Helmut Koester

Helmut Koester (born 1926) is a German-born American scholar of the New Testament, and currently Morison Research Professor of Divinity and Winn Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School.

Koester studied under Rudolf Bultmann at the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany, after being liberated from a POW camp there in 1945. He later became an assistant of Günther Bornkamm at the University of Heidelberg in 1954-1956. He was a visiting professor at Harvard in 1958, and became the John H. Morison Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1963. Although now emeritus, he continues to teach at Harvard University and oversee (with Laura Nasrallah) the Harvard project "Archeological Resources for the Study of the New Testament," which has been published by Fortress Press in CD-ROM format as "Cities of Paul: Images and Interpretations from the Harvard New Testament Archaeology Project."

Published books

* With James M. Robinson. "Trajectories through Early Christianity". Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971. Reprinted, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2006.
*"Ancient Christian Gospels". Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1990.
* "Introduction to the New Testament: History and Literature of Early Christianity", v. 2, 2000 [http://books.google.com/books?id=qWflda5Erq4C&dq=%22helmut+koester%22+introduction+%22introduction+to+the+new+testament%22&pg=PP1&ots=WFCufAKeVC&sig=rQfGMFzJQ4SOCHx9B3SHDPZ4K4I&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2522Helmut%2BKoester%2522%2Bintroduction%2B%2522Introduction%2Bto%2Bthe%2BNew%2BTestament%2522%26btnG%3DSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail (preview).]
*"Introduction to the New Testament". New York: DeGruyter, 1982. 2nf ed., 2002