Ryan Comins

Septuagint and Jewish Greek literature

Second Temple Judaism

Postclassical Greek linguistics

Biography

Ryan Comins graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Theological and Religious Studies from the Faculty of Divinity in 2019. An article based on his final-year dissertation was published in XVII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (SBL Press, 2022). He then completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the Faculty of Education in 2019-20 with a specialism in secondary Religious Studies, completing a research project on using exegetical techniques to improve biblical literacy among GCSE students which was later published in the Cambridge Journal of Trainee Teacher Education Research. Ryan worked as a teacher of Philosophy and Religion at a secondary school and Sixth Form in Surrey, before returning to Cambridge in 2022 to pursue MPhil studies. His dissertation explored the relationship between linguistic style and cultural identity in 3 Maccabees. An article based on this research won the 2023 John William Wevers Prize in Septuagint Studies (Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies, forthcoming). Ryan began his PhD in 2023 under the supervision of Dr Marieke Dhont and Prof Katharine Dell. His thesis investigates the Septuagint translation of Ecclesiastes, with a focus on phraseology and syntax.

Research

Ryan's main areas of interest are the language and literature of Hellenistic Judaism, in particular the Septuagint and the biblical apocrypha. He approaches these texts from a functional linguistic standpoint and contextualizes their language within the wider world of Postclassical Greek, in order to better understand what communicative needs are served by the linguistic choices of Jewish Greek authors, and what this might suggest about the social background of their writings. His principal area of doctoral research is the Septuagint translation of Ecclesiastes. This project is co-funded by the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship and the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership.

Publications

Key publications:

Comins, R., forthcoming in 2024. The Linguistic Register of 3 Maccabees and its Sociocultural Implications. Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies.

Comins, R., forthcoming in 2024. The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra. In: M. Dhont and S. Adams, eds., 2024. The T&T Clark Handbook of Jewish Literature in Greek. London: Bloomsbury.

Comins, R., forthcoming in 2023. Review of Text History of the Greek Ecclesiastes: Introduction to the Göttingen Septuagint Edition of Ecclesiastes. Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies, volume 56.

Comins, R., 2022. The Greek of Wisdom: Natural Usage and Septuagintal Influence. In: G. Kotzé, M. van der Meer and M. Rösel, eds., 2022. XVII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. Atlanta: SBL Press, pp.301-316.

Other publications:

Comins, R., 2021. Using Exegetical Techniques to Improve Biblical Literacy Among GCSE Students: A Critical Investigation and Analysis. Journal of Trainee Teacher Educational Research, 12, pp.175-200.