David Charles Parker

Background

David Parker was born on July 4, 1953 in Boston, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, into the family of T.H.L. and M. Parker.

Education

David Parker studied at the University of St. Andrews, where he received a Master of Theology in 1975. In 1977 Parker got a Diploma in Theology at Cambridge University. At the University of Leiden David earned a Doctor of Theology in 1990.

Career

David Parker started his career as a curate of Christian churches in London, England, during 1977 - 1980, and in Oxfordshire, England, in 1980 - 1985. After that he took the position of a tutor at Queen's Theological College (now the Queen's Foundation) in Birmingham, England in 1985 and had been working there until 1993. Since that time, he has been working for the University of Birmingham. He began as a lecturer, became reader in theology and finally took the position of Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology. Apart from that, Parker is a co-editor of the International Greek New Testament Project.

His main current work is editions of the Gospel of John funded by the AHRC. One is a critical edition of the Greek text in the series Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Critica maior, in partnership with the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung, Münster, Germany. Another is an edition of the Gospel of John in Latin in the Vetus Latina series.

Achievements

• David Parker is highly famous as the author of books Codex Bezae: An Early Christian Manuscript and Its Text and The Living Text of the Gospels.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Codex Bezae: An Early Christian Manuscript and its Text

    (Codex Bezae is one of the most important primary sources ...)

    1992
  • The Living Text of the Gospels

    (This book represents an important new departure in New Te...)

    1997
  • Textual Scholarship and the Making of the New Testament

    (The book is going through its biggest revolution since Gu...)

    2014
  • Manuscripts, Texts, Theology: Collected Papers 1977-2007 2009

Views

Quotations: “My book on the codex is a precise and very detailed analysis of a single manuscript of the New Testament. In The Living Text of the Gospels I wanted to explore the wider implications of one conclusion I had reached: that at least some early Christians were more interested in the spirit than the letter of the sayings of Jesus. In writing about the way in which these sayings were changed by scribes, I began to explore also the ways in which a text crafted in and for manuscript copying is inherently different from the writing of a book that will be printed. Much of my writing is analytical and contains items such as lists, but I enjoy writing and try to write well. Apart from the pleasure, it is the only way to be clear.”

Membership

• cochairperson of Textual Criticism Seminar

  Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas

• Society of Biblical Literature

Interests

• New Testament textual criticism, Greek and Latin palaeography

Connections

David Charles Parker married a woman named Karen in July, 1976. They have four children - Louise, James, John, and Alison.

Father:

T.H.L. Parker

Mother:

M. Parker

Spouse:

Karen Parker

Daughter:

Louise Parker

Son:

James Parker

Son:

John Parker

Daughter:

Alison Parker