Professor Judith Lieu FBA

Biography

Professor Lieu was Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity 2007-2018. She studied at Durham and Birmingham Universities and previously taught at The Queen's College, Birmingham, King's College London (where she was Professor of New Testament Studies, 1999-2006), and Macquarie University, Sydney. From January 2020- June 2021 she is Frothingham Visiting Professor in New Testament and Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School

She is on the editorial board of a number of journals and series and was previously Editor of New Testament Studies.

She is a Fellow of the British Academy (2014) and International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019). She hold as Honorary Doctorate of Theology from the University of Heidelberg (2020).

In 2015-2016 she was President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS). In 2019 she was President of the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense.

From 2014-2017 Professor Lieu was University Gender Equality Champion with special responsibility for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Professor Lieu is not taking any more doctoral students.

Research

Professor Lieu's current research is on letters in Early Christianity, exploring their changing function through their reception and embedding in new contexts, as well as the production of letter-like writings.

She also continues to work on aspects of the formation of a Christian identity, and has a particular interest in heresiology. In 2015 she published a study of the heresiological construction of Marcion and an attempt to locate him within the literary, social, and, theological contexts of the second century. This is part of a broader interest in the second century as a period of creativity and ferment in the development of distinct patterns of Christian thought and practice. She continues to work on aspects of Marcion's teaching and writings.

Previously she has worked on the separation and continuing relationships between Jews and Christians, and on the formation of a distinct Christian identity, all within the broader setting of the Graeco-Roman world.

Within the New Testament area, she conducts research on the Johannine literature, and has published widely in the area, including a commentary on the Johannine Epistles. She is editor with Em.Prof. Martinus de Boer of the Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies (OUP, 2018).

A further area of research and writing is that of feminist and gender analysis of the New Testament and other early Christian literature and history.

Publications

Key publications:

Books

Marcion and the Making of a Heretic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)
I, II, & III John: A Commentary (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2008)
Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; paperback 2006).
Neither Jew nor Greek: Constructing Early Christianity (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark/ Continuum, 2002; paperback London: T&T Clark Int., 2005) Second Edition (London: Bloomsbury, 2015)
The Gospel according to Luke (London: Epworth Press, 1997; reprinted Wipf and Stock, 2012).
Image and Reality. The Jews in the World of the Christians in the Second Century (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1996; paperback 2003)
The Theology of the Johannine Epistles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
The Second and Third Epistles of John: History and Background (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1986; reprinted Bloomsbury Academic Collections, 2015)

Edited:

with Martinus C. de Boer, The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018)
with James Carleton Paget, Christianity in the Second Century: Themes and Developments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
with C. Hempel, Biblical Traditions in Transmission: Essays in Honour of Michael A. Knibb (Leiden: Brill, 2006)
with J. Rogerson, The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2006).
with J. North, & T. Rajak, The Jews between Pagans and Christians (London: Routledge, 1992; Second edition, paperback, 1994).

