Michael Goulder

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Michael Douglas Goulder (b. 1927) is a British Biblical scholar who has spent most of his academic life at the University of Birmingham where he retired as Professor of Biblical Studies in 1994.[citation needed] He is 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.[1] Goulder is also associated with the theory that the evangelists were highly creative authors, and that Matthew and Luke had only minimal source material.[2] In recent years, he has written widely on a theory of Christian origins that sees a fundamental opposition between Paul the Apostle on one side and the Jerusalem Christians Peter and James, Jesus' brother, on the other.[3] This has been seen as reviving a hypothesis proposed by Ferdinand Christian Baur of the Tübingen school.[4]

Goulder is an unusual Biblical scholar in that he has expertise in both testaments. He has published extensively over a twenty year period on a variety of Old Testament topics, but especially the Psalms. His works in this area have aimed among other things to discover the historical contexts in which individual psalms were used in worship, employing comparisons with the traditions behind other parts of the Hebrew Bible such as the Pentateuch.[5][6] Despite some scholarly criticisms of his conclusions, Goulder has been described as "a renowned leader in the study of the Hebrew Psalter".[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ See, for example "Is Q a Juggernaut?", Journal of Biblical Literature 115 (1996): 667-81, reproduced at http://ntgateway.com/Q/goulder.htm.
  2. ^ See especially Midrash and Lection in Matthew (London: SPCK, 1974) and Luke: A New Paradigm (JSNTSup, 20; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989).
  3. ^ See, for example, St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions (London: SCM, 1994) and Paul and the Competing Mission in Corinth (Library of Pauline Studies; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2001).
  4. ^ Steven C. Muir (26 June 2000). Review of St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions (PDF). Review of Biblical Literature. 
  5. ^ William M. Schniedewind (15 April 1998). Review of The Psalms of Asaph and the Pentateuch (PDF). Review of Biblical Literature. 
  6. ^ a b H. Wayne Ballard, Jr. (2 July 2001). Review of The Psalms of the Return (PDF). Review of Biblical Literature. 

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