B. J. Oropeza

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Brisio Javier "B. J." Oropeza (born 1961) is an American biblical scholar and theologian who studies Pauline literature, intertextuality, apostasy and perseverance. He is a professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Azusa Pacific University and Seminary in Azusa, California.

He earned a BA in biblical studies from Northern California Bible College (1989), an MA in apologetics from Simon Greenleaf School of Law (1991), an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary (1993), and a PhD in New Testament Theology from Durham University (1998). From 1990 to 1995 he worked at the Christian Research Institute, and he taught at George Fox University (1998–2001) before joining Azusa Pacific University in 2003. He has been a scholar-in-residence at the University of Tübingen (2009) and a visiting scholar-in-residence at Princeton Theological Seminary (2017). He also supervises PhD students through St Andrews University and Trinity College Bristol.

Oropeza helped start the Intertextuality in the New Testament section of the Society of Biblical Literature (2008–2013), and he co-chaired the Scripture and Paul seminar (2020–2022). He serves on the editorial board of the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity series (SBL Press) and was elected to Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS) in 2018. He has contributed to Bible translations (NRSVue, CEB, LES) and written for The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation and The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Theology. He is a columnist for the Patheos blog In Christ. Oropeza is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church and holds Wesleyan-Arminian views. He is known for his work on apostasy in the New Testament, advocating conditional preservation and the possibility of restoration for the apostate, and he supports the corporate election view. He has also written on superhero theology.