Person

Senior Lecturer
- Biblical Studies
- Centre for Theology and Religious Studies
Contact information
E-mail ola.wikanderctr.luse
Phone +46 46 222 43 34
Visiting address
Helgonavägen 3, Lund
Postal address
Box 192, 221 00 Lund
Internal post code 30
I work with philological material from the Ancient Near East, including texts in Hebrew, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Hittite, and Luwian. I have written articles on the Hebrew tense system, Northwest Semitic historical phonology and ancient Gnostic and Gnosticizing literature in its relation to motifs from the OT world. Recently, I have been working on early Indo-European (especially Anatolian) motifs in the world of the OT, which has led to the publication of my monograph "Unburning Fame: Horses, Dragons, Beings of Smoke, and Other Indo-European Motifs in Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible" (2017), as well as on a project on what philology and exegetics can teach us about communcating into the future about nuclear waste management.
In 2017, I was selected to be Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala, a multi-year position including research stays at SCAS and abroad.
Research
My profile in Lund University research portal
Books (11)
- Wikander, O. (2019). Ett hav i mäktig rörelse : om de semitiska språken. Norstedts Förlag.
- Wikander, O. (2017). Unburning Fame : Horses, Dragons, Beings of Smoke, and Other Indo-European Motifs in Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible. Coniectanea Biblica Old Testament Series - CBOTS, 62. Eisenbrauns.
- Wikander, O. (2014). Drought, death and the sun in Ugarit and ancient Israel : a philological and comparative study. Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament Series, 61. Eisenbrauns.
- Wikander, O. (2014). Gud är ett verb: tankar om Gamla testamentet och dess idéhistoria. Norstedts Förlag.
- Wikander, O. (2012). Drought, Death and the Sun in Ugarit and Ancient Israel : A Philological and Comparative Study. Lund University. Dissertation.
- Wikander, O. (2008). De kaldeiska oraklen. Sitra Ahra förlag.
- Wikander, O. (2008). Ett träd med vida grenar - de indoeuropeiska språkens historia. Prisma.
- Wikander, O. (2006). I döda språks sällskap : en bok om väldigt gamla språk. Wahlström & Widstrand.
- Wikander, O. (2005). Enuma elish - det babyloniska skapelseeposet: översättning från akkadiskan, med inledning och kommentarer av Ola Wikander. Wahlström & Widstrands klassikerserie. Wahlström & Widstrand.
- Wikander, Ö. & Wikander, O. (2004). Att läsa etruskiska inskrifter.
- Wikander, O. (2003). Kanaaneiska myter och legender: översättning från ugaritiska med inledning och kommentarer av Ola Wikander. Wahlström & Widstrands klassikerserie. Wahlström & Widstrand.
Articles (21)
- Wikander, O. (2020). “Go Out from Your Sign” : Rashi to Genesis 15:5 as a Reference to Astrological Primary Direction –Its Background in Rabbinic Literature and Parallels in Abraham bar Ḥiyya. Old Testament Essays, 556-581. Old Testament Society of South Africa.
- Wikander, O. (2020). Hiram, YHWH and Baal : Freemasonry and the Ancient Northwest Semitic Literary Tradition. Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, 133, 81-112.
- Wikander, O. (2020). Literary Grammar : The Grammaticalization of the Hebrew Wayyiqṭol in Typological Comparison with the Classical Japanese Kakari-Musubi, the Old Irish Dependent Conjugation, and the Tocharian Gendered 1st Person Singular Pronoun. Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 34, 89-107. Taylor & Francis.
- Wikander, O. (2020). The Call of *Yaqtulu : The Central Semitic Imperfective, Nominalisation and Verbal Semantics in Cyclical Flux. Ugarit-Forschungen, 50 (2019), 435-451.
- Wikander, O. (2019). Opuscula Ugaritico-Accadico-Hebraica : Relative particles, paʿam, and Amraphel. Journal of the Hebrew Scriptures, 19.
