Dr Nathanael Vette (MA MRes PhD)
Teaching Fellow in Christian Origins
Address
- Street
-
School of Divinity, Mound Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Availability
Office hours: Rainy Hall, 12-1pm, Mondays
Background
Dr Nathanael Vette is Teaching Fellow in Christian Origins at the School of Divinity, where he teaches Intro and Intermediate Greek, Jesus and the Gospels, the New Testament in its World and Ancient Jewish, Christian and Pagan Texts and co-teaches Selected Topics in Biblical Studies.
From 2020-2023, he was the Issachar Fund Postdoctoral Researcher working with Prof Mona Siddiqui on two projects, Gratitude: Christian and Muslim Perspectives (2018-2020) and Loyalty and Fidelity: Christian and Muslim Perspectives (2020-2022).
Nathanael's research focuses on formative Judaism and Christian origins, temples and land in antiquity and the legacy of theological antisemitism. His first book, Writing with Scripture, an exploration of the earliest Gospel in relation to ancient Jewish writing techniques, was published with Bloomsbury T&T Clark in the LNTS series (2022). An edited volume with Mona Siddiqui, A Theology of Gratitude: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, was published with Cambridge University Press in 2023. Nathanael's research has also appeared in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Biblical Interpretation and the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha as well as several multi-author volumes.
Qualifications
MA MRes PhD
Responsibilities & affiliations
Committee member, Centre for the Study of Christian Origins
Member, British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies
Member, British New Testament Society
Member, Society of Biblical Literature
Center Scholar, Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement, Seattle University
Undergraduate teaching
New Testament in its World
Jesus and the Gospels
New Testaments Texts
Introducing New Testament Greek
Women and Gender in the New Testament World
Postgraduate teaching
Ancient Jewish, Christian and Pagan Texts
Selected Topics in Biblical Studies
New Testament Texts
Introducing New Testament Greek
Women and Gender in the New Testament World
Areas of interest for supervision
I am currently supervising the following projects in our MTh programme:
- The characterisation of women in Judith
- The texts of MT and LXX Jeremiah
- John's interpretation of Mark's use of scripture
- The book of Tobit
Research summary
Topics I am interested in include:
- The relationship of formative Judaism and Christian origins
- Jewish responses to the destruction of the temple in 70 CE
- The rise and fall of temples in antiquity
- Ancient concepts of land and borders
- The legacy of theological antisemitism in biblical interpretation
Texts I am interested in include:
- The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, John and Peter
- The works of Josephus
- Post-70 Jewish apocalypses
- Any Jewish or Christian texts between 200 BCE and 200 CE
Current research interests
I am currently working on the period of Interbellum Judaism (70-130 CE). I am interested in how Jews of this period responded to the destruction of the temple and the Roman occupation of the land while they hoped for the restoration of Israel. I am especially interested in the ways early Christian texts provide crucial evidence for this period of Judaism. Another area I am currently researching is the legacy of theological antisemitism in biblical interpretation - particularly how the Gospels have been read against Jews rather than as expressions of ancient Judaism.Past research interests
My first book, Writing with Scripture (Bloomsbury T&T Clark), explored the Gospel of Mark in relation to early Jewish compositional techniques whereby new stories were told out of scriptural material. With Mona Siddiqui, I co-edited A Theology of Gratitude (Cambridge University Press), which brought together scholars of Christianity and Islam to critically analyse the so-called virtue of gratitude - with my contribution examining the anti-Jewish slur, 'Ungrateful Jew'. A second volume, focusing on loyalty in Christianity and Islam, is forthcoming.Affiliated research centres
Past project grants
- Giving Hope: Education, Art and Human Virtues, Templeton Religion Trust, 2023 (with Mona Siddiqui)
- Loyalty and Fidelity: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, Issachar Fund, 2021-2022 (with Mona Siddiqui)
- Gratitude: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, Issachar Fund, 2018-2020 (with Mona Siddiqui)
Organiser
Loyalty: Personal and Political - School of Divinity, Edinburgh, September 2022
Loyalty: God and Community - Union Theological Seminary, New York, February 2022
Gratitude: Inclusion of Privilege? - British University in Dubai, Dubai, January 2020
Gratitude: Love, Power and Indebtedness - Yale Divinity School, New Haven, August 2019
Gratitude: Hope or Burden? - School of Divinity, Edinburgh, December 2018