F. F. Bruce, a leading Pauline scholar, has been named to the Editorial Advisory Board of Bible Review. Until his retirement in 1978, Bruce was Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester, England. He is now professor emeritus. In addition to books on church history, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the history of Israel, Bruce has written commentaries on the Acts of the Apostles, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians and Hebrews. His books on Paul include Paul: Apostle of the Free Spirit, An Expanded Paraphrase of the Epistles of Paul, his recently published The Pauline Circle, and an illustrated popular book, Jesus and Paul, Places They Knew.
From 1957 to 1971, Bruce was editor of the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. He has been a fellow of the British Academy since 1973 and in 1979 was named Burkitt Medalist in Biblical Studies by the Academy.
George MacRae Dies
George W. MacRae, prominent Catholic biblical scholar and specialist in Gnostic writings, died suddenly on September 6, 1985. Born in 1928 in Lynn, Massachusetts, MacRae entered the Jesuit order after attending Boston College and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1960. In addition to his philosophical studies at Louvain, Belgium, and his theological studies at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he received an M.A in Semitics from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in New Testament studies and the history of religion from the University of Cambridge. Professor of New Testament at Weston from 1966 to 1973, he became the Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard Divinity School in 1973. He was acting dean at Harvard Divinity School at the time of his death.
MacRae lectured and published widely on New Testament writings (especially John, Hebrews and Ephesians), the Nag Hammadi documents and biblical interpretation in the Catholic church. His translations of ancient documents appeared in The Nag Hammadi Library in English and The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. He served as executive secretary of the Society of Biblical Literature and on many editorial boards (Catholic Biblical Quarterly, New Testament Studies, RSV revision committe and others)
George MacRae did many things and did them all very well. He was known as a brilliant teacher, an inspiring preacher, a faithful Jesuit priest, a wise counselor, a major force in theological education, an ecumenicist, a specialist in Gnosticism, an excellent writer and a shrewd editor. His peers in the biblical field recognized him to be a skilled organizer of scholarly meetings, an accurate judge of other scholars’ work and a remarkably encouraging and effective presence on committees and in private conversation. He died of a heart attack while lecturing on the New Testament at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. Thus this great minister of the word passed from among us engaged in what he loved most and did best—explaining the Bible.
Correction
In the Fall 1985 issue of BR, the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California was incorrectly located at another well-known university in Los Angeles. Just to avoid any additional confusion, Bruce Zuckerman, director of the project, is assistant professor, School of Religion, University of Southern California. Robert Ratner, also a member of the project, is assistant professor, Department of Religious Studies, Wellesley College. Bruce Zuckerman and Robert Ratner are coauthors of “On Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscription,”BR 01:03.
In addition, the drawing of the tablet from Ugarit was a tracing by the BR production staff which a trained cuneiform scholar will recognize is not as precise as cuneiform scholars, especially Bruce Zuckerman, would have done.
F. F. Bruce Joins BR Board
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