Kenneth E. Bailey, renowned New Testament scholar, seminary professor, author, and Presbyterian career missionary died on Monday, May 23, 2016, at age eighty-five.
He married Ethel Jean Milligan, before attending Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. They went to Egypt (1955) serving the Egyptian Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church while studying Arabic, absorbing folk culture and learning common sayings and proverbs. In 1965, the Baileys were reassigned to the Near East School of Theology (NEST) in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1970 Kenneth began an academic doctoral program at Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, focusing on Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac, through which he read the scriptures.
In 1972, the Baileys served in Beirut through much of Lebanon’s 17-year civil war. Kenneth’s service continued in Cyprus and Jerusalem where he was inducted as Canon Theologian of the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, including resident faculty of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, until his retirement (1995) to New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Bailey wrote ten volumes on distinctive biblical themes lecturing widely across the Church internationally, including leading Bible studies for gatherings of the archbishops of the Anglican Communion at Lambeth Palace.
He remains noted for his uniquely insightful treatment of the parables of Jesus, particularly that of the Prodigal Son (the Forgiving Father), and became widely read through his books, hundreds of journal articles and a film and video ministry. His final monograph, The Good Shepherd: Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament (2014), he considered his best work.
Dr. Bailey was predeceased in 2010 by his son, David, and is survived by his wife, Ethel, his daughter Sara Makari and her husband, Victor, daughter-in-law Leslie, and grandchildren, Kelcey and Cameron.
– Foundation for Middle Eastern New Testament Studies
