Education

University of Southern Mississippi, B.F.A.
Reformed Theological Seminary, MDiv
University of Aberdeen, M.Th.
Wolfson College, University of Oxford, M.St.
University College, University of Oxford, D.Phil.

About Dr. Reid

Dr. Nicholas Reid joined the faculty of RTS Orlando in 2017 and serves as Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, as well as Director of the Hybrid MDiv Program. He teaches core courses related to Old Testament and covenant theology and offers advanced electives in the languages and cultures of the Ancient Near East.

A native of Mississippi, Dr. Reid received the MDiv and numerous academic awards at RTS Jackson. Post-graduate studies took him to the United Kingdom where he earned a Master of Theology at the University of Aberdeen in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, followed by a Master of Studies with distinction in cuneiform studies at the University of Oxford and, finally, the D.Phil. in Oriental Studies with an emphasis on cuneiform also at the University of Oxford. He has since lectured in university settings in the United Kingdom and North America, including serving as a visiting professor at RTS Orlando. Reid is also a current Research Affiliate and previously, a Visiting Research Scholar, at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. He also formerly worked as an Associate Editor of Hebrew for BibleMesh and taught Old Testament at Reformation Bible College, Sanford, FL.

Dr. Reid’s research interests cover a broad range of topics, including social history, the biblical text, as well as unpublished epistolary, literary, and administrative cuneiform texts. He is presently coauthoring a textual edition of a group of unpublished Old Babylonian letters for Oxford University Press. Dr. Reid also contributes to the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative as a North American Partner.

During seminary, Dr. Reid served as an intern under Dr. Ligon Duncan at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS. While in seminary, he also collaborated on numerous publishing projects with Dr. Duncan.

Dr. Reid and his wife, Blair, live in the greater Orlando area with their four children.

Publications

Books
  • J. N. Reid & K. Wagensonner, Letters from Old Babylonian Kish. Oxford Edition of Cuneiform Tablets. Oxford Edition of Cuneiform Texts 16: Oxford University Press 2025.
  • Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia: Discipline and Punishment until the First Fall of Babylon. Oxford University Press 2022.
Journal Articles
  • Detention as Liminal Space during the Middle Babylonian Period. Accepted Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History Special Edition, Beyond Slavery and Freedom in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Vitali Bartash and Andrew Pottorf (2025).
  • Feeding Gods and Dogs: New Ur III and Old Babylonian Texts in the Ashmolean Museum. Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin (2024)
  • King Like a Horned Viper: Two New Manuscripts of Praise Poems to Šulgi. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 114(1) (2024): 12-22.
  • The Weapon of Marduk Has Been Placed: A Letter and Response from Pī-kasî Dealing with a Runaway Slave Girl and Her Mother. Accepted Revue d’Assyrologie 118 (2024): 67-79.
  • J.N. Reid and Gabriella Spada, “From Oslo to Atlanta: An Old Babylonian Prism Collecting Model Contracts,” Rivista degli Studi Orientali Nuova Serie 2020 (1-2): 37-58.
  • J.N. Reid and Gabriella Spada, “Old Babylonian Contracts in the Michael C. Carlos Museum Emory University,” Oriens Antiquus 2020: 63-79.
  • Uri Gabbay, Sam Mirelman, Nicholas Reid, “A Literary Topos of Abundance: Two Emesal Prayers to Enki,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete 110 (2020): 1-12.
  • The Children of Slaves in Early Mesopotamian Laws and Edicts, Revue d’Assyrologie 111 (2017): 9-23.
  • Cuneiform Tablets of the University of Mississippi Museum, Akkadica 138 (2017): 153-180.
  • J.N. Reid and K. Wagensonner, Let the Algar Be Played: A New Manuscript of Šu-Suen B, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 76 no. 2 (2017): 249-264.
  • “The Birth of the Prison: Functions of Imprisonment in Early Mesopotamia,” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 3 no. 2 (2016): 81-115.
  • Runaways and Fugitive Catchers during the Third Dynasty of Ur, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 58 (2015): 576-605.
  • J.N. Reid and K. Wagensonner, “My tooth aches so much,” Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin – 2014.
Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Articles
  • “Corporal Confinement, Mutilation, and Slave Marks: Approaches to Mobility Control in Early Mesopotamia.” Pages 99-109  in Punishment, Labour and the Legitimation of Power. Edited By Adam Fagbore, Nabhojeet Sen, and Katherine Roscoe. Amsterdam University Press 2025.
  • “Purity and Purification in Ancient Mesopotamia: Toward a Foundation for Cross-Cultural Comparison with the Old Testament” in Torah: Treaty, Law, and Ritual in the Hebrew Bible in its Ancient Near Eastern Environment. Edited by Richard Averbeck and Dave Deuel. Penn State Press Anticipated 2025.
  • “Carceral Bodies: Hebrew Bible,” Routledge Handbook of  Marginalization in the Bible. Routledge (publication anticipated 2025).
  • “The Identity of Slaves in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Identities in the Ancient World. Edited by Vicky Manolopoulou, Joseph Skinner, Christina Tsouparopoulou. Routledge. 2025.
  • Reed/Reeds, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Berlin: De Gruyter. 2025.
  • Parenting and Parents in the ANE, Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Berlin: De Gruyter. 2024.
  • Punishment for the Coercion of Labour in Mesopotamia during the Ur III Period” in Punishing Worker, Managing Labour. Special Edition of International Review of Social History. Edited By Adam Fagbore and Christian G. De Vito. Cambridge University Press. 2023.
  • “Writing and Writers in the Ancient Near East: A Brief Sketch for New Testament Scholars” in Gregory L. Lanier and J. Nicholas Reid, (eds.) Studies on the Intersection of Text, Paratext, and Reception: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles E. Hill. TENTS 15. Brill 2021.
  • “The Mosaic Covenant” in Guy Waters, Nicholas Reid, John Muether, (eds.) Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, Historical Perspectives. Crossway 2020.
  • “Ancient Near Eastern Backgrounds to Covenants” in Guy Waters, Nicholas Reid, John Muether, (eds.) Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, Historical Perspectives. Crossway 2020.
  • Working for Royal Households and Temples at Girsu During the Third Dynasty of Ur: A New Text. Pages 139-166. To Gaul, to Greece and Into Noah’s Ark: Essays in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Edited by Laura Quick, Ekaterina E. Kozlova, Sonja Noll and Philip Y. Yoo. Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 44; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Edited Volumes
  • Gregory L. Lanier and J. Nicholas Reid, (eds.) Studies on the Intersection of Text, Paratext, and Reception: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles E. Hill. TENTS 15. Brill 2021.
  • Guy Waters, Nicholas Reid, John Muether, (eds.) Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, Historical Perspectives. Crossway 2020.
Notes
  • A Multi-year Audit Belonging to the Late Achaemenid and Early Hellenistic Esangila Archive: A New Text. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2020 (Paris).
  • Prisoners of War: Collated Edition of TCL 5, 6039. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2020 (Paris).

