Nicholas Perrin is an American religious scholar and the Senior Pastor at Corinth Reformed Church in Hickory, North Carolina. Formerly, he served as an academic administrator who served as the 16th president of Trinity International University, a Christian university located in

Deerfield, Illinois Deerfield is a village in Lake County, Illinois, Lake and Cook County, Illinois, Cook counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A northern Chicago metropolitan area, suburb of Chicago, Deerfield is located on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore, ...

Early life and education

Perrin earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

and Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary. He then earned a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, by John Henni, the first Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Ar ...

Career

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

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Where his work focused on the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

and

early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

. Perrin has published on the ''

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

'' and proposed the theory that ''Thomas'' is dependent on Tatian's ''

Diatessaron The ''Diatessaron'' (; c. 160–175 AD) is the most prominent early gospel harmony. It was created in the Syriac language by Tatian, an Assyrian early Christian apologist and ascetic. Tatian sought to combine all the textual material he fou ...

''.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 papyrus cod ...

, 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 religious text. Its content consists of conversations between Jesus and his disciples, especially Judas Iscariot. The only copy of it known to exist is a Coptic language text that is part of the Codex ...

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. Published in 2005 ...

'' dealing with issues of

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...

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

historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...

at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. Perrin was announced as the 16th president of Trinity International University in 2019, succeeding David Dockery. Perrin tendered his resignation from presidency to the Board of Regents of the Trinity International University on February 15th 2024.

Works

Books

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As editor

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Articles and chapters

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Training course

References

External links

* {{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) Trinity International University faculty Heads of universities and colleges in the United States