Bruce Malina

Bruce John Malina (Brooklyn, New York, 9 October 1933) is an American biblical scholar associated with The Context Group. Among Bruce Malina's studies are gender roles in the New Testament world.

Malina has recently come under fire for his controversial views on the Israel/Palestine conflict and how this has influenced his scholarship. On the one hand, it is claimed that he takes a firm stance against the modern state of Israel, going as far as to deny the Semitic ancestry of modern Israelis; on the other hand, critics say that Malina often ends up buying into Zionist discourses on the meaning of the term ‘Jew’ or ‘Judean’ (hoi ioudaioi), arguing that it refers to 'the land'.