William L. Petersen (1950-2006)
George A.
Kiraz
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2007
Vol. 10, No. 1
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv10n1obpetersen
William L. Petersen (1950-2006)
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol10/HV10N1OBPetersen.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 10
issue 1
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Diatessaron
File created by XSLT transformation of original HTML encoded article.
[1] It is
with great sadness that we announce to Hugoye readers
the passing away of William ("Bill") Petersen at 7:30 PM, Dec.
20, 2006 of a rapidly metastasizing kidney cancer (discovered
only in July). Bill was a great friend of many of us, and he
served on the editorial committee of Hugoye since its
inception. Those of us who knew him well will miss him. Those
of us who know him from his work will miss his work.
[2] William
Petersen was born in Laredo, Texas, U.S.A., in 1950. He
obtained a Ph.D. from Utrecht University. A revised version of
his dissertation appeared in 1985 as his first book, The
Diatessaron and Ephrem of Syrus as Sources of Romanos the
Melodist (CSCO 475 [Subsidia 74] Peeters, 1985). "Since
1999, he was Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins
in the Religious Studies Program and also Professor in the
Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the
Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania.
Earlier he was Associate Professor in both of those divisions
(1993-1999 and 1995-1999, respectively), and Assistant
Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins (1990-1993).
From 1998 to 2006 he served as Director of the Religious
Studies Program at Penn State. Before joining that faculty, he
was Visiting Assistant (1985-1986) and Assistant Professor
(1986-1990) of Early Church History and Patristics at the
University of Notre Dame."
[3] Bill is
known to many of us from his Diatessaron studies. His knowledge
of Syriac, Greek, Old High German, Old Saxon, and Middle
English made him a perfect scholar for Diatessaronic studies.
His major study Tatian's Diatessaron. Its Creation,
Dissemination, Significance and History in Scholarship
(Leiden, New York, Cologne: Brill, 1994) will remain a standard
reference for decades to come.
[4] I had
contacted Bill on August 1 of last year to ask him if he can
write a Hugoye obituary for his doctoral Doktorvater Gilles
Quispel. He reply was long and passionate. He declined for one
reason: just a week earlier he had been diagnosed with
"incurable" kidney cancer. Despite this he wrote, "Obviously
I'm not happy about this, but as we both know, life is full of
surprises, and we just have to accept them with as much grace
and courage as we can." He continuously updated me on his
situation and I in turn updated key scholars in the field. His
last good bye message came just days before he passed away.
[5] A more
detailed obituary by Eldon Jay Epp can be found at http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=631”.