Rate My Professor Warren Trenchard

Warren Trenchard is Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and former Director of Graduate Programs in the H.M.S. Richards Divinity School at La Sierra University, where he served on the Theology faculty for over 25 years. He holds a BA in theology (1966), MA in New Testament (1968), and BD in systematic theology (1968) from Andrews University, as well as a PhD in New Testament and Early Christian Literature from the University of Chicago (1981), with a dissertation titled “Ben Sira’s View of Women: A Literary Analysis” advised by Jonathan Z. Smith. He received a University of Chicago Fellowship from 1975 to 1978. His research specializations encompass New Testament Greek language, the history, backgrounds, and interpretation of the New Testament and its documents, history and literature of Early Christianity, Gospel Studies, Q Studies, Second Temple Judaism, Hellenistic Jewish Literature, and Biblical Greek.

Trenchard’s career includes early roles as chaplain at Atlantic Union College (1968–1969), pastor in Massachusetts (1969–1970), and part-time instructor in religion at Andrews University and Atlantic Union College. From 1975 to 1995 at Canadian Union College (now Burman University), he was Professor of Religious Studies, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies (1981–1989), Chair of Humanities (1981–1987), Dean of Arts (1987–1989), Vice President for Academic Administration (1989–1995), and Interim President (1991). Joining La Sierra University in 1995, he held positions as Senior Assistant to the President and Collaborating Professor of New Testament (1995–1997), Interim Vice President for Academic Administration (1999–2000), Provost and Corporate Secretary (2004–2010), and Director of the Edward C. Allred Center for Creativity and Innovation in the School of Business (2010–2019), alongside directing graduate programs in the Divinity School until 2024. Key publications include Ben Sira’s View of Women: A Literary Analysis (1982), The Student’s Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament (1992, revised 1998), Published Pottery of Palestine (1996, co-authored), A Concise Dictionary of New Testament Greek (2003), and articles such as “For the Beauty of the Earth: An Adventist Theology of Ecology” in Spectrum (2003). He has delivered numerous presentations on New Testament topics at the Adventist Society for Religious Studies and other venues, served as book review editor for Religious Studies and Theology (1986–1989), and evaluated accreditations for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (2002–2024).