Donald John Wiseman OBE FBA FSA (25 October 1918 – 2 February 2010)[1] was a biblical scholar, archaeologist and Assyriologist.

His father, Air Commodore P. J. Wiseman had travelled in the Middle East with the RAF and that had led to him writing a number of books on archaeology and the Bible.

[5] Wiseman came under the influence of the Crusaders, an evangelical Christian youth organisation, and professed faith at the age of nine, being baptised by full immersion in 1932.

"[7] Selman suggests that Wiseman's "basic thesis" regarding the Old Testament was that "the Bible makes most sense when it is interpreted in the light of its own Near Eastern cultural context.

Initially serving as personal assistant to Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park during the Battle of Britain,[1] he later transferred to military intelligence and in 1942 he became senior intelligence officer of the Mediterranean Allied Tactical Air Forces and accompanied the First Army in the race for Tunis, providing General Alexander with daily briefings on German military planning.

[5] After World War II, he read Oriental Languages at Wadham College, Oxford, studying Hebrew under Godfrey Driver and Akkadian under Oliver Gurney and obtaining a Master of Arts degree.

[1] Wiseman worked for four years at the British Museum deciphering cuneiform tablets excavated by Leonard Woolley at Alalakh in Syria.

[9] Wiseman questioned the traditional location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, suggesting that the site lay further west, by the river Euphrates, where the foundations of a massive tower had been discovered.

Brian Coless suggests that in doing this Wiseman "cut the Gordian knot" of "the intractable problem of identifying King Darius the Mede.

On his retirement, he was made an honorary member of the School of Oriental and African Studies and elected a fellow of King's College London.