Gerald Henry Wilson (1945 – 11 November 2005[1]) was an American Old Testament scholar. He served as professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew atAzusa Pacific University.[2]
Wilson studied atBaylor University,Fuller Theological Seminary, andYale University.[3] At Yale, he studied underBrevard S. Childs, and was influenced by him to adopt acanonical approach to the biblical text.[4] Wilson taught at theUniversity of Georgia,George Fox University, theUniversity of Portland, andWestern Evangelical Seminary before being appointed professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew atAzusa Pacific University.[3]
Wilson was best known for his work on theBook of Psalms. He focused on the way the Psalter was divided into five books, and argued that the Psalms around the divisions – what he called the "seams" of the Psalter – concerned theDavidic dynasty andcovenant.[4][5] Yee Von Koh suggests that Wilson was "the first to applycanonical criticism to the study of the Psalter in the clearest and most comprehensive way,"[6] while Harry P. Nasuti says that Wilson's "groundbreaking work on the shape of the Psalter has been particularly influential for later scholarship on the subject."[7]
Wilson died of a heart attack on 11 November 2005.[8]
