Rolf Furuli

Rolf Furuli studied at University of Oslo. The recorded working language is Norwegian. The field of work recorded is linguistics, Hebrew and Semitic. Employment is recorded with University of Oslo. Positions recorded include emeritus. Works named in the authority record are Re: When the patient refuses blood transfusion.

• Name — Rolf Furuli • Occupation — University teacher, translator, writer • Birth Name — Rolf Johan Furuli • Born — 19 December 1942 • Spouse — Anne-Sissel (d. died 2023) • Education — * University of Oslo (MA, DA) • Workplaces — University of Oslo, The Norwegian Institute of Paleography and Historical Philology • Thesis Title — A New Understanding of the Verbal System of Classical Hebrew—An Attempt to Distinguish Between Pragmatic and Semantic Factors • Thesis Year — 2005 • Birthplace — Oslo, Norway • Discipline — Linguism • Sub Discipline — Semitic languages • Titles — Emeritus • Main Interests — Vav-consecutive, Modern Hebrew verbs, Bible translations, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, Tetragrammaton

Furuli started his studies of New Babylonian chronology in 1984. In 1995 he graduated from the University of Oslo with a Master of Arts degree, with a thesis on the system of verbs in classical Hebrew. In 2005 he received his Doctor of Arts with a thesis on definite and indefinite verbs in the Hebrew Bible. In 2005, Furuli defended his doctoral thesis suggesting a new understanding of verbal system of Classical Hebrew. In a review of the thesis, professor Elisabeth R. Hayes of Wolfson College, Oxford, wrote: "While not all will agree with Furuli's conclusions regarding the status of the wayyiqtol as an imperfective form, his well-argued thesis contributes towards advancing methodology in Hebrew scholarship." Old Testament lecturer David Kummerow stated that Furuli's research "has gone astray in that his methodology has assumed too much", adding that "the value of Furuli's research is not to be found in his 'new understanding' but rather in the helpful extended cataloguing of non-prototypical and construction-dependent functions of the verbal conjugations of [biblical Hebrew]". Professor John A. Kaltner said: Semantic considerations have long dominated in treatments of the Hebrew verbal system, and Furuli's call to take into account pragmatic factors is an important one that is worth considering. How his alternative model will be received remains to be seen, but at the very least his work might encourage some to think of more than just semantics when trying to understand the Hebrew verb.

Furuli was a Jehovah's Witness and served as an elder for 56 years, also holding positions as a circuit overseer and a district overseer.

In 2020, Furuli published a book entitled My Beloved Religion—and the Governing Body in which he maintains that the denomination's core doctrines and interpretations of biblical chronology are correct, but challenges the authority of the Jehovah's Witnesses' leadership. Furuli argued that recent Watch Tower publications rely less on scholarly biblical analysis and more on subjective interpretation. He also criticized the organization's centralization of control over congregation real estate, construction, and financial management. Subsequently, on 17 June 2020 he was disfellowshipped from the denomination.

Furuli has defended the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses, including their view that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC rather than the broadly recognised dating of its destruction in 587 BC. In response, in a 2004 issue of Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Lester L. Grabbe, professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull, said of Furuli's study: "Once again we have an amateur who wants to rewrite scholarship.... F. shows little evidence of having put his theories to the test with specialists in Mesopotamian astronomy and Persian history."

Furuli has written works about Bible translation and biblical issues. He has translated a number of documents from Semitic languages and Sumerian into Norwegian.

• (362 pages). • (504 pages).

* *

• (translated from Akkadian into Norwegian). • (translated from Ge'ez into Norwegian) • (translated from Hebrew and Aramaic into Norwegian) • (translated from Sumerian into Norwegian) • (translated from Ge'ez into Norwegian) • (translated from Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Hebrew into Norwegian)