Ernest G. Clarke

Ernest George Clarke (1927–1997) was a theologian and an academic. He was born in Varna, Ontario, the son of Melvin E. McK. Clarke and Eva M. Epps. He married Ruth G. Hunt in 1951. They had four children, Ernest Paul, Margaret Jean, Patricia Helen and David William. He died in Toronto, Ontario.

Clarke received a B.A. in 1949 from Victoria College, University of Toronto, a B.D. in 1952 from Emmanuel College of Victoria University (Toronto), and a Ph.D. in 1962 from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. He was professor of Old Testament Studies at Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Ontario for several years and returned to Victoria College in 1961 as senior tutor and Professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto. Clarke achieved great distinction in Targumim scholarship (Aramaic version of “Old Testament” books), was President of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (1967–68), a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, Acting Principal of Victoria College (1988–89), Acting Director of the Graduate Centre for Religious Studies at the University of Toronto (1989–90), and Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Victoria College. He was a member of the International Organization for the Study of Targums and the International Society for the Study of the Old Testament.

Clarke published many books, articles and reviews, including: The Selected Questions of Isho’ Bar Nun (1962), Wisdom of Solomon (1972), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch: Text and Concordance (1984), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Numbers, Translated with Notes (1995).