He was the head of the School of Divinity from 2007 to 2010, and was until August 2011[5] Director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins[6] at the University of Edinburgh.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 29, 1943, Hurtado was educated at Central Bible College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

[8] He completed his Ph.D. in 1973 at Case Western Reserve University under the supervision of Eldon Jay Epp with the dissertation Codex Washingtonianus in the Gospel of Mark: Its Textual Relationships and Scribal Characteristics.

He made significant advances in understanding Jewish monotheism and early Christian devotion to Jesus.

[9] He was elected a member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas in 1984, and received the Rh Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research in the Humanities in 1986.