Wayne Coppins

Wayne Coppins is Professor of Religion at the University of Georgia, where he has taught since 2007. His current research and teaching interests are focused on the Synoptic Gospels, as well as topics related to the intersection between German-language and English-language scholarship. Graduate students wishing to work on the Synoptic Gospels are especially welcome to apply. As Department Head, Dr. Coppins is happy to talk with religion minors, majors, and graduate students about any questions they might have about their studies or future goals.

Dr. Coppins' scholarly work can be divided into two main phases. In the first phase, he contributed especially to the study of freedom in the New Testament and the interpretation of 1 Corinthians. His publications from this phase included his book The Interpretation of Freedom in the Letters of Paul: With Special Reference to the 'German' Tradition. WUNT II/261. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2009 (paperback; online; reviews); his journal articles “Doing Justice to the Two Perspectives of 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.” Neotestamentica 44 (2010): 282-291 (online), “To Eat or Not to Eat Meat: Conversion, Bodily Practice, and the Relationship between Formal Worship and Everyday Life in the Anthropology of Religion and 1 Corinthians 8:7.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 41 (2011): 84-91 (Link), “Paul’s Juxtaposition of Freedom and Positive Servitude in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and Its Reception by Martin Luther and Gerhard Ebeling.” Lutherjahrbuch 78 (2011): 277-298 (Link), and “Sitting on Two Asses?: Second Thoughts on the Two-Animal Interpretation of Matthew 21:7.” Tyndale Bulletin 63 (2012): 275-290 (online; PDF); his encyclopedia articles on freedom in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (vol. 9, pp. 675-677) and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Ethics (vol. 1, pp. 313-318); his translations of four articles by or about Martin Hengel (Link); and his RBL reviews of books by Jochen Flebbe, Gerd Theissen, and Ernst Käsemann (Link).

In the second, more important phase of Dr. Coppins' scholarship, he has especially contributed to the advancement of the field of New Testament studies through the translation of German language scholarship into English. As part of this vision, he created and developed the academic book series Baylor-Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity, which he co-edited with Prof. Simon Gathercole (University of Cambridge) and for which he was also the principal translator. While much engagement with German New Testament scholarship looks back to the giants of the past, the driving vision of the BMSEC series was to facilitate increased interaction with contemporary German New Testament scholarship by translating recent works that advance the state of scholarship in their own right, while also functioning as windows into the wider world of German-language scholarship (see further here). The ten volumes that have been published in the series are J. Schröter, From Jesus to the New Testament (2013), M. Konradt, Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew (2014), C. Markschies, Christian Theology and its Institutions in the Early Roman Empire (2015), M. Wolter, The Gospel According to Luke (2 volumes; 2016/2017), J. Frey, The Glory of the Crucified One (2018), M. Hengel and A.M. Schwemer, Jesus and Judaism (2019), E.-M. Becker, Paul on Humility (2020), O. Wischmeyer, Love as Agape (2021), and M. Konradt, Christology, Torah, and Ethics in the Gospel of Matthew (2022). Outside of the BMSEC series, Dr. Coppins has translated three additional books in this second phase of scholarship, namely, J. Schröter, Jesus of Nazareth (2014; Link); J. Schröter, The Apocryphal Gospels (2021; Link), and F. C. Baur, The Christ Party in the Corinthian Community, the Opposition between Petrine and Pauline Christianity in the Earliest Church, the Apostle Peter in Rome (2021; Link); as well as articles by O. Wischmeyer (PDF; PDF) and P. Stuhlmacher (PDF).

For further information about Dr. Coppins, please see his blog https://germanforneutestamentler.com.