William L. Holladay papers

William L. Holladay was born June 23, 1926 in Dallas, Texas. He studied Greek and mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley before being drafted into the army in 1946 following World War II. In the army, he served as a chaplain's assistant until his discharge in 1947. Holladay returned to UC Berkeley and graduated summa cum laude in 1948.

Holladay then attended the Pacific School of Religion, studying with John Herbert Otwell and Georgia Harkness, and earning a bachelor of divinity degree in 1951. Holladay entered the Congregational ministry and was ordained in 1952, becoming the pastor of Murphys and Angels Camp until 1955.

Holladay attended the University of Leiden in the Netherlands where he studied under P. A. H. (Pieter Arie Hendrik) de Boer. His dissertation was titled "The Root subh in the Old Testament." After earning his doctorate in theology in 1958, Holladay and his family returned to the United States and spent two years in Colorado where Holladay served as the campus minister for the United Church of Christ (UCC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. From 1960 to 1963, Holladay served on the faculty at Elmhurst College, teaching biblical studies and world religions, before accepting a position at the Near East School of Theology located in Beirut, Lebanon. Holladay was also commissioned as a missionary under the United Church Board for World Ministries. Occasionally, Holladay taught at the American University of Beirut. He was also involved in archaeology, working on a dig at Shechem with G. Ernest Wright in the summer of 1964 and leading archaeological tours for students to Jerusalem and Jordan in 1966 and 1967.

In 1970, Holladay and his family returned to the United States after he accepted a professorship as the Samuel Edgar Lowry Professor of Old Testament at the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts. Holladay retired in 1997, but continued to publish, teach, and give public lectures. He died on May 6, 2016.