Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL) - Department of Biblical and Theological Studies

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Gene Green

Professor of New Testament
On faculty since 1996

Office: BGC 217
Phone: (630) 752-5283
Email: Gene.L.Green@wheaton.edu

Education

Ph.D. University of Aberdeen in Scotland, 1980 (New Testament Exegesis)

Professional and Personal Interests

My thirteen years spent in Latin America ( Dominican Republic and Costa Rica) before coming to Wheaton provided abundant opportunity to learn how to read another culture. The first hurdle was learning survival skills in the new environs. How do buses work? Where do I get our bills? How do I go about paying them? How can we avoid getting parasites? The multitude of adjustments to the material (and microbic) culture provided constant adventures. The next valley was learning the language. Ten months of intensive daily training were just enough to bring me up to a basic level of comprehension. After gaining sufficient proficiency to understand most conversations, newspapers and broadcasts, a whole new world of confusion opened up. I could not understand the humor. Historical allusions were opaque. Reactions to some comments mystified me. My life became a repeated refrain from a Dylan tune, "There's something happening here and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" Poco a poco, with a little help from my friends who served as informants, I was able to crawl into the culture and begin to understand its intricacies. The moments of understanding were thrilling as each new piece of the complex mosaic fell in place. To understand meant more than learning where the post office was and finding the correct words and grammar to ask for a stamp. And now I come to Scripture, fully aware of how difficult it is to understand. I am overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of hearing the message across the temporal, geographic, linguistic and cultural gulf that stands between me and the authors and first readers/hearers. I also wonder how my understanding of Scripture is informed theologically by the people of God who have interacted with these texts for thousands of years. They have left an interpretive heritage. Moreover, I am aware that I am part of a global church which has become self-theologizing. Interpretation is not something that is undertaken solely in the West and exported to the rest. Listening to African, Asian and Latin interpreters raises new questions and makes me aware of how my own social location and perspectives influence my reading. The business of biblical interpretation is humbling, laborious and frustrating. Yet God speaks to us in his Word as he did back then, through history, and around the globe.

Courses Taught

BITH 111 Theology of Culture
BITH 213 New Testament Literature and Interpretation
BITH 356 1 Corinthians
BITH 359 1 Peter
BITH 325/371/524 Biblical Interpretation and Hermeneutics
BITH 451 Greek Exegesis - 1 and 2 Thessalonians
BITH 451 Greek Exegesis - 1-2 Peter and Jude
BITH 458 Acts of the Apostles
BITH 469 Luke
BITH 469/546 1 Thessalonians
BITH 469/546 2 Thessalonians
BITH 469/546 1, 2 Peter and Jude
BITH 494 Senior Seminar (Integrative capstone on Global Christianity; also on The Family)
BITH 551 Greco-Roman Backgrounds of the New Testament
BITH 564 Principles of Interpretation (Hermeneutics)
BITH 625 World Christian Perspectives

Membership in Professional Societies

Member, Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical Research
Member, Institute for Biblical Research
Member, Society of Biblical Literature
Member, Evangelical Theological Society
Member, Society for Pentecostal Studies
Board Member, John Stott Ministries
Member, 1989 Excavation Team, Tel Dor, Israel

Research

Current Research

Relevance Theory and Biblical Interpretation. Editor with Ronnie Sim. SBL Symposium Series. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. (Final editing, due 2009)

Review of Religion im römischen Thessaloniki. Sakraltopographie, Kult und Gesellschaft. By Christopher Steimle. Bulletin for Biblical Research. (In preparation, due 2009).

Vox Petri: A Theology of Peter. New Studies in Biblical Theology. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. (In preparation, due 2010)

Projected Research

Macedonian Christianity : The Spread of the Christian Faith Along the Via Egnatia.

A Contextual Theology of the New Testament.

Bearing. A Midwife and a Theologian Look at Childbearing. With Deborah A. Green, MS, CNM.

Papers Published and/or Presented

Books

The New Testament in Antiquity. With Gary Burge and Lynn Cohick. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.

Jude and 2 Peter. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008.

1 and 2 Thessalonians. Pillar Commentary Series. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

1 y 2 Tesalonicenses. Grand Rapids: Editorial Portavoz, 2000.

1 Pedro y 2 Pedro. Comentario Bíblico Hispanoamericano. Miami: Editorial Caribe, 1993.

Articles, Chapters and Reviews

“Relevance Theory and Theological Interpretation: Thoughts on Metarepresentation.” Journal of Theological Interpretation. (In press, due 2010)

“Colossians [translation].” In Common English Bible. Edited by David L. Petersen and Joel B. Green. Nashville: Abingdon. (In press, due 2010).

