Nicholas Perrin is an American academic administrator and religious scholar, currently serving as the 16th president of

Trinity International University Trinity International University (TIU) is an evangelical Christian university headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois. It comprises Trinity College, Trinity Graduate School, a theological seminary (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), a law school ...

, a Christian university located in

Deerfield, Illinois Deerfield is a north shore suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion extending into Cook County, Illinois. The population was 19,196 at the 2020 census. Deerfield is home to the headquarters of Walgreens Bo ...

Early life and education

Perrin earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

and Master of Divinity from

Covenant Theological Seminary Covenant Theological Seminary, informally called Covenant Seminary, is the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Located in Creve Coeur, Missouri, it trains people to work as leaders in church positions and elsewhe ...

. He then earned a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from

Marquette University Marquette University () is a private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Martin Henni, the first Bishop of the diocese of M ...

Career

Perrin previously served the Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. Where his work focused on 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 Chri ...

and

early Christianity Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewis ...

. Perrin has published on the ''

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate ...

'' and proposed the theory that ''Thomas'' is dependent on Tatian's '' Diatessaron''.Nicholas Perrin, ''Thomas and Tatian: The Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron''(Academia Biblica 5; Atlanta : Society of Biblical Literature; Leiden : Brill, 2002). In addition to his writings on Christian origins and the

Gnostic Gospels The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyru ...

, Perrin has authored a number of popular lay introductions to works such as the

Gospel of Judas The Gospel of Judas is a non-canonical Gnostic gospel. The content consists of conversations between Jesus and Judas Iscariot. Given that it includes late 2nd-century theology, it is widely thought to have been composed in the 2nd century (prio ...

and

. In 2007 ''Lost in Transmission'' was published as a response to Bart Ehrman's popular ''

Misquoting Jesus ''Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why'' (published as ''Whose Word Is It?'' in the United Kingdom) is a book by Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The book introduc ...

'' dealing with issues 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 ...

of the New Testament. In 2008 Perrin delivered a public lecture on the

historical Jesus The term "historical Jesus" refers to the reconstruction of the life and teachings of Jesus by critical historical methods, in contrast to religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural contexts in which Jesus lived. ...

at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. Perrin was announced as the 16th president of

in 2019, succeeding David Dockery.

Works

Books

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As editor

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Articles and chapters

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Training course

References

External links

*
An Interview with Nicholas Perrin on the Gospel of Thomas (1 of 3)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, Nicholas Living people American biblical scholars American theologians Wheaton College (Illinois) faculty Marquette University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Covenant Theological Seminary alumni New Testament scholars Year of birth missing (living people)