Biography
Julia Snyder is Lecturer in New Testament at Westcott House, Cambridge, and has been affiliated with the Faculty of Divinity since 2020. Originally from the USA, she holds a PhD in New Testament and Early Christian Literature from the University of Edinburgh, and previously studied Classics and Mathematics at Williams College (USA). Before coming to Cambridge, she worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Tübingen and the University of Regensburg, among other institutions.
Dr Snyder's research focuses on early Jewish and Christian texts. She enjoys analyzing storytelling practices in the early Christian movement, and reflecting methodologically on what it means to ask about "Christianness" in the ancient world. She has written on a number of texts, including the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul, as well as the Acts of John, Acts of Peter, and Acts of Philip. Her interests in these texts include phenomena such as textual fluidity and characterization, as well as the history of "canon."
Another aspect of Dr Snyder's work involves contemporary interfaith relations and she is co-leader of the Scripture & Violence Project, which is based at the Cambridge Interfaith Programme.
Publications
“Prooftexting from Other People’s Scriptures? ‘Prophets and Patriarchs’ in Acts of Philip 5-7.” Harvard Theological Review. (forthcoming 2023)
“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 (forthcoming).
“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.
