Matthew Arakaky

Credentials: BA, University of Virginia / MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary / MA, The University of Chicago / PhD, Duke University (Present)

Denomination: Church of God (Cleveland, TN)

Specific Field: Biblical Studies

Biography: 

Matthew Arakaky was born in Arlington, Virginia to a Bolivian-Japanese father and a German-Italian mother. As a child, he lived in La Paz, Bolivia for three years, where he attended a local primary school and was surrounded by his extended Bolivian family — an experience that shaped and solidified his own Bolivian identity. At Princeton Seminary, he received the Princeton Seminary Fellowship, the Henry Snyder Gehman Award in Old Testament, and the Senior Fellowship in Old Testament. Most recently, he was named one of two Emerging Scholar Fellows in Old Testament by the Catholic Biblical Association. His research languages include Spanish, French, German, Hebrew (classical and historical), Koine Greek, Aramaic (various dialects), Akkadian, and Ugaritic. His interests lie in the literary, theological, and historical approaches to the Hebrew Bible. As an aspiring minister, he especially hopes to bring the local church into theological and academic conversations.