Jill Firth

Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament

BA (UWA), Grad Cert (UD), Grad Dip (MCD), MDiv (ACT), MA (MCD), PhD (ACT)

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Jill was born in Melbourne and completed some of her school years in Sydney. She graduated with a BA at the University of Western Australia and ministered with her husband Len in Perth and the WA Wheatbelt. Jill and Len spent a year on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory with CMS, learning from and supporting Aboriginal leaders. They then spent ten years in Hong Kong leading an international church and participating in marriage ministry and city-wide evangelism in preparation for the 1997 return to Chinese sovereignty.

Jill studied theology at Ridley, and concurrently trained as a spiritual director in the Ignatian tradition. She was ordained in the Diocese of Melbourne in 2006. She has lectured at Ridley since 2005, was appointed to Ridley faculty in 2016, and is lecturing in Hebrew and Old Testament. Jill was awarded her PhD on ‘The Re-presentation of David in Psalms 140–143’ in 2016. She is co-editor of Grounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture: Papers by Australian Women Scholars in the Evangelical Tradition, is currently revising her dissertation for publication, and preparing to write a commentary on Jeremiah for the series, The Bible in God’s World. She has been a convener of the Evangelical Women in Academia conference and the Ridley Women’s Writing Groups Network. She is a member of Tyndale Fellowship, ETS, IBR, SBL, and the Logia Advisory Board.

Teaching Areas
Hebrew, Old Testament.

Research Interests
Psalms, Jeremiah, Language Pedagogy.

Hobbies & Interests
Reading, walking on the beach, time with family and friends.

Publications:

• Jill Firth, ‘The Suffering Servant in Book V of the Psalter,’ in Reading the Psalms Theologically, edited by David M. Howard Jr. and Andrew Schmutzer (Lexham, forthcoming, 2022).
• Contributor of 40 Hebrew entries to: Baker Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words, edited by Tremper Longman III and Mark L. Strauss (Baker, forthcoming, 2022).
• Jill Firth and Denise Cooper-Clarke (eds), Grounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture: Papers by Australian Women Scholars in the Evangelical Tradition (ACT Monographs, 2021)
• Jill Firth, ‘Desert Spring, Disappointment Creek, Dead Dog Waterhole: Is the God of the Book of Jeremiah Bad for Women?’ in Grounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture, edited by Jill Firth and Denise Cooper-Clarke (ACT Monographs, 2021)
• Jill Firth, ‘Grandmothers of Intention: Women in Australian Theological Academia (1883––2003),’ in Grounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture, edited by Jill Firth and Denise Cooper-Clarke (ACT Monographs, 2021)
• Jill Firth, ‘Spirituality from the Depths: Responding to Crushing Circumstances and Psychological and Spiritual Distress in Jeremiah’, in Scripture and Mental Health, edited by Chris Cook and Isabelle Hamley (SCM, 2020)
• Jill Firth, ‘The Re-presentation of David in Psalms 140–143’ (Dissertation Summary), TynBul 70.1 (2019): 149–152
• Kara Martin, Megan Powell du Toit, Jill Firth, Moyra Dale, ‘Women in Theological Education in the ACT in 21st Century Australia,’ in Theological Education in Australia: Foundations, Current Practices and Future Options, edited by Andrew Bain and Ian Hussey (Wipf & Stock, 2018), 160–174.

Conference Presentations: 

• Jill Firth, ‘“Send for the Wise Women”: Women’s Wise Direct Speech in Jeremiah’s Prophetic Poetry’ (FBS Orality and Performance Criticism section, Melbourne, October, 2021)
• Jill Firth, ‘Reframing Jeremiah: Myopia, Dystopia, Heterotopia, Utopia’ (ANZATS, July, 2021)
• Jill Firth, ‘Moral Injury and the Book of Jeremiah.’ SBL Bible and Practical Theology section, San Diego, November, 2019.
• Jill Firth, ‘Quidditch Practice and Defence Against the Dark Arts: Preparing to Preach from Hebrew Texts.’ ETS Hebrew Language section, San Diego, November, 2019.
• Jill Firth, ‘Is the God of the Book of Jeremiah Bad for Women?: Clarifying Genres, Metaphors, and Contexts.’ ETS Evangelicals and Gender section, San Diego, November, 2019.
• Jill Firth, ‘Of the Shaping and Smashing of Pottery: Grace and Judgment in the Book of Jeremiah.’ Tyndale Old Testament Study Group, Cambridge, July, 2019.
• Jill Firth, ‘Crawling into the Wounds of Jesus: Retrieving a Protestant Practice in Embodied Trauma.’ SBL Bible and Practical Theology section, Boston (20 November 2017).
• Jill Firth, ‘Exsurge Domine versus Ein feste Burg: Psalms in the Contest of Imaginaries in the Lutheran Reformation.’ Tyndale Old Testament Study Group, Cambridge (4 July 2017).
• Jill Firth, ‘Luther’s Use of Lament Psalms in his Letters of Spiritual Counsel.’ Ridley College Melbourne (19 May 2017).
• Jill Firth, ‘“Save me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me”: The Re-presentation of David in Psalms 140–143.’ ETS Psalms and Hebrew Poetry section, San Antonio (15 November 2016).