John Wenham
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John W. Wenham was an Anglican Bible scholar. Born in 1913, he devoted his professional life to academic and pastoral work. He died February 13, 1996 at age 82 after a series of deabilitating strokes.
Among New Testament Greek scholars Wenham's work The Elements of New Testament Greek is well regarded, and was regarded as the successor to Machen's New Testament Greek textbook
In 1992 John Wenham published Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke which discusses the dating of these gospels and the relationship of the gospels to one another (prior to Wenham's work. John A.T. Robinson, a liberal theologian, had written a widely known book titled Redating the New Testament which also advocated an early date of the gospels. Wenham accepted the church father evidence of authorship, and inferred a very early date for each of the synoptic gospels. Wenham's work is well regarded by those who supported the Augustinian hypothesis which is the traditional view of gospel authorship. Scholars consider the two strongest defenders of the Augustinian Hypothesis in the twentieth century to be John Wenham and B.C. Butler. Wenham's work which gained him recognition among Bible scholars and lay persons was his work Easter Enigma which offered Bible exegesis that argued for the harmony of the gospel accounts. As a result of these two works Wenham is frequently cited in regard to these issues in the discipline of Christian apologetics.
In his work Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke Wenham wrote regarding the book of Matthew the following: "The [Church] fathers are almost unanimous in asserting that Matthew the tax-collector was the author, writing first, for Hebrews in the Hebrew language: Papias (c. 60-130), Irenaeus (c. 130-200), Pantaenus (died c. 190), Origen (c. 185-254), Eusebius (c. 260-340), Epiphanius (c. 315-403), Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-86) and others write in this vein. The Medieval Hebrew gospel of Matthew in Even Bohan could be a corrupted version of the original. Though unrivaled, the tradition has been discounted on various grounds, particularly on the supposed unreliability of Papias, from whom some would derive the whole tradition." (John Wenham, Redating Matthew, Mark & Luke (1991), p. 116). Wenham also argued for the Gospel of Mark being the second gospel written which he claims is consistent both with internal evidence and with the testimony of the church fathers. [1]
Wenham bears the distinction of being a conservative theologian, but one who hold to the position of "conditional immortality" - or the belief that the human soul is not by default eternal in nature; this belief goes hand in hand with the notion that sinners, once cast into hell, are at some point burned up and essentially no longer exist. Another term for the ineternality of hell is Annihilationism. In his book Facing Hell, An Autobiography 1913-1996, Wenham writes, "I believe that endless torment is a hideous and unscriptural doctrine which as been a terrible burden on the mind of the church for many centuries and a terrible blot on her presentation of the Gospel. I should indeed be happy, if before I die, I could help in sweeping it away." Facing Hell, was published shortly after his death and is partly autobiographical and appologetical, in regards to the doctrines conditional immortality and the ineternality of hell.
Mr. Wenham works include:
- The Elements of New Testament Greek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965).
- Easter Enigma, originally, Easter Enigma: Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict? (Exeter, Devon, UK: Paternoster Press, 1984; repr., Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, n.d.).
- Redating Matthew, Mark and Luke: A Fresh Assault on the Synoptic Problem IVP: 1992
- Facing Hell, An Autobiography 1913-1996 Paternoster Press: 1998
