James R. Edwards | |
---|---|
Born | 1945 (age 78–79) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | New Testament scholar |
Title | Professor Emeritus of Theology |
Awards | Templeton Grant in Science and Religion (1996); recipient of Deutsche Akademische Austausch Dienst Award (1993) |
Academic background | |
Education | Whitworth University, Princeton Theological Seminary, University of Zürich, University of Tübingen |
Alma mater | Fuller Theological Seminary (PhD) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Biblical studies |
Sub-discipline | NT studies |
Institutions | Whitworth University |
Notable works | The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition (2009) |
James R. Edwards (born 1945) is an American New Testament scholar. [1] His primary research interests include Biblical studies and the history of the early church [ broken anchor ],with secondary interests in the Reformation and history of the twentieth-century German Church struggle. After gaining degrees from Whitworth University (B.A.),Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div.),and Fuller Theological Seminary (Ph.D.),and further study at the University of Zurich and the University of Tübingen,Tyndale House (Cambridge),and the Center of Theological Inquiry (Princeton),in 1997 he joined the faculty at Whitworth University,Spokane,Washington. He continues his work as Professor Emeritus of Theology. [2]
In 2009,Edwards advanced a controversial theory that the synoptic Gospels are partly dependent on the "Hebrew Gospel",which includes the Gospel of the Hebrews,a syncretistic Jewish–Christian text believed by most scholars to have been composed in Koine Greek,the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis of Lessing and others,and traditions of a writing of Matthew's supposed to have been written by him “in the Hebrew language”(Papias) and Hebrew Gospel of Matthew,1385,a rabbinical translation of Matthew's gospel.[ clarification needed ] [3] [4] [5] Edwards argues that patristic citations from "the Hebrew Gospel" correlate more distinctly and repeatedly with sections called "Special Luke" in the Gospel of Luke than with either the Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of Mark. [6]
Two separate reviews were published by the Society of Biblical Literature in which the reviewers were not convinced of Edwards' thesis. [7] [8] John S. Kloppenborg also reviewed Edwards' thesis negatively. [9]
Edwards also rejects the modern division,by Schneemelcher and others,of the Jewish-Christian Gospels' fragments into three or more separate lost Gospels.
The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people but is rejected by them and how, after his resurrection, he sends the disciples to the gentiles instead. Matthew wishes to emphasize that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile. The gospel reflects the struggles and conflicts between the evangelist's community and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes and Pharisees with the position that through their rejection of Christ, the Kingdom of God has been taken away from them and given instead to the church.
Gospel originally meant the Christian message, but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words and deeds of Jesus, culminating in his trial and death and concluding with various reports of his post-resurrection appearances. Modern biblical scholars are cautious of relying on the gospels uncritically, but nevertheless, they provide a good idea of the public career of Jesus, and critical study can attempt to distinguish the original ideas of Jesus from those of the later Christian authors.
M source, which is sometimes referred to as M document, or simply M, comes from the M in "Matthean material". It is a hypothetical textual source for the Gospel of Matthew. M Source is defined as that 'special material' of the Gospel of Matthew that is neither Q source nor Mark.
Robert Horton Gundry is an American scholar and retired professor of New Testament studies and Koine Greek.
Craig L. Blomberg is an American New Testament scholar. He is currently the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the New Testament at Denver Seminary in Colorado where he has been since 1986. His area of academic expertise is the New Testament,including subjects relating to parables, miracles, the historical Jesus, Luke-Acts, John, 1 Corinthians, James, the historical trustworthiness of Scripture, financial stewardship, gender roles, the Latter Day Saint movement, hermeneutics, New Testament theology, and exegetical methods. Blomberg has written and edited multiple books.
Donald Arthur Carson is a Canadian evangelical theologian. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and president and co-founder of the Gospel Coalition. He has written or edited about sixty books and served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2022.
Leon Lamb Morris was an Australian New Testament scholar and theologian.
Richard John Bauckham is an English Anglican scholar in theology, historical theology and New Testament studies, specialising in New Testament Christology and the Gospel of John. He is a senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.
Bruce K. Waltke is an American Reformed evangelical professor of Old Testament and Hebrew. He has held professorships in the Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Scot McKnight is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, and author who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity and Christian living. He is currently the Julius R. Mantey Chair of New Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lisle, Illinois, but announced in January 2024 that he would leave the faculty by the end of the academic year, due to allegations of mismanagement in Northern.
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The historical reliability of the Gospels is evaluated by experts who have not reached complete consensus. While all four canonical gospels contain some sayings and events that may meet at least one of the five criteria for historical reliability used in biblical studies, the assessment and evaluation of these elements is a matter of ongoing debate.
Simon James Gathercole is a United Kingdom New Testament scholar, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, and Director of Studies at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Craig S. Keener is an American Protestant theologian, Biblical scholar and professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.
The Q source (also called The Sayings Gospel, Q Gospel, Q document(s), or Q; from German: Quelle, meaning "source") is a written collection of primarily Jesus' sayings (λόγια, logia). Q is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke but not in the Gospel of Mark. According to this hypothesis, this material was drawn from the early Church's oral gospel traditions.
In textual criticism of the New Testament, the L source is a hypothetical oral or textual tradition which the author of Luke–Acts may have used when composing the Gospel of Luke.
The Hebrew Gospel hypothesis is that a lost gospel, written in Hebrew or Aramaic, predated the four canonical gospels. In the 18th and early 19th century several scholars suggested that a Hebrew proto-gospel was the main source or one of several sources for the canonical gospels. This theorizing would later give birth to the two source-hypothesis that views Q as a proto-gospel but believes this proto-gospel to have been written in Koine Greek. After the wide-spread scholarly acceptance of the two-source hypothesis scholarly interest in the Hebrew gospel hypothesis dwindled. Modern variants of the Hebrew gospel hypothesis survive, but have not found favor with scholars as a whole.
Peter Hugh Davids is a Canadian New Testament scholar and Catholic priest. He retired as Professor of Christianity at Houston Baptist University. He has also taught biblical studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Trinity (Episcopal) School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary is a series of commentaries in English on the New Testament. It is published by the William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Stanley P. Saunders is a New Testament scholar, whose particular research interest includes eschatology, creation and the Gospel of Matthew. He is also involved in issues of social justice particularly pertaining to the American criminal justice system and creation care.