The Rev. John H. Elliott is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies and former Director of the Honors Program in the Humanities at the University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Since coming to this Jesuit university in 1967 as the first occupant of the Honore F. Zabala Chair in Theology, Dr. Elliott holds the longest tenure of all non-Roman Catholic theologians at Jesuit universities in the United States.

A native of New York City, Dr. Elliott received his Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor and Masters of Divinity degrees from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and his degree of Doktor der Theologie from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany (1963). He was ordained a Lutheran clergyman in 1963. He has taught at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1963-67), Webster College, St. Louis (1963-67), the University of San Francisco (1967-present), the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley (1977-present), Notre Dame University (1981), Boston College (1985) and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1977-78) as the first Lutheran scholar since the founding of the Institute. He and his wife live in Oakland, California, have two sons, and are associated with the University Lutheran Chapel, Berkeley.

Dr. Elliott is recognized internationally for his research on the New Testament book of 1 Peter and as a pioneering proponent of the social-scientific study of the Scriptures. His twelve books include The Elect and the Holy (E. J. Brill, 1966); A Home for the Homeless (Fortress, 1981; 2d ed. 1990) translated into Portuguese (1985) and Spanish (1995); the Augsburg New Testament Commentary on 1-2 Peter/Jude (Augsburg, 1982, translated into Chinese 1988); Social-Scientific Criticism of the New Testament and Its Social World (Scholars Press, 1986), and What is Social-Scientific Criticism? (Guides to Biblical Scholarship, Fortress 1993); and 1 Peter. A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Bible 37; New York: Doubleday, 2001). His most recent publications include articles on biblical euphemism, envy, and “Jesus the Israelite Was Neither a ‘Jew’ nor a ‘Christian’” (JSHS 5.2 [2007]: 119-155). The volume Conflict, Community, and Honor: 1 Peter in Social-Scientific Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock) appeared in June 2007. He is currently preparing a volume on The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World and a study on Jesus and the Family of God.

A member of several professional societies, Dr. Elliott has served on the Executive and Editorial boards of the Catholic Biblical Association and in 1982-83 as President of the Pacific Coast Region of the Society of Biblical Literature (1982-83). He has taught and lectured widely in the United States, Europe, South Africa and Australia on a variety of issues pertinent to theological, interdisciplinary, and inter-confessional engagement. At the University of San Francisco where he served as USF chapter president of the American Academy of University Professors in 1973, he received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in 1982, the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award (1991), the University Service Award (1991), and a second Distinguished Faculty Research award in 2001. At USF he has taught a spectrum of courses on the Bible, the ancient world in cross-disciplinary perspective, Jesus the Jew, and Ethics, emphasizing the interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and ecumenical study of religion in its historical, economic, social and political contexts. He retired from full-time teaching at USF in 2001 and now, as professor emeritus, is writing and lecturing widely in the US and abroad.