Wes Olmstead, PhD

Professor of New Testament

Teaching Philosophy

If we are interested in fostering deep learning, together with our colleagues across the disciplines, we will engage our students in questions of ultimate importance. Parker Palmer writes winsomely of "the grace of great things." As part of a liberal arts learning community, we will relish the opportunity to invite our students to gather around these "great things," about which humans have always cared and engage these conversations with the apostles and prophets and, ultimately, with Jesus.

Background

Wes Olmstead has served on the faculty at Briercrest College and Seminary since 1989. Prior to that, he worked as a youth pastor in Drayton Valley, AB. His PhD research culminated in the publication of a monograph on the parables of the Two Sons, the Vineyard Tenants, and the Wedding Feast (Matthew 21:28 - 22:14). From 2000-2004, he served as the academic dean in the College and, from 2005-2014, as vice-president academic. He teaches across the New Testament, but his first love is Gospels studies. Wes is married to Faith and they are the proud parents of two adult children, Bryndon and Brooke.

Education

PhD, Theology and Religious Studies, King's College, University of London, 1999
MA, New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1999
BA, History, University of Waterloo, 1984
BRE, Theology, Briercrest College, 1982

Research

Matthew's Gospel
Koiné Greek

Publications

• Matthew 1-14: A Handbook on the Greek Text. BHGNT. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019.
• Matthew 15-28: A Handbook on the Greek Text. BHGNT. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019.
• Matthew's Trilogy of Parables: The Nation, The Nations, and The Reader in Matthew 21.28-22.14. SNTSMS 127. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• "'What am I still lacking?' Jesus, the Eschatological Perfection of Torah, and the imitatio Dei in Matthew's Gospel." Pages 43-58 in Torah Ethics and Early Christian Identity. Edited by Susan Wendel and David Miller. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
• "Judgment." In The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Edited by Joel B. Green, Jeannine K. Brown, and Nicholas Perrin. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2013.
• "A Gospel for a New Nation: Once More, the ἔθνος of Matthew 21.43." Pages 115-32 in Jesus, Matthew's Gospel, and Early Christianity: Studies in Memory of Graham N. Stanton. Edited by Joel Willits, Richard A. Burridge, and Daniel M. Gurtner. Library of New Testament Studies 435. London: T&T Clark, 2011.