Prof Jan G van der Watt, former Head of the Department of New Testament Studies, accepted a position at Radboud University, Nijmegen in the Netherlands earlier in 2009, but his involvement with this department will continue in his new capacity as extra-ordinary Professor.

Prof Gert J Steyn, currently acting Head of the Department of New Testament Studies, received a second doctorate, a DLitt (Bible Languages), during March 2009 with a study titled “A Quest for the Assumed Septuagint Vorlage of the Explicit Quotations in Hebrews” in the Department of Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University. It will soon be published with Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Goettingen, Germany. Prof Steyn was also recently elected as the new President of the New Testament Society of South Africa (NTSSA).

Dr Kobus Kok joined the Department as our new colleague from July 2009. He is a former DAAD scholarship holder and his research interests are in the Johannine Literature and in New Testament Ethics.