Dr Matthew Novenson (BA MDiv ThM PhD)
Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins

Address
- Street
-
School of Divinity, Mound Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
Matthew V. Novenson (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, where he is also director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins. He has been visiting professor at Dartmouth College and Duke University and visiting research fellow at the University of Cambridge and Durham University. He is the author of Christ among the Messiahs (Oxford University Press, 2012), The Grammar of Messianism (Oxford University Press, 2017), and Paul, Then and Now (Eerdmans, 2022), and editor of Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Brill, 2020) and The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies (Oxford University Press, 2022).
Qualifications
BA MDiv ThM PhD
Responsibilities & affiliations
Director, Centre for the Study of Christian Origins
Co-editor, Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity
Co-Chair, Pauline Epistles Section, Society of Biblical Literature
Co-Chair, Paul Seminar, British New Testament Society
Undergraduate teaching
Introductory Biblical Hebrew
Introductory New Testament Greek
Intermediate New Testament Greek
Paul and His Letters
Second Temple Judaism (Honours)
New Testament Texts (Honours)
New Testament Themes (Honours)
Studies in the Apostle Paul (Honours)
New Testament Christology (Honours)
The New Testament and Graeco-Roman Culture (Honours)
Postgraduate teaching
Approaches to Research in Biblical Studies
Selected Topics in Biblical Studies
New Testament Exegesis
Ancient Jewish, Christian, and Pagan Texts
The New Testament in Its Graeco-Roman Context
Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
Alex Muir, Paul and Seneca on consolation
Charles Cisco, Freedom and slavery in Paul's Letter to the Galatians
Manse Rim, Messiah and righteousness in the letters of Paul
Daniel Lam, Deified humans in ancient Judaism
Jared Hay, Immediate postmortem existence in Paul, John of Patmos, and Luke
Geon Kang, The law in the messianic age
Daniel Mikkelsen, The resurrrection of the flesh
Zac McNeal, Paul at Nag Hammadi
Past PhD students supervised
Jay Thomas Hewitt, Jewish messianism and "in Christ" in Paul
Bernardo Cho, Messianism and the priesthood in the Gospel of Mark
Daniel Jackson, Glory in Paul's Letter to the Romans
Benjamin Petroelje, Ephesians and the formation of the corpus Paulinum
Sydney Tooth, The eschatologies of 1 and 2 Thessalonians
Brian Bunnell, The kingdom of God in the earliest Christian texts
Patrick McMurray, Sacrifice in Paul's letter to the Romans
Sofanit Abebe, 1 Enoch and 1 Peter on apocalyptic space and time
Ryan Collman, Circumcision in the letters of Paul
Matthew Sharp, Divination in the letters of Paul
Research summary
My research interests span ancient Mediterranean religions, but especially Judaism and Christianity in the Greco-Roman world. I have worked, and continue to work, on the letters of Paul, early Christology, Jewish messianic movements, comparison in the study of religions, and hermeneutics in biblical interpretation. I supervise postgraduate research in all of these subfields, and I invite prospective postgraduate students to contact me by email.
More information about Dr Novenson's research projects is available on his Edinburgh Research Explorer profile.
Affiliated research centres
Project activity
More information about Dr Novenson's research projects is available on his Edinburgh Research Explorer profile
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Gentile sinners: A brief history of an ancient stereotype
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Ioudaios, Pharisee, Zealot
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780567691989.ch-012
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Anti-Judaism and Philo-Judaism in Pauline studies, then and now
(19 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004505155_007
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Letters in the New Testament and in the Greco-Roman world
(19 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315678894
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Romans and Galatians
(23 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108528856.014
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
What eschatological pilgrimage of the Gentiles?
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity
(360 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438088
Research output: › Book (Published) -
The universal polytheism and the case of the Jews
(29 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438088_004
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Introduction
(8 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438088_002
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Did Paul abandon either Judaism or Monotheism?
(21 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108529204.013
Research output: › Chapter (Published)