Bryan D. Estelle

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT

About Dr. Estelle

Dr. Estelle has taught at Westminster Seminary California since 2000. He is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Prior to taking his position at WSC, he was a pastor in an Orthodox Presbyterian congregation in Maryland and was involved in planting a church in Oregon for the Presbyterian Church in America. He lectured on Hebrew at The Catholic University between 1997 and 2000. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, the National Association of Professors of Hebrew, and a fellow of the Institute of Biblical Religion. Dr. Estelle is the author of Salvation through Judgment and Mercy: The Gospel According to Jonah (P&R, 2005); Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif (IVP, 2018); and The Primary Mission of the Church: Engaging or Transforming the World? (Mentor, 2022). He is presently working on a single-volume commentary on Proverbs and a three-volume commentary on the Psalms.

He has contributed essays to Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California (P&R, 2007); The Law Is Not of Faith: Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant (P&R, 2006; contributor and co-editor); and Children and the Lord’s Supper: Let A Man Examine Himself (Mentor, 2011). He has also contributed articles and reviews to Review of Biblical Literature, Unio cum Christo, The Biblical Historian, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The Confessional Presbyterian, Hebrew Studies, Maarav, Modern Reformation, New Horizons, Ordained Servant, Westminster Theological Journal, and Themelios. He was a contributor to and an Old Testament editor for the Reformation Study Bible (Ligonier Ministries, 2015). He is also a contributor to the Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (2023) and the open-access St. Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology.

Dr. Estelle and his wife, Lisa, have two sons and one daughter. He and his family enjoy outdoor pursuits.


An Interview with Brian D. Estelle

Education

BA University of Oregon;
MDiv Westminster Seminary California;
MA and PhD The Catholic University of America.

Other Affiliations

Society of Biblical Literature
Catholic Biblical Association
National Association of the Professors of Hebrew
Institute of Biblical Religion

What I Want to Instill in My Students

“Love of the gospel and love of Christ, that this is the only sufficient and satisfactory answer for changing peoples’ lives, because the gospel is, as Paul said, ‘the power of God unto salvation’ and there is nothing else to add. So if my students go out into the churches where they are called and they preach the gospel with crystal clarity and they magnify Christ and his penalty-paying substitution and his probation-keeping on our behalf, fulfilling all that the first Adam failed to do, then I’m happy.”

Courses You Might Take with Dr. Estelle

Hebrew I (OT400)
Hebrew III (OT402)
Biblical Theology & Canon (OT500)
Aramaic & The Book of Daniel (OT630)
Psalms and Wisdom Books (OT701)
Prophetical Books (OT702)
Full Academic Catalogue

More from Dr. Estelle

Books

Books Edited

Book Contributions

  • “Calvin’s Exegesis of Joel, Amos, Obadiah and Jonah” in Calvin and the Prophets: A Legacy in Exegesis (edited by Byron Curtis, forthcoming).
  • Contributor to Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words [Words by author: “Select” to “Sprinkle”], Tremper Longman III and Mark Strauss, eds. (Baker, 2023).
  • Hebraist for the OPC/URC Psalter-Hymnal (Psalter Hymnal Subcommittee) appointed by the General Assembly and the Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2018. This resulted in the publication of the Trinity Psalter/Hymnal (Great Commissions Publications, 2018).
  • “The Foundation of Knowledge: Proverbs 2:1-11,” Pages 67-73 in The Treasury of God’s Wisdom: Meditations from the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California (Escondido, CA: Westminster Seminary California, 2017).
  • Co-author of “The OPC Report of the Committee to Study Republication” Pages 332-455 in the Minutes of the Eighty-Third General Assembly, June 8-14, 2016.
  • “Passover: Continuity or Discontinuity?” pp. 31-57 in Children and the Lord’s Supper. Editors: Guy Waters and Ligon Duncan (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications/Mentor, 2011).
  • “Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30:1-14 in Biblical Theological Development: Entitlement to Heaven Foreclosed and Proffered” in The Law is not of Faith: Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant. [B1 above].
  • Co-author of “Introduction” in The Law is not of Faith: Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant. [B1 above].
  • “The Covenant of Works in Moses and Paul,” in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California. Ed. Scott Clark (Presbyterian and Reformed, 2006).
  • Co-author of “The OPC Report of the Committee to Study the Views of Creation,” pages 193-350 of the Minutes of the Seventy-First General Assembly (Willow Grove, Pennsylvania: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2004).

Articles

  • “Holiness in the Old Testament.” Tabletalk, July 2024.
  • “God’s Purposes in Trials, Temptations, and Testing.” Tabletalk, August 2023.
  • “Tips for Reading the Prophets.” Available at Ligonier.org (Spring, 2023).
  • “Sheol,” Tabletalk, August (46/08) 2022: pp. 9-10.
  • “Christ in the Psalms” Psalter/Hymnal Website, July 2022.
  • “Psalm 91: Trust in God.” In Update, a publication of Westminster Seminary California, Fall, 2020.
  • “Surely God Is Good to Israel,” Favorite Psalms and Hymns: Trinity Psalter Hymnal no. 73A in New Horizons, July 2020, p. 13.
  • “Echoes of Exodus: Tracing a Biblical Motif,” Credo Magazine (Sept. 4th, 2019).
  • “Motifs and Old Testament Theology,” Unio cum Christo, April 2019, Vol. 5, No. 1 (April, 2019): 27-44.
  • “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Tabletalk, August 2018.
  • “The Ark of the Covenant,” Tabletalk, December 2017.
  • “Synecdoche Art: The Exodus/Conquest Theme in Holy Scripture” Modern Reformation (Nov/Dec 2013).
  • “The Shema in Context,” Tabletalk, May 2013.
  • “Called to Study” In Update, a publication of Westminster Seminary California, Spring (May), 2013.
  • “Should We Still Believe in a Historical Adam?” New Horizons, March, 2012.
  • “Why I Teach My Students Redemptive History.” In Update, a publication of Westminster Seminary

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