 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2024) |
William C. Varner is an American biblical scholar. He is Professor of Biblical Studies & Greek at The Master's University.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2024) |
William C. Varner is an American biblical scholar. He is Professor of Biblical Studies & Greek at The Master's University.
Varner studied at Bob Jones University, B.A.; Dropsie College, M.A.;Biblical Theological Seminary, M.Div; Th.M.; and Temple University, Ed.D. . [1]
He and his wife, Helen, have had three children and four grandchildren. He grew up in South Carolina in a non-Christian home and became a Christian at the age of 17. He attended Bob Jones University and then graduated from the Biblical Theological Seminary in 1972. Will was a pastor in Pennsylvania for seven years, and during that time earned another masters degree in New Testament and had his first trip to Israel. He then served for seventeen years with The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry in New Jersey while earning a third masters degree in Jewish Studies at Dropsie College and then a doctorate at Temple University in Philadelphia.
In 1996, Varner took a position at The Master’s University, where he teaches Bible exposition courses and Greek Exegesis. He was also the Director of IBEX, the college’s overseas campus in Israel, for over twenty years, and has led 51 study trips to the land of Israel. He pastored the Sojourners Fellowship at Grace Community Church for twenty-three years. Currently he teaches the Bereans Class at Grace Baptist Church. Varner is the author of over twenty books, both for laymen and scholars, and dozens of journal articles. His most significant scholarly efforts are a 450-page commentary on James, published by Fontes Press, and a new translation and introduction to the Apostolic Fathers, published by T&T Clark.
Varner was a recipient of a Festschrift published in his honor in 2021, titled Written for Our Instruction: Essays in Honor of William Varner and published by Fontes Press.
Most recently Varner and his pastor, David Hegg, are collaborating on a Life of the Messiah with Matthew as the primary source, illustrated with images by Todd Bolen.
1. The Chariot of Israel: Exploits of the Prophet Elijah, 1984.
2. Jacob's Dozen: The Tribes of Israel in History and Prophecy, 1987.
3. How Jewish is Christianity?, Zondervan, 2003.
4. The Messiah: Revealed, Rejected, Received, AuthorHouse, 2004.
5. Ancient Jewish-Christian Dialogues: Athanasius and Zacchaeus, Simon and Theophilus, Timothy and Aquila, Edwin Mellen Press, 2005.
6. The Way of the Didache: The First Christian Handbook, University Press of America, 2007.
7. A Discourse Analysis of the Letter of James, 2011, 2017.
8. Awake O Harp: Devotional Commentary on Psalms, 2012, 2017.
9. James: A Devotional Commentary, Kindle Publishing, 2017.
10. James: A Commentary on the Greek Text, Fontes Press, 2017.
11. Philippians: An Exegetical Commentary, Fontes Press, 2021.
12. To Preach or Not to Preach: Women’s Ministry Then and Now, Kindle Publishing, 2018.
13. Commentary on 2 Clement, Wipf and Stock, 2020
14. Passionate About the Passion Week, Fontes Press, 2020.
15. Anticipating the Advent, Fontes Press, 2020
16. Messiah’s Ministry, Fontes Press, 2021
17. Co-author of Big Greek Idea, Commentary on James, Kregel 2022
18. The Legacy Standard Bible, Translator, 316 Publishers, 2022.
19. Handbook on Praying Scripture from the Legacy Standard Bible, 316 Publishers, 2023. Leather edition, 2024.
20. The Preacher and the Song: Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, Fontes Press, 2023
21. The Apostolic Fathers: An Introduction and Translation, T&T Clark, 2023.
22. Matthew's Messiah: His Jewish Life and Ministry, 316 Publishers, forthcoming, 2025.
1 “Baptism in Various Theological Traditions,” Baptist Reformation Review, 1975.
2. Around one hundred articles in Israel My Glory, 1979–2003.
3. “The Magi and the Star,” Voice Magazine, 1991.
4. “The Influence of Cabala on Christian Hermeneutics,” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 1997.
5. “Do We Need Messianic Jewish Synagogues?” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 2003.
6. “The Didache’s Use of the Old and New Testaments,” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 2005.
7. “What the Teaching Can Teach Us,” Christianity Today, June, 2006.
8. “A Discourse Analysis of Matthew’s Nativity Narrative,” Tyndale Bulletin, 58.2, 2007.
9. “In the Wake of Trypho: Jewish-Christian Dialogues in the Early Centuries,” Evangelical Quarterly, July, 2008.
10. “The Didache Apocalypse and Matthew 24,” Bibliotheca Sacra, 2008.
11. “Theme and Structure of James” in The Masters Seminary Journal, 2010.
12. “The Didache as a Christian Enchiridion” in Christian Origins in Greco-Roman Culture, Brill, 2012.
13. “On the Trail of Trypho: Two Jewish-Christian Dialogues from the Ancient Church,” in Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Brill, 2012.
14. “A Majority Text Reading in James 3:3” Journal of Graeco-Roman Christianity and Judaism.
15. A couple dozen book reviews in various journals and periodicals (1996–2023).
16. Around a dozen additional articles in popular Christian magazines (1976–2012).
17. “From Baur to Bauer and Beyond: Early Jewish Christianity” (chapter in book, Wipf and Stock, 2014)
18. “Who is Resisting in James 5:6?” Chapter in Festschrift for David Black, 2018
19. “The Seed and Schaeffer” chapter in What Happened in the Garden?, Kregel, 2016.
20. “Does James Have a Theology?” Dialogismos, 2018.
