Background
Ben Witherington was born on December 30, 1951 in High Point, Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. He is a son of Ben Witherington, Jr., a banker, and Joyce Witherington, a piano teacher.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
In 1974 Ben Witherington received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts, United States
In 1977 Ben Witherington obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
(A fascinating and original contribution to the exegesis o...)
A fascinating and original contribution to the exegesis of Biblical passages relevant to the current debate on women's roles in the Church and society.
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Ministry-Jesus-Attitudes-Reflected/dp/0521347815/?tag=2022091-20
1984
(This book examines the roles and functions that women ass...)
This book examines the roles and functions that women assumed in the early Christian communities from AD 33 to the Council of Nicaea. It surveys, too, the views about women held by various New Testament authors including Paul and the Evangelists.
https://www.amazon.com/Earliest-Churches-Society-Testament-Monograph/dp/0521407893/?tag=2022091-20
1988
(This study explores the role of women in New Testament ti...)
This study explores the role of women in New Testament times. Beginning with the woman's place in Judaism, in the Hellenistic world, and in the Roman Empire, Witherington demonstrates how Jesus broke significantly with convention in how he viewed women, offering as he did a wholly new conception of the legitimate rights of women in society.
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Genesis-Christianity-Ben-Witherington/dp/0521367352/?tag=2022091-20
1990
(In this bold experiment in Christology, Ben Witherington ...)
In this bold experiment in Christology, Ben Witherington develops a new, indirect method to discern Jesus' self-understanding.
https://www.amazon.com/Christology-Jesus-Ben-Witherington/dp/0800631080/?tag=2022091-20
1990
(More than eighty years ago Albert Schweitzer posed a ques...)
More than eighty years ago Albert Schweitzer posed a question of enduring debate for New Testament scholarship. Did Jesus - and later Paul - believe that the apocalyptic kingdom of God was about to appear, bringing an end to this world? Indeed, what were the eschatological teachings of Jesus and Paul? Is there any appreciable continuity between the two? Ben Witherington takes a hard look at the Gospel texts and makes a thorough and critical assessment of Paul's eschatology. For each topic examined - the language of imminence, the dominion of God, the community of Christ, the Israel of God, the day of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead - he compares and contrasts Jesus and Paul. The result is an important contribution to our understanding of New Testament eschatology. With the second millennium drawing to a close and world events sparking the speculations of popular religious imaginations, Witherington provides a timely and sober re-examination of a topic too long neglected by serious scholarship.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Paul-End-World-Comparative-ebook/dp/B0022NGEJ4/?tag=2022091-20
1992
(The path of wisdom from Solomon to Jesus and from Jesus t...)
The path of wisdom from Solomon to Jesus and from Jesus to the church In the early Jesus movement, wisdom in the person of Jesus was believed to have returned to heaven, exalted to the right hand of God, and to reign from there. But Jesus as wisdom had left both his legacy and his influence behind. The sayings of Jesus recorded in the Gospels reflect not only the influence of the Israelite wisdom traditions, but also the tradition of the personification of wisdom. In this provocative volume newly available in paperback, Ben Witherington provides both an introduction to Israel's wisdom traditions and insight into how Jesus and his sayings fit in that tradition. Beyond this, he demonstrates the on-going significance and influence of these traditions on other New Testament writings. He concludes that Jesus may be viewed primarily as a prophetic sage emphasizing instruction, insight, and humor in a vein counter to the dominant culture.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Sage-Ben-Witherington-III/dp/0800632419/?tag=2022091-20
1994
(This book presents an exposition of Paul's letter followi...)
This book presents an exposition of Paul's letter following an introduction to the background and foreground of Paul and the Philippine letter. Applies insights from the social sciences and from Greco-Roman rhetoric to Philippians, distilling the benefits of these new disciplines for the study of this letter.
https://www.amazon.com/Friendship-Finances-Philippi-Philippians-Commentaries/dp/1563381028/?tag=2022091-20
1994
(It is a common belief that Paul's letters are not stories...)
It is a common belief that Paul's letters are not stories but rather theological ideas and practical advice. Ben Witherington III thinks otherwise. He is convinced that all of Paul's ideas, arguments, practical advice, and social arrangements are ultimately grounded in stories, some found in the Hebrew Scriptures and some found in the oral tradition.
https://www.amazon.com/Pauls-Narrative-Thought-World-Tapestry/dp/0664254330/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(Who is the Jesus behind the Gospel narratives? How would ...)
