ACU Researcher

Dr. Benjamin Edsall

Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry

Areas of expertise: new testament; early christianity; biblical reception; philosophical hermeneutics

Phone: +61 (0)3 9953 3884

Email: benjamin.edsall@acu.edu.au

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: HDR Supervisor (Full)

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8321-9312

Benjamin Edsall, Senior Research Fellow in the IRCI, studied music and philosophy at the University of Oregon before turning to New Testament Studies while pursuing his MCS at Regent College (Vancouver, Canada). For his doctoral work, he attended the University of Oxford, where he earned his DPhil in 2013. After completing his degree, Dr Edsall held a Departmental Lectureship in Oxford, as a member of Keble College, during which time his first book was published as Paul's Witness to Formative Early Christian Instruction (Mohr Siebeck, 2014). In late 2014, Dr. Edsall moved to Australian Catholic University, initially as a postdoctoral research fellow. In 2017 he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung fellowship to go to Berlin and complete the manuscript for his second book, which appeared in 2019 as The Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation: History and Hermeneutics (Cambridge University Press, 2019). In addition to his monographs, he is the author of numerous articles in journals such as Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, Harvard Theological Review, and Journal of Theological Studies. His research interests in Biblical and Early Christian Studies are broad, covering Pauline Literature, early Christian gospel literature, early Christian reception, the formation of Christian and Jewish scriptures, Jewish-Christian relations in antiquity, and philosophical hermeneutics.

Select publications

• (Forthcoming) "From Unfulled Rag to New Cloak: Lukan Clarifications on a Markan Theme." New Testament Studies.

• (Forthcoming) "'This Generation' from Mark to Judas: On the Hermeneutics of Intra-gospel Reception." Journal for the Study of the New Testament.

• (2024) "New Temporalities and a Temporal (Re)Turn in New Testament Studies? The Cullmann/Bultmann Debate Revisited." Harvard Theological Review 117.3: 631-654.

• (2021) Jews and Christians: Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries C.E.? Reflections on the Gains and Losses of a Model. Jens Schröter, Benjamin A. Edsall, and Joseph Verheyden (eds), (De Gruyter).

• (2021) "'And it rushed in': A new proposal for interpreting GJudas 57,24." Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 112.2: 238-250.

• (2021) "Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and Trypho: Jewish Leadership and Jesus Traditions in Justin's Construal of Christian and Jewish Identity," in The Reception of Jewish Traditions and the Social Imagination of the Early Christians, John M. G. Barclay and Kylie Crabbe (eds), (Bloomsbury), 145-160.

• (2020) "Clement and the Catechumenate in the Late Second Century." In The Rise of the Christian Intellectual, Lewis Ayres and Clift Ward (eds), AKG (De Gruyter), 101-127.

• (2019) The Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation: History and Hermeneutics (Cambridge University Press).

• (2019) "Reading with a Forger: Christoph Pfaff and the Reception of Colossians 2:16." Journal of Biblical Literature 138.4, 845-862.

• (2019) "Chrysostom's Use of Origen: 1 Cor 4:6, Gospel Prooftexts and a case for Direct Dependence." Journal of Theological Studies 70.1, 239-250.

Projects

• Texts, Traditions, and Christian Identities (with KU Leuven and Durham University) - 2017-2020

• Flourishing in Early Christianity - 2022-2027

Awards

• Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Fellowship (hosted at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), 2017-2018

• Clarendon Scholarship, University of Oxford, 2010-13

Appointments and Affiliations

• Senior Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University (2020-present)

• Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University (2017-2019)

• Alexander von Humboldt Postdoktorand, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (2017-2018)

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University (2014-2017)

• Departmental Lecturer in New Testament, University of Oxford (2013-2014)

• Tutor for Christ Church and St. Edmond's Colleges, University of Oxford (2013)

• Tutor for Keble, St. John's, and Christ Church Colleges, University of Oxford (2011-12)

Grant agency review panels

• European Science Foundation & FWO (2024)

• Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (2024)

Public engagement

• Public Lecture: "Biblical Hermeneutics and Sexuality"; New Hope Baptist Church Family Forum on Sexuality, Blackburn, VIC (November 2023)

• "Who was Jesus"; "Who was Paul"; Two lectures with discussion moderation on the life and teaching of Jesus, and Paul; Staff Formation Day, St. Paul's Catholic College Booragul, Newcastle, NSW (Novembr 2023)

• Public Lecture: "Did Jesus Follow the Law?" University of Oxford Open Day (May 2014)

• Public Lecture: "Canonizing Constructive Theology: Exploring the Significance of Jesus' Debate with the Sadducees over Resurrection" Developing a Christian Mind in Oxford (March 2014)