Dr. R. Steven Notley
Dr. R. Steven Notley, the
founder of Emmaus
Educational Services,
Distinguished Professor of
New Testament and Christian
Origins on the New York City
campus of Alliance University
(2001-2023)
and the Academic Director of
the El-Araj Excavation Project.
He received his Ph.D.
from the Hebrew University,
where he studied with the late Professor David Flusser.
Dr. Notley lived sixteen years in Jerusalem with his wife and four children, during which time he was the founding chair of the New Testament Studies program at the Jerusalem University College. He has been directing groups of students and laypeople to Israel and the eastern Mediterranean region for over 30 years.
He is the author of many books and articles. He continues collaborative research and publication with Israeli scholars in the fields of historical geography, ancient Judaism and Christian origins. Among his list of publications, he co-authored with Flusser the historical biography, The Sage from Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus’ Genius (Eerdmans 2007); with Professor Anson Rainey (Tel Aviv University) the monumental biblical atlas, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Carta Publishing 2005, 2014); with Professor Ze’ev Safrai (Bar Ilan University) an annotated translation of Eusebius’ important description of Roman Palestine, Eusebius, Onomasticon: A Triglott Edition with Notes and Commentary (Brill 2005). Recently he rejoined Safrai for their second work, a pioneering collection and translation of the earliest rabbinic parables that provide the literary and religious context for the parables of Jesus, The Parables of the Sages (Carta 2011).
Dr. David Emanuel
Dr. David Emanuel is a British
citizen who graduated from
the University of London with
a Master’s degree in Computer
Science in 1997, and soon after
relinquished a successful
career in computing and tele-
communications to pursue his
interest in the Hebrew Bible,
originally with the intent of
strengthening his role as a lay preacher. His studies led him to Israel, where he studied for a Masters and PhD in Hebrew Bible at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
While in Israel, David played an integral role in establishing an indigenous Hebrew speaking Messianic (Jews who believe in Jesus) congregation in a small village, Ma’aleh Adummim, 5 miles west of Jerusalem. He used his gifting in teaching, preaching, and administration to help build and maintain the congregation in the village. During his stay in Israel, David additionally became actively involved with the Falasa community, Ethiopian Jewish immigrants, and was selected to sit on the board of Project Sheba, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting Ethiopian Jews settle into Israeli society.
After completing his doctorate in 2008, David returned to the UK, where he filled in as a lay preacher for a church undergoing interregnum. Two years after this he was called to move again, this time to New York, Nyack College. Presently, in addition to teaching Old Testament and Hebrew at Nyack College, David teaches Hebrew classes in an “online” environment for Eteacher.
Additionally, he has written numerous articles on Hebrew grammar for the BibleMesh project, and provided the Hebrew audio recordings for the program. David is married to Emma, and has five children, all of whom were born in Israel. In his free time, David enjoys hiking with his family, photography, and tinkering with computer gadgets, and he remains active on the board of Project Sheba.
Dr. Jeffrey P. García
Jeffrey P. García, Associate
Professor of New Testament
and Second Temple Literature
at Alliance University NYC
(2012-2023), has worded as a
teaching guide in Israel, Jordan,
and Greece since 2012.
He holds BA in Biblical and
Theological Studies from
Nyack College, where he
studied with Dr. R. Steven
Notley, and an MA, Phil and
PhD in Hebrew and Judaic
Studies from New York University, where he studied under the direction of world-renowned Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Dr. Lawrence Schiffman.
His specialty is the New Testament, and early Jewish and Rabbinic literatures. He is currently invested with examining the Gospels and Acts as sources of ancient Jewish thought and practice, as well as the manner that they preserve ancient Jewish traditions.
He is the author of On Human Nature in Early Judaism: Creation, Composition, and Condition (Paderborn: Brill; Ferdinand Schöningh, 2020) and of Understanding the Gospels as Ancient
Jewish Literature (Jerusalem: Carta, 2018),
and is co-editor, with R. Steven Notley, of
The Gospels in First-Century Judaea (Brill, 2016). He has contributed to the Biblical Archaeology Review, Lexham Bible Dictionary (Lexham Press,
2016), and The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions (Routledge, 2015).
Jeffrey was born in Spanish (East) Harlem, New York City. He now lives in Baldwin, NY with his wife, Maureen and their family.
