As seen on TikTok: Biblical scholar to give presentation Monday at Adrian College

ADRIAN — A biblical scholar who in 2021 began sharing his insights on the social media platform TikTok will be a guest speaker at Adrian College at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, in Herrick Chapel.

Dan McClellan's presentation is titled “Making Meaning with the Bible from Creation to Apocalypse.” The event is free and open to the public. It will last approximately one hour and will have a question-and-answer session, a news release from Adrian College said.

McClellan’s talk is made possible by the Humanities Department at Adrian College. Bryan Bott, Adrian College professor of Japanese language and the director of the Dr. Robin Luana Bott Institute for Study Abroad, is a friend of McClellan’s, the release said.

“We asked Dan to come because he is an articulate voice grounding biblical interpretation in the actual text,” Bott said. “He helps bring biblical scholarship to the masses — he translates all the most current solid scholarship to those of us who don’t speak biblical Greek or Aramaic, and who are not specialists in the history of biblical interpretation.

“One of Adrian College’s Ribbons of Excellence themes is ‘Thinking Critically,’ and Dr. McClellan brings that skill to bear on texts that are often neglected in favor of dogmatic assertions,” Bott continued.

McClellan goes by the name of @maklelan on TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube. When he first began uploading videos to TikTok he “immediately gained millions of views and thousands of followers,” AC said.

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He received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in ancient Near Eastern studies, then received a master’s in Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, a master’s in biblical studies in 2013, and a Ph.D. in religion and religious studies from the University of Exeter.

After his years of schooling, he worked as a Scripture translation supervisor for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City before leaving to focus on creating more of his original audio and video content.

In January 2023, McClellan dedicated all of his worktime to combatting misinformation and increasing the public’s access to scholarship about the Bible and religion, which now includes offering online classes at www.maklelan.org.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Social media biblical scholar to speak Oct. 16 at Adrian College