Yale University reports that B. S. Childs died Saturday at age 83.

Childs was Sterling Professor of Divinity at Yale Divinity School from 1958 to 1999. Childs was somewhat unique (speaking as reader of commentaries - not claiming any academic expertise in the state of modern biblical studies) among mainline biblical scholars in that, though he didn't fundamentally reject the modern critical enterprise, his reading of Scripture was not consumed by it. I was particularly impressed with his commentary on Exodus. He rehearsed the usual critical stuff, but he also thought it was important to get to grips with the text of Scripture as we have it, within the canon. When he was commenting on the flow and theology of the narrative of Scripture, he was brilliant.

You can read more about Childs here.

Though no confessionalist, he was not, unlike some mainliners, a bigot. Some mainline scholars hate religious conservatives and would refuse them admission to the academy. No so Childs. He had conservative students.

From the perspective of an "end user" his work was often edifying, always thoughtful and penetrating. He will be missed.