Bio
Academics welded to and focused upon the furtherance of God’s kingdom best describes my
teaching career. I want to show God’s people how to comprehend the powerful, relevant, and
transformative truths of the Old Testament. To accomplish this task, I strive first to challenge
students to understand the big-idea(s) of the OT, along with the developing narratives of
creation, redemption, covenant, and kingdom. By situating the OT in its Ancient Near Eastern
context, I enable students to grasp the hermeneutical task of situating our contemporary gospel
proclamation in a way that is consistent with the authorial intent of the OT writers. Second, I
endeavor to unlock and lay bare the mysteries of the Hebrew text so that students may
immediately grasp the need and relevance of preaching THE BIBLE (in its original form). By
pushing students to seize the meaning and message of the Hebrew--not technicalities of
grammar--I do my best to engender a love for the Word of God that always is useful in ministry.
During my three decades of teaching, I have edited a Bible dictionary, worked on two Bible
translations, and presented several papers at academic conferences. Likewise, I’ve served as
interim and pastor of several churches and spoken at numerous conferences for local churches.
Karen and I have celebrated thirty-nine years of marriage. Our three daughters are graduated,
grown, gotten, and gainfully employed. We have six beautiful grandchildren, with a seventh
soon to arrive. God has wonderfully blessed us.
