Craig Alan Evans (born January 21, 1952) is an American biblical scholar. He is a prolific writer with 70 books and over 600 journal articles and reviews to his name.
He earned his B.A in history and philosophy from Claremont McKenna College, a Master of Divinity from Western Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Biblical studies from Claremont Graduate University in southern California.
He is the Distinguished Research Professor at The Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas, where he is also director of Master of Arts in Biblical History and Archaeology (MABHA) and Master of Arts in Biblical Languages and Culture (MABLC) Graduate Programs. Formerly, he was the John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Christian University. Prior to Houston Christian (formerly Houston Baptist University), he was Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament and director of the graduate program at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, a visiting assistant professor of religious studies at McMaster University and a professor of biblical studies at Trinity Western University.
Evans was editor of the Bulletin for Biblical Research from 1994 to 2005.
Evans published the book Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels in 2008. In it, he criticizes current scholarship on the historical Jesus, accusing it of distorting the historical figure of Jesus, creating completely unhistorical images of Jesus of Nazareth. The book is critical of scholars such as Bart D. Ehrman, the Jesus Seminar, Robert Eisenman, Morton Smith, James Tabor, Michael Baigent and Elaine Pagels, while also arguing against the use of New Testament apocrypha, which Evans considers late works with no historical value (Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, Egerton Gospel, Gospel of Judas and Gospel of Mary) or even modern forgeries (Secret Gospel of Mark). Another chapter of the book dismisses The Da Vinci Code by the American novelist Dan Brown, which Evans sees as nothing more than a sensationalist stunt.
The "Advance Praise" section of Craig EvansâÂÂs book Fabricating Jesus includes endorsements from several prominent scholars of the New Testament, such as James H. Charlesworth, Gerd Theissen, John P. Meier, Darrel L. Bock, Ben Witherington III and James D.G. Dunn.
Dale Allison credited Evans for teaching him many things of importance over the years, and dedicated an essay concerning the contingent eschatology of Jesus to him.
Evans is the author or editor of over 50 books, some of which are listed below: