Daniel B. Wallace

Daniel B. Wallace
Professor Wallace in 2004
Born
Daniel Baird Wallace

(1952-06-05) June 5, 1952 (age 72)
California
OccupationProfessor of New Testament
Academic background
EducationBiola University (B.A., 1975)
Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1979; Ph.D., 1995)
Academic work
DisciplineNew Testament textual criticism, Koine Greek grammar
School or traditionEvangelical Christian textual critic
InstitutionsDallas Seminary
Grace Theological Seminary
Main interestsNew Testament authentication, early Christian writings, Koine Greek grammar
Websitedanielbwallace.com

Daniel Baird Wallace (born June 5, 1952) is an American professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, the purpose of which is digitizing all known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament via digital photographs.

Early life

Wallace was born in June 1952, in California. He earned his B.A. (1975) from Biola University, and his Th.M. (1979) and Ph.D. (1995) in New Testament studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He also pursued postdoctoral studies in a variety of places, including in Cambridge at Tyndale House, Christ's College, Clare College, and Westminster College, in Germany at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research, University of Tübingen, and the Bavarian State Library, and at the National Library of Greece in Athens.

Career

Wallace began his academic career teaching at Dallas Seminary from 1979 until 1981 and then at Grace Theological Seminary from 1981 until 1983, before returning to Dallas where he has been tenured since 1995. He published his first edition of Greek Grammar Beyond The Basics in 1996. It has since become a standard work in the field and has been translated into half a dozen languages. Two-thirds of schools that teach the subject use the textbook.[1] He also has served as senior New Testament editor for the NET Bible and has founded the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. In 2016 he was the president of the Evangelical Theological Society. In 2019 he joined the Committee on Bible Translation which is responsible for the NIV.

Views

Wallace, along with DTS colleague Darrell L. Bock, has been an outspoken critic of the alleged "popular culture" quest to discredit conservative evangelical views of Jesus—including the writings of Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman.[2] He is a contributor to the Ehrman Project, a website that critiques the writings of Bart Ehrman.[3] Wallace critiqued Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus: The Story of Who Changed the Bible and Why for misrepresenting commonly held views of textual criticism, especially in Ehrman's view of the "orthodox corruption of Scripture."[4] Wallace and Ehrman dialogued at the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum in April 2008, at Southern Methodist University in October 2011, and again at UNC Chapel Hill in February 2012. Wallace holds to Calvinist theology[5][6] and cessationism.[7]

"First Century Mark" Controversy

In 2012 Wallace claimed that a recently identified papyrus fragment of the Gospel of Mark had been definitively dated by papyrologist, Dirk Obbink, to the late first century, and would shortly be published by E.J. Brill. The fragment might consequently be the earliest surviving Christian text. This claim resulted in widespread speculation on social media and in the press as to the fragment's content, provenance, and date, exacerbated by Wallace's inability to give any further details due to a non-disclosure agreement.[8] The fragment, designated Papyrus 137 and subsequently dated by its editors to the later 2nd or earlier 3rd century, was eventually published in 2018, in the series of Oxyrhynchus Papyri LXXXIII. After the publication, Daniel Wallace confirmed that Papyrus 137 was indeed the fragment that he had been referring to, and that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement at the request of Jerry Pattengale, then representing the Museum of the Bible in its efforts to purchase this particular fragment; efforts that proved unavailing, as all the time it had been in the ownership of the Egypt Exploration Society, and had not legitimately been offered for sale.[9][10]

