Harold W. Attridge | |
---|---|
Born | Harold William Attridge November 24, 1946 |
Nationality | American |
Title | Dean of Yale Divinity School (2002–2012) |
Spouse | Jan Farren |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | The Presentation of Biblical History in the "Antiquitates Judaicae" of Flavius Josephus (1975) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Biblical studies History of Christianity |
Sub-discipline | New Testament studies History of early Christianity |
Institutions | |
Doctoral students | Andrew McGowan |
Harold William Attridge (born November 24,1946) is an American New Testament scholar and historian of Christianity best known for his work in New Testament exegesis,especially the Epistle to the Hebrews,the study of Hellenistic Judaism,and the history of early Christianity. [1] He is a Sterling Professor of Divinity at Yale University,where he served as Dean of the Divinity School from 2002 to 2012. [2]
Attridge received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College (1967),Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Cambridge (1969,1973),which he attended as a Marshall Scholar,and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University (1974). He also studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972–73. [3]
After a three-year term in the Harvard Society of Fellows,Attridge taught at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University (1977–1985) and the University of Notre Dame (1985–1997),where he also served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. In 1997 he moved to Yale Divinity School,where he was named the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament. [3] He was Dean of the Divinity School from 2002 to 2012,the first Catholic in the role. He later returned to his position as a Sterling Professor.
Attridge was president of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2001 and of the Catholic Biblical Association in 2011–2012. [4] He serves on multiple editorial boards and was a fellow of the Jesus Seminar. [5] In 2015,he was elected to the American Academy of Arts &Sciences. [6] Yale Divinity School has established a named scholarship fund in honor of Attridge and his wife,Janice. [7]
The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures, some, all, or a variant of which are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, Islam, the Baha'i Faith, and other Abrahamic religions. The Bible is an anthology originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. The texts include instructions, stories, poetry, prophecies, and other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text varies.
The Septuagint, sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy, and often abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Hebrew. The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus by seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.
The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extant Christian documents. They provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of early Christianity. As part of the canon of the New Testament, they are foundational texts for both Christian theology and ethics.
Johannine literature is the collection of New Testament works that are traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, or to the Johannine community. They are usually dated to the period c. AD 60–110, with a minority of scholars, including Anglican bishop John Robinson, offering the earliest of these datings.
James McConkey Robinson was an American scholar who retired as Professor Emeritus of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, specializing in New Testament Studies and Nag Hammadi Studies. He was a member of the Jesus Seminar and arguably the most prominent Q and Nag Hammadi library scholar of the twentieth century. He was also a major contributor to The International Q Project, acting as an editor for most of their publications. Particularly, he laid the groundwork for John S. Kloppenborg's foundational work into the compositional history of Q, by arguing its genre as an ancient wisdom collection. He also was the permanent secretary of UNESCO's International Committee for the Nag Hammadi codices. He is known for his work on the Medinet Madi library, a collection of Coptic Manichaean manuscripts.
John D. Turner was the Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and Charles J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History Classics & Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska. He was well known for his translations of the Nag Hammadi library.
Luke Timothy Johnson is an American Catholic New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
Birger A. Pearson is an American scholar and professor studying early Christianity and Gnosticism. He currently holds the positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley.
Jon Douglas Levenson is an American Hebrew Bible scholar who is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at the Harvard Divinity School.
The most widespread belief among Archeologist and Historical scholars is that the origins of Judaism lie in Bronze Age polytheistic Canaanite religion. Judaism also syncretized elements of other Semitic religions such as Babylonian religion, which is reflected in the early prophetic books of the Tanakh.
The Epistle to the Hebrews of the Christian Bible is one of the New Testament books whose canonicity was disputed. Traditionally, Paul the Apostle was thought to be the author. However, since the third century this has been questioned, and the consensus among most modern scholars is that the author is unknown.
Christopher M. Tuckett is a British biblical scholar and Anglican priest. He holds the Title of Distinction of Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Michael Edward Stone is a professor emeritus of Armenian Studies and of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research deals with Armenian studies and with Jewish literature and thought of the Second Temple period. He is also a published poet.
The term Johannine community refers to an ancient Christian community which placed great emphasis on the teachings of Jesus and his apostle John.
Adela Yarbro Collins is an American author and academic, who served as the Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School. Her research focuses on the New Testament, especially the Gospel of Mark and the Book of Revelation. She has also written on the reception of the Pauline epistles, early Christian apocalypticism, and ancient eschatology.
Pheme Perkins is a Professor of Theology at Boston College, where she has been teaching since 1972.
Carol Ann Newsom is an American biblical scholar, historian of ancient Judaism, and literary critic. She is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emerita of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology and a former senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. She is a leading expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom literature, and the Book of Daniel.
Hebrews 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author is anonymous, although the internal reference to "our brother Timothy", caused a traditional attribution to Paul. This attribution has been disputed since the second century, and there is no decisive evidence for the authorship. This closing chapter contains the author's concluding exhortations, final benediction and epistolary postscript.
Bernard Barc was a French lecturer and an author of the Bibliothèque Copte de Nag Hammadi (BCNH) volumes, as well as publications on the history of ancient Jewish hermeneutics.