Dr. Keener did his Ph.D. work in New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University and is known for his work as a New Testament scholar on Bible background. Well over a million of his thirty-plus books are in circulation and have won thirteen national and international awards. His award-winning, popular-level IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament has sold over half a million copies.

Craig is married to Dr. Médine Moussounga Keener, who holds her Ph.D. from University of Paris 7. She was a refugee for 18 months in her nation of Congo, and together Craig and Médine work for ethnic reconciliation in the U.S. and Africa. Craig is ordained by the National Baptist Convention, an African-American denomination, and for roughly a decade was one of the associate ministers at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia.