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17 April 2024

Professor Ronald E. Clements (1929-2024)

A tribute to Professor Clements, who died on 2nd April 2024.

20240417_Ronald Clements

King’s is saddened to share news of Professor Ronald E. Clements, from the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, who died on 2nd April at the age of 94. He served as Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies at King’s from 1983 to 1992, after teaching at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge.

Ronald Clements was a scholar of distinction, whose many books include Abraham and David: Genesis 15 and Its Meaning for Israelite Tradition (1967), Prophecy and Tradition (1975), Old Testament Theology: A Fresh Approach (1978), A Century of Old Testament Study (1983), Wisdom in Theology (1992), and Jerusalem and the Nations: Studies in the Book of Isaiah (2011), as well as commentaries on Exodus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

He was President of the Society for Old Testament Study for 1985. Edward Ball edited a Festschrift in his honour, In Search of True Wisdom (1999). And in 2013 he was awarded the Burkitt Medal by the British Academy ‘in recognition of special service to Biblical Studies’.

Ronald Clements will be sadly missed by so many, including the numerous students and colleagues whom he inspired and supported. Our thoughts are with his family and all those who knew him