Matthew Korpman graduated from La Sierra University with an impressive four degrees in Religious Studies, Archaeology, Philosophy, and Film & Television Screenwriting, all while maintaining a 3.98 GPA. During his time at La Sierra, he was a Student Senator, a chaplain for the university, a regular homilist for the University Church, a member of “Voices of Praise,” and a performer in the Drama program’s adaptation of Macbeth in 2015. When asked what he appreciated most about Matthew, Professor Wonil Kim remarked: “He was always humble about everything he was involved in.”

As part of the Honors Program, Matthew finished an undergraduate dissertation under the supervision of professors Kendra Haloviak Valentine and Gil Valentine focused on Early Seventh-day Adventist attitudes toward the Apocrypha. Likewise, he completed a movie script adaptation of the story of Adam and Eve under the supervision of Jordi Ros and Rodney Vance while simultaneously completing an additional manuscript for a book of theology that shortly thereafter was published as Saying No to God: A Radical Approach to Reading the Bible Faithfully (Quoir, 2019).

Following his graduation in 2018, Matthew moved to Connecticut where he earned his MAR in Second Temple Judaism at Yale University’s Divinity School, studying under John J. Collins, the world’s foremost authority on the topic. While there, Matthew published extensively, including a chapter in the recently published Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha. He is currently pursuing his PhD in New Testament at the University of Birmingham (U.K.), where he is writing a thesis examining the role and meaning of the Parable of the Ten Virgins.

Matthew has fond memories of working as a Teaching Assistant for the Divinity School, grading and guest lecturing classes under the supervision of Wonil Kim, Maury Jackson, and Igor Kokhan, whom he describes as “some of the kindest and most caring human beings you could ever hope to meet.” As of this spring, he has been invited back to the university to rediscover those same roots as an adjunct professor, teaching courses in biblical studies.

Despite these many milestones, Matthew’s greatest accomplishment, according to him, is that he met his wife, fellow La Sierra graduate Liliia Deviatiarova ’18. A true romantic, he says “nothing can top that accomplishment.”