Richard B. Hays (1948-2025): In Remembrance

Hays passed away on Jan 3, 2025

The news has been circulating that Richard Hays passed away on Jan 3, 2025. This was confirmed by an update on his Caring Bridge website.

I can easily list Richard as one of the top few influences on my thought as a New Testament scholar (along with Mike Gorman, Jimmy Dunn, Gordon Fee, and John Barclay). Like many others, I benefited greatly from his Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. But more formative for me was his Moral Vision of the New Testament that offers a broader approach to biblical hermeneutics and ethics. And I have cherished his precious few commentaries, his Galatians contribution in the New Interpreters Bible, and his brief but insightful 1 Corinthians commentary with the Interpretation series. Both of these commentaries I have used as seminary textbooks. Another area of interest that we share is epistemology, which is highlighted in his book The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture.

I was able to interact with Hays a few times in person, mostly spontaneous conversations at conferences. He was always humble, polite, and thoughtfully encouraging. I have been deeply touched by his faith, hope, and joy throughout his difficult and prolonged cancer journey. His scholarship and his life reflect his reverence for the Lord.

If you are generally unfamiliar with Richard’s work and want to find a good entry point, I have a few recommendations. If you are not a grad student or scholar, and you want something easy to read, I recommend his little book, Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness. If you are eager to read his more academic work, his 2020 book Reading with the Grain of Scripture offers a collection of seminal essays across the spectrum of his many interests in biblical studies, hermeneutics, ethics, and theological interpretation of Scripture.

One of the things I will remember about Richard was his soft-spoken voice and his very eloquent lectures and papers. If you never had the gift of hearing him lecture, we can be thankful for the many interviews and recorded lectures on Youtube. I will conclude with this recording of Richard’s retirement lecture (“A Dark Fruition: Waiting in Hope”) from 2018, which is an excellent reminder of his dependence of Christ in all things, not least in his final years of life and a long and rich career of studying, teaching, and meditating on the Word of God and the person of Christ.

In some of Richard’s final words on Caring Bridge (Dec 2024), he wrote this, which reflects his deep and mature faith:

We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord;

So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. [Rom 14:8]

May the Lord's boundless mercy embrace you this Christmas.

Richard