Karen H. Jobes (born 1952) is an American biblical scholar who is Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor Emerita of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Wheaton College. She has written a number of books and biblical commentaries. In 2015, she received the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Christian Book of the Year Award for "Bible Reference" books.

Education

Jobes was born and raised in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She completed a BA in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

from

Trenton State College The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...

in 1974 and an MS in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

in 1979. She became a Christian while at College. She returned to study and completed a Master of Arts in Religion (1989) and PhD (1995) in

Biblical Hermeneutics Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics, which involves the study of principles of interpretation, both theory and methodology, for ...

from

Westminster Theological Seminary Westminster Theological Seminary is a Protestant theological seminary in the Reformed theological tradition in Glenside, Pennsylvania. It was founded by members of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1929 after Princeton chose to ...

. Her dissertation, titled ''The Alpha-Text of Esther: Its Character and relationship to the Masoretic Text'', was supervised by Moisés Silva, with whom she went on to co-author ''Invitation to the Septuagint'', which has become a standard textbook in studies of the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

Career and research

Jobes worked in physics and computer science at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and

Johnson and Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

before returning to study theology. Jobes has taught

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

and written commentaries on both Old and New Testament books. From 2005 until 2015, she was the Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor Emerita of New Testament Greek and Greek Exegesis at Wheaton College. She taught

biblical Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

classes and classes on the Septuagint. She has written a number of books out of her classroom teaching including ''Discovering the Septuagint'', a guided reader for students working with the Greek biblical text, and ''Letters to the Church'', a commentary on

Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle to the Hebrews ( grc, Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, Pros Hebraious, to the Hebrews) is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. Most ...

and the General Epistles that provides a model for students to work through critical issues and draw their own conclusions. Jobes translated the ''

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

Esther'' for the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. She was also part of the

NIV Niv may refer to: * Niv, a personal name; for people with the name, see * Niv Art Movies, a film production company of India * Niv Art Centre, in New Delhi, India NIV may refer to: * The New International Version, a translation of the Bible into ...

and TNIV translation committee for over ten years.

Awards and honors

In 2015, Jobes' commentary on the

Johannine epistles The Johannine epistles, the Epistles of John, or the Letters of John are three of the catholic epistles of the New Testament, thought to have been written between 85 and 100 AD. Most scholars agree that all three letters are written by the same a ...

won the

Evangelical Christian Publishers Association The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) is an international non-profit trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organizati ...

's Christian Book of the Year Award for "Bible Reference" books. In 2018, the Society of Biblical Literature awarded Jobe its Status of Women in the Profession Outstanding Service in Mentoring award.

Personal life

Jobes married Forrest "Buzz" Jobes, a research physicist, in 1980 and has two stepsons. She and her husband are members of Oreland Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Selected publications

Books

* * * * * * * * *

Chapters and articles

* * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jobes, Karen 1952 births Living people The College of New Jersey alumni Rutgers University alumni Westminster Theological Seminary alumni Academics from New Jersey Translators of the Bible into English 21st-century biblical scholars American biblical scholars Female biblical scholars Wheaton College (Illinois) faculty Bible commentators Female Bible Translators