Drayton Benner
Miklal was founded by Drayton Benner, who also serves as its president. Benner studied mathematics and computer science as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia and worked full-time doing research and development work in scientific software for a number of years before being drawn to Biblical Studies and Semitics. Benner obtained a Master’s degree from Regent College (Vancouver, BC, Canada) in Old Testament and Master’s and PhD degrees in Northwest Semitic Philology from the University of Chicago’s Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Department.
Among ancient languages, Benner has studied Hebrew (Biblical, Inscriptional, Qumran, Tannaitic), Aramaic (Old, Imperial, Biblical, Targumic), Ugaritic, Transjordanian dialects (Moabite, Edomite, Ammonite), Phoenician, Punic, Akkadian, Arabic (Koranic, Classical), and Greek (Classical, Koine). Among modern languages, Benner has studied French, Spanish, and German.
Benner had extensive experience both in scientific software development and also in Bible software before founding Miklal. He has both published and presented at academic conferences on biblical studies, computer science, and the intersection between the two.
James Covington
James studied Classics and German as an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas and then Applied Linguistics at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (Dallas, Texas). Covington received his PhD in Religion (Bible) from the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he also earned his MA degree.
Covington is primarily interested in Septuagint Studies, but more broadly the Greek Bible and its interpretation. His interest in studying the Bible in its original languages stems from a two-part fascination with the Jewish and Christian scriptures and language itself. He has extensive experience working in a few languages (German, Bulgarian, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew) and various levels of experience and competency in a number of others (Aramaic, Spanish, French, Arabic, Macedonian, Mandarin).
Covington fills a variety of supporting roles at Miklal involving the intersection of biblical studies and technology.
Andrew Zulker
Andrew holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies (Comparative Semitics) from the University of Chicago and A.B. in Linguistics from Dartmouth College. His academic research focuses on sentence structure, the verbal system, and words for ‘and’ in the Semitic languages.
At Miklal, Andrew mainly works on Biblical Hebrew, Koiné Greek, and English language projects. In addition to his involvement with Miklal, he has worked with Bible translation teams in francophone and anglophone Africa.