“I Still Can’t Believe It”: A Brief Biography of Richard D. Nelson

Brooks Schramm

Richard Donald Nelson entered the world on October 27, 1945, in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, the firstborn son of Ruth and Donald Nelson. Within the first year of his life, the new family moved to Gary, Indiana, and shortly thereafter his brother, Robert (1948), and his sister, Joan (1950), were born. While he was still in grade school, the family moved again, this time to Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, and Rich would go on to graduate from Chartiers Valley High School in June 1963. That a scholarly career might be a prudent path to pursue was likely signaled early on by the nickname he acquired while competing in Little League Baseball in Pittsburgh: “E9” (let anyone with ears listen).1 In the fall of 1963, Rich left home for Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he majored in Greek, a subject that has remained a lifelong love of his. He spent the summer after his freshman year working as a “Parish Mission Builder” for the American Lutheran Church (ALC). Upon graduation from “Cap” (summa cum laude), Rich entered Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary (ELTS) in Columbus, Ohio, in September 1966, to begin his formal theological education.2 In 1967, he married Karen Frye. She reports that Rich’s seminary career was distinguished by his missing his first class-assigned ser- mon because he slept through the 8:00 a.m. start time (a truly amazing factoid for those who know him). After receiving his M.Div. degree (with honors), he entered Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, in September 1970, where he studied Old Testament under Patrick D. Miller Jr. He received a Th.M. degree in 1971, and a Th.D.3 in 1973, for his dissertation The Redac- tional Duality of the Deuteronomistic History. A significant component of his graduate work was accomplished during the summer of 1971, which he spent digging at Tel Gezer as a volunteer.

1. This is actually a story that Rich tells on himself. On an official baseball score sheet, “9” stands for the right fielder and “E” stands for error. Thus E9 = error on the right fielder. An error is a play that a fielder should have made but did not. In Little League, the more “athletically challenged” players are normally assigned to play right field. 2. In 1974, ELTS merged with Hamma School of Theology to form Trinity Lutheran Seminary, as it is known today. 3. Later converted to a Ph.D. ix x Brooks Schramm

Rich was ordained as a pastor in the American Lutheran Church in 1974. He served his home congregation, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Pitts- burgh, from October 1973 to August 1977. Rich and Karen’s first child, Daniel (1975), was born here. His first teaching position was at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Virginia, where he was Assistant Professor of Religion from August 1977 to May 1981. He has always spoken fondly of his years at Ferrum, for it was here that his vocation as a teacher was confirmed, and this was where Rich and Karen’s first daughter, Gretchen (1979), was born. In the summer of 1981, the family moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Rich began teaching at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. Rich and Karen spent 20 years in Gettysburg, where Rich served as Kraft Professor of Biblical Studies from 1981 to 2001, and where the twins, Erica and Johanna (1983), were born. In the long history of Gettysburg Seminary, it is difficult to imagine a more significant hire. During these 20 years, Rich published five books (The Double Redaction of the Deuteronomistic History, 1981; First and Second Kings [Interpretation], 1987; Raising Up a Faithful Priest, 1993; Joshua: A Commentary [OTL], 1997; The Historical Books [Interpreting Bib- lical Texts], 1998. He also completed most of the research and writing for a sixth book (Deuteronomy: A Commentary [OTL], 2002), all the while func- tioning as an energetic and engaging teacher and preacher and carrying the numerous time-consuming administrative demands that come with serving on the faculty of a small denominational seminary. His ability to do so much and to do it all so well made him a revered figure in the seminary community. A school does not replace someone like Rich Nelson. It only moves on. In 2001, the opportunity developed for Rich to take a teaching position at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. Though the decision was difficult, Rich and Karen decided that it was the right time, and the additional opportunity to teach Ph.D. students was the clincher. At Perkins, Rich now serves as W. J. A. Power Professor of Biblical Hebrew and Old Testament Interpretation and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In 2006, he published his seventh book (From Eden to Babel: An Adventure in Bible Study). He is currently working on a commentary on Judges for the Eerd- mans Critical Commentary Series and continuing his long practice of reading murder mysteries. In addition to his teaching appointments, Rich has conducted further re- search at Yale University (1980), at the Catholic University of Louvain (1991), at Princeton Theological Seminary (1999), and at Tyndale House, Cambridge, England (2008). The love of Wissenschaft that has characterized Rich’s life is also markedly in evidence throughout the entire family. Karen, who received her Masters in Education from the University of Pittsburgh (1977), teaches Developmental A Brief Biography of Richard D. Nelson xi

Reading at Richland College, a part of the Dallas County Community Col- lege District. Dan, who received his Ph.D. in High Energy Physics from Ohio State University (2002), works as programmer and producer for Neversoft, a division of Activision. He is married to Angie Linn Nelson (2006). Gretchen, who received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University/ National Institutes of Health (2008), went on to receive a Masters in Pub- lic Health in Epidemiology at Columbia University (2010). She is married to Frank De Silva (2009). Erica, who received her M.A. in Math Education from the University of Pittsburgh (2007), teaches mathematics in Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia. And Johanna is currently working on a Ph.D. in X ray Physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Rich’s own scholarship, like Rich himself, is widely respected (in the full sense of the term). Many adjectives could be used to describe his work (and him), but certainly these apply: careful, precise, thorough, learned, humble, irenic. In a review of Raising Up a Faithful Priest, no less a figure than Ja- cob Milgrom evaluated the book in the following way: “I STILL CAN’T BE- LIEVE IT. A book on the institution of the priesthood in ancient Israel is just two hundred small (5″ by 8″) pages, with scarcely a footnote, and yet it is com- prehensive, nearly always accurate—in a word, superb.”4 The general sense of Milgrom’s description could be said to apply, mutatis mutandis, to the entire body of Rich’s work. Three comments are now in order. The first is from Richard P. Carlson, a Biblical Studies colleague of Rich at Gettysburg: “For 11 years, I had the distinct pleasure and honor of having Richard Nelson as a senior faculty col- league. He has served as a fine model of what it means to be a dynamic and innovative teacher, an insightful mentor, a world-class scholar, a supportive friend, a dedicated leader in the church, and a person who takes sheer delight in all facets of his calling.” The second is from Roy L. Heller, a colleague in The Biblical Witness division at Perkins: “Rich Nelson is a truly rare breed of man. He is not only a passionate and respected scholar, thoroughly trained and rep- resentative of historical-critical approaches to the Hebrew Bible. But he is also open and interested in the whole spectrum of different ways in which the Bible is read and understood both in the church and the academy. He is a remark- able role-model.” And finally, from Patrick D. Miller Jr., Rich’s Doktorvater: “Rich Nelson was one of the best students I ever taught. In a seemingly effort- less manner, he did basic, significant research that provided the grounds for a major but to that point generally undeveloped reading of the Deuteronomistic History. Out of that early study and his later scholarly work, he has rightly

4. Interpretation 49 (1995) 200. See also Milgrom’s longer review in Bible Re- view 10/5 (1994) 14–15. xii Brooks Schramm become one of our leading interpreters of Deuteronomy and the history that evolved out of its circle.” On all faculty Web pages at Perkins, there are six standard headings: Title, Education, Teaching Specialties, Research Interests, Selected Publications, and Professional Distinctions. On Rich’s Web page (www.smu.edu/Perkins/ FacultyAcademics/DirectoryList/Nelson.aspx) under Professional Distinc- tions, one reads only this: Pastor, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. To miss the significance of this single chosen entry would be to miss the man.