Alex Kirk
Assistant Professor of Divinity
Beeson Divinity School
Old Testament
聽Divinity Hall
alex.kirk@samford.edu
205-726-2786
Alex Kirk joined the faculty of Beeson Divinity School in 2024 to teach Old Testament and Hebrew after serving under-resourced pastors around the world with a number of inovative educational start-ups for nearly a decade. He has previously taught in nearly a dozen countries—ranging from Serbia, to Ethiopia, to the Philippines—as well as helping to launch William Tennent School of Theology in Colorado and teaching with Crosslands Training in the UK.
 
A philologist and a theologian by training, Alex's academic interests range from biblical Hebrew linguistics and text criticism to poetry, wisdom literature, hermeneutics and theological interpretation of Scripture. His first book, , combines many of these interests to present a detailed interpretation of Proverbs 30 as a coherent collection with a theological message. Current academic projects relate to the relationship of wisdom and law in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism and to the intersection of philology and theology in Ecclesiastes. 
 
As the son of a pastor and a lover of all kinds of literature, Alex is particularly keen to help future pastors appreciate and communicate the depth and beauty of the Old Testament as a place to encounter the Triune God. Alex is married to Meghan and they have three daughters, Rue, Willa and Janie. Their family attends Christ the King Anglican Church (ACNA) in Hoover, Alabama.

Education

  • PhD, Theology and Religion (Old Testament), Durham University
  • MA, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, The University of Toronto
  • MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary–Orlando
  • BA, English and Classics, University of Florida

Books

  • (Atlanta; SBL Press, 2024)
  • Does Wisdom Have a Sense of Humor? Exploring Humour in Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Cognate Literatures, co-editor with Katherine E. Southwood (Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel, 2025), 

Selected Journal Articles

  •  Catholic Bible Quarterly 87, 2025 (39-51).
  •  Vetus Testamentum 74, 2022.
  • with Peter Bekins, Vetus Testamentum 67, 2017, 357–71.
  • with Robert D. Holmstedt, Vetus Testamentum 66, 2016, 542–55.

Blog Posts

  • (plough.com, 2021)
  • (The Gospel Coalition, 2021)
  • (The Gospel Coalition, 2021)
  • (trainingleadersinternational.org, 2019)
  • (trainingleadersinternational.org, 2019)

Involvement

  • Society of Biblical Literature
  • Institute for Biblical Research

Research Interests