Honorary President

The New Testament Society of Southern Africa awards Honorary President Certificates in recognition and acknowledgement of the candidate’s exceptional contribution to the field of New Testament Studies and the devoted service to the NTSSA.

Prof Bernard Combrink was elected as the honorary president of the NTSSA for 2024. He obtained his BA, BD, and BA Honors (Greek) with distinction from the University of Pretoria before earning his ThD from the Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam. He started his academic career as senior lecturer in Biblical Studies at the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit (now University of Johannesburg) in 1970 before becoming senior lecturer and later associate professor at the University of Pretoria (1974-1976). In 1976 he moved to the University of Stellenbosch first as senior lecturer (1976), then associate professor (1982), and finally full professor (1988) and head of the New Testament department. He also served two terms as dean of the Faculty of Theology. He was also the financial secretary (1980-1985) and General Secretary (1985-1990) of the New Testament Society of South Africa. Prof Combrink received the Rev. Pieter van Drimmelen Medal from the SA Academy for Science and Art in 2004 and in 2019 and served as project leader of the 2020 translation (2006-2020).