Review of Rediscovering Paul: An Introduction to His World, Letters and Theology. By David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves and E. Randolph Richards (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2007). Bulletin of Biblical Research. (In press, due 2009)

“Relevance Theory and Biblical Interpretation.” Pp. 217-40 in The Linguist as Pedagogue. Trends in the Teaching and Linguistic Analysis of the New Testament. Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Matthew Brook O’Donnell. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press. (In press, due 2009)

“Intertextuality and Sociology in Early Christianity: A Study of 2 Peter and Jude.” In

Reading Jude with New Eyes. Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of Jude. Edited by Robert L. Webb and Duane Watson. London and New York: T. & T. Clark. (In press, due 2009)

“1 and 2 Thessalonians.” In Baker Evangelical One-Volume Commentary on the Bible. Edited by Gary Burge and Andrew Hill. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. (In press, due 2009)

Review of 1 Peter. The Two Horizons Biblical Commentary. By Joel B. Green. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51 (2008): 864-867.

“¡Patrón! La clientela en Tesalónica romana.” Kairós. 43 (2008): 79-85.

“El imperio y la venida de Cristo – 2 Tesalonicenses 2:1-12.” Kairós. 42 (2008): 9-29.

“1 and 2 Thessalonians.” Pp. 2030-2045 in New Living Translation Study Bible. Carol Stream: Tyndale House, 2008.

“Thessalonians, Epistles of the.” 5.457-60 in Encyclopedia of Christianity. Edited by Erwin Fahlbusch, Jan Milic Lochman, John Mbiti, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, and Lukas Vischer. Grand Rapids and Leiden: Eerdmans and Brill, 2008.

“Lexical Pragmatics and Biblical Interpretation.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50 (2007): 799-812.

“La Pax Romana y el día del Se ñor – 1 Tesalonicenses 5:1-11.” Kairós 41 (2007): 9-27.

“La muerte y el poder del Imperio – 1 Tesalonicenses 4:13-18.” Kairós 40 (2007): 9-26.

“El anuncio del evangelio ante el poder imperial en Tesalónica.” Kairós 39 (2006): 9-21.

“Finding the Will of God: Acts 16 in Historical and Modern Perspective.” Pp. 209-20 in Acts in Mission: Narrative Missiology in Action. Edited by Paul Hertig and Robert Gallagher. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2004.

Review of The Significance of Parallels between 2 Peter and Other Early Christian Literature. By Michael J. Gilmour. (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47 (2004): 735-36.

Review of Salvation to the Ends of the Earth. A Biblical Theology of Mission. By Andreas J. Köstenberger and Peter T. O'Brien. (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity, 2001). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46 (2003): 319-20.

“‘As for Prophecies, They Will Come to an End’ B 2 Peter, Paul and Plutarch on ‘The Obsolescence of Oracles’.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 82 (2001): 107-22.

“Christology: Recent Developments.” With R. S. Wallace. P. 245 in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Second Edition. Edited by Walter Elwell. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001.

“Gerard Manley Hopkins,” “ George Eldon Ladd, Theology of the New Testament,” and “ Josephus, Wars of the Jews.” Pp. 85-7 in Reading for Life. Edited by Jeffry Davis, Leland Ryken and Thomas Martin. Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2001.

“1 Peter.” Pp. 346-9 in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by Desmond Alexander, Brian Rosner, Donald A. Carson and Graeme Goldsworthy. Leicester: IVP, 2000.

“The Kingdom and the Spirit.” Pneuma Review 2 (1999): 52-9.

“Apostasia”; “ 1 Pedro”; “ 2 Pedro.” Pp. 85-6, 809-12 in Diccionario ilustrado de la Biblia, Revised edition. Edited by Wilton M. Nelson and Juan Rojas. Miami: Editorial Caribe, 1998.

“Pedro.” Revision. Pp. 808-9 in Diccionario ilustrado de la Biblia, Revised edition. Edited by Wilton M. Nelson and Juan Rojas. Miami: Editorial Caribe, 1998.

“Introducción.” Pp. 5-7 in Llamdos a ser diferentes. John R. W. Stott. San José: IINDEF, 1998.

“Reflexiones person ales sobre la exégesis del Nuevo Testamento.” Boletín Teológico 58 (1995): 39-50.

“The Use of the Old Testament for Christian Ethics in 1 Peter.” Tyndale Bulletin 41 (1990): 276-89.

“Triumph.” Paraclete 17 (1983): 10-13.