James C. VanderKam earned his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1976. He taught at North Carolina State University from 1976 to 1991, at which time he accepted a position at the University of Notre Dame where he remained until 2016. There he was the John A. O'Brien Professor of Hebrew Scriptures. Beginning in 1989, he was a member of the team of scholars appointed to publish the Dead Sea Scrolls and participated in the publication of thirteen volumes in the "Discoveries in the Judaean Desert" series. In 2021 he was the president of the Society of Biblical Literature.