- Wikander, O. (2019). Stop Being Fricative! : The Hebrew Šĕwāʾ Medium, Syllabic Consonants, Tidʿāl and the Aesthetics of Linguistic and Exegetical Models. Svensk exegetisk årsbok, 84, 125-166. Svenska exegetiska sällskapet.
- Wikander, O., Lantz, N. & Spjut, P. (2018). Tillbaka till dåtiden? : Om bibelvetenskapens roll och metoder : En replik till Joel Halldorf. Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift, 231-244. Gleerups Utbildning AB.
- Wikander, O. (2017). The Pseudo-Matthean Doxology from the Lord's Prayer, Sephiroth, and Classical Hebrew in the "Qabalistic Cross" and Other Golden Dawn Rituals. Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift, 2016/92, 148-158. Gleerups Utbildning AB.
- Wikander, O. (2016). Indoeuropeiska motiv i Gamla testamentet. Riss, 2016, 110-113. NTNU, Trondheim.
- Wikander, O. (2015). Emphatics, Sibilants and Interdentals in Hebrew and Ugaritic : An Interlocking Model. Ugarit-Forschungen, 46, 373-397.
- Wikander, O. (2015). Finding Indra, Finding Torah : The Story of Shibamata Taishakuten and Josiah's Renovation. Svensk exegetisk årsbok, 80, 69-77. Svenska exegetiska sällskapet.
- Wikander, O. (2015). Language, Nuclear Waste and Society : The Preservation of Knowledge over Vast Periods of Time and its Relevance for Linguistics. Lychnos, 2015, 7-25. Lärdomshistoriska samfundet, Uppsala universitet.
- Wikander, O. (2014). Perfect or Imperfect Learning : Teaching the "Tenses" of Biblical Hebrew. Hebrew Higher Education, 16, 119-129. National Association of Professors of Hebrew.
- Wikander, O. (2013). Classical Hebrew in the Golden Dawn Tradition. Preprint without journal information. Manne Siegbahn Institute.
- Wikander, O. (2013). Old Testament Prototypes for the Hermetic Trishagion in Poimandres 31 – and Support for an Old Conjecture. Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 53, 579-590. Duke University.
- Wikander, O. (2013). Perfect or Imperfect Learning - Teaching the Hebrew "Tenses". Preprint without journal information. Manne Siegbahn Institute.
- Wikander, O. (2013). Ungrateful Grazers: A Parallel to Deut 32:15 from the Hurrian/Hittite Epic of Liberation. Svensk exegetisk årsbok, 78, 137-146. Svenska exegetiska sällskapet.
- Gansten, M. & Wikander, O. (2011). Sahl and the Tājika Yogas: Indian transformations of Arabic astrology. Annals of Science, 68, 531-546. Taylor & Francis.
- Wikander, O. (2010). Job 3:8-Cosmological Snake-Charming and Leviathanic Panic in a Near Eastern Setting. Zeitschrift für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 122, 265-271. De Gruyter.
- Wikander, O. (2010). The Hebrew Waw-Consecutive as a North-West Semitic Augment. Vetus Testamentum, 60.
- Wikander, O. (2008). The Religio-Social Message of the Gold Tablets from Pyrgi. Opuscula, 79-84. Editorial Committee of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome.
Book chapters (9)
- Wikander, O. (accepted/in press). Anatolian / Indo-European Stops and Northwest Semitic Loans : with Notes on Ugaritic grdš , ztr , dġṯ and Other Words. Hitherto untititled anthology volume.
- Wikander, O. (accepted/in press). Ormen och byggmästaren - hebraismer och gnosis hos Carl William Hansen. [Host publication title missing]. Sitra Ahra förlag.
- Wikander, O. (2020). Att låta texten vara död - en textnekromantikers och textemulators bekännelser. In Rahm, H., Dunér, D., Hidal, S. & Jonsson, B. (Eds.) Skrifter, I Pallas Athenas huvud : hundra år av humaniora (pp. 83-88), 98. Makadam förlag.
