MBTS to host Scrolls scholar for workshop
KANSAS CITY – Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS)will host a “Christianity and Dead Sea Scrolls” workshop Feb. 9 from 6-9 p.m. and Feb. 10 from 8 a.m. to noon that is free and open to the public.
“Without a doubt the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) was the greatest archaeological discovery of all time,” said MBTS President R. Philip Roberts, “Concurrent with the opening of the Union Station Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit on Feb. 8, this press conference will provide pertinent information and great opportunity for the press to ask our guest speaker any questions related to this discovery.”
In his two lectures, “Jesus, Paul, and the Dead Sea Scrolls” and “The Extra-Canonical Gospels and the Dead Sea Scrolls: What Do They Really Tell Us about Jesus?,” Scroll scholar Craig A. Evans will address not only the implications of the DSS discovery for Christianity, but also its effect on the scholarly and popular culture surrounding current extra-canonical perspectives.
Evans frequently speaks about the Bible and Archaeology, and Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls in a variety of venues. In his 21 years of directing the graduate program at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, he was also responsible for founding the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at that university. He has served in his current position at Acadia Divinity College since 2002.
He also co-edited the book “Christian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls” in which he and five other leading scholars address questions for the study of early Christianity created by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What did the Jews of Jesus’ day believe about salvation? The Holy Spirit? The nature of the Messiah? These issues and more will be the focus of this workshop.
MBTS Professor of Old Testament, Hebrew and Archaeology Stephen J. Andrews; Associate Professor of Biblical Studies Radu Gheorghita; Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew N. Blake Hearson; and Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek Terry Wilder will join Evans to speak at the workshop’s break-out sessions.
For more information, call (816) 414-3708 or (816) 785-3091.