Merrill C. Tenney

Merrill Chapin Tenney (16 April 1904–1985) was an American professor of Old Testament and Greek and author of several books. He was the general editor of the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, and served on the original translation team for the New American Standard Bible^[1]

Background and education

Tenney was born in 1904 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to Wallace Fay Tenney and Lydia Smith Goodwin.^[2] He earned his Th.B. from Gordon College of Theology and Missions (1927), his A.M. from Boston University (1930), and his Ph.D. in Biblical and Patristic Greek from Harvard University (1944).^[3] He briefly served as pastor of Storrs Avenue Baptist Church in Braintree, Massachusetts (1926–1928), before joining the faculty at Gordon College. Tenney was professor of New Testament and Greek until moving to Wheaton College in 1943, where he would eventually become dean of the graduate school in 1945. He married Helen Margaret Jaderquist (1904–1978) in 1930,^[4] and together they had two sons, Robert Wallace and Philip Chapin.^[2]

Tenney was Dr. Henry Clarence Thiessen's chosen associate and (accordingly) an advocate of fundamentalism.^[5]

Selected publications

• John: The Gospel of Belief (1948, 1997) ISBN 0802843514
• Galatians: The Charter of Christian Liberty (1957, 1989) ISBN 0802804497
• Interpreting Revelation (1957, 1988) ISBN 0802804217
• New Testament Survey (1961, 1985) ISBN 0802836119
• Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary, with J. D. Douglas (1964, 1988) ISBN 031023560X
• New Testament Times (1967, 2001) ISBN 1565636570

Further reading

• Elwell, Walter A.; Jim D. Weaver (1999). Bible interpreters of the twentieth century: a selection of evangelical voices. Baker Books. ISBN 0801020735. 

References

1. ^ "New American Standard Bible – Translators of the NASB". http://www.lockman.org/nasb/nasbprin.php. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Tenney, Merrill Chapin; Gerald F. Hawthorne (1975). Current issues in Biblical and patristic interpretation. Eerdmans. pp. 15–18. ISBN 0802834426. 
3. ^ "Merrill C. Tenney Papers, 1927–1982". Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections. http://archon.wheaton.edu/?p=collections/controlcard&id=130. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 
4. ^ "Papers of Mrs. Helen Margaret Jaderquist Tenney – Collection 44". Billy Graham Center Archives. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/044.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 
5. ^ Keith Call Thiessen and Determinism’s cold and chilling effects. Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections. Quote: "Responding with a letter to Buswell, Thiessen recounts his own impressive academic qualifications and that “…there may be a way of realizing my ideal at Wheaton College.” Specifically, this meant an ambition to establish “…a first class theological school of the fundamentalist and premillennial type in the North…” .... As the curriculum solidified and expanded, he chose Dr. Merrill Tenney as his associate."

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Name	Tenney, Merrill C.
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Date of birth	1904-04-16
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Date of death	1985
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