Paul Lawrence studied Akkadian, Hebrew and Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Liverpool where he earned his PhD for his work on the relationship of Assyrian generals to the king. In 1984 he worked in northern Iraq on an archaeological dig by the banks of the Tigris River just north of ancient Nineveh. He also worked for several years with the Turkish Bible Society in Istanbul on a translation of the Old Testament into modern Turkish. He is currently working on Bible translations for SIL International and is the author of The Books of Moses Revisited.