William R. Farmer

Farmer studied at Cambridge University in England and Union Theological Seminary in New York. He graduated from seminary in 1952 and was ordained as a minister of the United Methodist Church. He became a professor at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 1959 or 1960. There, he was known as an associate and ally to Albert Outler, a Protestant church historian who closely observed and studied the Catholic Church and supported both the paleo-orthodox and the ecumenical movement.

Farmer supported the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and served on its board of directors in supporting civil rights for African-Americans in Dallas.{{cite news |last=Gray |first=Katti |date=July 20, 1987 |title=Dallas SCLC to wage peace in housing fracas |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram }} In 1990, at the age of 67, he joined the Roman Catholic Church.{{cite news |last=Cornell |first=George W. |date=October 27, 1990 |title=Call it 'grass roots ecumenism': Bible scholar is both a Roman Catholic and a United Methodist |agency=Associated Press }}{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Jim |date=April 9, 1990 |title=Perkins professor sees self as an ecumenical pioneer |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram }}{{Cite web |date=2003-12-30 |title=Decision 696 |url=http://www.umc.org/judicial/600/696.html |access-date=2024-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031230183944/http://www.umc.org/judicial/600/696.html |archive-date=2003-12-30 }} After his retirement, he did occasional projects with the University of Dallas, such as editing a volume of Bible commentaries from a Catholic and ecumenical perspective. Farmer died in 2000 in Dallas of prostate cancer.{{cite news |date=January 12, 2001 |title=William Farmer, editor of Bible commentary, dies |work=Catholic News Service }}

Farmer's most notable area of research was the synoptic problem, or the question of the nature of the connection between the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In his 1964 book The Synoptic Problem: A Critical Analysis, he disputes the two-source hypothesis that had generally become accepted in the 20th century, which suggests that Mark and an unknown tradition called "Q" were used to write Matthew and Luke. Farmer supported a variant of the older Matthean priority, the view of many early Church fathers such as Augustine.Farmer, William R. The Synoptic Problem: A Critical Analysis ([https://web.archive.org/web/20191219121909/http://www.maplenet.net/~trowbridge/farmer.htm partial snippet]). Farmer called his preferred version the two-gospel hypothesis, and suggests instead that Mark was the latest gospel that drew from both Matthew and Luke.[https://web.archive.org/web/20040227231229/http://www.colby.edu/rel/2gh/whoarewe.html A Web Site for the Two Gospel Hypothesis: Who Are We?]

In a 1992 paper, Farmer suggested the movement for Marcan priority originated as an effect of the German {{lang|de|Kulturkampf}} in the 1870s, a political and cultural struggle between the largely Lutheran government of the German Empire and the German Catholic Church. In this view, playing down the importance of Matthew would show that the Catholic Church was "wrong" and weaken their claims of canonical authority, opening the way for the Protestant-led government to seize authority and power.Farmer, William R. [http://www.churchinhistory.org/pages/booklets/farmer%28n%29.htm BISMARCK AND THE FOUR GOSPELS 1870 - 1914] Farmer found few supporters for this view.

• {{cite book |date=1956 |title=Maccabees, Zealots, and Josephus: An Inquiry into Jewish Nationalism in the Greco-Roman period |location=New York |publisher= Columbia University Press |lccn=56-7364 }}
• {{cite book |date=1964 |title=The Synoptic Problem: A Critical Analysis |location=New York |publisher=Western North Carolina Press }} (Reprinted in 1976)
• {{cite book |date=1974 |title=The Last Twelve Verses of Mark |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
• {{cite book |date=1994 |title=The Gospel of Jesus: The Pastoral Relevance of the Synoptic Problem |location=Louisville |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press }}

• {{cite book |date=1983 |title=New Synoptic Studies: The Cambridge Gospel Conference and Beyond |location=Macon, Georgia |publisher=Mercer University Press }}
• {{cite book |date=1995 |title=Biblical Studies and the Shifting of Paradigms, 1850-1914 |location=Macon, Georgia |publisher=Mercer University Press }} (with Henning Graf Reventlow)
• {{cite book |date=1998 |title=The International Catholic Bible Commentary: a Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for the Twenty-first Century |location=Collegeville, Minnesota |publisher=Liturgical Press }}
• {{cite book |date=1999 |title=Anti-Judaism and the Gospels |location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |publisher=Trinity Press International }}

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070852/http://web.nebrwesleyan.edu/groups/synoptic/BiblioWRF.htm Published works of William R. Farmer]

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Category:1921 births

Category:2000 deaths

Category:New Testament scholars

Category:Southern Methodist University faculty

Category:American Roman Catholics

Category:American United Methodist clergy

Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Methodism

Category:People in Christian ecumenism

Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge

Category:Union Theological Seminary alumni

Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in Texas

Category:Roman Catholic biblical scholars