21. Chapter on “Noah’s Sons” in Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy, 2019.
22. “Thinking Biblically About James,” Masters University, 2020 (videos)
23. “Philippians” in Daily Greek Devotional: 365 Devotions, Jared August, ed., 2023.
24. “Passion Week Devotionals,” Focus on the Family, April, 2023.
25. “Praying Scripture When It Hurts,” Focus on the Family, May 2023.
26. "Don't Lecture. Preach!" Focus on the Family, July 2023.
27. “Can Papyri Help Us Understand Paul’s ‘Large Letters’ in Galatians?” in Paratextual Features of Early NT Manuscripts. Brill, 2023.
28. “Was James the First Pope?” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Fall 2023.
29. “Apostolic Fathers” in Oxford Bibliographies. With Clayton N. Jefford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.
30. "The Land of the Bible" Videos, Center for Thinking Biblically, The Master's University, 2023.
31. “Fragments of Papias” chapter in Apostolic Fathers book, Zondervan, forthcoming.
32. "Philo" chapter in Ancient Literature and the NT, Wipf & Stock, forthcoming.
33. Introduction to AT Robertson’s Commentary on James, Fontes, forthcoming.
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.
Supersessionism, also called replacement theology, is the Christian doctrine that the Christian Church has superseded the Jewish people, assuming their role as God's covenanted people, thus asserting that the New Covenant through Jesus Christ has superseded or replaced the Mosaic covenant. Supersessionists hold that the universal Church has become God's true Israel and so Christians, whether Jew or gentile, are the people of God.
The Nativity or birth of JesusChrist is documented in the biblical gospels of Luke and Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Roman-controlled Judea, that his mother, Mary, was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was descended from King David and was not his biological father, and that his birth was caused by divine intervention. Some scholars do not see the two canonical gospel Nativity stories as historically factual since they present clashing accounts and irreconcilable genealogies. The secular history of the time does not synchronize with the narratives of the birth and early childhood of Jesus in the two gospels. Some view the question of historicity as secondary, given that gospels were primarily written as theological documents rather than chronological timelines.
The Epistle of Barnabas is an early Christian Greek epistle written between AD 70 and 132. The complete text is preserved in the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, where it appears at the end of the New Testament, following the Book of Revelation and before the Shepherd of Hermas. For several centuries, it was one of the "antilegomena" ("disputed") writings that some Christians looked at as sacred scripture, while others excluded them. Eusebius of Caesarea classified it with excluded texts. It is mentioned in a perhaps third-century list in the sixth-century Codex Claromontanus and in the later Stichometry of Nicephorus appended to the ninth-century Chronography of Nikephoros I of Constantinople. Some early Fathers of the Church ascribed it to the Barnabas mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is now generally attributed to an otherwise unknown early Christian teacher. It is distinct from the Gospel of Barnabas.
The Council of Jerusalem or Apostolic Council is a council described in chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles, held in Jerusalem c. 48–50 AD.
Walter Brueggemann is an American Protestant Old Testament scholar and theologian who is widely considered one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last several decades. His work often focuses on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and sociopolitical imagination of the Church. He argues that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant forces of consumerism, militarism, and nationalism.
Meredith George Kline was an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology.
Redemptive-historical preaching is a method of preaching that emerged from the Reformed churches of the Netherlands in the early 1940s. The debate concerned itself with the question: "How are we to preach the historical narratives of the Bible?"
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.
The books of the New Testament frequently cite Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. Scholars have observed that few of these citations are actual predictions in context; the majority of these quotations and references are taken from the prophetic Book of Isaiah, but they range over the entire corpus of Jewish writings.
Mariano Di Gangi was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
Roy Alvin Harrisville II was an American Lutheran theologian who wrote extensively on the interpretation of the New Testament.
James Burrell Jordan is an American Protestant theologian and author. He is the director of Biblical Horizons ministries, an organisation in Niceville, Florida that publishes books, essays and other media dealing with Bible commentary, Biblical theology, and liturgy. It adheres to biblical absolutism including Young Earth Creationism and is committed to the concept of biblical theocracy.
Peter Eric Enns is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament interpretation. Outside of his academic work Enns is a contributor to HuffPost and Patheos. He has also worked with Francis Collins' The BioLogos Foundation. His book Inspiration and Incarnation challenged conservative/mainstream Evangelical methods of biblical interpretation. His book The Evolution of Adam questions the belief that Adam was a historical figure. He also wrote The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It and The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our 'Correct' Beliefs.
Grenville J. R. Kent is an Australian academic, film producer, author, and Christian communicator. He is the producer of Big Questions, a forthcoming documentary series examining faith, and the "10 Questions for God" series of booklets. He has earned a PhD from the University of Manchester, England, and a D.Min from the Australian College of Theology, and taught Cultural Apologetics (Arts/Theology) and Old Testament at the Wesley Institute in Sydney.
Loren T. Stuckenbruck is a historian of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism, currently professor of New Testament at the University of Munich, in Germany. His work has exerted a significant impact on the field.
Craig Alan Blaising is the former executive vice president and provost of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Blaising earned a Doctor of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a Master of Theology Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a recognized authority in patristic studies and eschatology and is one of the primary proponents of "progressive dispensationalism."
Paul R. House is an American Old Testament scholar, author, and seminary professor who served as 2012 president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He was professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, an interdenominational seminary in Birmingham, Alabama, until his retirement in May 2023.
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.
Michael J. Gorman is an American New Testament scholar. He is the Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary's Seminary and University, where he has taught since 1991. From 1995 to 2012 he was dean of St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute.