James Muilenburg (1 June 1896 – 10 May 1974) was a pioneer in the field of rhetorical criticism of the Old Testament.

Muilenburg was born in Orange City, Iowa, and studied at Hope College, the University of Nebraska, and Yale University.^[1] He taught at Mt. Holyoke College and the University of Maine before successive appointments as Billings Professor of Old Testament literature and Semitic Languages at the Pacific School of Religion (1936-1945), Davenport Professor of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages at Union Theological Seminary (1945-1963), and Gray Professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary (1963-1972).^[2]

Muilenburg was also one of the original translators of the Revised Standard Version.^[2]

Muilenburg had two Festschriften published in his honor: Israel's Prophetic Heritage : Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (1962) and Rhetorical Criticism : Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (1974). Contributors to the former included Walther Eichrodt, G. Ernest Wright, Martin Noth, and H. H. Rowley; while contributors to the latter included Walter Brueggemann, and Norman Gottwald.