Who is the Jesus behind the Gospel narratives? How would he have been understood by his contemporaries? Did the church transform a charismatic rabbi or a peasant-philosopher into its heavenly, incarnate Lord? Does the key to Jesus' real identity actually lie in the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter or other noncanonical Jesus literature suppressed by the ancient orthodox church? What do the sects, parties and movements of Jewish Palestine tell us about the real Jesus, his words, his actions and his intentions? These are the questions being asked by a new generation of investigators of the man behind the origin of Christianity. Dubbed the Third Quest of the historical Jesus, this renewed effort is a transformation of the first quest, memorialized and chronicled by Albert Schweitzer, and the second quest, carried out in the 1950s and 1960s in the wake of extreme Bultmannian skepticism. Now in the 1990s, with the time, place and social setting of Jesus newly illumined by renewed and vigorous investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Jewish and Hellenistic sources, there has appeared a surge of scholarly books on Jesus within his Jewish and Mediterranean environment.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Quest-Third-Search-Nazareth/dp/0830818618/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(This unprecedented commentary applies an exegetical metho...)
This unprecedented commentary applies an exegetical method informed by both sociological insight and rhetorical analysis to the study of 1 and 2 Corinthians. In addition to using traditional exegetical and historical methods, this unique study also analyzes the two letters of Paul in terms of Greco-Roman rhetoric and ancient social conditions and customs to shed fresh light on the context and content of Paul's message. Includes 21 black-and-white photos and illustrations.
https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Community-Corinth-Socio-rhetorical-Corinthians-ebook/dp/B006CB4FAW/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(Jesus as depicted in the Fourth Gospel is remarkably diss...)
Jesus as depicted in the Fourth Gospel is remarkably dissimilar to the Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospels. In this book, Ben Witherington III places the Gospel of John within its proper literary, historical, social, and theological contexts, especially those dealing with the wisdom traditions of Hellenistic Judaism. What emerges is a compelling argument that the Gospel of John has an agenda for mission in addition to concerns for discipleship and community life.
https://www.amazon.com/Johns-Wisdom-Commentary-Fourth-Gospel/dp/066425621X/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(These essays use an interdisciplinary approach for recent...)
These essays use an interdisciplinary approach for recent Book of Acts scholarship. Insights from the social sciences, narratological studies, Greek and Roman rhetoric and history, and classics, set Acts in its original historical, literary and social context. These methods of interpretation have only recently been applied to Acts in a systematic way. This is a valuable overview of some of the chief preoccupations of current biblical studies from leading scholars in Old and New Testament studies and the history of antiquity.
https://www.amazon.com/History-Literature-Society-Book-Acts/dp/0521495202/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(In this volume the noted scholar Ben Witherington, III di...)
In this volume the noted scholar Ben Witherington, III discusses in chronological order the New Testament evidence of what the historical Jesus did, what he said, and what those around him believed. Jesus was a complex figure and, like light shining through a prism, reflections on the man who fits no one formula have produced a variety of colors and depths of shade that cannot and should not be all blended into some monochromatic image. In this volume the noted scholar Ben Witherington, III discusses in chronological order the New Testament evidence of what the historical Jesus did, what he said, and what those around him believed. Jesus was a complex figure and, like light shining through a prism, reflections on the man who fits no one formula have produced a variety of colors and depths of shade that cannot and should not be all blended into some monochromatic image. In this volume the noted scholar Ben Witherington, III discusses in chronological order the New Testament evidence of what the historical Jesus did, what he said, and what those around him believed. Jesus was a complex figure and, like light shining through a prism, reflections on the man who fits no one formula have produced a variety of colors and depths of shade that cannot and should not be all blended into some monochromatic image.
https://www.amazon.com/Many-Faces-Christ-Christologies-Companions/dp/0824517059
1998
(Grace in Galatia is an innovative socio-rhetorical study ...)
Grace in Galatia is an innovative socio-rhetorical study of Paul's most polemical letter. Ben Witherington breaks new ground by analyzing the whole of Galatians as a deliberative discourse meant to forestall the Galatians from submitting to circumcision and the Jewish law. The commentary features the latest discussion of major problems in Pauline studies, including Paul's view of the law and the relationship between the historical data in Galatians and in Acts. Yet the narrative character of Witherington's work allows it to remain exceedingly accessible. The volume also includes sections following the major divisions of the commentary that point to the relevance of the text for believers today, making Grace in Galatia of special value to pastors and general readers as well as students and scholars.
https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Galatia-Commentary-Letter-Galatians/dp/0802844332/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(Written in a readable style, with more detailed interacti...)
Written in a readable style, with more detailed interaction with scholarly discussion found in the various excursuses, this commentary draws on the best new insights from a number of disciplines (narratological studies of Luke-Acts, archaeological and social scientific study of the New Testament, rhetorical analysis of Acts, comparative studies in ancient historiography) to provide the reader with the benefits of recent innovative ways of analyzing the text of Acts.
https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Apostles-Socio-Rhetorical-Commentary/dp/0802845010/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(In this book, Ben Witherington III examines and evaluates...)
