Christian Retailing

John R. Kohlenberger III dies at 64 Print Email
Written by Taylor Berglund   
Thursday, 01 October 2015 11:27 AM America/New_York

john-kohlenberger-mugJohn R. Kohlenberger III, Zondervan author and biblical scholar, passed away Sept. 29, 2015. He was 64 years old.

Kohlenberger’s contributions to Bible publishing and Bible study reference tools revolutionized the way that biblical languages are studied. The NIV Exhaustive Concordance, published in 1990, is considered one of Kohlenberger’s crowning achievements, along with co-creator Edward W. Goodrick.

Dr. Stan Gundry, senior vice president and editor-in-chief at Zondervan, has worked with Kohlenberger as his publisher since 1980.

“There is no doubt in my mind that John will be remembered and praised for years to come for his contributions to the success of the NIV, for his contributions to Bible publishing in general and for his desire to make Bible study reference tools that were accessible to students without advanced knowledge of the biblical languages,” said Gundry. “I grieve the loss of a close friend and publishing colleague. However, I am grateful for the rich legacy of tools for Bible study that he has left behind.”

Zondervan published many other works on biblical scholarship by Kohlenberger, including the Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament, Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament, Hebrew-English Concordance to the Old Testament and the NIV Integrated Study Bible.