Welcome

I am Dr. Gerald L. Stevens, retired Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I was able to celebrate my thirty-year anniversary, but missed making my thirty-five year anniversary by only one year, unfortunately. Not long after I began teaching, my students nicknamed me “Dr. Koine” for my first love, which was teaching New Testament Greek, hence the website name.

Links

Overview, education, family, music, photography, and Katrina.

Writing, classes, travel, video

Jean, ministry, publications, presentations, and sermons.

Teaching Motto

I lived by the motto I tried to drill into my students, “Love the text, and she will love you back.” By this my students knew I meant that a close and continual reading of the biblical text itself, most particularly in the original language, always will reveal more than any exegetical commentary. With a commitment to sound hermeneutical principles, a solid grasp of historical context, and a deep and abiding love for the original text, I challenged my students to find their own voice, as I did (as is so obvious in my own commentaries), so that their preaching and teaching would have the inherent authority of the living Word.

Amazing Tidbit

One amazing tidbit about the classroom I have to share—because I think this fact is unmatched by any SBC seminary faculty at any time—is that I never missed a scheduled lecture in thirty-four years of teaching for any reason. Further, every book I ever published (see Publications) was a textbook for the classroom, and each was dedicated to “my students, past, present, and future.” My academic awards, grants, travels, pictures, movies, publications, and technology expertise always had a laser focus on teaching. Much of this research is available through this website (see Educational).

Symposium

In my last semester to teach, my former students and colleagues offered a symposium in my honor featuring academic paper presentations that, along with other essays, became the basis of a festschrift publication in my honor (see below). The symposium was conceived, planned, and produced by my former student and good friend, Dr. Ben Skipper, pastor of Carterville Baptist Church, Petal, MS.

Festschrift Publication

The festschrift in my honor has been published by Wipf and Stock. Twelve essays by former students and colleagues cover the three main emphases of my teaching career in the book of Acts, Pauline studies, and apocalyptic literature, particularly the book of Revelation. My wife, Jean, wrote the “Introduction” highlighting in an autobiographical way her view of my career “from the sidelines,” and I contributed a “Conclusion” offering four premier principles that I hoped to inculcate into my students through mentoring and relationships. For the link to the Wipf and Stock listing, click the book image or here.

Paul’s Story of Israel: Romans 9–11

I led the Winter Expository Bible Conference for Coronado Baptist Church in Hot Springs Village, AR. My topic was “Paul’s Story of Israel: An Exposition of Romans 9–11.” The sessions were developed from my commentary on Romans. I challenge believers to read closely what Paul actually said in this famous climax to all of the discussion of Romans to this point in Paul’s letter. The session links on the left in the presentation outline below are to the recorded videos. The topic links on the right in the outline are to the presentation handouts for each session.

Paul’s Story of Israel: Romans 9–11
Historical and Literary Context
Session 1: Historical Context: Paul as a Synagogue Pharisee
Session 2: Literary Context: Romans as All about Israel
Refocusing Israel’s Story (Rom 9:1–29)
Session 3: Anguishing Israel, Clarifying Election (Rom 9:1–13)
Session 4: Defending God, Confirming Scripture (Rom 9:14–29)
Restating Israel’s Failure (Rom 9:30—10:21)
Session 5: Israel’s Stumbling, Paul’s Intercession (Rom 9:30–10:2)
Session 6: Israel’s Disobedience (Rom 10:3–21)
Revealing Israel’s Salvation (Rom 11:1–32)
Session 7a: Remnant Promise (Rom 11:1–10)
Session 7b: Remnant Purpose (Rom 11:11–24)
Session 8: Remnant Mystery and Summary (Rom 11:25–32)
Concluding Praise (Rom 11:33–36)
Session 9: Hymn of Praise and Doxology (Rom 11:33–36)

Reading the Apocalypse through Cultural and Political Lenses

I was the featured speaker for the Rhetorica Christiana Forum on the campus of William Carey University. My presentation was entitled, “Reading the Apocalypse through Cultural and Political Lenses,” which walked through the history of interpretation to demonstrate nothing new under the sun, many exegetical dead ends, and why I am not an amillennialist, premillennialist, or postmillennialist. For presentation notes, click here. For presentation video, click here. The video on the right is my chapel message from Rev 5:6–7, entitled, “A Vision of Heaven’s Savior.”

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