Krister Stendahl, a former dean of the Harvard Divinity School and a bishop in Sweden whose scholarship opened new ways of interpreting the Apostle Paul and whose activism pushed churches toward unity and tolerance, died on Tuesday 15 avril in Boston. He was 86.  As a religious leader with the World Council of Churches and other bodies, Dr. Stendhal, a Lutheran, fought for the ordination of women and gay men and lesbians and against the use of sexist language in Scriptures, saying that Jesus’ maleness was no more significant than the color of his eyes.

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Il giorno 8 aprile si è spento all’età di 86 anni l’eminente biblista David Noel Freedman.

David Noel Freedman  (1922-2008) was a biblical scholar, “bookmaker” (author and editor), archeologist, advocate, and initiator of inter-faith cooperation. The son of Romanian and Russian immigrants, he made numerous contributions to illuminate and preserve the Hebrew Bible.

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Nairobi (Agenzia Fides)- P. Michael Kamau Ithondeka, biblista e vice Rettore del Seminario Mathias Mulumba Senior Seminary in Tindinyo, è stato ucciso sabato 26 gennaio, in un posto di blocco illegale stabilito da una banda di giovani armati sulla strada Nakuru - Eldama, nella Rift Valley, la zona dove sono più violenti gli scontri e le vendette a sfondo etnico.

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(Fonte: Observatório Bíblico)  Em 30 de novembro passado, morreu, em Boston, o Professor John Strugnell, aos 77 anos (1930-2007).

Strugnell trabalhou cerca de 40 anos com os Manuscritos do Mar Morto. Vi a notícia no PaleoJudaica.com, de Jim Davila, que trabalhou com ele nos Manuscritos na década de 80 e testemunha: “He was a giant in the field” [Ele era um gigante na área]. (more..)

Robert E. Webber, a theologian well-known for his work on worship and the early church, died of pancreatic cancer on April 27 at his home in Sawyer, Michigan. He was 73. At the time of his death, Webber was the William R. and Geraldyn B. Myers professor of ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill. He was also the president of the Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida, and professor of theology emeritus at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. more

(Haaretz) Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of the Humanistic Judaism Movement in its current form, was killed late Saturday in a traffic accident in Morocco.  Wine, 79, was dubbed “the atheist rabbi” in American media. Wine founded the movement with a small secular congregation in Michigan in 1963. He developed a Jewish liturgy emphasizing Jewish culture, history and identity along with humanistic ethics while excluding all prayers and references to God. He visited Israel last December for the ordination of seven secular rabbis.

Brevard S. Childs, an iconic figure in biblical scholarship, dies at 83

(Yale Divinity School) Brevard S. Childs, one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the 20 th century, died Saturday, June 23 in New Haven, CT. He was 83 and died of complications from injuries sustained in a fall at his home in Bethany, CT.

“I can think of no person who made a greater contribution to the work of unifying the Bible, theology and church life together in a very serious way, not in a flimsy or a pious way,” said Christopher Seitz, a Biblical scholar at the University of Toronto who was Childs’s student, colleague and friend. “I think of him as a sort of Isaiah figure who was given a very hard job to preach and teach but never complained. He just went about his business in a hopeful way.” (more..)

Michael Patrick O’Connor died this past Saturday, June 16, scarcely a week after learning that he had liver cancer. A memorial for him here.

(Left to Right) Jim Eisenbraun, Bruce Waltke, and Michael O’Connor, taking a break from working on the final proofs for the first edition of Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax.