Comentario Bíblico Contemporáneo

IGOR AMÉSTEGUI is associate director for Latin America - Langham Preaching. He holds a degree in psychology and has been a staff worker and later secretary general of the Comunidad Cristiana Universitaria (a movement affiliated to IFES). He has also worked as a clinical psychologist and university teacher. He and his wife took courses in biblical studies and cross-cultural missions at All Nations Christian College.

MILTON ACOSTA BENÍTEZ (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is an Old Tes- tament professor at the Seminario Bíblico de Colombia in Medellín. He is the author of El humor en el Antiguo Testamento (Puma, 2009) and Old Testament editor of the forthcoming Comentario Bíblico Contemporáneo. His areas of research include rhetorical patterns in the Hebrew Bible, forced migration, and violence in the Bible. He also leads a small group of pastors and academics in Medellín who explore the issue of worship and liturgy in evangelical churches.

RUTH PADILLA DEBORST (PhD, Boston University) is a wife of one and mother of many, a theologian, missiologist, educator, and a storyteller. She has been involved in leadership development and theological education for integral mission in her native Latin America for several decades. She works with the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI), a learning community with Master’s and Certificate level programs. She coordinates the Networking Team of INFEMIT (The International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation) and serves on the board of Arocha. She lives in Costa Rica with her husband, James, and fellow members of the Casa Adobe intentional Christian community. Her education includes a Bachelor’s in Education (Argentina), an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Wheaton College), and a PhD in Missiology and Social Ethics from Boston University.

Samuel Escobar, a native of Peru and a leading Latin American theologian, was one of the key participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. He is Emeritus Professor of Missiology at Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and as theological consultant for the Board of International Ministries in Valencia, Spain. He is also president of the United Bible Societies and past president of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

C. ROSALEE VELLOSO EWELL is a Brazilian theologian from São Paulo. She earned a PhD from Duke University (USA) and taught for seven years in a cross-confessional seminary in Londrina, Brazil. She is the author and editor of various books and articles and the New Testament editor for the forthcoming Latin American Bible Commentary. She currently serves as executive director of the Theological Commission for the World Evangelical Alliance and lives in Birmingham, England.

Nelson R. Morales Fredes (PhD Theological Studies/New Testament, Trinity International University) is professor of New Testament and Hermeneutics at Seminario Teológico Centroamericano, Guatemala. Originally from Chile, he has lived, studied, and taught in Guatemala since 1993. He has written several articles in the journal Kairós, encyclopedia entries, a commentary on 2 Corinthians in Comentario Bíblico Contemporáneo (San Sebastián: Certeza Unida / Buenos Aires: Ediciones Kairós), and Poor and Rich in James: A Relevance Theory Approach to James’s Use of the Old Testament in the Bulletin for Biblical Research Supplement Series (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2018). He is also a board member of the Evangelical Society for Socio-Religious Studies (SEES) in Guatemala.

REV YOHANNA KATANACHO is a professor of Biblical Studies and Academic Dean at Nazareth Evangelical College. He is a Palestinian Israeli evangelical who studied at Bethlehem University (BSc), Wheaton College (MA), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (MDiv; PhD). He has authored many books in English and Arabic including The Land of Christ: A Palestinian Cry and contributed to the Palestinian Kairos Document. Rev Katanacho is an Old Testament editor for the Arabic Contemporary Commentary and Asia Bible Commentary Series.

DINORAH B. MÉNDEZ holds a PhD in theology from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, UK. Retired professor after thirty years of teaching at the Seminario Teológico Bautista Mexicano. For the Baptist World Alliance, vice president of the Commission on Baptist Heritage & Identity (2020–2025) and member of the Commission on Theological Education.

SADRAC MEZA holds a PhD in systematic theology from Trinity International University, Illinois, USA. Professor at the Seminario ESEPA in San José, Costa Rica.

JULES A. MARTÍNEZ-OLIVIERI (Ph.D. candidate, Trinity Evangelical Di- vinity School) is Assistant Professor of Theology at Seminario Teológico de Puerto Rico. His blog is available at www.theodrama.com. He is completing his doctoral dissertation in Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. A Puerto Rican, he serves as an academic and minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

DR. C. RENÉ PADILLA (1932-2021) was one of Latin America’s most distinguished evangelical scholars. He was a founding member of the Latin American Theological Fellowship (FTL) and of the Kairos Foundation in Buenos Aires. He served with distinction in IFES and Tear Fund – UK and Ireland, and as President of the Micah Network, President Emeritus of the Kairos Foundation, and Executive Director of Ediciones Kairos.

