G. R. Beasley-Murray

g. r. beasley-murrayG. R. Beasley Murray (1916-2000) found Christ in 1932 through the preaching of a student from Spurgeon’s College in South London. His early talent for piano took a backseat when Beasley-Murray discovered New Testament Greek. He enrolled in Spurgeon’s College in 1936 to study the subject and quickly became a leader among his peers.

After college, Beasley-Murray became a Baptist minister in East London. During this pastorate, Beasley-Murray married Ruth Weston and pursued his master’s in theology in New Testament at King’s College, London. He labored in another pastorate and worked as a tutor at Spurgeon’s College before serving as principal of Spurgeon’s College from 1958 to 1973. He also taught New Testament at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Rüschlikon, Switzerland. Beasley-Murray established a reputation as a scholar marked by evangelical conviction and openness to dialoging with members of ecumenical movements.

From 1973 to 1980 he was a professor of New Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Although he authored a number of works, his best is probably Baptism in the New Testament, which is perhaps the best work on the subject available in English. —Steve