Biography
Julia Snyder is a lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity and at Westcott House. Julia's research and teaching focus on the New Testament and early Christian apocrypha. Her research interests include storytelling practices, community dynamics, gender, slavery, and the use of language in texts written by early Jewish and Christian authors. In her research, she has worked on a variety of texts, including Acts, Paul's letters, and later stories about the apostles (so-called "apocryphal acts"). Julia welcomes expressions of interest from potential MPhil or PhD students.
Julia also does work in the area of contemporary interfaith relations, especially among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. She is part of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, and is co-leader of the Scripture & Violence Project.
Originally from the US, Julia studied Classics and Maths as an undergraduate, followed by theological studies leading to a Master of Divinity degree. She later completed a PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Edinburgh. After finishing her doctoral work, Julia spent five years teaching and researching at universities in Germany before coming to Cambridge.
Publications
“Prooftexting from Other People’s Scriptures? ‘Prophets and Patriarchs’ in Acts of Philip 5-7.” Harvard Theological Review 116 (2023): 66–90.
“The Acts of Christ and Peter in Rome: An Introduction and Translation.” In New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures – Volume 3, edited by Tony Burke. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2023.
“Thinking with the Apostles about Sex, Intermarriage, and the Minority Experience.” In The Apostles Peter, Paul, John, Thomas and Philip with their Companions in Late Antiquity, edited by Tobias Nicklas, Janet Spittler, and Jan Bremmer, 100–17. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.
“Introduction: Scripture and Violence – Is there a bomb in this text?” In Scripture and Violence, edited by Julia Snyder and Daniel H. Weiss, 1–21. London: Routledge, 2021.
“The Canon of the New Testament.” In The Cambridge Companion to the New Testament, edited by Patrick Gray. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
“Scriptural Reasoning: Eine Praxis des Interreligiösen Austauschs.” In Schrift im Streit: Jüdische, christliche und muslimische Perspektiven. Auf dem Weg zu einer interreligiösen Hermeneutik, edited by Ute E. Eisen et al., 263–72. EXUZ. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2020.
“Apostles and Politics in the Roman Empire.” In Reading the Political in Jewish and Christian Texts, edited by Julia A. Snyder and Korinna Zamfir, 227–256. Biblical Tools and Studies 38. Leuven: Peeters, 2020.
“Acts of John, Acts of Peter, Acts of Thekla, 3 Corinthians, Martyrdom of Paul.” In The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries, vol. 2, edited by Jens Schröter and Christine Jacobi, 363–385. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2019.
“Simon, Agrippa, and Other Antagonists in the Vercelli Acts of Peter.” In Gegenspieler: Zur Auseinandersetzung mit dem Gegner in frühjüdischer und urchristlicher Literatur, edited by Ulrich Mell and Michael Tilly, 311–31. WUNT 428. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.
With Tobias Nicklas. “Early Christian Literature.” In The Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media, edited by Tom Thatcher et al., 94–99. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017.
“Sociolinguistic Dynamics and Characterization in the Acts of the Apostles.” In Characters and Characterization in Luke-Acts, edited by Frank E. Dicken and Julia A. Snyder, 169–83. LNTS 548. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016.
“Warum dieses Wort? Der Einfluss sozialer Faktoren auf die Wortwahl.” SNTU 40 (2015): 63–78.
