Gregory E. Sterling

Gregory E. Sterling is the Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean of Yale Divinity School and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament.

Dean Sterling, a New Testament scholar with a specialty in Hellenistic Judaism, has concentrated his research on the writings of Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and Luke-Acts, with a focus on the ways in which Second Temple Jews and early Christians interacted with one another and with the Greco-Roman world.

He assumed the deanship in 2012 after more than two decades at the University of Notre Dame, where he served in several capacities at the College of Arts and Letters before becoming the first dean of the independent Graduate School.

Dean Sterling is the author or editor/co-editor of eight books and more than ninety scholarly articles and essays. He is the general editor for the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series (E.J. Brill),  co-editor of the Studia Philonica Annual, and a member of the editorial board of Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft. He served as editor of the Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Series (University of Notre Dame Press) for twenty years.

He has held numerous leadership positions in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Studiorum Novi Societas, and the Catholic Biblical Association. He is a minister in the Churches of Christ and serves in several leadership roles for his own denomination in addition to his other responsibilities.

Public statements

• ‘A call for moral leadership’: Joint statement with other divinity/seminary deans

• Dean’s statement on George Floyd and related injustices

• Yale leaders talk about COVID-19: Divinity School Dean Gregory E. Sterling

• “Two Tombs”: An Easter message from Dean Greg Sterling

• Hope: A message from Dean Greg Sterling

• YDS Dean: ‘Civil society is becoming uncivilized’

• YDS Dean: Remembering MLK’s title—“Reverend”—is key to honoring his legacy

• Sterling on Charlottesville: Religious leaders must denounce racism

  Books

1. Edited with Carl R. Holladay et al., Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity 2 vols. ( Brill, 2013).
2. Coptic Paradigms (Peeters, 2008)
3. Armenian Paradigms (Peeters, 2004)
4. Edited with John Collins and Ruth Clements, Sapiential Perspectives: Wisdom Literature in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Brill, 2004)
5. Editor, The Ancestral Philosophy: Hellenistic Philosophy in Greek-Speaking Judaism (Society of Biblical Literature, 2001)
6. Edited with John J. Collins, Hellenism in the Land of Israel (University of Notre Dame, 2001)
7. Historiography & Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke-Acts and Apologetic Historiography (Brill, 1992; Society of Biblical Literature, 2006)
8. Edited with Anathea E. Portier-Young, Scripture and Social Justice: Catholic and Ecumenical Essays (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2018)

Further Information

Gregory E. Sterling is president of the Christian Scholarship Foundation (CSF), a private, non-profit corporation designed to provide financial assistance to members of the Churches of Christ for scholarly activities of a religious character.