Werner H. Kelber is a biblical scholar who specializes in the Gospel of Mark. He taught religious studies at Rice University.[1][2] He is the author of The Oral and Written Gospel (1983),[1][3] and became known for approaching biblical studies through an understanding of oral tradition.[4] The scholar David Rhodes wrote that "It is difficult to overestimate the significance" of Kelber's biblical studies.[5] As of 2010, Kelber was Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Rice.[6]
Kelber attended the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and University of Tübingen.[7] In 1974, he was an assistant professor of religious studies at Rice University.[8] By 1984 he was professor and had written four books on the Gospel of Mark.[9] By 1995, he was the chair of the university's religious studies department.[7]