Dr. Benjamin Wold

My path to Trinity College Dublin includes training in Portland, OR (B.A.), Jerusalem (M.A., and Semitic Languages Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rothberg), Germany (Ph.D. Erasmus+ exchange at the University Tübingen), and Britain (Ph.D. at Durham University, advisor: Loren Stuckenbruck). After completing my Ph.D. I held a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University before receiving an Alexander von Humboldt research award which was hosted by the Institute for Ancient Judaism and Hellenistic Religions at the University of Tübingen. I am broadly interested in the cultures and literature of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially Judaism and nascent Christianity. My research is focused on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish thought in the second and first centuries BCE. I have regularly volunteered at archaeological excavations, including twice at Qumran. Following on from formal study in Jerusalem, I have since held fellowships at the American School of Oriental Research (Albright Institute); once with an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2012/13) and again as a Senior Fellow (2017). I recently completed a monograph titled "Qumran Wisdom and the New Testament" which is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in late 2022. In 2018 I was elected to Fellowship at TCD. I am the co-founder and current director of the Trinity Centre for Biblical Studies (www.tcd.ie/tcbs/). I am presently accepting applications from prospective Ph.D. students who are interested to research in early Jewish studies, and especially the intersection of early Judaism and New Testament literature. Recent (last five years) Ph.D. theses completed under my supervision, or in their final stages, include: - A Feminist Reconstruction of the Message to Thyatira in the Book of Revelation. - Warding Off Evil: An Analysis of Apotropaic Tradition in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Synoptic Gospels [Published with Mohr Siebeck]. - The Significance of Obduracy and Obfuscation Motifs in the Letters of Paul. - Oral Legislation in Rabbinic Judaism: A Comparative Study of the Jurisdiction and the Shabbat Halakhot in the Mishnah and Qumran Scrolls (2nd Century BCE - 2nd Century CE). - Wisdom in Transition in Early Judaism and the Letter of James. - Inheritance, Identity and Inclusion in the Gospel of Matthew and Antecedent Tradition [Accepted for publication with Baylor University Press]. - Spirit and Water: Early Jewish Immersion Traditions and the New Testament. - Religious Experience of Heavenly Cult: A Study in the Ascension of Isaiah. - Poverty and Wealth in Matthew's Gospel

  Apocalypticism   Historical Jesus Studies   Jewish studies   New Testament   Qumran Studies   Second temple Judaism