Gene Green, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Source: http://www.wheaton.edu/Academics/Faculty/G/Gene-Green (accessed 12/24/14)
On Faculty since 1996
Education
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen in Scotland, 1980 (New Testament Exegesis)
About Gene Green
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 comprehend another person's communication. 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
Membership in Professional Societies
Research
Current and Projected Research
Books
Relevance Theory and Biblical Interpretation. Editor with Ronnie Sim. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. (Proposal accepted, final editing, due 2010)
Vox Petri: A Theology of Peter. New Studies in Biblical Theology. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. (Proposal accepted, in preparation, due 2011)
A Contextual Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. (Project accepted, no date for submission)
Macedonian Christianity: The Spread of the Christian Faith Along the Via Egnatia. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. (Proposal submitted, no date for submission)
Bearing. A Midwife and a Theologian Look at Childbearing. With Deborah A. Green, MS, CNM. (No date for submission)
Articles, Chapters and Reviews
“Lexical Pragmatics and the Lexicon.” The Bible Translator. (Final editing for submission, due 2010).
Review of Religion im römischen Thessaloniki. Sakraltopographie, Kult und Gesellschaft. By Christopher Steimle. (Studien und texte zu Antike und Christentum. Tü bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.) Bulletin for Biblical Research. (Accepted, in preparation, due 2010).
Review of Christianity in the Greco-Roman World. A Narrative Introduction. By Moyer V. Hubbard. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2010.) Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. (Accepted, in preparation, due 2010).
“Academic Freedom and Christian Higher Education.” The Christian Scholars Review. (Final editing for submission, due 2010).
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. [Written in Spanish]
1 Pedro y 2 Pedro. Comentario Bíblico Hispanoamericano. Miami: Editorial Caribe, 1993. [Written in Spanish]
Articles, Chapters and Reviews
“Colossians [translation].” In Common English Bible. Edited by David L. Petersen and Joel B. Green. Nashville: Abingdon. (Manuscript submitted, forthcoming 2010).
“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 2010)
“Relevance Theory and Theological Interpretation: Thoughts on Metarepresentation.” Journal of Theological Interpretation. 4 (2010): 75-90.
“Intertextuality and Sociology in Early Christianity: A Study of 2 Peter and Jude.” Pp. 1-25 in Reading Second Peter with New Eyes. Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of Second Peter. Edited by Robert L. Webb and Duane Watson. London and New York: T. & T. Clark, 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 19 (2009): 444-446.
“Relevance Theory and Biblical Interpretation.” Pp. 217-240 inThe Linguist as Pedagogue. Trends in the Teaching and Linguistic Analysis of the New Testament. Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Matthew Brook O’Donnell. New Testament Monographs. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 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.” 5.457-460 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 Señor – 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 Tesal ó nica.” Kairós 39 (2006): 9-21.
“New Testament Christology” Pp. 128-134 in The Portable Seminary. A Master’s Level Overview in One Volume. With R. S. Wallace. Edited by David Horton. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2006.
“Finding the Will of God: Acts 16 in Historical and Modern Perspective.” Pp. 209-220 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): 735-736.
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): 319-320.
“Comments on Commentaries. NT: 2 Peter and Jude.” Biblical Studies Bulletin [Ridley Hall] 30 (2003). www.ridley.cam.ac.uk/bsb/bsb30.html (Accessed June 10, 2010)
“‘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): 107-122.
“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. 85-87 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): 52-59.
“Apostasia”; “1 Pedro”; “2 Pedro.” Pp. 85-86, 809-812 in Diccionario ilustrado de la Biblia, Revised edition. Edited by Wilton M. Nelson and Juan Rojas. Miami: Editorial Caribe, 1998.
“Pedro.” Revision. Pp. 808-809 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): 276-289.
“Triumph.” Paraclete 17 (1983): 10-13.