Westerholm Stephen

Stephen Westerholm
Emeritus Faculty
Department of Religious Studies
Area(s) of Interest:
Biography
Research Interests
My research to this point has focused primarily on the Pauline literature of the New Testament, though I have also written on the Synoptic Gospels (including issues related to the “historical Jesus”) and the Septuagint. More recently I have collaborated with Martin Westerholm on a book on key figures in the history of the Christian interpretation of Scripture.
Education
- Lund University, Docent, 1983
- Lund University, D.Th. 1978
Research
Monographs
- Reading Sacred Scripture: Voices from the History of Biblical Interpretation (with Martin Westerholm). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
- Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013.
- Understanding Matthew: The Early Christian Worldview of the First Gospel. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
- Understanding Paul: The Early Christian Worldview of the Letter to the Romans. (A second, slightly revised edition of Preface to the Study of Paul.) Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004.
- Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The “Lutheran” Paul and His Critics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.
- Preface to the Study of Paul. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans: 1997.
- Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.
- Jesus and Scribal Authority. Coniectanea Biblica, New Testament Series 10. Lund: Liber, 1978.
Edited Volumes
- The Blackwell Companion to Paul. Edited by Stephen Westerholm. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
- Law in Religious Communities in the Roman Period. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1991. Pp. 19-91. (Co-authored with Peter Richardson, with contributions from three others)
Books Translated
- Goran Agrell, Work, Toil and Sustenance: An Examination of the View of Work in the New Testament. Lund: Verbum, 1976 (from Swedish).
- Birger Gerhardsson, The Ethos of the Bible. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981 (from Swedish).
Journal Articles
- “The New Perspective on Paul in Review,” Direction 44 (2015) 4-15.
- “St. Paul and Knowledge of the Natural Law,” Journal of Law, Philosophy and Culture 3 (2009) 433-444.
- “Justification by faith is the answer: what is the question?,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 70 (2006): 197–217.
- “The righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith in Romans,” Interpretation 58 (2004): 253–64.
- “Law and the Early Christians,” Journal of Dharma 22 (1997): 396–417.
- “The law in the Sermon on the Mount: Matt 5:17-48,” Criswell Theological Review 6 (1992): 43–56.
- “Torah, Nomos, and Law: A Question of ‘Meaning,’” Studies in Religion 15 (1986) 327-336
- “On Fulfilling the Whole Law (Gal. 5.14),” Svensk Exegetisk Arsbok 51 52 (1986-87) 229-237.
- “Letter and Spirit: The Foundation of Pauline Ethics,” New Testament Studies 30 (1984) 229-248.
- “Jesus, the Pharisees, and the Application of Divine Law,” Eglise et Théologie 13 (1983) 191-210.
- “The Law and the ‘Just Man’ (1 Tim 1,3-11),” Studia Theologica 36 (1982) 79-95.
Book Chapters
- “Canonical Paul and the Law,” in Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity. Edited by David Miller and Susan Wendel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
- “What’s Right about the New Perspective on Paul?” Pages 230-242 in Studies in the Pauline Epistles: Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo. Edited by Matthew S. Harmon and Jay E. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.
- “Righteousness, Cosmic and Microcosmic,” in Apocalyptic Paul: Cosmos and Anthropos in Romans 5-8. Edited by Beverly Roberts Gaventa. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2013. Pp. 21-38.
- “Is Nothing Sacred? Holiness in the Writings of Paul,” in Purity, Holiness, and Identity in Judaism in Christianity: Essays in Memory of Susan Haber. Edited by Carl S.Ehrlich, Anders Runesson, and Eileen Schuller. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013. Pp. 87-99.
- “Hearing the Gospels of Matthew and Mark,” in Mark and Matthew II: Comparative Readings: Reception History, Cultural Hermeneutics, and Theology. Edited by Eve-Marie Becker and Anders Runesson. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013. Pp. 245-258.
- “The Judaism Paul Left Behind Him,” in The Making of Christianity: Conflicts, Contacts, and Constructions: Essays in Honor of Bengt Holmberg, ed. M. Zetterholm and S. Byrskog. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2012. Pp. 353-370.
- “Introduction,” in The Blackwell Companion to Paul, edited Stephen Westerholm. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Pp. 1-5.
- "Matthew," in The New Interpreter's Bible: One Volume Commentary, ed. Beverly Roberts Gaventa and David Petersen. Nashville: Abingdon, 2010. Pp. 630-657.
- “Finnish Contributions to the Debate on Paul and the Law,” in The Nordic Paul: Finnish Approaches to Pauline Theology, ed. Lars Aejmelaeus and Antti Mustakallio. London: T & T Clark, 2008. Pp. 3-15.
- “Law and Gospel in Jesus and Paul,” in Jesus and Paul Reconnected: Fresh Pathways into an Old Debate, ed. Todd D. Still. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Pp. 19-36.
- Introduction and translation of Four Makkabees, in The New English Translation of the Septuagint. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, 530-541.
- The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Volumes 1-3. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006-2008. “Constitutions and Canons” (1.727); “Contrite” (1.728); “Costly” (1.763); “Forbearance” (2.477-478); “Forgiveness” (2.480-485); “Grace” (2. 655-660); “Law in Early Judaism” (3.587-594); “Law in the New Testament” (3.594-602).
- “Paul’s Anthropological ‘Pessimism’ in its Jewish Context,” in Divine and Human Agency in Paul and His Cultural Environment, ed. John M. G. Barclay and Simon J. Gathercole. London: T & T Clark, 2006. Pp. 71-98.
- “The ‘New Perspective’ at Twenty-Five,” in Justification and Variegated Nomism. Vol. 2, The Paradoxes of Paul, ed. D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004. Pp. 1-38.
- “Four Maccabees: A Paraenetic Address?” in Early Christian Paraenesis in Context, ed. T. Engberg-Pedersen and James Starr. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004. Pp. 191- 216.
- “The Christ of Faith: Context,” in Whose Historical Jesus?, ed. William E. Arnal and Michel Desjardins. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997. Pp. 238-240.
- “Sinai as Viewed from Damascus: Paul’s Re-evaluation of the Mosaic Law,” in The Road from Damascus, ed. Richard N. Longenecker. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997. Pp. 147-165.
- "Paul and the Law in Romans 9-11" and “Response to Heikki Räisänen,” in Paul and the Mosaic Law, ed. James D.G. Dunn. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1996. Pp. 215-237, 247-249.
- Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall. Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1992. Articles on “Clean and Unclean” (125-132), “Pharisees” (609-614), “Sabbath” (716-719).
- Eleven entries in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volumes 3 and 4. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986, 1988, including “Temple” (IV.759-776).