Background
Goulder, Michael Douglas was born on May 31, 1927 in London. Son of Douglas and Daphne Goulder.
Goulder, Michael Douglas was born on May 31, 1927 in London. Son of Douglas and Daphne Goulder.
Bachelor, Cambridge University, England, 1948. Bachelor, Master of Arts, Oxford University, England, 1954. Doctor of Divinity, Oxford University, England, 1975.
He was perhaps best known for his contributions to the Synoptic Problem, and specifically the Farrer hypothesis, which postulates Markan priority but dispenses with the Q document, suggesting instead that Luke knew Matthew. Goulder was also associated with the theory that the evangelists were highly creative authors, and that Matthew and Luke had only minimal source material. This has been seen as reviving a hypothesis proposed by Ferdinand Christian Baur of the Tübingen school.
Goulder was an unusual Biblical scholar in that he had expertise in both testaments.
He published extensively over a twenty-year period on a variety of Old Testament topics, but especially the Psalms. Despite some scholarly criticisms of his conclusions, Goulder has been described as "a renowned leader in the study of the Hebrew Psalter".
Educated at Eton followed by Trinity College, Cambridge where he took a degree in classics, he was ordained in Hong Kong by Bishop Ronald Hall, having gone out there originally in pursuance of secular employment. Having not received any formal theological training, he returned to England and studied under Austin Farrer at Trinity College, Oxford while serving a curacy at the university church.
After a number of years of parochial ministry in Withington, Manchester he returned to Hong Kong as principal of the Union Theological College there before taking up a post at Birmingham University"s Extra Mural Department.
Some years later he returned to Trinity to give the Speaker"s lectures at Trinity College, Oxford in 1969-1971 on Saint Matthew"s method of writing the gospel and, in the process, dispensing with Q, for which he was awarded a Doctorate by the University.
Member of Society for Old Testament Study (president 2001).
Married Clare Goulder, August 7, 1953. Children: Catherine, Elizabeth, Nicholas, Philip.