In English

Name: Topias Tanskanen
E-mail: aamunvaloa [at] gmail [dot] com
Birth year: 1992
Interests: Faith, theology, Hebrew and other semitic languages, capoeira, disc golf, internet, games, music, writing, translating old and dusty texts
Favourite movies: Drunken Master, Tonari no Totoro, Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, Postman Blues, The Peanuts, Martial Arts movies
Favourite books: Dragonlance, The Earthsea, The Witcher, The Bible, The Alchemist, Siddhartha (Herman Hesse), Mika Waltari, JP Ahonen

Hi! I am a Postdoctoral Research of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament in Åbo Akademi University. Currently I am working with early Syriac reception history of the Book of Isaiah (mainly Aphrahat) within the project ”Isaiah between Judeo-Christian Borderlines,” which is funded by the Inez and Julius Polin Institute for Theological Reseasrch as well as the Academy of Finland. More on my academic research as well as the Open Access publications can be found and downloaded in the Åbo Akademi University Research Portal.

I succesfully defended my doctoral thesis ”Jacob, the Torah, and the Abrahamic Promise: Studies on the Use and Interpretation of the Jacob Story in the Book of Jubilees” in Åbo Akademi University in May 2023, with professor Loren T. Stuckenbruck serving as the opponent. The thesis was passed with honours. You can freely download it here. I am also preparing a Finnish translation of the Ethiopic Jubilees with introduction and commentary.

I study also at the University of Helsinki, majoring in Hebrew Language, with minors in Ancient Near East and Semitic Studies. I finished my Senior Secondary School spring 2011 in Tampere Arts-Oriented Senior Secondary School.

Faith in Christian God defines my life quite far, or at least I strive for it to define it. Theology, especially exegetics is a big interest of mine and teaching about christianity is another passion of mine.

One could also include video games to my list of passions. They have affected my childhood and youth quite much and are still a part of my life, thanks especially to Nintendo, Valve and BioWare.

A third important aspect in my life is disc golf (or frisbee golf, as is it called in Finnish). I eagerly look forward to opportunities to challenge myself in new courses here in Finland, but also abroad when possible.

Updated 20.06.2023