Robert Horton Gundry (born 1932) is an American scholar and retired professor of
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 Christ ...
studies and
Koine 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 ...
.
Life
Gundry was born in 1932 to Norman C. and Lolita (née Hinshaw) Gundry. He is the older brother of
Stanley N. Gundry.
Gundry received B.A. and B.D. degrees from the
Los Angeles Baptist College and Seminary in the 1950s, and in 1961 a Ph.D. from
Manchester University, England, where he worked under F. F. Bruce. For 38 years, beginning in 1962, he taught at
Westmont College in
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...
. In 1997 the college installed Gundry in its first endowed faculty chair and soon afterwards established also the Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies. Upon his retirement in 2000 the college made him professor emeritus and scholar-in-residence.
He has been a frequent contributor to periodicals such as ''Books and Culture'' and ''Education and Culture''.
Writings and controversies
Besides many articles and reviews that have appeared in scholarly journals, Gundry has published major scholarly commentaries on the
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...
and the
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." 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 and for ...
. The one on Matthew caused a controversy that led to his resignation from the
Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) at that society’s request in 1983. Voters favoring the request reckoned that the commentary was at odds with the society’s affirmation of scriptural inerrancy. Using
redaction criticism
Redaction criticism, also called ''Redaktionsgeschichte'', ''Kompositionsgeschichte'' or ''Redaktionstheologie'', is a critical method for the study of biblical texts. Redaction criticism regards the author of the text as editor (redactor) of the ...
, Gundry argued that Matthew tailored the story of Jesus, sometimes unhistorically, to meet the needs of the Gospel’s intended audience. Especially troubling to many in the ETS was Gundry’s contention that Matthew made unhistorical, theologically motivated revisions of the infancy story in
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
.
Earlier, Gundry had been asked to furnish a commentary on Matthew in the ''Expositor’s Bible Commentary'' (EBC), a major evangelical series of commentaries published over the course of a decade or more in the 1970s and 1980s, as each section was completed. When he submitted his proposed commentary to
Frank Gaebelein
Frank Ely Gaebelein (March 31, 1899 – January 19, 1983) was an American evangelical educator, author, and editor who was the founding headmaster of The Stony Brook School in Long Island, New York. He is the author of more than twenty books, an ...
, general editor of the series, Gaebelein pronounced the commentary acceptable; but the subeditors
Merrill C. Tenney
Merrill Chapin Tenney (April 16, 1904 – March 18, 1985) was an American professor of New Testament and Greek and author of several books. He was the general editor of the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, and served on the original translati ...
and
James M. Boice objected to its use of redaction criticism. Gaebelein pronounced acceptable Gundry’s successive revised versions as well; but Tenney and Boice objected again, to both of them, so that
D. A. Carson
Donald Arthur Carson (born December 21, 1946) is an evangelical biblical scholar. He is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and president and co-founder of the Gospel Coalition. He has written ...
of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was assigned to write on Matthew. This assignment caused a delay of several years in the publication of the EBC’s volume on the Synoptic Gospels. Meanwhile, Eerdmans Publishing Company brought out a longer, more technical version of Gundry’s work.
According to Gundry, his work does not call into question the inerrancy of the Gospel of Matthew. He argues, to the contrary, that inerrancy must be considered in the twin lights of authorial intent and acceptable literary standards of the author’s time and place, and that Matthew intentionally and acceptably "treats us to history mixed with elements that cannot be called historical in a modern sense." To be called inerrant, then, Matthew’s Gospel need not be measured against standards of modern historical writing. By contrast, says Gundry, "Luke states a historical purpose along lines that run closer to modern history writing ..." These views were supported by a significant portion of the ETS; and after looking into the matter, the society’s executive committee cleared Gundry. But a campaign against him, spearheaded by
Norman Geisler
Norman Leo Geisler (July 21, 1932 – July 1, 2019) was an American Christian systematic theologian and philosopher. He was the co-founder of two non-denominational evangelical seminaries (Veritas International University and Southern Evange ...
, resulted in the request that he resign. Against his critics, Gundry has contended that he treats biblical wording more seriously than they do when they construct strained harmonizations to maintain historicity at every point. Outside certain quarters of the ETS, his work is generally considered a model of conservative evangelicalism.
Gundry’s other published books include ''The Use of the Old Testament in St. Matthew’s Gospel'' (based on his doctoral dissertation), ''Sōma in Biblical Theology'' (arguing for a physical meaning of “body,” even in figurative usage), and ''The Old Is Better'' (containing new and revised essays on various topics). His two books ''The Church and the Tribulation'' and ''First the Antichrist'' undermine the popular view that Christians will be “raptured” out of the world prior to a coming tribulation (see
Second Coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messi ...
).
Yet another book, ''Jesus the Word according to John the Sectarian'', argues that American evangelicalism needs to return, ''mutatis mutandis'', to the enlightened fundamentalism of the early 20th century, as distinct from the obscurantist fundamentalism of the mid-20th century.
In 2000 Gundry presented the essence of ''Jesus the Word'' at the 30th annual lecture of the Institute for Biblical Research.
''Extracurriculars: Teaching Christianly Outside Class'' contains talks delivered on various occasions at Westmont College, and the title ''Peter: False Disciple and Apostate according to Saint Matthew'' is self-explanatory. Gundry's latest book, ''Re-Views by an Evangelical Biblical Critic'', gathers lightly edited, previously published review essays of books and films dealing in biblical text and translation, higher critical issues, literary portraits of Jesus, the relation between the Bible and tradition, and biographical portrayals of people associated with Scripture and its interpretation.
Gundry's textbook, ''A Survey of the New Testament'', has been translated from English into Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Korean, Russian, and Turkish and produced as an eighteen-lesson DVD course in English. His ''Commentary on the New Testament'' includes his own, literal translation of the entire New Testament and verse-by-verse explanations of its original meaning and contains many independent judgments not found elsewhere in either scholarly or popular literature.
Works
Thesis
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Books
* – based on his Ph.D. thesis
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* - revised and retitled edition of the 1982 title
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Festschriften
In 1994 Gundry was presented with a
Festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
, ''To Tell the Mystery: Essays on New Testament Eschatology in Honor of Robert H. Gundry'' (ed. Thomas E. Schmidt and
Moisés Silva
Moisés Silva (born September 4, 1945) is a Cuban-born American biblical scholar and translator.
Biography
Silva was born in Havana, Cuba, and has lived in the US since 1960. He has taught biblical studies at Westmont College (1972–1981), West ...
; Sheffield: JSOT, 1994).
In 2014 a second Festschrift was presented to him: ''Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament'' (ed. Benjamin E. Reynolds, Brian Lugioyo, and Kevin J. Vanhoozer; WUNT 2/369; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gundry, Robert H.
1932 births
Living people
20th-century evangelicals
21st-century evangelicals
Alumni of the University of Manchester
American biblical scholars
New Testament scholars
Westmont College faculty