Mark Chavalas

Though raised in a Christian home, God drew me to Himself while I was already in a graduate program in ancient Near Eastern studies at UCLA. My research has thus always been at attempt to place the Bible in its proper historical context, in order for the reader to most properly interpret it. In addition to world history, my courses include, Ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq), Egypt, Israel, Turkey (Anatolia), Iran before Islam, Syria, Greece, Rome, Women in the Ancient World, six semesters of the Akkadian language (Babylonian), and two semesters of the Sumerian language. I deal with a 'bare bones' investigation of primary sources in all of my classes in the attempt to show the student just how ancient history is reconstructed by the scholar. My research in the past decade has been centered on interconnections with ancient Mesopotamia and outlying areas (Anatolia, the Aegean, Iran, Egypt, and Syro-Palestine, and even the Adriatic). I have also focused on issues such as gender constructs in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamian historiography. My current research concerns a history of Bronze Age Syria from the advent of writing in the mid-third millennium B.C. to the Iron Age. I am family oriented, happily married to Kimberlee, along with our six children and a grandson. I serve in a number of capacities at my church (First Evangelical Free Church, Onalaska), primarily teaching about the historical context of the Bible. In my spare time, I am a hopeless baseball fanatic, bleeding Dodger blue.

My Life

My undergrad alma mater

California State University, Northridge

My worst subject in school

anything outside of history

Current Research

Ancient Syria and the Bible