Academic Presentations

  • 2024 – The Defense of the Weak in Legitimization Texts from Early Mesopotamia. 2nd International Online Conference on Human Dignity and Human Rights in Ancient Near East, Ancient Israel and Hellas.
  • 2023 – Prisoners as In-betweeners of Society: Imprisonment in the Middle Babylonian Period, Beyond Slavery and Freedom, 68th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • 2023 – Imprisonment as Historical Process in Ancient Mesopotamia. Joseph C. Miller Lecture Series, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, Bonn University, Bonn, Germany.
  • 2023 – King Like a Horned Viper: two new manuscripts of praise poems to Šulgi, ISAW, NYC, NY
  • 2022 – Thus Says Hammurapi. Scribal Hands and Habits in Cuneiform Texts. ASOR Conference, Boston, MA
  • 2020 – with Klaus Wagensonner – Wedge Salad: A Case Study from Old Babylonian Kish. Scribal Hands and Habits in Cuneiform Texts. ASOR Conference, Boston, MA (held virtually)
  • 2019 – Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University Invited Public Lecture: “Doing Time in Early Mesopotamia: Administrative Details and Descriptive Accounts of Life Under Guard”
  • 2019 – Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University Invited Gallery Talk on Translation Project for New Exhibit
  • 2017 – The Laney Colloquium in Religion, Graduate Department of Religion, Emory University Invited Seminar: Doing Translation in the Museum
  • 2017 – The Laney Colloquium in Religion, Graduate Department of Religion, Emory University Invited Seminar: What’s In A Sign? Approaching Unseen Cuneiform Texts
  • 2017 – Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptology Faculty  Seminar Series, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford Invited Lecture: The Birth of the Prison: The Functions of Imprisonment in Early Mesopotamia
  • 2015 – Annual Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, Atlanta, Assyriology and the Bible Sumerian Love Poetry: A New Manuscript of Šu-Suen B
  • 2015 – Annual Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, Atlanta, Slavery, Resistance and Freedom Program Unit Children and Child Slaves in Early Mesopotamia
  • 2015 – Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University Public Lecture – Mesopotamian Prison Blues
  • 2014 – Ancient Near Eastern Seminar, Columbia University Invited Lecture – The Status of the Children of Slaves in Early Mesopotamia
  • 2014 – Annual Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, San Diego, Slavery, Resistance and Freedom Program Unit Slavery, Flight, Pursuit, and Punishment during the Third Dynasty of Ur
  • 2014 – Ancient Near Eastern Table, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University Working Your Booty in Early Mesopotamia: The Acquisition and Utilization of Prisoners of War.
  • 2014 – Ancient Near Eastern Table, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University Runaways and Bounty Hunters during the Third Dynasty of Ur
  • 2013 – Tyndale Lecture in Biblical Archaeology, Tyndale Fellowship, Tyndale House, Cambridge Invited Lecture: “Such Sanctity Hath Heaven Given His Hand”: The King’s Relationship to the Divine in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East
  • 2013 – Second Annual Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology, Wolfson College, University of Oxford Working Your Booty During the Third Dynasty of Ur: Lady Gaga and Other Prisoners of War
  • 2013 – Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptology Faculty Seminar Series, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford Invited Lecture: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?”  The Question of Slavery in the Third Dynasty of Ur in Light of Examples of Flight and the Related Means of Coercion
  • 2012 – Emory University Lecture to Faculty and Advanced Students in Jewish Studies and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?” The Question of Slavery in the Third Dynasty of Ur in Light of Examples of Flight and the Related Means of Coercion
  • 2012 – McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Mesopotamian Seminar, University of Cambridge Invited Lecture: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?” The Question of Slavery in the Third Dynasty of Ur in Light of Examples of Flight and the Related Means of Coercion
  • 2012 – History and Classics Faculties, University of  Mississippi History and Classics Seminar: Abuni the Bounty Hunter: Flight and the Problem of Social Status in Early Mesopotamia
  • 2012 – Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology,  Wolfson College, University of Oxford Abuni the Bounty Hunter: Flight and the Problem of Social Status in Early Mesopotamia
  • 2011 – Graduate Student Work in Progress Seminar of the Study of the Ancient Near East and Egyptology, University of Oxford Slavery in Ancient Mesopotamia
  • 2010 – Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Day Away, University of Aberdeen Can a Close Reading Give a Poor Guy a Break: The Progression of Poverty in Lev 25:25-43, 47-54