Ronald F. Youngblood (August 10, 1931 – July 5, 2014) was an American biblical scholar and professor of

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

. In addition to being one of the original translators of the

New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The ''NIV'' was created as a modern translation, by Bible scholars using the earliest an ...

of the Bible, he was the general editor for ''Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', and on the editorial team for the ''Zondervan NASB Study Bible'', both of which earned the

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for their respective publication years.

Background and education

Youngblood was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1931. He earned his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

(1952), his B.D. from

Fuller Theological Seminary Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature. Fuller consistently has a student body that compri ...

(1955), and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the

Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning or Dropsie University, at 2321–2335 N Broad St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was America's first degree-granting institution for post-doctoral Jewish studies. Funded by the will of Moses Aaron D ...

(1961). He was ordained in 1958 at Oxford Circle Baptist Church in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He died on July 5, 2014.

Career

Youngblood has been most closely associated with Bethel Seminary, first teaching at the St. Paul campus (1961–1978) and later at the San Diego campus (1982–2001). Youngblood first joined 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 ...

) translation team in 1970, and was invited to join the Committee on Bible Translation in 1976, a few years prior to its first complete publication in 1978. He continued to serve as a translator for the first major revision in 1984, and was executive editor for the

New International Reader's Version The New International Reader's Version (NIrV) is an English translation of the Christian Bible. Translated by the International Bible Society (now Biblica) following a similar philosophy as the New International Version (NIV), but written in a si ...

(1995, 1998). Later, he played a significant role in the development of

Today's New International Version Today's New International Version (TNIV) is an English translation of the Bible which was developed by the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT). The CBT also developed the New International Version (NIV) in the 1970s. The TNIV is based on the NI ...

. He has also served as chairman of the board of the

International Bible Society International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * International (Kevin Michael album), ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * International (New Order album), ' ...

, and editor of the ''

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society The ''Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society'' is a Scholarly peer review, refereed List of theological journals, theological journal published by the Evangelical Theological Society. It was first published in 1958 as the ''Bulletin of the ...

'' (1976–1998). In 2003, 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 ...

'' was published in his honor. ''The challenge of Bible translation: communicating God's Word to the world : essays in honor of Ronald F. Youngblood'' included contributions from

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 ...

, Dick France,

Andreas J. Köstenberger Andreas Johannes Köstenberger (born November 2, 1957), usually cited as Andreas J. Köstenberger, is Research Professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Until 2018 he was Senior Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theolog ...

Douglas J. Moo Douglas J. Moo (born March 15, 1950) is a Reformed New Testament scholar who, after teaching for more than twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, has served as Blanchard Professor of New Testament at the Wheaton Colleg ...

, Moisés Silva,

Mark L. Strauss Mark Lehman Strauss is an American biblical scholar and professor of the New Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego, which is part of Bethel University, Minnesota. His areas of expertise include New Testament Gospels and Bible translation. B ...

, and Bruce K. Waltke.Glen G. Scorgie, Mark L. Strauss, Steven M. Voth (eds), ''The challenge of Bible translation: communicating God's Word to the world : essays in honor of Ronald F. Youngblood''.

Zondervan Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publ ...

, 2003.

Selected publications

* ''The Heart of the Old Testament: A Survey of Key Theological Themes'' (1971, 1998) * ''The Genesis Debate: Persistent Questions about Creation and the Flood'' (1986) *

Books of Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshu ...

in the ''Expositor's Bible Commentary'' series (1992) * ''Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary'', with

F. F. Bruce Frederick Fyvie Bruce (12 October 1910 – 11 September 1990), usually cited as F. F. Bruce, was a Scottish biblical scholar who supported the historical reliability of the New Testament. His first book, ''New Testament Documents: Are They ...

and R. K. Harrison (1995) *In progress:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Youngblood, Ronald F. 2014 deaths 1931 births Fuller Theological Seminary alumni American biblical scholars Wheaton College (Illinois) faculty Old Testament scholars Translators of the Bible into English Academic journal editors Valparaiso University alumni Bethel University (Minnesota) faculty 20th-century translators Bible commentators