[4] Born in November 1927 in Chicago, Illinois,[5] he studied with the Jesuits, his studies taking him to California, Strasbourg, Göttingen, and Rome,[citation needed] where he received his doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1965.
[6] He taught briefly at Alma College and at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley[citation needed] before joining the faculty at McMaster University in 1969,[7] where he taught in the religious studies department until 1992.
Meyer's areas of specialization included the historical Jesus, the early expansion of the Christian movement,[citation needed] and the hermeneutics of Bernard Lonergan.
[citation needed] He died on 28 December 1995 in Les Verrières, Switzerland.
[8] Meyer's works deeply influenced major scholars, such as Bruce Chilton, N. T. Wright, John P. Meier and Ben Witherington III.