Peter O'Brien (theologian)


Peter Thomas O'Brien is an Australian New Testament scholar. He has written commentaries on Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Hebrews.
O'Brien was converted at the age of nineteen, and studied at Moore Theological College and the University of Manchester. He taught at Union Biblical Seminary in Yavatmal, India, before returning to Moore as a lecturer, later serving as Vice Principal. He is a priest in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
In 2000, a Festschrift was published in his honour, called A Gospel for the Nations: Perspectives on Paul's Mission: Essays Presented to Peter Thomas O’Brien on his Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Contributors included Paul Barnett, Don Carson, William Dumbrell, Graeme Goldsworthy, Peter Jensen, Andreas Köstenberger, Richard Longenecker, I. Howard Marshall, Ralph P. Martin, Donald Robinson, Moisés Silva, David Wenham, and Bruce Winter.

Withdrawal of commentaries

In early July 2016, allegations of plagiarism were made against O'Brien in regards to his commentary The Letter to the Hebrews in the Pillar New Testament Commentary series. On 15 August 2016 Eerdmans announced that after internal and external review that "what found on the pages of this commentary runs afoul of commonly accepted standards with regard to the utilization and documentation of secondary sources. agreed that the book could not be retained in print." As a result, they were ceasing sales of the commentary, along with two other works from O'Brien. IVP issued a similar statement regarding two titles in their New Studies in Biblical Theology series. By 4 November 2016 a similar statement was issued by the publishers Zondervan regarding O'Brien's Colossians – Philemon volume in the Word Biblical Commentary series. Each statement contains expressions of regret and evidences considerable reluctance in taking these actions.
O'Brien stated, "In the New Testament commentaries that I have written, although I have never deliberately misused the work of others, nevertheless I now see that my work processes at times have been faulty and have generated clear-cut, but unintentional, plagiarism. For this I apologize without reservation."

Works

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Articles