Dr. Joel M. Hoffman graduated from Brandeis University summa cum laude, with departmental honors, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He spent a year studying and teaching at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, and then earned a PhD in linguistics from the University of Maryland at College Park, one of the nation's top programs. A pioneer of applying modern translation techniques to ancient languages, Dr. Hoffman has taught translation and other classes at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and HUC-JIR in New York City, as well as at conferences around the world.

He is a popular speaker who has been invited to appear before audiences on all six inhabitable continents (and would welcome inquiries from Antarctica so he can complete the set).

He is fluent in English and Modern Hebrew and can converse, to varying degrees, in another 11 languages.

He has spoken (in English) about ancient texts on the History Channel and written for the print edition of the Jerusalem Post and the on-line Huffington Post.

His first book, the critically-acclaimed In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (NYU Press) continues to sell (in paperback) 17 years after its publication. His three books for Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press — variously about translation, ancient texts, and the Bible — apply his expertise in translating ancient languages to the world's best-selling ancient literature: the Bible and related texts. He is the chief translator for the ten-volume series My People's Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award), the two-volume My People's Passover Haggadah, and the seven-volume Prayers of Awe series, all from Jewish Lights Publishing. Dr. Hoffman's essays appear in over 20 printed volumes.

When not writing or teaching, Dr. Hoffman usually has a camera in his hand. He lives in Westchester, NY.