Professor Graham Stanton (1940 - 2009)

Professor Stanton was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and gained an MA and a BD from the University of Otago, as a student of Knox College, Dunedin.

Brought up in the Salvation Army, he was licensed by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand in 1965. He came to Westminster College, Cambridge, as a Lewis and Gibson Scholar in 1966 to study for a PhD under the Professor Moule. Originally a member of Fitzwilliam, he held a one-year research studentship at St John’s from 1969 to 1970.
 

In 1970 he was appointed to a Lectureship at King’s College, London, being elected Professor of New Testament in 1977. For 28 years he was a mainstay of the Department of Theology at King’s, until he was elected to the Lady Margaret’s Chair in 1998 in succession to Professor Morna Hooker.
 

Graham’s interest in New Testament studies was focused on the Gospels, particularly Matthew’s Gospel, but it extended to a general curiosity about the way in which the early Christian tradition was written down and passed among the early Christian communities.
 

His first book, based on his doctoral dissertation, was Jesus of Nazareth in New Testament Preaching (1974). Probably his best known work was The Gospels and Jesus (1989, 2nd edition 2002); and his collection of essays on Matthew’s Gospel, A Gospel for a New People (1992) used a variety of methods to throw light on the community behind the text.
 

Gospel Truth? New Light on Jesus and the Gospels (1995 – translated into French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian) was a popular presentation of many of these themes. More recently, Jesus and Gospel (2004) examined the development of the term ‘gospel’ and the four canonical Gospels.
 

In 1996-7 Graham served as President of the Society for New Testament Studies. For nine years he edited New Testament Studies and the associated monograph series, both published by Cambridge University Press, and considered to be the leaders in the field.
 

He was a General Editor of the International Critical Commentaries, the leading set of commentaries in English on the Bible for more than a century.
 

King’s College, London elected him to a Fellowship of the College in 1996, and the University of Otago awarded him an honorary DD in 2000. In 2006 he was awarded the British Academy's Burkitt Medal for his contribution to Biblical Studies.
 

During his time in Cambridge he presided over the celebrations for the Quincentenary of the Lady Margaret’s Chair in 2002, and was involved in securing the re-endowment of the Chair from the Kirby Laing Foundation in October 2007. As a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College he secured a key benefaction for the endowment of the Chaplaincy in 2008.
 

As a scholar, a loyal friend and an encourager of all young researchers he will be greatly missed. His courage in facing his illness was an inspiration to all who knew him.