Robert E. Van Voorst (born June 5, 1952) is an American theologian and educator. He retired in 2018 as a Professor of New Testament Studies at

Western Theological Seminary Western Theological Seminary (WTS) is a private seminary located in Holland, Michigan. Established in 1866, it is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. ...

, in

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black Ri ...

, and has published scholarly works in early Christian writings and New Testament Greek. He received 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 ...

in Religion from

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman college class matricu ...

, his M.Div. from

, and his Ph.D. in

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 Chris ...

from Union Theological Seminary in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He has served at

Lycoming College Lycoming College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1812, Lycoming College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church but operates as an in ...

(

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

) in Williamsport, PA, and was a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

at Westminster College,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England. He has lectured to PhD students in Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, on methods in biblical study. Van Voorst has also served as a supply pastor at various PC (USA) churches in north-central Pennsylvania, and for twelve years as pastor at

Rochester Reformed Church Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent **City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent **HM Prison R ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Works

Jesus Outside the New Testament

In ''Jesus Outside the New Testament'' (2000), Van Voorst starts by outlining the history of research into extra-Biblical sources for the

historical Jesus The term "historical Jesus" refers to the reconstruction of the life and teachings of Jesus by critical historical methods, in contrast to religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural contexts in which Jesus lived. ...

and its relation to the hypothesis that Jesus did not exist, which he notes is generally rejected by modern scholars. He goes on to consider references to Jesus in classical writings, Jewish writings, hypothetical sources of the canonical

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

s, and extant Christian writings outside the New Testament. The book includes translations of key passages discussed, including the entire ''

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate ...

''. Van Voorst concludes that non-Christian sources provide "a small but certain corroboration of certain New Testament historical traditions on the family background, time of life, ministry, and death of Jesus", as well as "evidence of the content of Christian preaching that is independent of the New Testament", while extra-biblical Christian sources give access to "some important information about the earliest traditions on Jesus". However, New Testament sources remain central for "both the main lines and the details about Jesus' life and teaching". Allen Kerkeslager called the book a "marvelous achievement" and commended its clear organization. He criticised Van Voorst for using divergences from the canonical Gospels as evidence against the historical value of the

New Testament apocrypha The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cite ...

, but noted that the author usually offered additional grounds for his conclusions. Darrell L. Bock called the book "an excellent up-to-date survey", "careful and thorough". Helen E. Bond considered Van Voorst's treatment of the New Testament apocrypha particularly strong, while Curt Niccum found his book generally useful but least good on Jewish literature. G. Van Belle criticised Van Voorst's assignment of to the

Signs Gospel The Signs Gospel or the ''semeia'' source is a hypothetical gospel account of the life of Jesus Christ which some scholars have suggested could have been a primary source document for the Gospel of John. This theory has its basis in source critic ...

against the verdict of two authors cited in the book. Van Voorst's attitude towards the New Testament provoked divergent judgments. Thomas O'Loughlin, while concluding that the book was up-to-date and generally balanced, thought that an

apologetic Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...

agenda had led Van Voorst to place the New Testament "almost outside of history" and to simplistically classify non-canonical Christian texts as "

gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized p ...

". On the other hand, some reviewers in Evangelical journals criticised what they saw as an over-skeptical attitude towards the New Testament, in one case recommending works by

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

Gary Habermas Gary Robert Habermas (born 1950) is an American New Testament scholar and theologian who frequently writes and lectures on the resurrection of Jesus. He has specialized in cataloging and communicating trends among scholars in the field of histo ...

as superior in this respect.

Bibliography

* ''Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence'' (2000) * ''Anthology of World Scriptures'' (ninth edition, 2018) * ''Reading the New Testament Today'' (2004) * ''Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary (Resources for Biblical Study)'' (third edition, 2001) * ''Readings in Christianity'' (3rd Edition) (2005) * ''Anthology of Asian Scriptures'' (2000) * ''The Death Of Jesus In Early Christianity ''with John T. Carroll, Joel B. Green, and Joel Marcus. (1995) * ''The Ascents of James: History and Theology of a Jewish-Christian Community'' (Dissertation Series * (Society of Biblical Literature)) (1989) * "RELG: World" (4th edition, 2019) *''Commonly Misunderstood Verses in the Bible: What They Really Mean'' (2017)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Voorst, Robert E. 1952 births Academics of Westminster College, Oxford American religion academics Critics of the Christ myth theory Hope College alumni Living people Lycoming College faculty Presbyterian Church (USA) teaching elders Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni Western Theological Seminary alumni Western Theological Seminary faculty

Works

Jesus Outside the New Testament

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links