Marvin R. Wilson, Ph.D.

Dr. Marvin R. Wilson is the Harold J. Ockenga Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts, having taught there since 1971. He holds the B.A. from Wheaton College (IL) with honor; M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with highest honor; M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University in the field of Semitics and Mediterranean Studies. He previously served on the faculty of Barrington College, where he chaired its Department of Biblical Studies. At Gordon College, Dr. Wilson’s teaching specialty is Old Testament, Jewish Studies and the Hebraic origins of Christianity.

An active writer, Dr. Wilson has authored or edited ten books. His widely used textbook, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith was singled out by Christian Century magazine as an “all-time best seller” in the field of religion and has been translated into Italian, Chinese, and Korean languages. He served as primary scholar of a two-hour TV documentary, Jews & Christians: A Journey of Faith, which has aired on more than 200 PBS stations and the Hallmark Channel. In 2010, Dr. Wilson was additionally lauded by the publication of Perspectives on Our Father Abraham: Essays in Honor of Marvin R. Wilson, edited by Steven A. Hunt. In 2014, Wilson additionally authored Exploring Our Hebraic Heritage: A Christian Theology of Roots and Renewal, which provides an informed theological guide to the Jewish foundations of the Christian faith.

Along with Rabbi A. James Rudin, Dr. Wilson co-edited four books dealing with Jewish-Christian relations, including Evangelicals and Jews in Conversation, Evangelicals and Jews in an Age of Pluralism, A Time to Speak: The Evangelical-Jewish Encounter, and The Role of Religion in Society and Politics. In 2005, Wilson served as consultant to the PBS documentary, Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, for which he authored a Study Guide. He worked as an Old Testament translator and editor of the New International Version of the Bible, contributed notes to the NIV Study Bible, contributed a major article to the ESV Study Bible, and penned more than 200 articles and reviews in scholarly works and general religious periodicals.

Dr. Wilson’s efforts to build bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews have included serving as organizer and co-chair of four National Conferences of Christians and Jews. For more than a decade Wilson served on the Committee on Church Relations and the Holocaust of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and he currently serves on the board of the Interfaith Center for Public Life at Hebrew College. Dr. Wilson has made 25 study tours of Israel and the Middle East and has lectured widely there. He has also addressed an International Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, a conference for Israeli foreign diplomats in Chicago, a conference of religious leaders from 97 nations at the Jerusalem Convention Center in Israel, a conference for members of the German parliament on “Christian-Jewish Reconciliation After the Holocaust” in Washington, D.C., and the Abrahamic Program at the Chautauqua Institute of Religion in New York.

Dr. Wilson has been honored by receipt of the faculty award for “Excellence in Teaching” at five Gordon College commencements, the Leonard P. Zakim Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League, the Greater North Shore B’nai B’rith Person of the Year Award, the Shield of Abraham interfaith programming trophy of the North Shore Jewish Federation, and both the Interfaith Service Award and the Social Justice and Human Rights Award of the Holocaust Center, Boston North Inc.