Dr. Jack Collins to Retire at End of Academic Year

NewsEvents
Written By Covenant Seminary

With a mixture of joy and sadness, Covenant Seminary announces that Dr. C. John “Jack” Collins will retire from the Seminary at the end of the current academic year. Our Board of Trustees, administration, faculty, staff, students, and thousands of alumni across the country and around the world are grateful for Dr. Collins’s 32 years of faithful service and look forward to seeing how the Lord will work through him in the next chapter of his life and ministry. Meanwhile, we rejoice at the opportunity to praise God for Dr. Collins and to celebrate him during his final semester of teaching at Covenant.

Dr. C. John "Jack" Collins

Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Gibbs, President of Covenant Seminary, said, “Jack’s teaching and many other professional and personal contributions to the life of this institution have had a profound impact on generations of our students and alumni, as well as the broader church. I personally am deeply grateful for Jack’s influence on my own ministry journey and for the blessing of knowing him as a friend and colleague. I am grateful as well for his wife, Diane, who has been an integral part of Jack’s life and ministry, and of the life and ministry of Covenant. We’ll miss having them around campus as often, but we look forward to staying in touch as they plan to remain in the area after Jack’s retirement.”

Dr. Collins joined Covenant’s faculty in 1993 after several years as a church planter in Spokane, Washington, serving first as Assistant (1993–1995), then as Associate (1995–2000), and finally as Professor of Old Testament (2000–2025). He has chaired the Old Testament department since 2005. His many books and journal articles focusing on themes of science and faith and how to read the Bible well have helped many to better understand the Scriptures, especially the early chapters of Genesis. His work as chair of the Old Testament committee for the ESV translation of the Bible and as general editor for the Old Testament portion of the ESV Study Bible helped produce one of the most important and influential modern Bible versions.

Dr. Collins’s background in science (he holds a BS and an MS from MIT, in addition to his MDiv from Faith Evangelical Lutheran Seminary and a PhD in Hebrew from the University of Liverpool) and his deep interest in linguistics and hermeneutics have informed his teaching ministry from the beginning. This, combined with his reputation as a thoughtful and careful scholar, has resulted in several notable opportunities along the way: a Templeton Foundation grant for developing and teaching a graduate-level course on science and faith, a Research Fellowship from the Discover Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture, and a stint as a Senior Research Fellow at the Carl Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity International University.

Among the abundant fruit of these opportunities were some of Dr. Collins’s best-known books: Science and Faith: Friends or Foes? (Crossway, 2003), The God of Miracles: An Exegetical Examination of God’s Action in the World (Crossway, 2000), and Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1–11 (Zondervan, 2018). In addition, the countless seminars, conferences, and other speaking and teaching engagements he has been part of over his long career have been major blessings to the church. (For a more detailed look at Dr. Collins’s many ministry milestones, see the CV on his faculty page.)

Dr. Jay Sklar, Vice President of Academics for Covenant, summed up nicely the feelings of many who have known and worked with or studied under Dr. Collins: “I have been teaching alongside of Jack for going on twenty-five years now. Throughout that time, he has been a faithful mentor and friend. And “faithful” is indeed the word to use, for if there’s one thing Jack has modelled for me it is his faithful care and commitment to his friends. I’m so grateful for that friendship and for the many, many ways he has taught me to read the Bible better. God bless you, brother!”

Please pray with us in gratitude for Dr. Collins and his wife, Diane, and for the Lord’s blessing on them as they finish out this final semester with Covenant and prepare to begin a new chapter in their life and ministry together.

 

Dr. C. John Collins: A Select Bibliography 

Below is a sample of some of the many publications Dr. Collins has produced over the years. For a fuller list, see his CV.

Books

 

Articles, Book Chapters, and Conference Papers

  • “How Old is the Earth? Anthropomorphic Days in Genesis 1:1–2:3,” Presbyterion 20, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 109–30.

  • “From Literary Analysis to Theological Exposition: The Book of Jonah,” Journal of Translation and Textlinguistics 7, no. 1 (1995): 28–44.

  • “Reading Genesis 1:1–2:3 as an Act of Communication: Discourse Analysis and Literal Interpretation,” in Did God Create in Six Days?, ed. Joseph Pipa Jr. and David Hall (Taylors: Southern Presbyterian Press, 1999), 131–51.

  • “Discourse Analysis and the Interpretation of Genesis 2:4–7,” Westminster Theological Journal 61, no. 2 (1999): 269–76.

  • “What happened to Adam and Eve? A Literary and Theological Reading of Genesis 3,” Presbyterion 27, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 12–44.

  • “What the Reader Wants and the Translator Can Give: 1 John as a Test Case,” in Wayne Grudem, et al., Translating Truth: The Case for Essentially Literal Bible Translation (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), 77–111, and in All for Jesus: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Covenant Theological Seminary, ed. R. A. Peterson and S. M. Lucas (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2006), 333–59.

  • “The Refrain in Genesis 1: A Critical Review of its Rendering in the English Bible,” The Bible Translator 60, no. 3 (July 2009): 121–31.

  • “Adam and Eve as Historical People and Why It Matters,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 62, no. 3 (September 2010): 147–65. Originally presented at the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, August 2, 2009.

  • “Always Alleluia: Recovering the True Purpose of the Psalms in the Old Testament Context,” in Forgotten Songs: Reclaiming the Psalms for Christian Worship, ed. Richard Wells and Ray Van Neste (Nashville: B&H, 2012), 17–34.

  • “Reading Genesis 1–2 with the Grain: Analogical Days,” in Reading Genesis 1–2: An Evangelical Conversation, ed. J. Daryl Charles (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2013).

  • “The Christian Worldview and the Early Chapters of Genesis,” in The Worldview Study Bible, ed. David Dockery and Trevin Wax (Nashville: B&H, 2017).

  • “How to think about God’s action in the world,” in Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, ed. J. P. Moreland, Stephen Meyer, Chris Shaw, and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton: Crossway, 2017).

  • “Inerrancy studies and the Old Testament: ‘Ancient Science’ in the Hebrew Bible,” Presbyterion 44:1 (2018), 42–66. Presented at Evangelical Theological Society, November 2017.

  • “Freedoms and Limitations: C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer as a tag team,” in Firstfruits of a New Creation: Essays Honoring Jerram Barrs (Oklahoma City: White Blackbird Books, 2019), 185–209, ed. Doug Serven, and Theofilos 12, no. 1 (2020): 166–83.

  • “Psalms 111–112: Big Story, Little Story,” Presbyterion 46, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 89–98. Originally presented for Encourage One Another and Build One Another Up, 2020 Francis Schaeffer Lecture Series at Covenant Theological Seminary.

  • “An Exegetical Response to William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Cost-Benefit Analysis,” Presbyterion 48, no. 2 (Fall 2022): 32–47.

  • “Biblical Authority and Human Origins: Reading the Hebrew Bible,” Presbyterion 50, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 19–42.

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Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Benton Jr. (1941–2025): Celebrating a Life of Service to the Lord