He was professor of New Testament at the General Theological Seminary during the 1960s.
Pierson was best known for his work on the origins and priority of the Gospels.
[1][2][3] After Morton Smith had published his two books on the Secret Gospel of Mark, Pierson published a somewhat critical review in The New York Times, wondering whether the document was “an early Christian cover-up” and saying that the passages “read not like Mark’s work but like a late and not wholly successful imitation” made before the time of Clement of Alexandria.
[4] Pierson was also involved in the Today's English Version 1976.
He married Mildred Ruth Sorg on the June 12, 1933.