About J. Webb Mealy:
Living in Oakland, California, J. Webb Mealy, PhD is a Christian Bible scholar, theologian, and mission-builder and trainer. He is a lay teacher and minister at First Congregational Church of Oakland, and is a staff professor at Seminary of the Street, Oakland. He is co-founder and director of Share First Oakland, a non-profit charity that provides fresh, nutritious food to Oakland’s most vulnerable populations, such as the homeless, the impoverished elderly, women and children fleeing domestic violence, and people in life recovery from substance addictions.
Background:
Webb was converted to personal and life-changing faith in Jesus Christ at age 18. He began his pursuit of a calling as a biblical scholar and teacher as an undergraduate at Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts college. After completing a BA in Religious Studies and Philosophy at Westmont, he received an MA in Humanities at Western Kentucky University and a PhD in Biblical Studies (emphasis in New Testament) at the University of Sheffield in England.
He went on to become Senior Biblical Studies Editor and then Managing Editor at Sheffield Academic Press, which during his tenure was the leading academic biblical studies publishing house in the world. There he commissioned three series and numerous individual titles and edited articles and technical books involving biblical Greek.
In 1995 he left Sheffield in order to participate in the development of an experimental Christian community in Oakland, California. Since then, Webb has focused on translating the New Testament, writing theology, teaching in urban training centers for Christian lay people, building Christian communities, and managing a website designed to help individuals identify and recover from process addictions. He has supported these activities for many years as a freelance consultant in forensic analysis and multimedia design and communications.
Webb authored an influential scholarly monograph on the millennium and judgment of Revelation 20: After the Thousand Years: Resurrection and Judgment in Revelation 20 (JSNTSup, 70; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992).
Between 2005 and 2008 he created and published an entirely new scholarly translation of the New Testament called the Spoken English New Testament, refining and testing his work through liturgical reading, church small group reading, and more than a dozen specially convened reading focus groups.
Interests:
Webb enjoys wilderness camping, nature photography, peace and social justice activism through public art, and innovation towards sustainable living patterns.
More Information:
Visit http://www.simplegospel.net for a selection of edifying Christian essays by J. Webb Mealy
