Ladd, professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary since 1950, was educated at Gordon College and Gordon Divinity School (B.D.) and received the Ph.D. from Harvard University. He also did postdoctoral study at Heidelberg and Basel Universities. Ordained as an American Baptist minister, Ladd served several churches in the denomination. He was professor of Greek at Gordon College (1942-45) and head of the department of New Testament at Gordon Divinity School (1946-50). His writings include Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God (1952), The Blessed Hope (1956), The Gospel of the Kingdom (1959), Jesus Christ and History (1963), The New Testament and Criticism (1965), The Pattern of the New Testament (1968), Commentary on The Revelation (1972) and The Theology of the New Testament (1974).