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 project is on Greek language and Jewish identity in 3 Maccabees.
Research
Ryan's main areas of interest are the language and literature of Hellenistic Judaism, in particular the Septuagint corpus and the biblical apocrypha. His research applies sociolinguistic concepts to the texts produced by Greek-speaking Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Publications
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.
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.