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.

A Note from the IBR Board

The Institute for Biblical Research exists to promote excellent biblical exegesis that honors God and strengthens the church. The IBR board strongly condemns racism and the abuse of power wherever it occurs. We mourn with our members who face racism, and we stand with the vulnerable whose voices are often minimized or silenced. We do so because we believe the gospel demands it. We are one another’s keeper; we are to carry each other’s burdens. Jesus Christ is our peace. We encourage IBR members and the church to humbly walk in that truth.

IBR’s commitment to excellence in biblical exegesis entails active efforts to include scholars of color as contributors to our research groups and as members of our board. We encourage members to read recent articles by two of our current board members, Dr. Dennis Edwards (here) and Dr. Esau McCaulley (here and here).

2020 Annual Meeting

Boston, Massachusetts | November 20–23

UPDATE: On July 13, the Society of Biblical Literature announced the decision to move the annual conference into various online formats. As an Affiliate Member of SBL, IBR will be working with SBL in the days to come to plan for presentation of many of its sessions in online formats. Please watch this page for updates as we move forward. At this time, and in consultation with our plenary presenter, Sandra Richter, and our sponsoring publisher, Baker Academic, we decided to postpone the annual Friday lecture and reception until 2021.

Registration has opened for SBL. 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. SBL indicates that all registration fees will be fully refundable until October 21, 2020.

The Research Groups for our 2020 Annual Meeting have now posted the description of their upcoming sessions on their group pages.Learn more about how our research groups work.

View 2020 Research Groups →

Schedule

Friday Afternoon, November 20, 2020

Annual Lecture

7:00–9:00
Room TDB

Postponed until 2021.

Saturday, November 21, 2020

IBR Women Scholars Breakfast

7:30–8:45
Room TBD

Postponed until 2021. For further information contact Beth Stovell (BStovell@ambrose.edu).

IBR Unscripted

9:00–11:30
Room TBD

This session of the IBR Annual Meeting offers biblical scholars from throughout the academy the opportunity to present their new and innovative ideas in an engaging forum inspired by the famous TED talks. Scholars will speak without notes and are encouraged to use a variety of media to help the audience interact with their ideas. A generous discussion time will follow each presentation.

• Holly Beers, Westmont College, Presiding
• Daniel Morrison, United States Navy
  Reconsidering Rubrication in Red: An Examination of the “Dominical” Words in the Apocalypse (17 min)
• Discussion (17 min)
• Break (17 min)
• Jill Firth, Ridley, Melbourne
  Gollum, Hyperlinks, and Product Placement: Why Are There Lament Psalms at the End of the Psalter? (17 min)
• Discussion (17 min)
• Break (17 min)
• Rikk Watts, Regent College and Alphacrucis College
  Regaining Yahweh’s Personhood: Between Figural, Theological, and Historical Naturalism Readings (17 mins)
• Discussion (17 min)
• General Discussion

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Worship Service

7:30–8:45
Room TBD

IBR Students Coffee Hour

9:00–11:00
Room TBD

For more information contact students@ibr-bbr.org.

Monday, November 23, 2020

IBR Ethnic Minority Breakfast

7:30–8:45
Room TBD

Postponed until 2021. For further information contact Esau McCaulley (esau.mccaulley@wheaton.edu).

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.