Eric Ottenheijm (Sittard, 1961) studied Theology and Talmudic Studies at the Catholic Theological University in Amsterdam, under the guidance of Rabbi Prof. Yehuda Aschkenasy and Dr. Chana Safrai. He received his Master degree in 1993. Between 1993 and 2002 he worked as Study Manager for the Catholic Council for Israel, the Dutch national organisation for Christian-Jewish relations in the Roman Catholic Church, in which position he also advised the Dutch Bishop Conference. In 2004 he obtained his PhD at the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht (now TST of the Tilburg University) with a (Dutch) study on Halakhic Disputes between the Pharisaic Houses of Hillel and Shammai, e.g. the role of Intention in Sabbath and Purity Issues, under the guidance of profs. Judith Frishman and Pieter W. van der Horst.
From 1993 onwards he has taught Judaism and Biblical Exegesis at the Fontys Hogescholen, and Judaism and Aramaic Literature at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2001 Ottenheijm has taught at Utrecht University, where he was appointed as a fulltime Assistant Professor in 2009, and as an Associate Professor in 2021. In 2013 he received a Research Grant from NWO for a project on the comparative study of Synoptic and Rabbinic parables (Parables and the Partings of the Ways, 2013-2020). Ottenheijm mainly publishes in the field of Rabbinic Literature and the New Testament (Matthew), including the material culture of the Galilee, but ia active as well in the field of Jewish-Christian Relations in the Netherlands.