Trinity Days

Mark Allan Powell is now a Retired Professor of New Testament after teaching 32 years at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. An internationally known biblical scholar, he chaired the Society of Biblical Literature’s section on Matthew’s Gospel for ten years and the section on Historical Jesus studies for another ten year. 

Powell may be best known for his numerous publications, which have sold over a million copies. 
He is editor of the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (the world’s best-selling dictionary of the Bible) and author of Introducing the New Testament (the world’s best-selling New Testament textbook. An additional 35 works include a widely used commentary on Matthew’s Gospel (in the New Interpretation series) and books on spiritual formation (Loving Jesus), stewardship (Giving To God), and homiletics (What Do They Hear?: Bridging the Gap between Pulpit and Pew). His mammoth (1400-page) Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music was chosen Book of the Year by the American Society of Music Historians in the year 2002 and has become the standard reference work for that field. Powell recently crossed genres to produce a secular collection of short fiction (Kindness Stones: Stories for Melissa) and in late 2026 he will publish a major work on the social and political views of Jesus. 

An ecumenical, global scholar, Powell served for many years as the sole Protestant on the Executive Committee of the Catholic Biblical Association, and he has taught at seminaries in Estonia, Russia, and Tanzania. Within the ELCA, he served for many years as a columnist for The Lutheran and was a frequent contributor to that magazine. He was part of the Editorial Board that produced the Lutheran Study Bible and he made a series of video programs called How Lutherans Understand the Bible that received widespread use in ELCA synods and churches.