Peter J. Gentry, PhD
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Old Testament
Senior Research Fellow, Text & Canon Institute
Senior Research Fellow, Text & Canon Institute
Dr. Peter Gentry joined the Phoenix Seminary team in 2021 as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Old Testament and Senior Research Fellow of the Text & Canon Institute. Dr. Gentry taught formerly at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for twenty-two years (1999–2021) and previously at Toronto Baptist Seminary for fifteen years (1984–1999). He is the author of numerous books and articles related to biblical interpretation and the textual history of the Old Testament. Dr. Gentry teaches courses in the biblical languages, exegesis, and biblical theology. Currently, he is writing a commentary on Isaiah for the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament series and providing leadership to the Hexapla Institute. For the Text & Canon Institute, Dr. Gentry will continue to research, present, and publish on the Bible’s history. When he’s not teaching and writing, Dr. Gentry is gazing at the stars through his telescope, listening to classical music, reading to his grandchildren, or continuing to learn some new subject.
Education
B.A., University of Toronto
M.A., University of Toronto
Ph.D., University of Toronto
Graduate Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary
God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology
How to Read and Understand the Biblical Prophets
Select Articles
“The System of the Finite Verb in Classical Biblical Hebrew.” Hebrew Studies 39 (1998): 7-39.
“Ecclesiastes.” In The New English Translation of the Septuagint, edited by A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Provisional Edition: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/.
“Lamentations.” In The New English Translation of the Septuagint, edited by A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Provisional Edition: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/.
“Hexaplaric Materials in Ecclesiastes and the Rôle of the Syro- Hexapla.” Aramaic Studies 1 (2003): 5-28.
“The Relationship of Aquila and Theodotion to the Old Greek of Ecclesiastes in the Marginal Notes of the Syro-Hexapla.” Aramaic Studies 2.1 (2004): 63-84.
“The Son of Man in Daniel 7: Individual or Corporate?” In Acorns to Oaks: The Primacy and Practice of Biblical Theology. A Festschrift for Dr. Geoff Adams edited by Michael A. G. Haykin. Dundas: Joshua Press, 2003.
“Propaedeutic to a Lexicon of the Three: The Priority of a New Critical Edition of Hexaplaric Fragments.” Aramaic Studies, 2.2 (2004): 145-174.
“The Role of the ‘Three’ in the Text History of the Septuagint: II. Aspects of Interdependence of the Old Greek and the Three in Ecclesiastes,” Aramaic Studies, 4.2 (2006): 153-192.
“The Atonement in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13- 53:12),” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. 11/2 (2007): 20-47.
“Rethinking the “Sure Mercies of David” in Isaiah 55:3,” The Westminster Theological Journal 69 (2007): 279-304.
“Kingdom Through Covenant: Humanity as the Divine Image,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. 12/1 (2008): 16-42.
“Special Problems in the Septuagint Text History of Ecclesiastes.” In XIII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Stud- ies: Ljubljana, 2007, edited by Melvin K. H. Peters. Society of Biblical Literature Septuagint and Cognate Studies, no. 55. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 2008: 133-153.
“The Text of the Old Testament,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 52/1 (2009): 19-45.
“The Distinctive Aims of the Göttingen Apparatus: Examples from Ecclesiastes — An Edition in Preparation.” In Die Göttinger Septuaginta: Ein editorisches Jahrhundertprojekt edited by Reinhard G. Kratz and Bernhard Neuschäfer (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, NF 22, Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens 30; Berlin: DeGruyter, 2013), 73-105.
“Issues in the Text-History of LXX Ecclesiastes.” In Die Septuaginta: Texte, Theologien und Einflüsse. 2. Internationale Fachtagung veranstaltet von Septuaginta Deutsch (LXX.D), – Wuppertal, 23. – 27.7.2008 edited by Wolfgang Kraus and Martin Karrer assisted by Martin Meiser (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 201-222.
“Daniel’s Seventy Weeks and the New Exodus,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. 14/1 (2010): 26-45.
Gentry, Peter J. and Felix Albrecht, “The Amazing History of MS Rahlfs 159 — Insights from Editing LXX Ecclesiastes,” Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 44 (2011): 31-50.
Meade, John D. and Peter J. Gentry. “Evaluating Evaluations: The Commentary of BHQ and the Problem of תוֹללוֹה in Ecclesiastes 1:17.” In SOPHIA – PAIDEIA: SAPIENZA E EDUCAZIONE (Sir 1,27): Miscellanea di Studi offerti in onore del prof. Don Mario Cimosa edited by Gillian Bonney and Rafael Vicent (Nuova Biblio- teca di Scienze Religiose 34), Rome: Libreria Ateneo Salesiano, 2012), 197-217.
Gentry, Peter J. “Raising Children, The Christian Way.” The Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry. 2/2 (2012): 96-109.
Gentry, Peter J. (with Yun Yeong Yi). “Ekklesiastes/Kohelet/Der Prediger Salomo.” In Einleitung in die Septuaginta (Handbuch zur Septuaginta, LXX.H 1) edited by Siegfried Kreuzer (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlag, 2016), 389-397.
