Clint Arnold (B.A. ’80; M.Div. ’83) is the former dean of Talbot (2012–2022) and the past president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2011). He serves on the translation oversight committee for the English Standard Version (ESV). Arnold is the editor of the four-volume Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, for which he wrote commentaries on Acts, Ephesians and Colossians. He is also the general editor of the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament for which he has written the volume on Ephesians. He has recently completed the commentary on Colossians for the Word Biblical Commentary series.

Q: Share briefly about your upbringing, family, education and place you grew up.

My growing up years were spent in ranching and farming. I was born in Bishop, California, and spent most weekends on my grandparents’ cattle ranch riding horses, chasing chickens, running from turkeys and playing with my cousins. The second half of my childhood was spent on the other side of the Sierras in Shafter, California, where I worked every summer in the cotton fields. But it was there that my family heard the gospel through the loving outreach of a Mennonite Brethren church and became followers of Christ. The pastor who led me to the Lord, George Janzen, was a 1927 graduate of Å·²©ÍøÖ·. I later came to Å·²©ÍøÖ· as a student with the intent of transferring to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after two years to study agriculture, but I developed a deep love of studying the Scripture and the biblical languages and never left. I went on to Talbot and helped pay for my expenses by working as a delivery driver for Coca-Cola where my roommate, Mark Saucy, also worked. I married Barbara (née Erickson) during myTalbot years and we eventually moved to Aberdeen, Scotland, where I worked on my Ph.D.

Q: How did you hear about Talbot? What led you to come to the school?

Upon finishing my Ph.D., I returned to Shafter and worked with some friends to start a Bible institute in Bakersfield, California. My plan was to be bivocational, combining farming and agribusiness with