In this book, Ben Witherington III examines and evaluates the various profiles of Paul that have been newly discovered or recently refurbished. We encounter Paul as an ancient Mediterranean personality and watch him operate in a social environment where honor, shame, patronage and corporate identity are daily considerations. We discover new dimensions of Paul's epistles as we observe him dictating letters and gauging his rhetoric. We enter into the field of controversy where Paul the apostle and prophet meets his opponents. We reconsider the nature of the human body and Christian community as we meet Paul the anthropologist and champion of woman and slave. Paul, the man of the big idea, shows himself to be in truth a storyteller and interpreter of Israel's holy history. In and through all of these complexities, we discover Paul to be a consistent and coherent theologian and ethicist whose thinking reaches out across nearly two thousand years to engage men and women today. With The Paul Quest Witherington leads an exploratory tour and reappraisal of the historical Paul, a sweeping survey of the contemporary rediscovery of the Jew from Tarsus.
https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Quest-Renewed-Search-Tarsus/dp/0830826602/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(Jesus the Seer especially complements Witherington's othe...)
Jesus the Seer especially complements Witherington's other volume on Jesus, "Jesus the Sage." Ambitious in scope, clear and compelling in presentation. Witherington has linked the eschatological prophet-sage Jesus to the complex world of Old Testament prophecy, and then gone on to trace the relationship of both to early Christian prophecy. Rarely has a New Testament scholar demonstrated such proficiency in handling Old Testament and Hebrew sources. The result is a comprehensive scriptural presentation.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Seer-Ben-Witherington-III-ebook/dp/B00WFHCQUS/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(Essential to an understanding of the New Testament is a c...)
Essential to an understanding of the New Testament is a comprehension of the individuals, events, and social movements that shaped the setting from which Jesus and his followers emerged. Unfortunately, many accounts by historians can leave readers feeling overwhelmed and confused. New Testament History provides a worthy solution to this problem. A well-known expert on the social situation of the New Testament, Ben Witherington offers an engaging look into the world that gave birth to the Christian faith.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-History-Narrative-Account/dp/0801027691/?tag=2022091-20
2001
(Was Jesus really married to Mary Magdalene? Did he father...)
Was Jesus really married to Mary Magdalene? Did he father a child with her? Did Constantine suppress the earliest Gospels and invent the doctrine of Christ's divinity? Do the Gnostic Gospels represent the true Christian faith which the early church sought to supplant? The Da Vinci Code, in blurring the lines between fact and fiction, popularizes the speculations and contentions of numerous more serious books that are also attracting wide attention. How should we respond to claims that we now have documents that reveal secrets about Jesus, secrets long suppressed by the church and other religious institutions? Do these new documents successfully debunk traditional views about Jesus and early Christianity? Ben Witherington III confronts these claims with the sure-footedness of a New Testament scholar, yet in the plain language that any interested reader can follow. He takes us back to the early centuries after Jesus' death and tells us what we can really know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the canonical Gospels and their Gnostic rivals.
https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Code-Novel-Claims-Magdalene/dp/159644147X
2004
(There is no doubting the legacy of the Protestant Reforme...)
There is no doubting the legacy of the Protestant Reformers and their successors. Luther, Calvin, and Wesley not only spawned specific denominational traditions, but their writings have been instrumental in forging a broadly embraced evangelical theology as well. In this volume, Ben Witherington wrestles with some of the big ideas of these major traditional theological systems (sin, God's sovereignty, prophecy, grace, and the Holy Spirit), asking tough questions about their biblical foundations. Witherington argues that evangelicalism sometimes wrongly assumes a biblical warrant for some of its more popular beliefs, and, further, he pushes the reader to engage the larger story and plot of the Bible to understand these central elements of belief.
https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Evangelical-Theology-Foundations-Dispensationalism/dp/1932792422/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(Strange theories about Jesus seem to ooze from our cultur...)
Strange theories about Jesus seem to ooze from our culture with increasing regularity. Ben Witherington, one of the top Jesus scholars, will have none of it. There were no secret Gnostic teachings in the first century. With leading scholars and popular purveyors of bad history in his crosshairs, Witherington reveals what we can—and cannot—claim to know about the real Jesus. The Bible, not outside sources, is still the most trustworthy historical record we have today. Utilizing a fresh "personality profile" approach, Witherington highlights core Christian claims by investigating the major figures in Jesus’s inner circle of followers: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter, James the brother of Jesus, Paul, and the mysterious "beloved disciple." In each chapter Witherington satisfies our curiosities and answers the full range of questions about these key figures and what each of them can teach us about the historical Jesus. What Have They Done with Jesus? is a vigorous defense of traditional Christianity that offers a compelling portrait of Jesus’s core message according to those who knew him best.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Have-They-Done-Jesus-ebook/dp/B000W96512/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(Making a Meal of It explores the background and implicati...)
