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Dorothy Jean Weaver

POSITION: Professor Emerita/Seminary

DEPARTMENT: Seminary

LOCATION: Main Campus, Harrisonburg | SB 231

PHONE: (540) 432-4276

EMAIL: weaverdj@emu.edu

To live life at the call of God is to encounter ongoing surprises, unexpected delights, and God’s robust sense of humor. Dorothy Jean Weaver always knew that she would grow up to be a teacher. But she could never have imagined the life she now lives.

Years ago Dorothy Jean discovered, unexpectedly, a deep passion for studying the New Testament and a life vocation of opening the Scriptures for and with others in the seminary classroom and beyond. This calling eventually drew Dorothy Jean into New Testament Studies at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where she earned a PhD in 1987.

Since 1984 Dorothy Jean has been teaching New Testament at EMS. Her courses include Elementary Greek, Greek Readings, New Testament: Text in Context, and book studies across the New Testament canon. She anchors inter-disciplinary courses, “Women and Men in Scripture and Church” and “Creation Care in Scripture and Church.” In the academic world she has served as Co-Chair of the Society of Biblical Literature Matthew Section. And she has published The Irony of Power: The Politics of God within Matthew’s Narrative (Pickwick, 2017), Matthew’s Missionary Discourse: A Literary Critical Analysis (Sheffield, 1990; Bloomsbury, 2015), and numerous academic essays.

But there were still more surprises. Following a sabbatical at Tantur Ecumenical Institute, across the valley from Bethlehem, Dorothy Jean discovered a sturdy new sense of vocation, namely to introduce North American Christians to Israel/Palestine through study tours and work groups. Since 1998 Dorothy Jean has led or co-led 18 tours and counting through EMS (“Places, People, & Prayers” and “Jerusalem Seminar”) and Virginia Mennonite Missions (“Nazareth/Bethlehem Work Group”). And Dorothy Jean has taught and/or lectured in Beirut, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Cairo, and Debre Zeit, Ethiopia.

“It’s been the ride of a lifetime,” Dorothy Jean notes. “I could never have planned such a life on my own. The call of God is simply astonishing. And God’s sense of humor never ceases to amaze.”

Education

BA, Eastern Mennonite University (Modern Languages: German/French)
MDIV, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Divinity)
PHD, Union Presbyterian Seminary (New Testament Studies)

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