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Fika J van Rensburg was born on 12 September 1951 in Frankfort (Free State). He grew up on a farm in the Standerton district, and attended the Primary School Val (District Standerton), and the Standerton High School. He is married to Sunette (Nel), and they have three children and three grand children.
Fika specializes in the Hermeneutics of the New Testament, the area of his Doctorate, and in Greek – in which he has a Masters.
After he was chairperson of the SRC of the PU for CHE (1973-1974), he was for eight years lecturer in Greek at the PU for CHE (1973-1980). For 2½ years (1981-1983) he was pastor of the Gereformeerde Kerk Frankfort. Since July 1983 he has been professor of Greek and New Testament at the NWU and the Theological School Potchefstroom. From 1983-1994 he was head of Greek, and from 1995-2009 Director of the School of Bibliology and Bible Languages. For ten years from 1987 he was the house master of Karlien Women’s Residence, and Dean of the Faculty of Theology (2010-2014). For 2015 he was the Vice-Rector Research and Planning of the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University, and from January 2016 to December 2018 he has been the Campus Rector (from July 2017 the title changed to: Deputy Vice-Chancellor).
He is the editor and co-author of seven major tools for the interpretation of the Bible, inter alia Die Bybel in Praktyk (1993 – a popular one-volume commentary), Die Bybellennium Eenvolumekommentaar (1999 and 2009 – a scholarly one volume commentary), Die Multivertaling Bybel (2004 – a multi version Bible in Afrikaans), Die Nuwe Lewende Vertaling (2006 – a new Afrikaans version), en die Interliniêre Grieks-Afrikaanse Nuwe Testament (2012 – a Greek/Afrikaans interlinear New Testament).
He has published 62 scholarly articles, and numerous more popular articles. To date he has delivered 23 Masters and 21 PhD students – with two in process.
He received the Andrew Murray Prize twice for publications: for Die Bybellennium, and for Die Bybel A tot Z. In 1999 the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns bestowed on him the Ds Pieter van Drimmelen-medalje for Bible translation and Theological handbooks.
He views it as his task and calling to interpret and apply the Bible for the present day in a valid way, to equip Bible readers to do this independently, and to develop and publish tools for the interpretation of the Bible. He is often invited by congregations to lead retreats. All of this, however, have now been pushed to the background, so that he could give his full attention to his task as Campus Rector of the Potchefstroom Campus of the NWU for the period 2016-2018, and for the period 2019-2020 to his task as CEO of the Cachet Park City Improvement District NPC.
He retired at the end of 2020, and has relocated with his wife Sunette to Linden in Johannesburg - where they share a house with their eldest children. He has been involved on a part time basis in the ministry at the Gereformeerde Kerk Randburg.