SCOTTSDALE. Peterson Academy, the Scottsdale-based online university, has added biblical scholar Wes Huff to its faculty for a new eight-part lecture course on the Historical Reliability of the Bible.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, the Canadian psychologist who co-founded the Academy with his daughter, CEO Mikhaila Fuller, announced the course on X in early July. Peterson wrote that he was "pleased to announce" that his fellow Canadian would be teaching the series, and shared a trailer for the course. Huff released the same trailer on his YouTube channel shortly after.
The course covers the formation of the Old and New Testament canons, textual history, archaeological evidence, the English Bible, and studies of the historical Jesus.
Who Is Wes Huff
Huff rose to prominence in December 2024 following a debate with author Billy Carson on Christianity and the Bible. The debate has been viewed more than 4.5 million times on YouTube.
That performance opened a run of podcast and media appearances. Huff has since been interviewed on The Joe Rogan Experience, Piers Morgan Uncensored, and Andrew Schulz's The Flagrant podcast. His conversation with Rogan, more than three hours long, has drawn nearly 9 million YouTube views, with shorter clips accumulating millions more. An interview earlier this year with Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett has been viewed nearly 5.5 million times in four months.
The scale of that reach has drawn comparisons to earlier generations of high-profile evangelists. Fellow Baptist Billy Graham, the most-broadcast preacher of the twentieth century, reached hundreds of millions over his lifetime through crusades and television. Huff, still in his twenties, is doing much of it on YouTube.
Despite the reach, Huff is still completing his doctorate. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from York University and a Master of Theological Studies from Tyndale University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in New Testament through Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. His specialization is the history of ancient biblical manuscripts. He also serves as Vice President of the ministry Apologetics Canada.
According to Huff's website, he has held a "faculty position" with Peterson Academy, an apparent reference to the new course.
The Scottsdale Connection
In early May, Huff sat down with Mikhaila Fuller for a conversation on the historical evidence for the resurrection. Fuller, in addition to being Peterson Academy's chief executive, is Dr. Peterson's daughter. Peterson's announcement of Huff's course came in early July, two months after that interview, which appears to have been the catalyst for the new course's development.
Peterson Academy, announced in 2023 and expanded significantly since, opened its headquarters in Scottsdale earlier this year and has crossed 50,000 enrolled students. The company describes itself as a challenge to the legacy universities and offers what it bills as an affordable classical liberal-arts alternative to traditional higher education.
The Academy's course library advertises more than 800 hours of content across psychology, mathematics, science, history, and other disciplines. Course titles include "The Boy Crisis" by author Dr. Warren Farrell, "The Philosophy of Religion" by Cambridge philosopher Dr. James Orr, "Evolutionary Inference" by biologists Dr. Heather Heying and Dr. Bret Weinstein, and "The Greatest Leaders in History" by English historian Lord Andrew Roberts. Other offerings cover musical theory, globalization, economics, educational philosophy, and nutrition.
The Course
According to the course page, Huff's lecture series will examine "the historical foundations of Scripture." From the Academy's own description:
Together, we examine the evidence for the Bible's reliability from the formation of the biblical canon to the textual history of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the archaeological discoveries that illuminate the biblical world. Along the way, Huff explains how the early church recognised the New Testament canon, traces the history of English Bible translation, and concludes by evaluating historical Jesus studies, showing how the cumulative historical evidence supports the Gospels as reliable eyewitness accounts of Jesus.
The eight topics in the series:
- Old Testament Canon
- New Testament Canon
- Textual History of the Old Testament
- Textual History of the New Testament
- The Archaeological Data
- Internal Evidence for the Bible
- The English Bible
- The Historical Jesus
For a Scottsdale-based online-education company that crossed the 50,000-student mark this year, adding a faculty member whose cumulative YouTube reach across major podcasts alone approaches 25 million views in under a year is a meaningful growth lever.
The Historical Reliability of the Bible, an eight-hour course from Wesley Huff, is now available on Peterson Academy. Click here to learn more: petersonacademy.com
