Dr Philip Church Senior Research Fellow School of Theology
- PhD, MCS, MTh, DipTheol
- +64 9 836 8432
- [email protected]
Philip completed an MCS from Regent College in 1983 and an ACT MTh in 1996, both in New Testament studies. He was Registrar of Tyndale College from 1985 until 2000 as well as being a regular tutor for the College. Philip has a PhD in New Testament from Otago University and a revised version of his PhD thesis was published by Brill in 2017 as Hebrews and the Temple. He joined the College in 2002 after a career in accountancy. He is on the boards of A Rocha Aotearoa NZ and NZ Christians in Science. Philip is married to Dorothy and they have three grown children and three grandchildren. Philip and Dorothy worship at the Royal Oak Baptist Church
PUBLICATIONS
Books
2023
Never Give Up! The Message of Hebrews. Tyrannus Textbook Series. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2023
2017
Hebrews and the Temple: Attitudes to the Temple in Second Temple Judaism and in Hebrews. NovTSup 171. Leiden: Brill, 2017
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
2024
On Earth as it is in Heaven: A Response to Katie Marcar.” Stimulus (2024) “Hebrews and the Question of Supersessionism.” Pages 157–80 in Oxford Handbook of Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles. Edited by Patrick Gray. Oxford: Oxford University Press
“‘The True Tabernacle of Hebrews 8:2:’ A Response to Nicholas J Moore” Tyndale Bulletin 75:1–30
2023
“Turning Away from the Living God (Heb. 3:12): The Growth and Decline of the Relapse Theory for the Setting of Hebrews.” Evangelical Quarterly 94 (2023): 1–25
2022
“Separation from the (Evil) World: 2 Timothy 2.19-21 and the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.” The Bible Translator 73, no. 2 (2022): 252-67
2020
“The Punctuation of Hebrews 10:2 And Its Impact on the Date of Hebrews.” Tyndale Bulletin 71.2 (2020), 281-92
“What Sort of People Do We Want to Be? A Review Article with Reflections on the COVID-19 Crisis.” Stimulus 27.2 (2020): 42-48.
“‘You Have Come to Mount Zion…” (Heb 12:22): Pilgrimage to Zion and the Book of Hebrews.” Pages 118-34 in Holding Forth the Word of Life: Essays in Honor of Tim Meadowcroft. Edited by John de Jong and Csilla Saysell. Australian College of Theology Monograph Series. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2020.
“The Punctuation of Hebrews 10:2 And Its Impact on the Date of Hebrews.” Tynbul 71.2 (2020), 281-92
2018
“‘What are Human Beings that you are Mindful of them’ (Heb 2:6): An Anthropological/Ecological Reading of Heb 2:5–9.” In Creation and Hope: Reflections on Ecological Anticipation and Action from Aotearoa New Zealand, 123-37. Edited by Nicola Hoggard Creegan and Andrew Shepherd. Eugene OR.: Wipf and Stock, 2018
2016
“Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos,” Tynbul 67.2 (2016): 269-86.
2013
“4Q174 and the Epistle to the Hebrews.” In Keter Shem Tov: Collected Essays on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Memory of Alan Crown, 333-59. Edited by Ian Hunter and Shani Tzoref. Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and its Contexts; Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias, 2013.
“The Temple in the Apocalypse of Weeks and in Hebrews,” Tynbul 64.1 (2013): 109-28.
2011
“‘Here we have No Lasting City’ (Heb 13:14): The Promised Land in the Letter to the Hebrews.” The Gospel and the Land of Promise: Christian Perspectives on the Land of the Bible. Edited by Philip Church, Peter Walker, Tim Bulkeley and Tim Meadowcroft. Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, 2011
“‘God has by no Means Rejected his People’ (Rom 11:1): A Response to the Accusation of ‘Replacement Theology’.” The Gospel and the Land of Promise: Christian Perspectives on the Land of the Bible. Edited by Philip Church, Peter Walker, Tim Bulkeley and Tim Meadowcroft. Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, 2011.
2009
“The Promised Land in the New Testament and in Particular in Hebrews.” Israel: 5 Views on People, Land and State, 15-25. Auckland, Vision Network of New Zealand, 2009.
“Dispensational Christian Zionism: a strange but acceptable aberration or a deviant heresy”? WTJ 71 (2009): 375-398.
