Researcher Profile

Dr Gareth Wearne

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, School of Theology

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Provisional

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8426-5553

Phone: +61 2 9701 4299

Email: gareth.wearne@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Strathfield Campus; ACU North Sydney Campus

Gareth Wearne is a Senior Lecturer in biblical studies and the history and archaeology of ancient Israel. His research focusses on Northwest Semitic epigraphy and early Jewish social history and historiography, with a special focus on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He has conducted archaeological fieldwork at Tell es-Safi/Gath and Tel Azekah in Israel. In 2019 he was named one of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Top 5 early career researchers in the humanities.

He has particular interests in historiography and the philosophy of history, the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, and the theological implications of the diversity of the biblical traditions. He is currently undertaking research on historiography in the Dead Sea Scrolls and preparing a commentary on Jeremiah 1–29 for the Historical Commentary on the Old Testament series published by Peeters.

Visit academia

Select publications

Journal articles

• G.J. Wearne. Accepted. “Scribal Handling Techniques of Northwest Semitic Opistographic Ostraca.” Bulletin American Schools of Oriental Research.
• G.J. Wearne. 2022. “Votive Offerings, Graffiti, or Scribal Exercises? A Note on the GRMLQR[T] Inscription from Sarepta and the “Blessings” from Kuntillet ʿAjrud,” Vetus Testamentum advanced publications.
• G.J. Wearne. 2021. “Linguistic Remarks on the Unity of 4QMMT.” Revue de Qumran 33.1: 61–91.
• G.J. Wearne. 2020. “What Was the Book of Moses in 4QMMT?,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 82.2: 237–55.
• G.J. Wearne. 2019. “The Priestly Referent of 4QMMT B 64-72 and Its Implications for the Organization of the Text,” Dead Sea Discoveries, 26.2: 220–37.
• G.J. Wearne. 2017. “Reading Samuel as Folklore: 1 Samuel 23.19-24.22 and 1 Samuel 26.1-25, a Case Study,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 41.3: 337–54.
• N. Mylonas, S. Llewelyn, G.J. Wearne. 2016. “Speaking to One’s Heart: דבר and its Semantic Extension,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 16: 1–26.
• G.J. Wearne. 2014. “קרנים מידו לו and מימינו אשדת למו: Reading Habakkuk 3:4 and Deuteronomy 33:2 in Light of One Another,” Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 19: 1–10.
• G.J. Wearne. 2014. “Habakkuk 3:10–11: In Defence of a Masoretic Unit Division,” Vetus Testamentum 64: 515–18.
• S.R. Llewelyn, G.J. Wearne, B.L. Sanderson. 2012. “Guarding Entry to the Kingdom: The Place of Eunuchs in Mt. 19.12,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 10: 228–46.

Chapters in edited volumes

• G.J. Wearne. In Press. “4QMMT and D: Reconsidering the Social Context and Early History of the Dead Sea Scrolls Communities,” in John J. Collins and Ananda Geyser-Fouche, eds., Beyond Sectarianism: Multiple Identities, Group Formation and Historical Realism in the Manuscripts from Qumran. (Leiden: Brill).
• G.J. Wearne. In press. “The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Hellenistic Jewish Historiography,” in Andrew Perrin and Barry Hartog, eds., The Qumran Scrolls and Hellenistic Contexts: Papers from the 10th Meeting of the IOQS, Aberdeen 2019, (Leiden: Brill).
• G.J. Wearne. 2021. “The Role of the Scribe in the Composition of Written Correspondence in Israel and Judah,” in M. Choat, J. Cromwell, R. Yuen-Collingridge, R. Ast and J. Lougovaya, eds., Observing the Scribe at Work: Knowledge Transfer and Scribal Professionalism in Pre-Typographic Societies (Leuven: Peeters), 21–43.
• G.J. Wearne. 2019. “4QMMT: A Letter to (Not from) the Yaḥad,” in Molly Zahn and Jutta Jokiranta, eds., Law, Literature, and Society in Legal Texts from Qumran: Papers from the International Organization of Qumran Studies, Leuven 2016; Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 128 (Leiden: Brill), 99–126.
• G.J. Wearne. 2018. “‘Guard It on Your Tongue!’: The Second Rubric in the Deir ʿAlla Plaster Texts as an Instruction for the Performance of the Text,” in Gil Davis and Kyle Keimer, eds., Registers and Modes of Communication in the Ancient Near East: Getting the Message Across (London: Routledge), 125–42.
• S. Llewelyn, S. Ng, G. Wearne, A. Wrathall. 2013. “A Case for Two Vorlagen Behind the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab),” in S. Tzoref & I. Young, eds., Keter Shem Tov: Essays in Memory of Alan Crown (Piscataway: Gorgias Press), 123–50.

Accolades and awards

• 2019: ABC Top 5 Humanities and Social Sciences Media Residency (intensive two-week media training based at ABC studios in Ultimo, Sydney)
• 2018: Dirk Smilde Scholar: Qumran Institute, University of Groningen

Appointments and affiliations

• 2021–2024: Honorary Associate, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sydney
• 2021: Visiting fellow, ANU Humanities Research Centre (deferred because of Covid 19 Delta outbreak)
• 2020–2021: Visiting Scholar: State Library of New South Wales
• 2015–2016: Honorary Research Associate: Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University

Editorial roles

• Book reviews editor | Australian Biblical Review 2019–present

International journal review panel

• Australian Biblical Review 2019–present
• Journal of Religion and Health 2021–present

Public engagement

Radio interview

• Interview on the new Cave of Horrors Dead Sea Scrolls fragments, ABC Radio National, Soul Search (postponed due to outbreak of violence between Israel and Palestine in 2021)
• Interview on the new Cave of Horrors Dead Sea Scrolls fragments, ABC Radio Perth, Drive (March 23, 2021)
• “Fake Dead Sea Scrolls,” Eastside Radio, Another World (July 26, 2020)
• “Digitising the Dead Sea Scrolls” ABC Radio National, Soul Search (Nov 10, 2019)

Print/online

• “Cave of Horror: fresh fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls echo dramatic human stories,” The Conversation (19 March, 2021)
• *G. Wearne, “Grotte de l’horreur – les nouveaux fragments des manuscrits de la mer Morte font écho à des histoires humaines dramatiques,” Passéisme (21 April, 2021; French translation of preceding, trans. J.M. Sultan)
• Barbara Barbosa Neves, Darren Fisher, G. Wearne, Ruth Morgan, and Raihan Ismail, “During coronavirus, we need social sciences and humanities more than ever. This is why,” ABC News Online (1 May, 2020)
• “Why it's important to keep diversity in mind when reading the Bible.” ABC News Online (21 October, 2019)
• “Where Is the Bible in the NSW Abortion Debate?” ABC Religion & Ethics (23 Aug, 2019)
• “A Harvester’s Plea,” guest blog post on Papyrus Stories: Ancient Stories from the Ancient Past (https://papyrus-stories.com/2018/06/04/a-harvesters-plea/) (June 4, 2018)

Other

• Quoted expert: “Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? Digital handwriting analysis and artificial intelligence offer new clues” (ABC News Online, 2021)