Edwin M. Yamauchi

Edwin Masao Yamauchi is a Japanese-American historian, a Christian apologist, editor and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Miami University where he taught from 1969-2005. He is a former president of the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR) . He is a founding member of the Oxford Bible Fellowship church in Oxford, Ohio. He has written books on Christian History and often contributes articles to Christian periodicals,

He was raised as a Buddhist. He was educated at Iolani Episcopal school. He was first exposed to evangelism in 1952 when he was invited by a classmate to attend Kalihi Union church. In his senior high school year he worked on a missionary farm called Christian youth center.

He studied languages at the University of Hawaii before transferring to Shelton college, Ringwood, New Jersey to study Biblical languages - earned a B.A… He then went to Brandeis University to earn a M.A. and Ph.D.

He immersed himself in 22 different languages including Arabic, Akkadian, Coptic and Hebrew.

He taught for a time at Shelton College before becoming an Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University. He the received his professorial appointment at Miami University in 1969 where he stayed until his retirement in 2005, 36 years.

Throughout his career he has been a supporter of the Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, especially on the University campus in Miami.

He is a founding member of the Oxford Bible Fellowship (0BF) church in Oxford, Ohio. The dream of OBF is to be a church where every person can experience real change. (Read OBF * Our Culture *)

He has given presentations of the Easter Story in various universities including Cornell, Yale and Princeton.

He is a member and official of the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR). It an organization of scholars devoted to the research of the Bible. For 6 years he was president of IBR (1983-9)

He has written a number Biblical books and essays and contributed material to Christianity Today . He contributed commentaries on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the * Expositor’'s Bible Commentary and in the NIV Study Bible.*

His expertise includes Ancient History, O.T. and N.T., Early Church History, Gnosticism and Biblical Archeology. He has written about the relevance of the discovery of, and the controversial claims, about the Dead Sea Scrolls, for New Testament studies.
(See ‘Select Bibliography’)
In the 1970’s he was a prominent critic of the late Morton Smith’s interpretation of an Apocryphal text known as the Secret Gospel of Mark.
For his work he has been rewarded with 8 fellowships.

Edwin has also appeared in various television documentaries concerning the life of Christ. He is a modern day Christian academic of the highest order.

Sources used.
Amazon
Oxford Bible Fellowship
Miami University
Wikipedia