Person
Peter J. Gentry
About Peter J. Gentry
Peter J. Gentry is a distinguished biblical scholar specializing in Old Testament interpretation, Septuagint studies, and textual criticism. He has made significant contributions to the field of covenant theology through his academic work and publications. Gentry is associated with The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and serves as the director of the Hexapla Institute.
Academic Career and Education
Peter J. Gentry earned his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto in 1994, focusing on Septuagint studies and Hellenistic Greek. His dissertation was titled "An Analysis of the Revisor’s Text of the Greek Job." Throughout his career, Gentry has held teaching positions at several institutions, including a 22-year tenure at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he taught Old Testament interpretation, Hebrew, and Greek. He became distinguished visiting professor of Old Testament at Phoenix Seminary, which was acquired by Biola University on August 25, 2026 and remains in operation as Talbot Seminary - Phoenix.
Major Works and Contributions
His seminal work, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (2012), co-authored with Stephen J. Wellum, presents a framework known as "progressive covenantalism," which offers an alternative to traditional Reformed covenant theology and dispensationalism. The book was later revised and published as a second edition in 2018.
God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants: A Concise Biblical Theology (2015) is an abridged version of the former work, providing a more accessible overview of Gentry's covenantal framework.
In 2017, he published How to Read and Understand the Biblical Prophets, aimed at helping readers interpret prophetic literature within the context of the Old Testament.
He has also contributed to the Göttingen Septuagint series, editing the book of Ecclesiastes (2019), and has been involved in ongoing work on the book of Proverbs.
Organizational Affiliations and Public Engagement
Gentry is actively involved with the Hexapla Institute, where he serves on the editorial committee. He has engaged with broader academic and religious communities through conference presentations, including those for the Society of Biblical Literature and the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. His public engagement extends to writing for both academic audiences and popular evangelical readers.
Theological Stance and Presuppositions
Peter J. Gentry is aligned with conservative evangelical scholarship, focusing on a covenantal framework that is neither strictly Reformed nor dispensational but rather aims to bridge these perspectives. His theological stance emphasizes the coherence of biblical covenants across the Old and New Testaments, appealing to a broad evangelical audience.
Impact on Biblical Studies
Gentry's books, especially Kingdom through Covenant, have sparked significant discussion and debate among theologians and biblical scholars, shaping contemporary evangelical discourse on biblical covenants.
Critique and Reception
His "progressive covenantalism" has received positive attention for offering a middle ground between existing covenantal frameworks. However, in reviews of Kingdom through Covenant for The Gospel Coalition, Michael Horton disagreed with the authors' suggestion of ambiguity in Reformed thinking about the members of the covenant of grace, and Darrell Bock argued that typology alone is not enough in discussing Israel and the land.
See also: Covenant Theology, Septuagint Studies