The Institute for Biblical Research (IBR) is an organization of evangelical Christian scholars with specialties in Old and New Testament and in ancillary disciplines.

IBR’s vision is to foster excellence in the pursuit of Biblical Studies within a faith environment. The achievement of this goal is sought primarily by organizing annual conferences, conducting seminars and workshops, and by sponsoring academic publications in the various fields of biblical research. IBR’s conferences, seminars and workshops are open to the public and its publications are available for purchase.

2020 Annual Meeting

Update (Oct. 22, 2020): This year’s IBR Annual Meeting looks very different in light of the precautions in response to COVID-19. As an Affiliate of SBL, IBR has worked closely with them to ensure that those groups and presentations that wish to go forward this year are able to do so.

This year’s Annual Lecture has been postponed until our anticipated 2021 Annual Meeting. We look forward to hearing Dr. Sandra Richter’s annual lecture, with responses given by Drs. Ralph Hawkins and Roger Nam. Also postponed until next year are IBR Unscripted, the Worship service, and the breakfast for the IBR Women Scholars, and the IBR Ethnic Minority Scholars. Our partner groups with the Tyndale House Scripture Collective (Scripture and Hermeneutics, Scripture and Doctrine, Scripture and the Church, and Scripture and the University) have also all postponed their events until next year.

We are disappointed that we are unable to meet in person this year, but recognize the wisdom in the decisions made. We are grateful for our speakers and participants who have worked so graciously with us as we have made difficult decisions regarding the program.

The whole program committee looks forward to meeting in person next year. It will be a well-anticipated program.

Please note that all participants in the IBR program must register for SBL in order to remain in the program, even in the online format.

View 2020 Research Groups →

Updated Schedule

For those Research Groups meeting online in 2020, the schedule is as follow:

Nov 30, 5-7 pm - Asian-American Biblical Interpretation: Evangelical Voices
Dec 1, 10am-12pm - Relationship between the OT and the NT
Dec 1, 1-3pm - Multidisciplinary Approaches and the Gospels
Dec 2, 5-7pm - Early Christian Judaism
Dec 2, 5-7pm - Biblical Violence
Dec 7, 10am-12pm - Early Historical Books (Joshua–Kings
Dec 7, 1-3pm - Emerging Scholarship on the Old and New Testaments
Dec 7, 1-3pm - Book of the Twelve Prophets in Biblical Scholarship
Dec 7, 5-7pm - Isaiah and Intertextuality
Dec 10, 5-7pm - Linguistics and the Biblical Text

IBR Women Scholars’ Summer Writing Retreat

UPDATE: Due to COVID-19, the IBR Women Summer Writing Retreat has been postponed to June 2021.

The Institute for Biblical Research would like to congratulate the following women scholars who will be joining Lynn Cohick (Denver Seminary) and Beth Stovell (Ambrose University, Canada) for the IBR Women Summer Writing Retreat at The Hideaway in Colorado Springs, CO:

Amanda Beckhuysen, Calvin Seminary
Aubrey Buster, Wheaton College
Carmen Imes, Prairie College (Canada)
Catherine McDowell, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Christine Palmer, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Jeannette Hagen Pifer, Biola University
Jennifer Jones, Ecclesia College
JoAnna Hoyt, Dallas International University
Julianne Burnett, University of Manchester
Madison Pierce, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Rebekah Eklund, Loyola University Maryland
Sarah Baker, University of Texas-Austin
Sarah Harris, Carey Baptist College (New Zealand)

We hope this writing retreat will be a time of fellowship, connection, and productive academic writing. We are thankful to the Imago Dei Fund for funding this retreat.

For more information on IBR Women Initiatives, click here for a brochure.