 – Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible, Volume 1: Persian Chronology and the Length of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews ISBN 82-994633-3-5^[7]
• 2003 – The book of Enoch – translated from Ge'ez to Norwegian.ISBN 82-525-5177-7
• 2004 – The Dead Sea Scrolls(translated some documents from Hebrew and Aramaic) ISBN 82-525-5199-8
• 2005 – The verbal System of Classical Hebrew An Attempt to Distinguish Between Semantic and Pragmatic Factors in L. Ezard and J. Retsø (eds.) Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon I pp. 205–31. ISBN 3-447-05268-6
• 2006 – A New Understanding of the Verbal System of Classical Hebrew – An attempt to distinguish between pragmatic and semantic factors ISBN 82-994633-4-3
• 2006 – Sumerian Writings (translated some documents from Sumerian into Norwegian) ISBN 82-525-6213-2
• 2007 –The Neo-Babylonian Chronology and the Cuneiform Tablet VAT 4956 in Forschung-Bibel-Artefakte. pp. XIV-XVIII ISBN 978-3-9811529-2-0
• 2007 – Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible, Volume 2: Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian Chronology ISBN 978-82-994633-6-2
• 2008 – Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible, Volume 1: Persian Chronology and the Length of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews, revised edition ISBN 82-994633-5-1
• 2008 – Kebra Nagast (translated from Ge´ez into Norwegian) ISBN 978-82-525-6704-5
• 2008 – Baal the King of the Gods in Ugarit (translated some documents from Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Hebrew into Norwegian) ISBN 978-82-525-6590-4
• 2009 – "How do Jehovahs Witnesses think? A Witness describes the faith," in H.K. Ringnes and H.K. Sødal, eds Jehovahs Witnesses An interdisciplinary Study (In Norwegian) ISBN 978-82-15-01453-1
• 2011 – The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation With a Special Look at the New World Translation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Second edition ISBN 978-82-92978-02-3
• 2012 – Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible, Volume 1: Persian Chronology and the Length of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews, Second edition ISBN 978-82-92978-03-0
• 2012 – Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible, Volume 2: Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian Chronology, Second edition ISBN 978-82-92978-04-7

See also

• Atra-Hasis
• Bible chronology
• Book of Enoch
• Dead Sea scrolls
• Egyptian chronology
• Gilgamesh
• Hebrew verb conjugation
• New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
• Waw-consecutive

Sources