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Further information

Additional Information

Teaching Areas:

  • Aramaic and Syriac language and texts
  • biblical Hebrew texts
  • pre-Islamic Middle Eastern history
  • Semitic philology.

Research Students:

Research by supervised Ph.D. students included all of the above-mentioned areas.

Biography

Professor Healey studied initially in Dublin and Cambridge before completing his doctorate on Ugaritic in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, under the supervision of the late Professor Donald Wiseman. He taught in Birmingham, Cardiff and Durham Universities before moving to Manchester in 1989. He has researched and lectured extensively in the Middle East and has close academic contacts with colleagues in Middle Eastern, European and North American universities. He is one of the editors of the Journal of Semitic Studies, as well as being on the editorial boards of a number of other academic journals. He has been a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a Visiting Scholar of St John's College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Research interests

Semitic Languages; history of the alphabet; Ugaritic Studies (including language and religion); Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible; Aramaic and Syriac epigraphy and linguistics, especially Egyptian Aramaic, Nabataean,  Palmyrene and Hatran Aramaic and Syriac; the Middle East in the Greek and Roman periods; Syriac Christianity and its literature; Mandaic and the Mandaeans; legal history (pagan and early Jewish legal documents).

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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  • Aramaic: Lingua Franca, Koine, or Both?

    Healey, J., 7 Mar 2025, Interconnected Traditions: Semitic languages, literatures, cultures. A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Semitic languages, literatures, cultures. A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan. . Hornkohl, A. D., Vidro, N., Watson, J. C. E., Coghill, E., Connolly, M. M. & Outhwaite, B. M. (eds.). Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, Vol. 1: Hebrew and the Wider Semitic World. p. 771-796 26 p. (Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

  • Transformations of the Aramaic Legal Tradition

    Healey, J., 1 Jan 2025, The Dynamics of Early Judaean Law: Studies in the Diversity of Ancient Social and Communal Legislation. Jacobs, S. (ed.). First ed. Berlin: de Gruyter, Walter GmbH & Co, p. 73-93 21 p. (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft; vol. 504).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

  • Glimpses of Tadmūr before Alexander: the pre-Hellenistic evidence

    Healey, J., 23 Jan 2024, The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra. Raja, R. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 49-62 14 p. (Oxford Handbooks).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

  • The Palmyrene Tax Tariff

    Healey, J., 23 Jan 2024, The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra . Raja, R. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 211-226 16 p. (Oxford Handbooks).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

  • A ‘Gift’ in Syriac: a mosaic from Osrhoene

    Healey, J. & Gioia, C., 31 May 2023, Šalmūtā Šapīrtā. Festschrift for Rifaat Y. Ebied in honour of his contributions to Semitic Studies: Presented for his 85th birthday, 29th June 2023 . Hunter, E. C. D. (ed.). Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, p. 29-60 32 p. (Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies; vol. 65).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review