Douglas Petrovich | Professor of Biblical History and Exegesis

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​Contact: dpetrovich@brookes.edu

Professor Petrovich was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. After that, he lived in California (twice), Illinois, Siberia (Russia), Toronto (Canada), and Texas, where he currently resides. He is passionate about pouring his life into those whose lives God has given him the opportunity to influence, whether in the setting of the local church or an academic environment. He is committed to modeling his life after that of the incarnate son of God, Jesus Christ, albeit quite imperfectly. He has been married to his wife, Sherri, since 1991, and they have three adult children.
 
Soon after graduation from The Master’s Seminary with a Master of Theology degree in New Testament, he and his family moved to Akademgorodok (in Siberia) under the status of missionaries with Slavic Gospel Association, in order to launch a seminary from scratch for the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. There, he served as the assistant to the seminary president, academic dean, and an assistant professor who taught many courses. In 2008, having turned over the leadership of the seminary to Russians whom he trained to replace himself and his colleagues, he moved to Toronto, Canada to pursue further graduate studies. Since then, he has taught at two seminaries in the United States, one in North Carolina and the other in Texas.
 
Dr. Petrovich has taught over 50 different courses in his teaching career, which includes courses in biblical studies (especially biblical languages and exposition) and in ancient Near Eastern history and archaeology. His Ph.D. includes a major in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, a 1st minor in Egyptian language (Middle and Late Egyptian), and a 2nd minor in Ancient Near Eastern religions. He has participated in archaeological digs at Hazor, Tell Tayinat, and Shiloh, which reflects his love for seeing how ancient history converges with the events and people of the Bible.
 
Professor Petrovich has been an ordained pastor since 1998, having begun as an assistant pastor at a church in Glendale, California. For the majority of his 10 years in Siberia, he served as a church-planting pastor in the city of Berdsk. He has appeared in two documentary films, the more recent being Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy (2019), which features his groundbreaking discovery that connects the world’s oldest alphabetic script with the Israelites’ initial national script. The earlier film in which he appears is entitled Is Genesis History? (2017), which became the most watched documentary film on Netflix during the summer after which it was released.
 
Education
B.A., Moody Bible Institute, 1992
M.Div., The Master’s Seminary, 1996
Th.M., The Master’s Seminary, 1998
M.A., University of Toronto, 2009
Ph.D., University of Toronto, 2016
 
Specialization
Biblical languages and exegesis
Biblical and ancient Near Eastern history
Lower textual criticism and epigraphy
Egyptology
 
Books Published
Origins of the Hebrews: New Evidence of Israelites in Egypt from Joseph to the Exodus (Nashville: New Creation, 2021).
The World’s Oldest Alphabet: Hebrew as the Language of the Proto-Consonantal Script (Jerusalem: Carta, 2016).
 
Sample of Journal Articles Published
“The Lachish Milk Bowl Ostracon: A Hebrew Inscription from Joshua’s Conquest at Lachish” (2022). Bible and Spade 35/1: 16–22.
“Connecting Khirbet Qeiyafa to the Proper Israelite King: Sauline Stronghold or Davidic Fortress” (2021). Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament 7/1: 82–118.
“Determining the Precise Length of the Israelite Sojourn in Egypt” (2019). Near Eastern Archaeological Society Bulletin 64: 21–41.
“The Ophel Pithos Inscription: Its Dating, Language, Translation, and Script” (2015). Palestine Exploration Quarterly 147/2: 130–145.
“Identifying Nimrod of Genesis 10 with Sargon of Akkad by Exegetical and Archaeological Means” (2013). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56/2: 273–305.
“Toward Pinpointing the Timing of the Egyptian Abandonment of Avaris during the Middle of the 18th Dynasty” (2013). Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 5/2: 9–28.

​Joined the Faculty in 2022