Philip Wesley Comfort (28 October 1950–31 December 2022) was a professor, writer, editor and expert on the Bible who specialized in

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 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 ...

. He served as Professor of Greek and New Testament at Trinity Episcopal Seminary, visiting professor at Wheaton College, and senior Bible reference editor at

Tyndale House Publishers Tyndale House (also known by its sister organization Tyndale House Foundation) is a Christian publisher in Carol Stream, Illinois. History Tyndale was founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor in order to publish his paraphrase of the Epistles, w ...

.Philip W Comfort's biography on the Logos Bible Software
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Education

Comfort studied English, Greek and New Testament literature at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 student ...

.Author biography - Philip W Comfort of Tyndale House Publishers
/ref> He completed his doctorate under the guidance of a prominent textual critic, Jacobus H. Petzer, at the University of South Africa.

Career

Comfort taught classes at a number of colleges, including Wheaton College, Trinity Episcopal Seminary,

Columbia International University Columbia International University (CIU) is a private Christian university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. It was founded in 1923. Academics CIU has six colleges: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, Cook School of Bus ...

, and

Coastal Carolina University Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, ...

. Prior to his retirement he was a senior editor of Bible reference at Tyndale and served as editor of the New Testament for the ''

New Living Translation The New Living Translation (NLT) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 1996 by Tyndale House, Tyndale House Foundation, the NLT was created "by 90 leading Bible scholars." The NLT relies on recently published Text ...

''. He contributed to various publications and Tyndale collections, both as a writer and editor. Among his works are ''The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament'', ''The Origin of the Bible'', ''The Tyndale Bible Dictionary'', ''Essential Guide to Bible Versions'', ''The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts'' (with D. Barrett), ''New Testament Text and Translation Commentary'', and ''Who's Who in Christian History''. He also served as General Editor for the multi-volume Cornerstone Biblical Commentary.

Personal life

Comfort lived in

Pawleys Island, South Carolina Pawleys Island is a town in Georgetown County, South Carolina, United States, and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast Bar (landform), barrier island on which the town is located. Pawleys Island's population was 103 at the 2010 United States cens ...

, United States. He married Georgia Comfort.

Works

Comfort has written a number of journal articles. In addition, he has written books: *''Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography and Textual Criticism''. *''Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words in the Holman Reference Collection'' (co-author). *''Oceanic'' (Shrewsbury UK: Feather Books). *''Last Wave Poetry'' (Finishing Line Press). *''I am Carolina Poetry'' (Finishing Line Press). *''Wings Poetry'' (Finishing Line Press). *''Seascapes Poetry'' (Finishing Line Press). *''The One Year Book of Poetry'' (Tyndale House Publishers) 1999. Co-written with Daniel Partner. He has also edited a number of books, including: *''Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts''. *''Life Application Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Corinthians''.

References

External links