Biography
I am a PhD candidate in Divinity (New Testament) at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and a recipient of the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship. I also hold an MA in Linguistics from the University of Otago, New Zealand.
My thesis, entitled "The Letter of James and Middle Platonism: Tracing Early Christian Engagements with Greek Philosophy," situates the letter of James within the philosophical context of Greco-Roman antiquity, and argues that what are typically seen as Jewish “Wisdom themes” in the letter should instead be understood in terms of Greek philosophical discourse. Through comparative analysis, it shows that the central concerns in the letter of James, including issues of theodicy, economics, and speech ethics, are developed using the ideas, language and logic of Greek philosophy. This matters because it provides new evidence for the widespread popularity of the Platonic tradition among Christians in the first/second century, while also resolving numerous issues in the history of interpretation for the letter of James. This approach further expands our horizon of expectations for the letter, offering a historical contextualisation that is attentive to the place of Judaism and Christianity within the Greco-Roman world.
Publications
“How Διακρίνομαι became ‘Doubt’: The Jewish Two Ways Tradition and the Christian Discourse of Prayer.” New Testament Studies (forthcoming).
“The Book of Job and Greco-Roman Book Culture in Early Christianity.” In James E. Harding (ed.), Job. Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies. Sheffield: Equinox (under contract).
“Justin Martyr’s Problem with Platonism: Heresy and Anthropology in Dialogue 4 and the Syntagma.” Vigiliae Christianae 78.5 (2024): 496–516. doi:10.1163/15700720-bja10089
“An Earlier terminus ante quem for the Epistle of James?: The Influence of James on Clement of Alexandria’s Transmission of 1 Clement 17.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 86.3 (2024): 572-586. doi:10.1353/cbq.2024.a931738
“The Death of James the Just Revisited.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 32.1 (2024): 17–44. doi:10.1353/earl.2024.a923167
“Jewish and Christian ‘Signature Features’ in the Testament of Job.” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 33.1 (2023): 51–74. doi:10.1177/09518207221137064 [Open Access]
“Job’s Endurance (Jas 5:11b): Greco-Roman Virtue in the Letter of James.” Novum Testamentum 64.4 (2022): 469–488. doi:10.1163/15685365-bja10027 [Open Access]
“How can we investigate Ancient Greek categories without the influence of our own? Exploring kinship terminology using Word2Vec.” International Journal of Lexicography 35.2 (2022): 137–152. doi:10.1093/ijl/ecab023 [Open Access]
“Δίψυχος: Moving Beyond Intertextuality.” New Testament Studies 67.1 (2021): 85–104. doi:10.1017/S0028688519000444
Teaching and Supervisions
Delivered two lectures for C1b – Advanced New Testament Greek (Lent Term 2023)
Taught Advanced Biblical Greek for VTBS, Westminster College, Cambridge (29th July–2nd August 2024).
Supervisions:
A1b – Elementary New Testament Greek
C1b – Advanced New Testament Greek
C3 – New Testament Christology
Presentations:
“Platonism and the Divine Testing Motif in James 1:13.” Paper to be delivered at the SBL Annual Meeting (Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti program unit), San Diego, California, 24th November 2024.
“Big City Life: The Letter of James and Socio-Economic Disparities in the Greek Polis.” Paper to be delivered at the SBL Annual Meeting (Letters of Peter, James, and Jude program unit), in San Diego, California, 25th November 2024.
“‘The Whole of Life in One Line!’ (Nicostratus, frag. 29): Comparing Receptions of Euripides’ Stheneboea in Greco-Roman Book Culture with the Book of Job in Early Christianity.” Paper delivered at the Jewish Scriptures in Earliest Christianity Seminar, Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, 22nd March 2024
“Peregrinus as the ‘New Socrates’: Insider Designations, Christian Martyrdom, and the Death of Socrates in Lucian’s De morte Peregrini.” Paper delivered at the New Testament Graduate Research Seminar, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 22nd February 2024.
“The Father and the Lights in James 1:17: A Middle Platonic Reading.” Paper delivered at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, 20th November 2023.
“Justin Martyr’s Problem with Platonism: Heresy and Anthropology in Dialogue 4 and the Syntagma.” Paper delivered at the New Testament Graduate Research Seminar, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 30th November 2022.
“An earlier terminus ante quem for the Epistle of James?: The influence of James on the Stromata’s transmission of 1 Clement 17.” Paper delivered at the Society of Biblical Literature International meeting, Catholic Epistles section, Salzburg, Austria, 18th July 2022.
“Is the Intermarriage Prohibition a Jewish ‘Signature Feature’ of the Testament of Job?” Paper delivered at the Society of Biblical Literature International meeting, Pseudepigrapha section, Salzburg, Austria, 18th July 2022.
“Natural Language Processing for Koine Greek lexicography: Exploring lexical categorisation using Word2Vec.” Paper delivered at the 2021 Language and Society Conference of the New Zealand Linguistics Society, University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ, 12th February 2021.
“‘You have heard of the endurance of Job...’ (Jas 5.11b): Greco-Roman Virtue in the Epistle of James.” Paper delivered at the Theology Departmental Seminar at the University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ, 20th March 2020.