Selected recent articles and essays

‘Marcion, the Writings of the Israel and the Origins of the “New Testament”’, in Authoritative Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity, ed. Tobias Niklas, Arman Puig, Jens Schröter, (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020)
‘Jewish Teachers in Rome?’, in Christian Teachers in Second Century Rome, ed. H. Gregory Snyder (Leiden: Brill, 2020) 12-31.
‘Pauline Soteriology in Early Marcionite Thought’, in Salvation in Early Christianity and Antiquity, ed. David du Toit, C. Zimmerman (Leiden: Brill, 2019) 577-97.
‘The Christian Bible as a Jewish Book: Newness in Early Christian Thought’, in Christentum und Europa: XVI Europäischer Kongress für Theologie (10.-13. September 2017 in Wien, ed. Michael Meyer-Blanck (VWGTh 57; Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2019) 309-20.
'Marcion and the Canonical Paul', in Receptions of Paul in Early Christianity, ed. Jens Schröter, Simon Butticaz, Andreas Dettwiler (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018) 779-797.
'Marcion, Paul, and the Jews’, in The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew: Text, Narrative and Reception History, ed. Isaac W. Oliver & Gabrielle Boccaccini (LSTS 92; London: T&T Clark, 2019) 209-19.
‘Identity Games in Early Christian Texts: The Letter to Diognetus’, in Ethnicity, Race, Religion: Identities and Ideologies in Early Jewish and Christian Texts, and in Modern Biblical Interpretation, ed. Katherine M. Hockey & David G. Horrell (London: T&T Clark, 2018) 59-72.
Letters and the Construction of Early Christian Memory’, in Memory and Memories in Early Christianity, ed. Simon Butticaz & Enrico Norelli (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018) 133-48.
‘Faith and the Fourth Gospel: A Conversation with Teresa Morgan’, Journal for the Study of the New Testament 40 (2018) 289-98.
'Household and Family in Diaspora Judaism', Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 18-19 (2017) 75-90.
‘Marcion and the Corruption of Paul’s Gospel’, Zeitschrift for Antikes Christentum 21 (2017) 121-39.
‘Modelling the Second Century as the Age of the Laboratory’, in Christianity in the Second Century: Themes and Developments, ed. James Carleton Paget and Judith M. Lieu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017) 294-308.
‘Marcion’s Gospel and the New Testament: Catalyst or Consequence’, New Testament Studies 63 (2017) 329-34 (= part of round table article with M. Klinghardt (318-23) and J. BeDuhn (324-29))
'Letters and the Topography of Early Christianity', New Testament Studies 62 (2016) 167-82.
‘From Us but Not of Us? Moving the Boundaries of the Community’, in Early Christian Communities between Ideal and Reality, ed. Mark Grundeken and Joseph Verheyden (WUNT 342; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015) 161-75.
‘The Audience of the Johannine Epistles’, in Communities in Dispute: Current Scholarship on the Johannine Epistles, ed. R.A. Culpepper (SBLECL; Atlanta, GA.: SBL, 2014) 123-140.
'Text and Authority in John and Apocalyptic', in Intimations of Apocalyptic, ed. Catrin Williams & Christopher Rowland (London: Bloomsbury, 2013) 235-53
'Heresy and Scripture', in Ein neues Geschlecht? Entwicklung des frühchristlichen Selbstbewusstseins, ed. M. Lang (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013) 81-100.
'What did Women do for the Early Church? The Recent History of a Question', in The Church on its Past, ed. Peter D. Clarke & Charlotte Methuen (Studies in Church History 49; Croydon: Boydell, 2013) 261-81.
'Their Wives are as Chaste as Virgins, their Daughters Modest: The Role of Women in Early Christian Apologetics', in The Making of Christianity: Conflicts, Contacts, and Constructions: Essays in Honor of Bengt Holmberg, ed. Magnus Zetterholm and Samuel Byrskog (CBNT 47; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2012) 103-27.
'Marcion and the New Testament', in Method and Meaning: Essays on New Testament Interpretation in Honor of Harold W. Attridge, ed. Andrew B. McGowan & Kent Harold Richards (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2011) 399-416.
'Marcion and the Synoptic Problem', in New Studies in the Synoptic Problem, ed. P. Foster, A. Gregory, J. S. Kloppenborg, J. Verheyden (BETL 279; Leuven: Peeters, 2011) 731-51.
'The Audience of Apologetics: the Problem of the Martyr Acts' in Contextualising Early Christian Martyrdom, ed. Jakob Engberg, Uffe Holmsgaard Eriksen, Anders Klostergaard Petersen (Frankfurt: Lang, 2011) 205-23.
'"As much my apostle as Christ is mine": the Dispute over Paul between Tertullian and Marcion', Early Christianity 1 (2010) 41-59.
'The Battle for Paul in the Second century', Irish Theological Quarterly 75 (2010) 3-14.
'Between Text and Community: Jews and Christians in the Second Century', Princeton Seminary Bulletin 31 (2010) 74-89.
‘Jews, Christians and “Pagans” in Conflict’, in Critique and Apologetics: Jews, Christians and Pagans in Antiquity, ed. Anders-Christian Jacobsen, Jörg Ulrich, David Brakke (Frankfurt: Lang, 2009) pp. 43-58
'Us or You? Persuasion and Identity in 1 John', Journal of Biblical Literature 127 (2008) pp. 805-19.
'Gedächtnis und Identität: Die frühchristliche Entdeckung einer Vergangenheit', in ed. J. Dummer & M. Vielberg, Leitbilder im Spannungsfeld von Orthodoxie und Heterodoxie(Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2008) pp. 157-70.
'Literary Strategies of Personification', in Identity Formation in the New Testament, ed. Bengt Holmberg & Mikael Winninge (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008) pp. 61-78.
'The Gospel of John and Anti-Judaism', in John and Christian Theology, ed. R. Bauckham & C. Mosser (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2008) pp. 168-82.
'Charity in early Christian thought and practice', in ed. Dionysios Stathakopoulos, The Kindness of Strangers: Charity in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean (CHS Occasional Publications; London: King's College London, 2007) pp. 13-20.
'Bible, Empowerment and Institution', in Poverty, Empowerment, Institutions, ed. C. Sedmak & T. Böhler (Vienna: LIT, 2007) pp. 281-88.
'Messiah and Resistance in the Gospel and Epistles of John', in Redemption and Resistance: The Messianic Hopes of Jews and Christians in Antiquity, ed.M. Bockmuehl & J. Carleton Paget (London: T.&T. Clark, 2007) pp. 97-108.
‘Where did Jews and Christians Meet (or Part Ways)’, in Los Comienzos del Cristianismo, ed. S. Guijarro (Bibliotheca Salmanticensis, Salamanca, 2006) pp. 217-32.
'Justin Martyr and the Transformation of Psalm 22', in Biblical Traditions in Transmission, ed. C. Hempel & J. M. Lieu (Leiden, Brill, 2006) pp. 195-211.
'The Jewish Matrix', in The Cambridge History of Christianity I, ed. M. Mitchell & F. M. Young (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) pp. 214-229.
'Reading Jesus in the Wilderness', in Wilderness. Essays in Honour of Frances Young, ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah (London: T.&T. Clark International, 2005) pp. 88-100.
'How John Writes', in The Written Gospel, ed. M. Bockmuehl & D. Hagner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) pp. 171-183.
'The Synagogue and the Separation of the Christians', in The Ancient Synagogue from its Origins until 200 C.E., ed. B. Olsson & M. Zetterholm (CB. NTS 39. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2003) pp. 189–207.
'Impregnable ramparts and walls of iron'. Boundary and Identity in 'Judaism' and 'Christianity', NTS 48 (2002) 297–313.
'Not Hellenes but Philistines?', JJS 53 (2002) 246–63.
'Anti-Judaism in the Fourth Gospel: Explanation and Hermeneutics' in Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel, ed. R. Bieringer et al. (JCH 1. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum/ Louisville, PA: WJK, 2001) pp. 126-143.
'Temple and Synagogue in John', New Testament Studies 45 (1999) 51-69
'The Attraction of Women in/to early Judaism and Christianity: Gender and the Politics of Conversion' Journal for the Study of the New Testament.72 (1998) 5-22
'The Mother of the Son in the Fourth Gospel', Journal of Biblical Literature 117 (1998) 55-71