DARÍO LÓPEZ RODRÍGUEZ holds a PhD in evangelicals and human rights from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, UK. Pastor of the Church of God of Peru, Lima. Professor at the Facultad Evangélica Orlando Costas.

Alberto F. Roldán (Dr Theo., Instituto Universitario Isedet) is from Argentina. He is Postgraduate Studies Director of Instituto Teológico Fiet, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and visiting professor at Lee University, Semisud, Ecuador, South African Theological Seminary, Bryanston, South Africa, and Universidad Adventista del Plata, Libertador San Martin, Argentina. He is a prolific writer, having authored or edited thirty books, including ¿Para qué sirve la teología? (Grand Rapids: Libros Desafío, 2011); Reino, política y misión (Lima: Ediciones Puma, 2011); Atenas y Jerusalén en diálogo: Filosofía y teología en la mediación hermenéutica (Lima: Ediciones Puma, 2015); Hermenéutica y signos de los tiempos (Buenos Aires: Teología y Cultura, 2016); La teología de la cruz como crítica radical a la teología de la prosperidad, Aportes Teológicos 3 (San José: UBL, 2018). He is a member of Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (FTL) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), and was awarded “Theological Personality of 2016” by the Asociación Evangélica de Educación Teológica en América Latina” (AETAL). Roldán is also the Director of Teología y Cultura: www.teologos.com.ar.

J. DANIEL SALINAS has a PhD in Historical Theology from Trinity International University, Illinois, USA. He has served in IFES student ministry in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay and has been a lecturer in many other Latin American countries. Currently he is the International Partnership Coordinator for the Theological Education Initiative, a programme of United World Mission. Born in Bogota, Colombia, and raised in an evangelical home, Daniel is married to Gayna and they have three children.

FABIÁN SANTIAGO has a PhD in Theology from King’s College London, UK. He is a researcher and speaker on biblical narrative, theology, ethics, and cultural analysis in connection with proαgΩn, a center for theological research and education which he founded in 2015. He also serves as a teaching pastor for Ekklesia, an urban church in Puebla, Mexico.

J. Norberto Saracco is a pastor, educator, and theologian. He has master’s degrees in theology (Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana) and religious sciences (Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica), and a PhD in theology (University of Birmingham, England). He became a Pentecostal pastor in 1969 and pastor of Good News Church (1985 to the present). He was a founder and co-president of the Buenos Aires Council of Pastors. He is a member of the Bible Society and of the Argentine Evangelical National Alliance (ACIERA). He was a member of the International Council of the World Evangelical Alliance and International Deputy Director of the Lausanne Movement from 2004 to 2011. Since 1973 he has been involved in TEE. He founded in 1977 the Instituto Teológico FIET (International Faculty of Theological Studies), of which he is currently Rector Emeritus. FIET offers programmes from certificates to doctorate level. From 1981 to 1984 he was co-founder and International Director of the Latin American Faculty of Theological Education which has sponsored TEE programmes in twenty-two countries across the continents of North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe. From 2001 to 2018, he was a member of the Latin American Doctoral Programme (PRODOLA) and continues to direct the Latin American Network of Doctoral Programmes.

HAROLD SEGURA is the Director of Faith and Development for World Vision, Latin American and the Caribbean. He is also Baptist pastor and was previously Rector of the International Baptist Theological Seminary of Cali, Colombia. Rev. Segura completed his doctoral studies at the Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia.

JUAN JOSÉ BARREDA TOSCANO holds a PhD in theology with emphasis on sacred Scriptures from Instituto Universitario ISEDET, Argentina. Director of Bíblica Virtual: Comunidad de estudios contextuales. Professor of biblical hermeneutics at Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano - UCEL.

MARCELO VARGAS A. was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He is director of Centro de Capacitacion Misionera, a faculty member at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, and a teacher and director of the Centro de Capacitación Misionera in La Paz, Bolivia. He has worked extensively in churches with Aimaran indigenous believers and holds a PhD in anthropological missiology from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and University of Wales, UK.