David "Dr. Dave" Tabb Stewart teaches some of Southwestern University's most sought after courses. As the self-proclaimed "Bible Guy," Stewart has offered classes such as "Gender, Sex and Violence in the Biblical World," "Journey to Wisdom," "Dystopia, Utopia and Apocalypse," as well as various Hebrew Bible and New Testament courses. His passionate interest in religion can be traced back to when, as a 19 year-old Yale undergraduate, Stewart made a big decision. "I had this notion that I wanted to go out and search for wisdom, so I dropped out, drove across country and become a hippie in California. I was determined to read every scripture of every religion."

Homeless in California for part of a summer, Stewart made the decision to move into a Jesus commune. "They ran several youth homeless shelters. It was during this period when I first began to take a keen interest in the Bible as a text." After obtaining a degree in business and finance at the University of Oregon, he worked for 10 years as the community's chief financial officer. He carried his activism and religious knowledge with him to Salt Lake City, where he spent the next 10 years working as pastor of Calvary Chapel. He received his master's in Greek and Hebrew from the University of Utah, which enabled him to read many religious texts in their original language. Fascinated with the Hebrew Bible, Stewart ventured once again to California, where he earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2001, after teaching at various California universities, Stewart decided to make a 100-year-old house in Georgetown, Texas, his home. Three years into his teaching at Southwestern, Stewart hopes he has helped to broaden his students' views of the Bible. "Students often come into my classes with Sunday school knowledge of the Bible; that is, versions of the stories that are taught in a way that is appropriate for children. I push them to set aside the idealized versions of Biblical characters and encourage them to see how subtle and multidimensional the text is. Many feel like they already know the Bible, so the challenge is to make the text look strange enough so that they are forced to look again and begin to see what's actually there. My goal is to help them see the text through fresh eyes."

Stewart will not teach any of his extremely popular classes in the spring of 2005. As the recipient of a prestigious Brown Fellowship, Stewart has been granted a semester off in order to work on a critical commentary of Leviticus, one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. He hopes to have a good draft finished at the end of his six month fellowship, but says the final product will probably take three years to complete. "Leviticus is arguably the most important book in the Bible. Structurally, it's at the center of the Torah. It also reveals the heart of Israelite religion. I realize this is a provocative statement, so I intend to defend this thoroughly in this commentary."

Every summer, Stewart is able to take a break and visit his family in California. "Sure, you could call it vacation, but I get to research at the UCLA library while I'm there. The life of a professor seems a lot more glamorous than it really is. When we're off, we're always working: reading, writing, researching, reading some more. But at least in California, I'm doing it all at the beach!"