Richard I. Pervo
Born
Richard Ivan Pervo

(1942-05-11)May 11, 1942
Lakewood, Ohio, U.S.
DiedMay 19, 2017(2017-05-19) (aged 75)
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationBiblical scholar

Richard Ivan Pervo (May 11, 1942 – May 19, 2017)[1] was an American biblical scholar, former Episcopal priest, and Fellow of the Westar Institute.[2][3][4] He was best known for his works on the New Testament book of Acts of the Apostles.[5][6] In 2001, Pervo was convicted for possession of child sexual abuse material.[7][8]

Biography

Pervo was born in Lakewood, Ohio, the son of Ivan Pervo and Elizabeth Kline. He married Karen E. Moreland on April 2, 1967.[9]

Pervo received his undergraduate degree from Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1964. He received a Bachelor of Divinity at the Episcopal Divinity School of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and earned his Th.D. from Harvard University in 1979.[9] A revised version of his dissertation was published in 1987 as Profit with Delight: The Literary Genre of the Acts of the Apostles.[10]

Pervo died of leukemia in St. Paul, Minnesota on May 19, 2017.[1][9][Note 1]

Career

Pervo taught at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (1975–1999) and as professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota (1999–2001). He served as an Episcopalian priest until 2003.[3]

A Festschrift in recognition of his scholarship was published posthumously by Mohr Siebeck in late 2017.[11]

Criminal conviction

In February 2001, Pervo was arrested after investigators found thousands of images of child pornography on his work computer at the University of Minnesota.[12] In May he pleaded guilty to five counts of possession and one count of distribution of child pornography. He was sentenced to one year in a state workhouse and eight years probation.[13][14] He formally resigned from the University of Minnesota as of June 2001, having been suspended since his arrest.[15] After serving his sentence he continued to publish theological works as an independent scholar and Fellow of the Westar Institute,[2] and was recognized as an authority on the canonical and non-canonical books of Acts.[16]

Selected works

  • Profit with Delight: The Literary Genre of the Acts of the Apostles (1987) ISBN 978-0800607821
  • Luke's Story of Paul (1990) ISBN 978-0800624057
  • Rethinking the Unity of Luke and Acts (with Mikael C. Parsons) (1993) ISBN 978-0800627508
  • "Romancing an Oft-Neglected Stone: The Pastoral Epistles and The Epistolary Novel" (1994) Journal of the Higher Criticism, 1 (Fall 1994), 25-47.
  • Dating Acts: Between the Evangelists and the Apologists (2006) ISBN 978-0944344736
  • Acts: A Commentary (2008) ISBN 978-0800660451
  • The Mystery of Acts: Unravelling its Story (2008) ISBN 978-1598150124
  • The Making of Paul: Constructions of the Apostle in Early Christianity (2010) ISBN 978-0800696597
  • The Acts of Paul: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (2014) ISBN 978-1625641717
  • The Gospel of Luke (2014) ISBN 978-1598151411
  • The Acts of John (2015) ISBN 978-1598151671
  • The Pastorals and Polycarp (2016) ISBN 978-1598151787

Notes

  1. ↑ The obituary published by the Society of Biblical Literature[3] gives his date of death as May 20, but this is contradicted by the majority of sources.[1][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Crescent Tide Funeral & Cremation Services - St. Paul, MN - Obituaries". Archived from the original on July 11, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Richard I. Pervo - Westar Institute". Westar Institute. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Rothschild, Clare K. "Richard I. Pervo (1942-2017)" (PDF). Society of Biblical Literature. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "Scholar Sees Jesus as a Social Revolutionary". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. April 18, 1992. Archived from the original on November 24, 2017.
  5. ↑ Mittelstadt, Martin William (1 January 2011). "Review Essay: For Profit or Delight? Richard Pervo's Contributions to Lukan Studies". Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. 33 (1): 95–108. doi:10.1163/157007411X554749.
  6. ↑ Spencer, F. Scott (1 April 2008). "Book Review: Dating Acts: Between the Evangelists and the Apologists". Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology. 62 (2): 190–193. doi:10.1177/002096430806200212.
  7. ↑ Suzukamo, Leslie Brooks (July 29, 2001). "E-mail address led police to U professor". Pioneer Press. Archived from the original on October 31, 2015 – via EMMA Labs.
  8. ↑ Warren, Stewart (May 4, 2002). "A Concern for All Faiths". The Herald News. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017 – via BishopAccountability.org.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Lives Lived: Richard Pervo" (PDF). The Park Bugle. St. Paul, Minnesota. July 2017. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 24, 2017.
  10. ↑ Edwards, Douglas R. (1989). "Review of Profit with Delight: The Literary Genre of the Acts of the Apostles". Journal of Biblical Literature. 108 (2): 353–355. doi:10.2307/3267318. JSTOR 3267318.
  11. ↑ Attridge, Harold W.; MacDonald, Dennis R.; Rothschild, Clare K., eds. (2017). Delightful Acts: New Essays on Canonical and Non-canonical Acts. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161544774.
  12. ↑ "Kiddie porn found on prof's computer". UPI. February 13, 2001.
  13. ↑ "College Briefs: Former professor sentenced in porn case". Daily Bruin. UCLA. June 6, 2001. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017.
  14. ↑ Zack, Margaret (31 May 2001). "Professor pleads guilty to child-porn charges". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, MN. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018.
  15. ↑ Smetanka, Mary Jane (4 May 2001). "'U' professor to resign following porn charges". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, MN. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018.
  16. ↑ Foster, Paul (1 August 2015). "Book Review: The Acts of Paul: Richard I. Pervo, The Acts of Paul: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary". The Expository Times. 126 (11): 564. doi:10.1177/0014524615579982p. ISSN 0014-5246. S2CID 171952387.
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