John Herbert Sailhamer (October 17, 1946 – January 9, 2017) was an American professor of Old Testament studies at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California. He was president of the

Evangelical Theological Society The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is a professional society of Biblical scholars, educators, pastors, and students "devoted to the inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ" and "dedicated to the oral exch ...

in 2000 and made notable contributions to Old Testament studies.

Career

After a

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 ...

at California State University, Long Beach, his Th.M. at

Dallas Theological Seminary Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) is an evangelical theological seminary in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system dispensationalism. DTS has campuses in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C., as well as extension ca ...

, and his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

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 ...

(1981) at

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, Sailhamer began his teaching career in 1975 at

Biola University Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor's ...

, then taught at Bethel Seminary,

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) is an academic divinity school founded in 1897 and located in the northern Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. It is part of and located on the main campus of Trinity International University. It� ...

Western Seminary Western Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary with campuses in Portland, Oregon; San Jose, California; and Sacramento, California. Western Seminary also has online-only degrees and programs and provides non-credit cla ...

(1995–98),

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. in Wake Forest, North Carolina. It was created in 1950 to meet a need in ...

(1999–2006), and at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary beginning in 2006. He was briefly appointed as provost of Dallas Theological Seminary in 1993, but resigned before he was to begin serving in 1994. Sailhamer served on the review and editorial teams for two recent Bible translations — the

New Living Translation The New Living Translation (NLT) is an English translation of the Bible. The origin of the NLT came from a project aiming to revise '' The Living Bible'' (TLB). This effort eventually led to the creation of the NLT—a new translation separat ...

and the

Holman Christian Standard Bible The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is a modern English Bible translation from Holman Bible Publishers. The New Testament was published in 1999, followed by the full Bible in March 2004. Beginnings The roots of the HCSB can be traced ...

. Sailhamer has published extensively on Old Testament matters, especially the Pentateuch. Sailhamer's latest publication, ''The Meaning of the Pentateuch'' (2009), has been called his magnum opus and briefly broke into Amazon.com's top 100 sellers. John Piper has heartily endorsed it saying, "There is nothing like it. It will rock your world. You will never read the 'Pentateuch' the same again."

Historical Creationism

In ''Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account'' (1996), Sailhamer argues for a view of creationism that he labels as "Historical Creationism", which contends that the

creation week The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word f ...

in Genesis 1 is a record of the preparation of the Garden of Eden for

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

, not a record of the preparation of the whole

planet Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface ...

itself or the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. ...

. This view, along with the book ''Genesis Unbound'', has been endorsed by major

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

s and

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

s (particularly in the New Calvinist movement), such as Matt Chandler,

Mark Driscoll Mark A. Driscoll (born 1970) is an American evangelical pastor and author who founded the now defunct Mars Hill Church. He is the senior and founding pastor of the Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was founded in 2016. In 1996, D ...

, and John Piper.

Publications

* ''Genesis: The Expositor's Bible Commentary'' (1990) with Walter C. Kaiser Jr.,

Richard Hess Richard Samuel Hess (born 1954) is an American Old Testament scholar. He is Earl S. Kalland Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Denver Seminary. Hess has degrees from Wheaton College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Hebr ...

Tremper Longman III Tremper Longman III (born 8 September 1952) is an Old Testament scholar, theologian, professor and author of several books, including 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award winner ''Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings''. Biograp ...

and

David E. Garland David E. Garland (born September 24, 1947) served as the interim president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. His term began in June 2016 amid the Baylor sexual assault scandal and resignation of former president Ken Starr. Garland's term concl ...

* ''NIV Compact Bible Commentary'' (1999) * ''An Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach '' (1995) * ''The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary'' (1995) * ''Biblical Prophecy (1998)'' * "Biblical Theology and the Composition of the Hebrew Bible", pp 25–37 in ''Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect'', edited by Scott J. Hafemann (2002) * "The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation." (2009)

References

External links

John Sailhamer's faculty bio
from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
The Writings of John Sailhamer (An Online Bibliography)PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sailhamer, John 1946 births 2017 deaths Western Seminary Old Testament scholars California State University, Long Beach alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Dallas Theological Seminary alumni Biola University faculty Bethel University (Minnesota) faculty Translators of the Bible into English American biblical scholars 20th-century translators