Archaeologist to present Neustadt Lectures

Oklahoma City University welcomes Aaron Gale to present the Neustadt Lectures, open to the public, on Feb. 4-5.

The Lectures include a new opportunity this year, in addition to two presentations on the OCU campus. On Feb. 4 at 7 p.m., Dr. Gale will engage in conversation with OCU professor Lisa Wolfe for an event at Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City.

Gale’s research centers upon the Jewish roots of early Christianity, specifically as it relates to the community associated with Matthew’s Gospel. He is a respected archaeologist and biblical scholar.

The Feb. 4 event should be interesting as this Jewish New Testament scholar visits with Dr. Wolfe, a Christian Hebrew Bible scholar.

They will discuss "The Jewish Context of the New Testament." Everyone is invited.

Keenly interested in world cultures and traditions, Gale has conducted research in countries including Vietnam, Thailand, Hungary, Italy, Egypt, Japan, India, and Greece. The work resulted in an original textbook for the world religions course he teaches at West Virginia University.

He has won two major teaching awards, including the prestigious WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching. He joined that university’s faculty in 2000 and is an associate professor of religious studies as well as director of WVU’s Program for Religious Studies.

Gale is featured as an expert on the Fox News Channel documentary "The Nativity: Facts, Fictions, and Myths." He is a fellow at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Biblical Archaeology, and he co-directs the Bethsaida Excavations Project in Israel, where he mentors student volunteers.

He earned his doctorate from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 2001.

Among his publications are the book "Redefining Ancient Borders: The Jewish Scribal Framework of Matthew’s Gospel" (T&T Clark Publishing) and the annotated notes for Matthew’s Gospel in the Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford University Press).

In 1983, Walter and Dolores Neustadt of Ardmore established this lecture series to strengthen understanding of the great contributions by the Judaic religious tradition to Western civilization and thought.

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