Dr. Jastram was born and raised in Japan, the son of missionary parents.  He came to the United States for post secondary education.  His educational background includes a B.A. from the University of South Dakota (1980), an M.Div. from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana (1984) and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1990).

His primary academic interest is studying the Word of God in the original languages and exploration of other ancient documents that are related to the Bible.  Dr Jastram had the privilege to work directly with Dead Sea Scroll fragments for his doctoral dissertation.