Our people

Dr Benjamin Edsall

Senior Research Fellow
Biblical and Early Christian Studies

Areas of expertise: Pauline literature; early Christian gospels; New Testament reception; early Christian interpretation; hermeneutics

ORCID ID : 0000-0001-8321-9312

Phone: (03) 9953 3855

Email: benjamin.edsall@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

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 two monographs, he is the author of numerous articles in journals such as Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, Vigiliae Christianae, 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

• (2021) “Justin Martyr without the “Parting” or the “Ways.”” In Jews and Christians: Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries C.E.? Reflections on the Gains and Losses of a Model Jens Schröter, Benjamin Edsall and Joseph Verheyden (eds), (De Gruyter), 239–262. 
• (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.
• (2021) “Aphrahat and Pauline Reception:1 Cor 7 and Baptismal Reasoning in East and West,” New Testament Studies 67.3: 407–423.
• (2021) “The Reception of Paul, Peter, and James in the Apostolic Fathers.” In the Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers. Michael F. Bird and Scott D. Harrower (eds),  (Cambridge University Press), 119–134.
• (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.
• (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.
• The Reception of Paul and Early Christian Initiation: History and Hermeneutics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
• (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.
• (2018) “This is not the End: The Present Age and the Eschaton in Mark’s Narrative.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 80.3 (2018): 429–447.
• (2018) “Hermogenes the Smith in the Acts of Paul: A Note on the Reception of 2 Timothy.” New Testament Studies 64.1, 108–121.
• (2017) “(Not) Baptizing Thecla: Early Interpretive Efforts on 1 Cor 1:17.” Vigiliae Christianae 71.3,  235–260.

Projects

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

Accolades and 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)

Public engagement

• 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)