- Wikander, O. (2017). From Indo-European Dragon Slaying to Isa 27.1 : A Study in the Longue Durée. In Wasserman, T., Andersson, G. & Willgren, D. (Eds.) Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies, 654, Studies in Isaiah : History, Theology and Reception (pp. 116-135), 654. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
- Wikander, O. (2015). Don't Push This Button : Phoenician Sarcophagi, Atomic Priesthoods and Nuclear Waste. In Rahm, H. (Ed.) Årsbok, Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund. Årsbok 2015 (pp. 109-124). Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund.
- Wikander, O. (2015). The God in the Machine : Occultism, Demiurgic Theology and “Gnostic” Self-Knowledge in Japanese Video Games. In Larsson, L. & Goldberg, D. (Eds.) The State of Play : Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture (pp. 235-256). Seven Stories Press.
- Wikander, O. (2013). The Burning Sun and the Killing Resheph: Proto-Astrological Symbolism and Ugaritic Epic. In Greene, L. & Campion, N. (Eds.) Sky and Symbol: Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Sophia Centre Conference (pp. 73-83).
- Wikander, O. (2011). God’s Plan in Job and the “Wise Things” of Marduk. In Eidevall, G. & Scheuer, B. (Eds.) Enigmas and Images: Studies in Honor of Tryggve N. D. Mettinger (pp. 227-236). Eisenbrauns.
- Wikander, O. (2010). Själens uttåg ur Egypten. Tankemönster - en festskrift till Eva Rystedt, 198-202.
Conference contributions (5)
- Wikander, O. (2014). Emphatics, Sibilants and Interdentals in Hebrew and Ugaritic : an Interlocking Model.
- Wikander, O. (2013). Biblical Chaos Dragons – and Indo-European Ones.
- Wikander, O. (2012). "Horse" and "to Plough" in Hebrew and Indo-European.
- Wikander, O. (2011). Nothing new under the burning sun? Climate and verbs in North-West Semitic.
- Wikander, O. (2011). The Burning Sun and the Killing Resheph: Proto-Astrological Symbolism and Ugaritic Epic.
Reviews (5)
- Wikander, O. (2014). Brun skugga. Expressen, 6-6. AB Kvällstidningen Expressen, AB Kvällstidningen Expressen.
- Wikander, O. (2014). Reading Ugaritic. Marginalia Review of Books. Los Angeles Review of Books.
- Wikander, O. (2014). Sexuella undertexter av Guds nåde. Svenska Dagbladet, 33-33. Svenska Dagbladet, Hb Svenska dagbladets AB & Co.
- Wikander, O. (2010). Rec. av Nissinen & Uro (ed.), Sacred Marriages: The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity. Patristica Nordica Annuaria, 25, 98-100. Collegium Patristicum Lundense.
- Wikander, O. (2010). Recension av Mark S. Smith, "God in Translation: Deities in Cross- Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World". Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift, 86, 193-194. Gleerups Utbildning AB.
Articles in specialist publications and popular press (3)
- Wikander, O. (2017). Ormen och Stormguden. Karavan, 2017, 84-91. Föreningen Karavan.
- Wikander, O. (2011). Solen och pestguden i Ugarit. Aorta, 27, 17-21.
- Wikander, O. (2009). Ur Mishne Tora - Shofetim: Melakhim u-milchamoth [kap. 11-12]. Subaltern, 1/2009, 45-49. h:ström - Text & Kultur, h:ström - Text & Kultur.
Newspaper articles (1)
Teaching

Senior Lecturer
- Biblical Studies
- Centre for Theology and Religious Studies
Contact information
E-mail ola.wikanderctr.luse
Phone +46 46 222 43 34
Visiting address
Helgonavägen 3, Lund
Postal address
Box 192, 221 00 Lund
Internal post code 30