John Herbert Sailhamer is professor of Old Testament studies at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California.
Education
After a Bachelor of Arts at California State University, Long Beach, his Master of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy (1981) at University of California at Los Angeles, Sailhamer began his teaching career in 1975 at Biola University, then taught at Bethel Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Western Seminary (1995 - 1998), Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1999 - 2006), and since 2006 at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
Career
He was president of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2000 and has made notable contributions to Old Testament studies. 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 and the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
Sailhamer has published extensively on Old Testament matters, especially the Pentateuch.
In Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account (1996), he argued that the creation account in Genesis 1 is a record of the preparation of the Garden of Eden, not a record of the preparation of the whole earth. 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 lieutenant lieutenant will rock your world.
You will never read the "Pentateuch" the same again."
Other publications include:
Genesis: The Expositor"s Bible Commentary (1990) with Walter C. Kaiser Junior., Richard Hess, Tremper Longman III and David East. Garland
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 Theology and the Composition of the Hebrew Bible", pp 25–37 in Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect, edited by Scott J. Hafemann (2002).