In case you missed it, please see the comments on the post on the day of his death here–KSH.
Brevard S. Childs, one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the 20 th century, died Saturday, June 23 in New Haven, CT. He was 83 and died of complications from injuries sustained in a fall at his home in Bethany, CT.
“I can think of no person who made a greater contribution to the work of unifying the Bible, theology and church life together in a very serious way, not in a flimsy or a pious way,” said Christopher Seitz, a Biblical scholar at the University of Toronto who was Childs’s student, colleague and friend. “I think of him as a sort of Isaiah figure who was given a very hard job to preach and teach but never complained. He just went about his business in a hopeful way.”
As an Old Testament professor at Yale Divinity School from 1958 to 1999, Childs shaped several generations of students and helped define new approaches to post-war biblical scholarship. With at least eight of his books in print in three languages and a manuscript for a new book completed shortly before his death, Childs was a prolific author who did not shrink from fully engaging the academic debates of his day.
My wife was saddened to learn of Dr. Child’s death. She took courses with him as a graduate student in religious studies at Yale, and greatly admired his teaching and scholarship. His writings on the OT line her bookshelf.