Daniel Baird Wallace (born June 5, 1952) is an American professor of New Testament Studies at
Dallas Theological Seminary
Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) is an evangelical theological seminary in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system dispensationalism. DTS has campuses in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C., as well as extension ca ...
. He is also the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
Manuscripts, the purpose of which is digitizing all known Greek manuscripts of the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
via digital photographs.
Early life
Wallace was born in June 1952, in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. He earned his
B.A. (1975) from
Biola University
Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor's ...
, and his
Th.M.
Master of Theology ( la, Theologiae Magister, abbreviated MTh, ThM, or MTheol) is a post-graduate degree offered by universities, divinity schools, and seminaries. It can serve as a transition degree for entrance into a PhD program or as a stand ...
(1979) and
Ph.D. (1995) in New Testament studies from
Dallas Theological Seminary
Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) is an evangelical theological seminary in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system dispensationalism. DTS has campuses in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C., as well as extension ca ...
. He also pursued postdoctoral studies in a variety of places, including in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
at
Tyndale House,
Christ's College,
Clare College
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...
, and
Westminster College, in Germany at the
Institute for New Testament Textual Research
The Institute for New Testament Textual Research (german: Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung — INTF) at the University of Münster, Westphalia, Germany, is to research the textual history of the New Testament and to reconstruct its ...
,
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...
, and the
Bavarian State Library
The Bavarian State Library (german: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the big ...
, and in Greece at the National Library in Athens.
Career
Wallace began his academic career teaching at
Dallas Seminary
Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) is an evangelical theological seminary in Dallas, Texas. It is known for popularizing the theological system dispensationalism. DTS has campuses in Dallas, Houston, and Washington, D.C., as well as extension cam ...
from 1979 until 1981 and then at
Grace Theological Seminary from 1981 until 1983, before returning to
Dallas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
where he has been tenured since 1995. He published his first edition of ''Greek Grammar Beyond The Basics'' in 1996. It has since become a standard work in the field and has been translated into half a dozen languages. Two-thirds of schools that teach the subject use the textbook.
He also has served as senior
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
editor for the
NET Bible
The New English Translation (NET Bible) is a free, "completely new" online English translation of the Bible, "with 60,932 translators' notes" sponsored by the Biblical Studies Foundation and published by Biblical Studies Press.
History and text ...
and has founded the
Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. In 2016 he was the president of the
Evangelical Theological Society
The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is a professional society of Biblical scholars, educators, pastors, and students "devoted to the inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ" and "dedicated to the oral exch ...
. In 2019 he joined the Committee on Bible Translation which is responsible for the NIV.
Views
Wallace, along with DTS colleague
Darrell L. Bock, has been an outspoken critic of the alleged "popular culture" quest to discredit conservative
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
views of Jesus—including the writings of
Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey (born February 13, 1943), is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnost ...
and
Bart Ehrman
Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, includin ...
. He is a contributor to the Ehrman Project, a website that critiques the writings of Bart Ehrman. Wallace critiqued Ehrman's ''Misquoting Jesus: The Story of Who Changed the Bible and Why'' for misrepresenting commonly held views of
textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...
, especially in Ehrman's view of the "orthodox corruption of Scripture." Wallace and Ehrman dialogued at
the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum in April 2008, at Southern Methodist University in October 2011, and again at UNC Chapel Hill in February 2012. Wallace is a Presbyterian and a
soft cessationist.
"First Century Mark"
In 2012 Wallace claimed that a recently identified papyrus fragment of the Gospel of Mark had been definitively dated by a leading paleographer to the late first century, and would shortly be published by E.J. Brill. The fragment might consequently be the earliest surviving Christian text. This claim resulted in widespread speculation on social media and in the press as to the fragment's content, provenance, and date, exacerbated by Wallace's inability to give any further details due to a
non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wis ...
. The fragment, designated ''
Papyrus 137
Papyrus 137 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓137, is an early fragment of the New Testament in Greek. The fragment is from a codex, written on both sides with text from the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark; verses 7–9 o ...
'' and subsequently dated by its editors to the later 2nd or earlier 3rd century, was eventually published in 2018, in the series of
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, moder ...
LXXXIII. After the publication, Daniel Wallace confirmed that Papyrus 137 was indeed the fragment that he had been referring to, and that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement at the request of
Jerry Pattengale
Jerry A. Pattengale (born 1958) is a faculty member and administrator at Indiana Wesleyan University. He coined and founded the approach of “purpose-guided education” in 1997 while leading the implementation of student success programs at India ...
, then representing the
Museum of the Bible in its efforts to purchase this particular fragment; efforts that proved unavailing, as all the time it had been in the ownership of the
Egypt Exploration Society
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...
, and had not legitimately been offered for sale.
Works
Books
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Journal articles
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References
Further reading
* "The Bible Hunters," ''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...
'' (Dec. 2018), pp. 70–75.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Daniel B.
Living people
Writers from California
Biola University alumni
American Christian writers
American biblical scholars
Christian apologists
1952 births
Scholars of Koine Greek
Dallas Theological Seminary alumni
Dallas Theological Seminary faculty
Grammarians of Ancient Greek
New Testament scholars
Christian bloggers