Professor Markus Bockmuehl

Bockmuehl
Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture
Keble College
Markus.bockmuehl@theology.ox.ac.uk

Biography:

Prof. Bockmuehl’s teaching and research is in the area of the New Testament in the context of biblical, Jewish and early Christian studies. His approach stresses the symbioses of history with theology, of Christianity alongside Judaism, and of exegesis in and as reception especially of the first three centuries. Before coming to Oxford in 2007, he was a professor at the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge, and previously taught at Regent College and the University of British Columbia, Canada. In Oxford, he is a Fellow of Keble College and has also served as Associate Head of the University’s Humanities Division (with responsibility for graduate studies). He has a particular commitment to mentoring early career scholars, including a focus on Asia. Among his authored books are Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study (2006), Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory (2012), and Ancient Apocryphal Gospels (2017). Other recent edited books include The New Cambridge Companion to Jesus (Cambridge University Press 2025), Holman Hunt and The Light of the World in Oxford (Routledge 2025), and The Creed and the Scriptures (ed. with Nathan Eubank, Mohr Siebeck 2024). 

Research Area(s):

Biblical Studies: New Testament

Research Interests:

Current book projects include the completion of a monograph on the presence of Jesus in the New Testament and a co-edited volume on the Old Testament as Christian Scripture (both Baker Academic, 2026). I have also begun work on a medium-term project on the relationship between transcendent hope and immanent aspiration in early Christianity.

Research Centres & Projects:

Current and Recent Funded Research Projects

  • 2024 Conference on "Understanding the Old Testament as Christian Scripture", Pontifical University of St Thomas (Angelicum), Rome. Keynote and co-organizer.
  • 2022 Conference on "The Light of the World in Oxford", Keble College, Oxford. 
  • 2018-22 Oxford-Notre Dame Project on Scriptural and the Development of the Old Roman Creed ($45,000, joint PI with Nathan Eubank; additional funding from the University of Notre Dame).
  • 2018-19 seminar on Dead Sea Scrolls Research at Oxford (joint PI with Hindy Najman & Martin Goodman). Proceedings published in Revue de Qumran (2021)

Recent Postdoctoral Fellowships Mentored

  • 2020-2022 European Research Council (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions) Postdoctoral Fellowship in New Testament for Jeremiah Coogan, following an internationally advertised competition (€225,000)
  • 2018-2020 European Research Council (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions) Postdoctoral Fellowship in New Testament and Dead Sea Scrolls for Daniel Schumann, following an internationally advertised competition (€200,000).

Editorships:

Associate Editor, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament.

Links:

Publications:

Recent Books (since 2017; Authored or Edited/Translated)

2025       The New Cambridge Companion to Jesus. Ed. M. Bockmuehl. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xiv+426. ISBN 9781009233026

2025      Holman Hunt and The Light of the World in Oxford. Ed. M. Bockmuehl. Routledge Studies in Theology, Imagination and the Arts. London/New York: Routledge. Pp. xii+183. ISBN 9781032533308

2024       The Creed and the Scriptures. Ed. M. Bockmuehl & N. Eubank. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. WUNT 519. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. Pp. viii+350.  ISBN 9783161615986

2021       Wolfram Kinzig, Christian Persecution in Antiquity. Trans. M. Bockmuehl. Waco: Baylor University Press. Pp. 188. ISBN 9781481313889

2020   Austin Farrer: Oxford Warden, Scholar, Preacher. Ed. M. Bockmuehl & S. Platten. London: SCM Press. ISBN 9780334058595
2018   Creation ex Nihilo: Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges.  Ed. G.A. Anderson & M. Bockmuehl.
           Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Pp. viii+421.  ISBN 9780268102531
2017   Ancient Apocryphal Gospels. Interpretation: Resources. Louisville: Westminster John Knox. Pp. xiv+330. ISBN 9780664235895
 
 
 

Articles and Book Chapters
2025       ‘The Risen Jesus.’ in The New Cambridge Companion to Jesus, 72-87. Ed. M. Bockmuehl. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
2024       “Christ Stopped at Ephraim (John 11.54).” In Early High Christology: John among the New Testament Writers, 31-41, 227-234. Ed. Chris Blumhofer, Diane Chen & Joel B. Green. Minneapolis: Fortress.
2024       “The Myth of Creedless Judaism.” In The Creed and the Scriptures, 15-29. Ed. M. Bockmuehl & N. Eubank. WUNT 519. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
2024       ‘Friendships Between Jews and Christians in Antiquity.’ In D Friedman & K Czajkowski (eds), Looking in, Looking Out: Jews and Christians in Mutual Contemplation. Essays for Martin Goodman on His 70th Birthday, 291-319. JJSSup 212. Leiden/Boston: Brill.

2023       ‘Jesus the Just.’ Journal for the Study of the New Testament 46: 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X231191188 (open access)
2022       ‘Being Emmanuel: Matthew’s Ever-Present Jesus?’ New Testament Studies 68: 1-12.

2020   ‘The Presence of the Ascended Son in the Gospel of John.’ Nova et Vetera 18: 1301-22.
2020   ‘The New Testament’. With Evangeline Kozitza. The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, 77-89. Ed. Timothy Larsen. 
           Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
2020   ‘Conflicting Criminal Jurisdictions in Early Christianity.’ In Mark Hill et al. (eds), Christianity and Criminal Law, 31-46. Law and Religion.
           London/New York: Routledge.
2020   ‘Attitudes to Jewish and Roman Power in the Gospel and Acts of Peter.’ In R. Dijkstra (ed.), The Early Reception and Appropriation
          of the Apostle Peter (60-800): The Anchors of the Fisherman, 81-98. Euhormos: Greco-Roman Studies in Anchoring Innovation.
          Leiden/Boston: Brill  https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004425682_006
2020  ‘Introduction: Dead Sea Scrolls Research in Oxford.’ Revue de Qumran 32.2: 165-69. (Published Feb 2021)
2020  ‘Introduction.’ With Stephen Platten. In Austin Farrer: Oxford Warden, Scholar, Preacher, 1-14. Ed. M. Bockmuehl & S. Platten. 
          London/New York: SCM Press.
2019  “The Dynamic Absence of Jesus in Hebrews.” Journal of Theological Studies 70: 141-62.
2019  "Fourfold Gospel Writing." In Writing the Gospels: A Dialogue with Francis Watson, 40-60. Ed. C. S. Hamilton with J. Willitts.
          Library of New Testament Studies 606. London/New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
2018  ‘Scriptural Completion in the Infancy Gospel of James.’ Pro Ecclesia 27: 180-202.
2018  ‘Simon Peter: The Transformation of the Apostle.’ In Sources of the Christian Self: A Cultural History of Christian Identity, 69-83. 
          Ed. J.M. Houston & J. Zimmermann. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
2018  ‘The Gospels on the Knowledge of God.’ In A Transforming Vision: Knowing and Loving the Triune God, 57-70. Ed. G. Westhaver.
          London: SCM.
2018  ‘Introduction.’ In Creation ex Nihilo: Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges, 1-13. Ed. G.A. Anderson & M. Bockmuehl.   
          Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
2017  ‘The Personal Presence of Jesus in the Writings of Paul.’ Scottish Journal of Theology 70: 39-60