Glen Taylor

Professor Emeritus, Old Testament

Glen was born and raised in an evangelical Christian home in Calgary, Alberta. As a youngster he enjoyed downhill skiing and mountaineering in the Rocky Mountains, as well as horseback riding in the foothills. His home church, Bethany Chapel, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (including Pioneer Camp) played a formative role in his youth. Two mentors influenced his career aspirations, a skilled Bible expositor and pastor named Gary Inrig, and an Old Testament scholar named Peter Craigie. Glen attended Inrig’s alma mater (Dallas Seminary), known for its rigorous instruction in biblical languages and preaching, but otherwise followed Craigie’s advice on where to train for a career as an Old Testament scholar. This included study of the Old Testament with John Gray at the University of Aberdeen, and study of Ugaritic (a semitic language) and Old Testament with Marvin Pope at Yale University.  At Yale Glen was also mentored by Brevard Childs, under whom Glen served as a teaching assistant.

Shortly before being hired at Wycliffe College to teach Old Testament, Glen married a Canadian classmate at Yale, Marion Finlayson Taylor, with whom he has taught at Wycliffe since 1987. They have three children: David (b. 1988), Catherine (b. 1989) and Peter (b. 1991). Marion and Glen joined the Anglican Church (St George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem) in 1986, and Glen has since become ordained as an Anglican priest (2000).

Although Glen has taught mostly at Wycliffe, as a graduate student he taught Syriac at Yale and Religious Studies (Western Religions) at the University of Calgary. More recently Glen has taught Old Testament at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary in China (2012) and biblical Aramaic at Kosin University in Busan, South Korea (2014).

Glen enjoys the outdoors, especially the Rocky Mountains. Other hobbies include western horsemanship, collecting antiques, home decorating, travel, and a fascination with cars from the 1960s and 70s.

Glen and Marion raised their children on the Wycliffe campus, where they lived and mentored students from 1987 to 1999. Since then they have lived in an old Victorian house much like Wycliffe in style.  They often live in community with student boarders and Christian couples who reside in an apartment in their home. Along with Marion, Glen owns a cottage near South River Ontario, where they assist the Anglican parish of Almaguin Highlands in the summers by leading worship and preaching.

Since 2010, Glen has taught overseas for a few months every two years in order to learn from and serve the church abroad, as well as to learn more about global Christianity, an emphasis at Wycliffe. His visits have included Israel (where he loves to help lead educational pilgrimages—contact him!), Colombia, where his sister serves as a Bible teacher, and The Gambia, where he teaches occasionally for the ad-hoc Gambia Theological Institute.  He has also served as a consultant for the new Christian Studies program at the University of The Gambia.

Books/Booklets/Essays Longer than Twenty-Five Pages

• “The Book of Hosea” in John H. Walton, ed. The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. 5 Volumes. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. Volume 5, pages 1–41.
• “Decoding Jacob at the Jabbok and Genesis 32: From Crude Solar Mythology to Profound Hebrew Theology” (2008 Presidential Address to the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies). The Bulletin of The Canadian Society of Biblical Studies 68 (2008-2009), pages 1–26.
• Homosexuality, Before and Beyond the Soundbytes: Observations, Definitions, Resources, FAQs and Summaries of Research. Booklet produced in 2006 in the context of the debate in the Anglican Church of Canada and distributed by Anglican Essentials. Pages: 56.
• Editor and contributor, Blessing Same-Sex Unions: A Survey of Issues from an Evangelical Anglican Perspective. Booklet produced in 2006 in the context of the debate in the Anglican Church of Canada and distributed by Anglican Essentials. Pages: 40.
• Yahweh and the Sun: Biblical and Archaeological Evidence for Sun Worship in Ancient Israel. JSOTSup 111. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993. Pages: 308.
• Co-editor, Ascribe to the Lord: Biblical and Other Essays in Memory of Peter C. Craigie. JSOTSup 67. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988. Pages: 630.
• “A First and Last Thing to Do in Mourning: KTU 1.161 and Some Parallels,” in L. Eslinger and G. Taylor, eds. Ascribe to the Lord (noted immediately above). Pages 151–77.

Selected Articles/Essays/Reviews

• “How Can the Wrathful God of the Old Testament Be Reconciled with the Gracious Lord of the New Testament?” in Thomas P. Power, ed. Guide for the Christian Perplexed. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2012. Pages 25–43.
• “On So-called ‘Exemplary Preaching’: Preliminary Thoughts on an Old Dutch Debate with Abiding Homiletical Relevance.” Homiletics Colloquium for Doctoral Students, Toronto School of Theology, April, 2011. Pages: 15.
• “Psalms 1 and 2: A Gateway into the Psalter and Messianic Images of Restoration for David’s Dynasty,” in H. W. Bateman and D. B. Sandy, eds. Interpreting the Psalms for Teaching and Preaching. St Louis, MO: Chalice, 2010. Pages 47–62.
• “Reflections on Joana J. Greswell and Her Book Grammatical Analysis of the Hebrew Psalter (1873),” in N. C. Koyzis and H. W. Weir, eds. Breaking Boundaries: Female Biblical Interpreters Who Challenged the Status Quo. LHB/OT 524. New York: T&T Clark, 2010. Pages 85–106.
• Review of Kenton Anderson, “Choosing to preach: a comprehensive introduction to sermon options and structures,” Homiletic 32/2 (2007): 23–25.
• “The Bible and Homosexuality” in Carl Trueman et al., eds. Solid Ground: 25 Years of Evangelical Theology. Leicester, England: Apollos/Intervarsity Press, 2000. Pages 270–87.
• Review of Simon B. Parker, ed., Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, in Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 316 (1999): 114–116.
• “R. K. Harrison,” in Walter A. Elwell and J. D. Weaver, eds. Bible Interpreters of the 20th Century: A Selection of Evangelical Voices. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999. Pages 312–328.
• “A Response to Steve A. Wiggins, ‘Yahweh: the God of Sun?’” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 71 (1996): 107–119.
• “Was Yahweh Worshipped as the Sun?” Biblical Archaeology Review 20/3 (May-June 1994): 52–61, 90–91.
• “Books of Interest: Biblical.” Toronto Journal of Theology 17 (1991): 246–248.
• “The Two Earliest Known Representations of Yahweh,” in L. Eslinger and G. Taylor, eds. Ascribe to the Lord: Essays in Memory of Peter C. Craigie. JSOTSup 67. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988. Pages 557–588.
• “A Long-awaited Vocative Singular Noun with Final Aleph in Ugaritic.” Ugarit-Forschungen 17 (1985) 315–318.
• “The Song of Deborah and Two Canaanite Goddesses.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 23 (1982): 99–108.

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