Leading Authority on the Gospels to Deliver Four Lectures at Williams

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 7, 2001 — Helmut Koester, Croghan Visiting Professor of Religion at Williams, will deliver a lecture series titled “The Archaeology of the Cities of St. Paul’s Missionary Activity.” The lecture series is scheduled on Tuesday afternoons from Sept. 11 to Oct. 2. Koester will discuss Philippi on Sept. 11, Thessaloniki on Sept. 18, Corinth on Sept. 25, and Ephesus on Oct. 2. All lectures will take place at 7 p.m. in Thompson Physics Lab, room 203.

Koester is Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Ancient Church History at Harvard Divinity School. A leading authority on the Gospels in early Christianity, he is the author of numerous books and articles on the Bible in both English and German. His works include “Trajectories Through Early Christianity” (with James M. Robinson), “History of Early Christian Literature,” and “Introduction to the New Testament and Ancient Christian Gospels,” seminal works in the field.

A former president of the Society of Biblical Literature, Koester edited the Harvard Theological Review from 1975 through 1999. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Societas Novi Testamenti Studiorum and of the Society of Biblical Literature.

He has been engaged in archaeological research in Greece and Turkey for more than 20 years. He is also the editor of the series “Archaeological Resources for New Testament Studies” to which he has contributed the treatments of “Athens” and “Isthmia.” He has edited books on two of the cities covered by his talks, “Ephesos &endash; Metropolis of Asia” and “Philippi at the Time of Paul and After His Death.”

Koester will teach a course at Williams this fall titled “Jesus of Nazareth and the Gospels,” which will meet Mondays and Wednesday at 11 a.m. If enrollment allows, registered auditors will be welcome.

Koester earned a bachelor’s degree in theology in 1950 and his Ph.D. in theology in 1954 from the University of Marburg in Germany. He was ordained a Lutheran minister in 1956, and has taught at Harvard Divinity School since 1958.

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Published September 7, 2001