Making a Meal of It explores the background and implication of the Lord's Supper. Delving into its historical and Scriptural origins, Witherington argues that the Lord's Supper is a sacramental celebration of the community of God, designed to incorporate people of varying backgrounds. Excavating the diverse ways in which Scripture and early Christian tradition speak about the Lord's Supper, Witherington advocates that the meal is primarily about who the people of God are and how they should thus live together.
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Meal-Rethinking-Theology-Supper/dp/1602581908/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(Baptism has been a contested practice from the very begin...)
Baptism has been a contested practice from the very beginning of the church. In this volume, Ben Witherington rethinks the theology of baptism and does so in constant conversation with the classic theological positions and central New Testament texts. By placing baptism in the context of the covenant, Witherington shows how advocates of both believer’s baptism and infant baptism have added some water to both their theology and practice of baptism.
https://www.amazon.com/Troubled-Waters-Rethinking-Theology-Baptism-ebook/dp/B001C6IUW6/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(All too often, argues Ben Witherington, the theology of t...)
All too often, argues Ben Witherington, the theology of the New Testament has been divorced from its ethics, leaving as isolated abstractions what are fully integrated, dynamic elements within the New Testament itself. As Witherington stresses, "behavior affects and reinforces or undoes belief." Previously published as The Indelible Image, Volume 1, Witherington offers the first of a two-volume set on the theological and ethical thought world of the New Testament. The first volume looks at the individual witnesses, while the second examines the collective witness. The New Testament, says Ben Witherington, is "like a smallish choir. All are singing the same cantata, but each has an individual voice and is singing its own parts and notes. If we fail to pay attention to all the voices in the choir, we do not get the entire effect... If this first volume is about closely analyzing the sheet music left to us by which each musician's part is delineated, the second volume will attempt to re-create what it might have sounded like had they ever gotten together and performed their scores to produce a single masterful cantata." What the New Testament authors have in mind, Witherington contends, is that all believers should be conformed in thought, word and deed to the image of Jesus Christ ― the indelible image.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Theology-Ethics-Witherington/dp/083085133X/?tag=2022091-20
2016
Ben Witherington was born on December 30, 1951 in High Point, Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. He is a son of Ben Witherington, Jr., a banker, and Joyce Witherington, a piano teacher.
In 1974 Ben Witherington received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1977 he obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In 1981 Witherington gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Durham.
In 1982 Ben Witherington III was ordained Methodist elder. From 1982 to 1983 he was a faculty member of High Point College. From 1982 to 1983 Witherington was a faculty member of Duke University in Durham. From 1984 to 1995 Ben served as a professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary. In 1988, 1990, 1992 he was a visiting professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In 1995 Witherington was appointed a professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Witherington has also taught at Vanderbilt University and Duke Divinity School. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
(Who is the Jesus behind the Gospel narratives? How would ...)
1995(Written in a readable style, with more detailed interacti...)
1998(Was Jesus really married to Mary Magdalene? Did he father...)
2004(The path of wisdom from Solomon to Jesus and from Jesus t...)
1994(All too often, argues Ben Witherington, the theology of t...)
2016(In this volume the noted scholar Ben Witherington, III di...)
1998(Essential to an understanding of the New Testament is a c...)
2001(This unprecedented commentary applies an exegetical metho...)
1995(A fascinating and original contribution to the exegesis o...)
1984(This book presents an exposition of Paul's letter followi...)
1994(In this book, Ben Witherington III examines and evaluates...)
1998(This book examines the roles and functions that women ass...)
1988(In this bold experiment in Christology, Ben Witherington ...)
1990(More than eighty years ago Albert Schweitzer posed a ques...)
1992(It is a common belief that Paul's letters are not stories...)
1995(Jesus as depicted in the Fourth Gospel is remarkably diss...)
1995(Jesus the Seer especially complements Witherington's othe...)
1999(Grace in Galatia is an innovative socio-rhetorical study ...)
1998(Strange theories about Jesus seem to ooze from our cultur...)
2007(These essays use an interdisciplinary approach for recent...)
1996(Making a Meal of It explores the background and implicati...)
2007(There is no doubting the legacy of the Protestant Reforme...)
2005(Baptism has been a contested practice from the very begin...)
2007(This study explores the role of women in New Testament ti...)
1990Ben Witherington III is an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church.
Ben Witherington is a member of the Institute for Biblical Research, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Phi Beta Kappa, the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.
On June 4, 1977 Ben Witherington married Ann E. Sears, an instructor in biology. They have two children: Christy Ann, David Benjamin. On January 11, 2012 Witherington's daughter died of a pulmonary embolism.