Gregory E. Sterling is an American religious scholar, academic and researcher. He is the Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

. He is a former dean of the Graduate School of

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

where he also served on the faculty for 23 years. Sterling focuses on

Hellenistic Judaism Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellen ...

and has published over 100 scholarly papers on, among other subjects, the writings of

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called , was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his representation of the Alexandrian J ...

of Alexandria,

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, and

Luke–Acts Luke–Acts is the composite work of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. Both of these books of the Bible are credited to Luke. They also describe the narrative of those who continued to spread Christi ...

. He has focused on the ways

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

Jews and early Christians interacted with one another and with the

Greco-Roman world The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

. Sterling is the author of ''Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography'', ''Armenian Paradigms'' and ''Coptic Paradigms: A Summary of Sahidic Coptic Morphology'' and the editor or co-editor of five other books. Sterling is the General Editor of ''Philo of Alexandria Commentary'' Series by E. J. Brill and Co-Editor of the ''Studia Philonica Annual''. He is a minister in the

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation ...

Education

Sterling received his bachelor's degree in Christianity and History in 1978 and completed post-baccalaureate studies in classics in the following year at

Houston Baptist University Houston Christian University (HCU), formerly Houston Baptist University (HBU), is a private Baptist university in Houston, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Its Cultural Arts Center houses three museums: the ...

. He then received his master's degree in Religion degree from

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...

in 1980 and his Masters in Classics degree from

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in 1982. In 1990, he completed his Doctoral studies in Biblical Studies with a specialization in the New Testament from the

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American Seminary, theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded ...

in Berkeley.

Career

Sterling joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 1989 as a Visiting Assistant Professor and became a regular member of the faculty in 1990. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1995 and to Professor of Theology in 2000. After teaching as Professor at University of Notre Dame for twenty-three years, Sterling left the University and was appointed by Yale University in 2012, as the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School and Professor of Religion in Department of Religious Studies. At the University of Notre Dame, Sterling was appointed as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Theology, Associate Dean of the Faculty and Executive Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Letters, and Dean of the Graduate School in 1997, 2001, 2006 and 2008, respectively. In 2012, he was appointed as Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean of Yale Divinity School.

Research

Sterling focuses on Hellenistic Judaism and has worked on New Testament and early Mediterranean and West-Asian religions. He has conducted research on the writings of Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and Luke-Acts, and has focused on the interactions between Second Temple Jews and early Christians, as well as on the ways these groups related to the Greco-Roman world, especially in the areas of historiography and philosophy.

Awards and honors

*1999 - Presidential Award, University of Notre Dame *2012 - M.A. honoris causa, Yale University *2018 - Alumnus of the Year, Graduate Theological Union 2018 – 40 over 40 (Top 40 alumni over 40), Pepperdine University

Bibliography

Books

*''Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography'' (1992) *''Armenian Paradigms'' (2004) *''Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke-Acts, and Apologetic Historiography'' (2006) *''Coptic Paradigms: A Summary of Sahidic Coptic Morphology'' (2008)

Selected articles

*"Wisdom among the Perfect: Creation Traditions in Alexandrian Judaism and Corinthian Christianity." Novum Testamentum 37 (1995): 355–84. *"Platonizing Moses: Philo and Middle Platonism." The Studia Philonica Annual 5 (1993): 96-111. *"'The Most Ancient and Reliable Record of the Past': The Jewish Appropriation of Hellenistic Historiography." pp. 231–43 in Companion to Greek & Roman Historiography .Edited by John Marincola. Oxford: Blackwell. *"'The School of Sacred Laws': The Social Setting of Philo's Treatises." Vigiliae Christianae 53 (1999):148-64. *"'Athletes of Virtue': An Analysis of the Summaries in Acts (2:41-47; 4:32-35; 5:12-16)." Journal of Biblical Literature 113 (1994): 679–96. *"'A Law to Themselves': Limited Universalism in Philo and Paul." Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 107 (2016): 30–47.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterling, Gregory Living people 1954 births American academic administrators American religion academics Yale Divinity School faculty Houston Christian University alumni Pepperdine University alumni Yale University alumni