Works

Books

  • Wallace, Daniel B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of New Testament Greek. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-21895-1. OCLC 37227757.
  • ——— (2000). The Basics of New Testament Syntax: An Intermediate Grammar. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-23229-5. OCLC 43684564.
  • ———; Sawyer, M. James, eds. (2005). Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? An Investigation into the Ministry of the Spirit of God Today. Dallas, TX: Biblical Studies Press. ISBN 978-0-737-50068-4. OCLC 62866519.
  • ———; Komoszewski, J. Ed; Sawyer, M. James (2006). Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications. ISBN 0-8254-2982-X.
  • ———; Bock, Darrell L. (2007). Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-0-7852-2615-4.
  • ———; Edwards, Grant G. (2007). A Workbook for New Testament Syntax: companion to Basics of New Testament syntax and Greek grammar beyond the basics: an exegetical syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-27389-9. OCLC 154666705.
  • ——— (2009). Granville Sharp's Canon and its Kin: semantics and significance. Studies in Biblical Greek. Vol. 14. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-820-43342-4. OCLC 213408489.
  • ——— (2011). Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence. Text and Canon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic. ISBN 978-0825433382.
  • ———; Burnette, Brittany C.; Moore, Terri Darby (2013). A Reader's Lexicon of the Apostolic Fathers. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic. ISBN 978-0-825-43949-0. OCLC 860757187.

Chapters

  • ——— (1991). "Inspiration, Preservation, and New Testament Textual Criticism". In Meadors, Gary T. (ed.). New Testament Essays in Honor of Homer A. Kent, Jr. Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books. pp. 69–102. ISBN 978-0-884-69231-7.
  • ——— (1994). "The Majority Text Theory: History, Methods, and Critique". In Ehrman, Bart D.; Holmes, Michael W. (eds.). The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. Studies and Documents. Vol. 46. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. pp. 297–320. ISBN 978-9-004-25840-2.
  • ——— (2005). "Introduction: Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? - The Uneasy Conscience of a Non-Charismatic Evangelical". In ———; Sawyer, M. James (eds.). Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? An Investigation into the Ministry of the Spirit of God Today. Dallas, TX: Biblical Studies Press. pp. 1–14. ISBN 978-0-737-50068-4. OCLC 62866519.
  • ——— (2005). "The Witness of the Spirit in Romans 8:16: Interpretation and Implications". In ———; Sawyer, M. James (eds.). Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? An Investigation into the Ministry of the Spirit of God Today. Dallas, TX: Biblical Studies Press. pp. 37–52. ISBN 978-0-737-50068-4. OCLC 62866519.
  • ——— (1997). "A Scripture Index". In Moulton, James Hope; Milligan, George (eds.). Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Modern reprint ed.). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. ISBN 9781565632714.
  • ——— (2006). "Laying a Foundation: New Testament Textual Criticism". In Bock, Darrell L.; Fanning, Buist M. (eds.). Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis: a Festschrift for Harold Hoehner. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. pp. 33–56. ISBN 978-1-581-34408-0.
  • ———; Ehrman, Bart D. (2011). "The Textual Reliability of the New Testament: a dialogue". In Stewart, Robert B. (ed.). The reliability of the New Testament. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-800-69773-0. OCLC 646121910.

Journal articles

References

  1. ^ "Daniel B. Wallace – Professor of New Testament Studies". Dallas Theological Seminary. Archived from the original on November 27, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
  2. ^ Bock, Darrell L. and Daniel B. Wallace (2007) Nashville: Thomas Nelson. ISBN 0-7852-2615-X
  3. ^ The Ehrman Project.
  4. ^ The Gospel according to Bart
  5. ^ Wallace, Daniel B. (September 25, 2017). "A Sad Home-Going for Three Saints". Daniel B. Wallace. Archived from the original on January 10, 2024. Retrieved January 10, 2024. [Nabeel Qureshi] and I had our differences, too. He didn't care much for Calvinism especially. We would have vigorous, passionate discussions about God's sovereignty and mankind's responsibility/free will, but these never harmed our friendship.
  6. ^ Wallace, Daniel B. (June 30, 2004). "My Understanding of the Biblical Doctrine of Election". Bible.org. Archived from the original on January 10, 2024. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  7. ^ Wallace, Daniel B. (June 30, 2004). "The Uneasy Conscience of a Non-Charismatic Evangelical". Bible.org. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  8. ^ Wallace, Daniel B. (May 23, 2018). "First-Century Mark Fragment Update". Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  9. ^ Pattengale, Jerry (June 28, 2019). "The First-Century Mark Saga from inside the room". Christianity Today. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  10. ^ Wallace, Daniel B. (May 30, 2018). "First-Century Mark Fragment Second Update". Retrieved July 12, 2018.

Further reading