Gentry, Peter J. “New Ultra-Literal Translation Techniques in Kaige-Theodotion and Aquila.” In Die Sprache der Septuaginta (Handbuch zur Septuaginta, LXX.H 4), edited by E. Bons and J. Joosten, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlag, 2016), 202-220.
“Sizemore Lectures: Isaiah and Sociel Justice,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 12.1 (2013): 1-16.
“Sizemore Lectures: No One Holy Like the Lord,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 12.1 (2013): 17-38.
“Origen’s Hexapla,” Oxford Handbook on the Septuagint, edited by Alison Salvesen and T. Michael Law.
“Suffering under the Administration of the New Covenant,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 18/1 (2014): 160 -166.
“The Meaning of ‘Holy’ in the Old Testament,” Bibliotheca Sacra 170 (October-December 2013): 400-17.
“Sizemore Lectures: The Great Code: Greek Bible and the Humanities,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 13.1 (2014): 50-80.
“The Aristarchian Signs in the Textual Tradition of LXX Ecclesiastes.” In In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes: Studies in the Biblical Text in Honour of Anneli Aejmelaeus edited by Kristin De Troyer, T. Michael Law, and Marketta Liljeström (Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology; Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 463-478.
“The Literary Macrostructures of the Book of Isaiah and Authorial Intent.” In Bind up the Testimony: Explorations in the Genesis of the Book of Isaiah edited by Daniel I. Block and Richard L. Schultz (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2015), 227-254.
“Did Origen Use the Artistarchian Signs in the Hexapla?” In XV CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR SEPTUAGINT AND COGNATE STUDIES, Munich 2013 edited by Wolfgang Kraus, Michaël N. van der Meer and Martin Meiser (Munich, Germany: SBL Press, 2016), 133-148.
“The Glory of God—The Character of God’s Being and Way in the World: Some Reflections on a Key Biblical Theology Theme,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. 20.1 (2016): 149-161.
“The Function of the Augment in Hellenistic Greek,” In The Greek Verb Revisited edited by Steven E. Runge and Christopher J. Fresch. Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2016, 353-378.
Select Presentations At Learned Societies
Gentry, Peter J. “Kingdom through Covenant and the Glory of God.” Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Milwaukee, WI, November 14-16, 2012.
. “The Meaning of the Lemnisk Sign in The Syro-Hexapla of Ecclesiastes.” Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Chicago, November 17-20, 2012.
. “Did Origen Use the Aristarchian Signs in the Hexapla?” Annual Meeting of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies and the Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament in Munich, Germany, August 1-6, 2013.
Gentry, Peter J. and and John Meade, “MasPsa and the Early History of the Hebrew Psalter,” in Papers on Conference in Georgia (Europe) edited by A. Aejmelaeus, forthcoming.
Gentry, Peter J. and Andrew M. Fountain. “The Putative Citation of Enoch in Jude,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (forthcoming).
Select Book Reviews
The Legend of the Septuagint: From Classical Antiquity to Today by Abraham Wasser- stein and David J. Wasserstein. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Catholic Biblical Quarterly 69 (2007): 802-804.
Septuagint Research: Issues and Challenges in the Study of the Greek Jewish Scriptures. Edited by Wolfgang Kraus and R. Glenn Wooden. SBL Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 53. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006. Journal of the American Oriental Society 129.2 (2009): 331-333.
Septuaginta: La Biblia griega de judíos y cristianos by Fernández Marcos, Natalio. Bib- lioteca de Estudios Bíblicos Minor 12. Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme, 2008.
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9 (2009). Review by Jason T. Parry and Peter J. Gentry: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/reviews_new/review394.htm.
God’s Word Omitted: Omissions in the Transmission of the Hebrew Bible by Juha Pakkala. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 251. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013. Themelios 40/2 (2015): 284-287.
Select Guest Lectures
Nov 20-21, ’14 “Response to a Critique of Kingdom through Covenant” in the Dis- pensational Study Group and “Paper on Daniel’s Seventy Weeks” in the Section on Prophetic/Apocalyptic Literature. Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Diego, CA.
Nov 21-25, ’14 “Colophons in the Syro-Hexapla and the Early History of the Hexa- pla,” Annual Meeting of the International Organization of Septuagint and Cognate Studies and Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, CA.
Apr 28-May 5, ’15 “The Masada Psalms Fragments and the Rewritten Psalters of Qum- ran,” International Symposium in Tbilisi, Georgia. Conference Title: “From Scribal Error to Rewriting: How (Sacred) Texts May and May Not Be Changed.”
Jul 10-11, ’15 “The Augment in Hellenistic Greek.” Conference entitled Linguistics and the Greek Verb at Tyndale House, July 10-11, Cambridge, UK.
Feb 15-19, ’16 Gave Lecture at SEBTS Ph.D. Colloquium, “The Supposed Citation of Enoch in Jude.”
