| John D. W. Watts | |
| Honorific Suffix: | SBC[1] |
| Birth Name: | John Drayton Williams Watts |
| Birth Date: | 9 August 1921 |
| Birth Place: | Laurens, South Carolina[2] |
| Death Place: | Penney Farms, Florida |
| Nationality: | American |
| Citizenship: | United States |
| Education: | B.A., B.D., Th.D. |
| Alma Mater: | Mississippi College, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary |
| Occupation: | Professor |
| Years Active: | 1948-1995 |
| Religion: | Christianity |
| Parents: | J. Wash Watts |
| Family: | --> |
| Church: | Southern Baptist Convention |
| Offices Held: | Teacher in Old Testament, - International Baptist Theological Seminary, Rüschlikon (Switzerland), - Serampore College, Serampore (India), - Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena (United States) (1976-1981), - Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville (United States) |
John D. W. Watts (August 9, 1921 – July 21, 2013)[1] was a Baptist theologian and Old Testament scholar.
In 1948, Watts was a member of the founding faculty of the International Baptist Theological Seminary, Rüschlikon in Switzerland where he taught Old Testament. He eventually served as President of the Seminary from 1963 until 1969, and continued teaching there until 1970.[1] [3] After his retirement, he returned to teach for one more year at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in 1995–1996, which had by that time moved to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Watts then taught at historic Serampore College, a constituent College of the Senate of Serampore College (University), Serampore India which was founded in 1818 by the Baptist Missions led by Joshua Marshman, William Carey, and William Ward with affiliated seminaries throughout the Indian subcontinent. Watts taught [4] Old Testament at Serampore from 1972[1] onwards in place of K. V. Mathew[4] but was joined by G. Babu Rao.[4] Among the seminarians who studied during that period include, D. K. Sahu,[5] the present Dean of the Theology Department of the Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad,[6] and others.
Watts joined the Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena in the United States in 1976[1] and taught there for nearly six years up to 1981. While at Fuller Seminary, Watts was recruited to serve as the Old Testament editor of the Word Biblical Commentary, which he continued to do until 2011. In 1981, Watts moved to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville where he had earned his Th.D. degree and taught for two years previously (1970–1972). Now he joined the permanent faculty for fifteen years until his retirement in 1995.[1]
In the first half of his career, Watts provided valuable inputs on the growth of the Old Testament, especially on Amos.[7] In the 1970s and 1980s, he developed a literary analysis of prophetic literature as drama, which he applied to the Book of Isaiah in his two-volume commentary. A comprehensive list of his writings was made available in the festschrift that came out in 1996 in his honor which covers the period between 1948 through 1995. Later in 2008, when a special edition on the Watts' contribution was brought out by the Baylor University, Pamela J. Scalise of the Fuller Theological Seminary compiled a bibliography of his writings. In addition, he continued to publish beyond 2008 even up to 2011.
In 1996, a festschrift titled, Forming Prophetic Literature: Essays on Isaiah and the Twelve[8] was brought out by some students and colleagues of Watts edited by James W. Watts, Professor of Religion at Syracuse University[9] and Paul R. House, Professor of Old Testament at the Beeson Divinity School.[10]
Again in 2008,[11] the Baylor University in its Perspectives in Religious Studies dedicated some essays on the contribution of Watts with essays by Gerald L. Keown[11] of the Gardner–Webb University,[12] Pamela J. Scalise[11] of the Fuller Theological Seminary[13] and Carol Woodfin[11] of the Hardin–Simmons University[14] with additional bibliography of the writings of Watts compiled by Pamela J. Scalise.[11]