Sara M. Koenig
Professor of Biblical Studies
Email: skoenig@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2299
Office: Alexander & Adelaide Hall 313
Education: BA, Seattle Pacific University, 1995; MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1999; PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2007. At SPU since 2003.
Sara Koenig joined the faculty of SPU as an adjunct professor in the fall of 2002. She became a full-time faculty member in the fall of 2003.
Dr. Koenig majored in educational ministries at Seattle Pacific University because at that time in her life, she planned to be a youth pastor. But after a full-time, year-long internship in youth ministry, she entered Princeton Theological Seminary less convinced about her previous plans.
At PTS, she fell in love with Old Testament studies, so much so that she decided to pursue a PhD in the Old Testament. Whenever she was asked what she wanted to do with her PhD, she said she wanted to teach at a college like the one she attended, never assuming that she would end up at that exact place. She joined the faculty of SPU as an adjunct professor in the fall of 2002, and became a full-time faculty member in the fall of 2003.
Her area of research is reception history, studying how various texts in the Bible have been received, interpreted, and passed on throughout the centuries in various genres. She is passionate about hermeneutics, the literary features and ethical implications of the biblical text, and the way the Old Testament presents God.
Please view Dr. Koenig’s CV (PDF) for additional information
Books
Bathsheba Survives
USC Press, 2018
Bathsheba is a mysterious and enigmatic figure who appears in only seventy-six verses of the Bible and whose story is riddled with gaps. But this seemingly minor female character, who plays a critical role in King David's story, has survived through the ages, and her "afterlife" in the history of interpretation is rich and extensive. In Bathsheba Survives, Sara M. Koenig traces Bathsheba's reception throughout history and in various genres, demonstrating how she has been characterized on the spectrum from helpless victim to unscrupulous seductress.
The Usefulness of Scripture: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Wall
Warsaw, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2018
Isn't This Bathsheba?: A Study in Characterization
Pickwick, 2011
"I offer a reading of Bathsheba that critiques some other readings of her, specifically those that see her as simple, stupid, seductive, or unchanging. I offer this different reading, first, because the text suggests it. But second, those other readings of Bathsheba are misogynistic, with harmful and even dangerous implications for the way women are viewed." (2)