2008
“The True Tent which the Lord has Pitched: Balaam’s Oracles in Second Temple Judaism and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. A Crowd of Witnesses: The Theology of Hebrews in its Ancient Contexts, 145-157. Edited by Richard Bauckham, Daniel Driver, Trevor Hart and Nathan MacDonald. LNTS 387; London: Continuum, 2008
Blogs
2024
Israel and Palestine Twenty-One Questions: Parts 1-5, plus, Epilogue, May 2024
2023
Pondering: The Historical Context for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (published under the name Robert Davidson), November 2023
2015
Easter in Fordham, April 2015
A Text and its Context, May 2015
2014
Does the Bible Really Condone Slavery? March 2014
Religious Instruction and the Resurrection of Jesus, February 2014
2013
The "Waning of Christianity", November 2013
The Greatest Human Ever?, September 2013
Maaloula, September 2013
Mangroves Making Way for a Beach, June 2013
The New New Testament, April 2013
Where is the Christian Voice?, March 2013
A Book with no Quotations?, February 2013
2012
Was Jesus really born in a stable?, December 2012
Did Jesus have a wife?, December 2012
Euthanasia, September 2012
The Beast of Blenheim?, August 2012
What is going on in Syria?, August 2012
Jesus, Israel and the Church, June 2012
Stimulus, April 2012
ANZAC Day, April 2012
Public Nakedness, February 2012
Sensible Sentencing, January 2012
2011
Water, December 2011
Book Reviews
2024
Murray J. Harris, Paul, His Life, Letters and Teaching. Convenient Summaries. Eugene OR: Cascade, 2022.
2022
Patrick Gay and Amy Peeler “Hebrews: An Introduction and Study Guide. T&T Clark Study Guides to the New Testament (London and New York: T&T Clark, 2020). JTS 73, no. 1 (2022): 355-56
2021
Jonathan R. Trotter, The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora: Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period. JSJSup 192. (Leiden: Brill, 2019). Journal for the Study of Judaism 52 (2021): 283-285.
Mark J Keown, Discovering the New Testament: An Introduction to its Background, Theology, and Themes. Volume II: The Pauline Letters. Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2021. Stimulus 28.2 (2021).
2020
Murray J. Harris, Before I Forget: An Illustrated Autobiography of Murray J. Harris (Eugene OR: Resource, 2019). Stimulus 27/4 (2020).
Mark J. Keown, Discovering The New Testament: An Introduction to its Background, Theology, and Themes. Volume I: The Gospels and Acts (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2018). Stimulus 27/4 (2020).
Murray J. Harris, Before I Forget: An Illustrated Autobiography of Murray J. Harris (Eugene OR: Resource, 2019(). Stimulus 27/4 (2020).
2017
Murray J. Harris, The Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross: Their Circumstances and Meaning (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015). Stimulus 24/1 (2016): 59
2016
Neil Darragh, ed. Living in the Planet Earth: Faith Communities and Ecology (Auckland: Accent, 2016). Stimulus 23/3 (2016): 50-52
2015
Mark Roncace and Joseph Weaver, eds, Global Perspectives on the Bible (Boston: Pearson, 2014). Stimulus 22/2 (2015): 51-52
Murray J. Harris, John 3:16: What’s It All About? (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015). Stimulus 22/3 (2015): 59
2014
Christopher A. Richardson, Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith: Jesus' Faith as the Climax of Israel's History in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Review of Biblical Literature[http://www.bookreviews.org] (2014)
Herbert W. Bateman, Charts on the Book of Hebrews, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2014).
2013
Murray J. Harris, Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament: Essential Tools for Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012). Stimulus 20/1 (April 2013): 56-57.
2012
Bruce K. Waltke, James M. Houston with Erika Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: A Historical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010). Stimulus 19/1 (April 2012): 48-49.
John Paul Heil, Hebrews: Chiastic Structures and Audience Response. Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2010. Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2012).
Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Hebrews. The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010). Colloquium 44/1 (2012): 121-23
Robert P. Gordon, Hebrews. 2nd ed. Readings: A New Biblical Commentary (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008), The Bible and Critical Theory 8, 1 (2012): 130-32.
2001
Francis Foulkes, A Guide to St Matthew’s Gospel (London: SPCK, 2001), Daystar 1/5 (October 2001), 14; and Reality 51 (June/July 2002), 52.
2000
Bruce Manning Metzger, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1997), Reality 37 (Feb-Mar 2000), 44
1999
David Stone, Teach Yourself The New Testament (London: Hodder Headline, 1996), Reality 33 (June-July 1999), 49
1996
John H. Walton, Covenant: God’s Purpose, God’s Plan (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), Stimulus 4/4 (November 1996), 65-66
David E. Holwerda, Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans and Leicester: Apollos, 1995) Stimulus 4/4 (November 1996), 65-66
1993
Douglas Rawlinson Jones, Jeremiah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans and London: Marshall Pickering, 1992), Stimulus 1/3 (August 1993), 41-42
1990
Frederick Fyvie Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews; rev edn (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), CBRF Journal 126, 40-41
1989
R. McL. Wilson, Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), CBRF Journal 119 (November 1989), 39-40
Thomas Edward McComiskey, The Covenants of Promise (Nottingham: IVP, 1985), CBRF Journal 119 (November 1989), 41-42