The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition (2009)
James Robert Edwards (born 1945) is an American theologian and New Testament scholar. His primary research interests are in New Testament studies,with complementary interests in the Old Testament,early church history,and nineteenth- and twentieth-century German theology.
Edwards graduated from Whitworth University (B.A.,1967) and Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div.,1970). He studied New Testament at the University of Zürich in 1970–71 under Eduard Schweizer. From 1971 to 1978,while serving as Minister of Students at First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs,he completed his Ph.D. at Fuller Theological Seminary (1978) under Ralph P. Martin on The Son of God. Its Antecedents in Judaism and Hellenism,and Its Use in the Earliest Gospel.
Career
From 1978 to 1997,Edwards taught religion and chaired the Department of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Jamestown in North Dakota. He was inducted into the North Dakota Humanities Council in 1983 for research on the Holocaust. In 1988 he undertook a research sabbatical at the University of Tübingen in Germany,and in 1993 he received a grant from the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst to study the disappearance and death of Professor Ernst Lohmeyer.
In 1997,Edwards joined the faculty of Whitworth University in Spokane,Washington,as Professor of Theology;in 2010 he became the inaugural occupant of the Bruner–Welch Endowed Chair of Theology. While at Whitworth he was Senior Scholar in Residence at Tyndale House,Cambridge (2000);a Member of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton (2007);and a Research Scholar at the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz,Dahlem–Berlin (2016). In connection with his interests in biblical studies and early Christianity he has traveled widely,both individually and with student groups,in Germany,Greece,Turkey,and Israel. He retired from Whitworth in 2015 and resides in Manitou Springs,Colorado.
Honors and service
Edwards received teaching-excellence awards at both Jamestown and Whitworth. He has served on the editorial boards of Christianity Today,the Scottish Journal of Theology,and Theology Matters. He is a recipient of a Templeton Grant in Science and Religion (1996). His book Is Jesus the Only Savior? received Christianity Today's Book of the Year award in apologetics and evangelism (2006). Between 1970 and 1990 he frequently participated as leader and translator for church visitations in former East Germany. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister and a regular speaker in church,conference,and academic settings.
Personal life
Edwards has enjoyed skiing and mountaineering;in 2003 he ascended the Mittellegi Ridge of the Eiger in Switzerland with his son,Mark. He and his wife,Jane,are the parents of two grown children,a daughter,Corrie,and a son,Mark.
Selected works
Books
In the Beginning:A Commentary on Genesis and Its Reception in the New Testament (Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdmans,2026).
From Christ to Christianity:How the Jesus Movement Became the Church in Less than a Century (Grand Rapids:Baker Academic,2021). Translated into Korean,2022.
Between the Swastika and the Sickle:The Life,Disappearance,and Execution of Ernst Lohmeyer (Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdmans,2019). German translation:Zwischen Hakenkreuz und Sichel. Das bewegte Leben Ernst Lohmeyers (1890–1946) (Göttingen:Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht,2023).
The Gospel According to Luke (Pillar New Testament Commentary;Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdmans,2015). Translated into Portuguese (Shedd Publicações,2019) and Korean (Revival and Reformation Press,2019).
The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition (Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdmans,2009).
Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdmans,2005).
The Gospel According to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary;Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdmans,2002). Translated into Korean (Revival and Reformation Press,2018) and Portuguese (Shedd Publicações,2018).
The Divine Intruder:When God Breaks into Your Life (Colorado Springs:NavPress,2000). Republished (Eugene,OR:Wipf and Stock,2017).
Romans (New International Biblical Commentary,vol. 6;Peabody:Hendrickson,1992). Republished in Baker Books’Understanding the Bible Commentary series (Grand Rapids:Baker,2011). Translated into Korean (Scripture Union Press,2023).
The Layman’s Overview of the Bible (co-authored;Nashville:Thomas Nelson,1987). Reprinted as Nelson’s Student Bible Handbook (eds. George W. Knight and James R. Edwards;Nashville:Thomas Nelson,2007).
Articles and chapters
“Martyrium:Gesetztes Ziel in Lohmeyers Theologie,Erreichtes Ziel in seiner Biographie,”in Ernst Lohmeyer. Beiträge zu Leben und Werk,ed. Christfried Böttrich (Greifswalder Theologische Forschungen 28;Leipzig:Evangelische Verlagsanstalt,2018),143–49.
“The Rider on the White Horse,the Thigh Inscription,and Apollo:Revelation 19:16,”Journal of Biblical Literature 137/2 (2018):517–534.
“Parallels and Patterns Between Luke and Acts,”Bulletin for Biblical Research 27/4 (2017):485–501.
“Archaeology Gives New Reality to Paul’s Ephesus Riot,”Biblical Archaeology Review 42/4 (July–August 2016):26–34,63.
“‘Public Theology’in Luke-Acts:The Witness of the Gospel to Powers and Authorities,”New Testament Studies 62/2 (2016):227–52.
Commentary on the Gospel of Mark,in Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays (eds.),The Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary (Grand Rapids:Baker Books,2019).
Commentary on the Gospel of Mark,in G. Burge and A. Hill (eds.),The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids:Baker Books,2012),1007–55.
“Galatians 5:12:Circumcision,the Mother Goddess,and the Scandal of the Cross,”Novum Testamentum 53/4 (2011):319–37.
“The Hermeneutical Significance of Chapter Divisions in Ancient Gospel Manuscripts,”New Testament Studies 56/3 (2010):413–26.
“Markan Sandwiches:The Significance of Interpolations in Markan Narratives,”Novum Testamentum 31/3 (1989):193–216. Reprinted in The Composition of Mark’s Gospel,Brill’s Readers in Biblical Studies 3,compiled by David E. Orton (Leiden:Brill,1999),192–215.
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