@mcrawford.bsky.social
Associate Professor and Director of Research Program in Biblical and Early Christian Studies, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne, Australia
Itβs publication day! I decided 11 years ago I wanted to do this project and began working on it eight years ago, so itβs gratifying to reach this point. Thanks to all who helped us bring it to fruition.
16.10.2025 23:37 β π 28 π 4 π¬ 1 π 0Please reskeet: CFP is open for the North American Patristics Society meeting, May 21-23, 2026 in Chicago
Submit abstracts either for the general call or to a pre-arranged theme, or you can submit a whole planned session!
Deadline is Nov 19th, details at link:
www.patristics.org/annual-meeti...
The oldest Jewish cemetery in the UK, dating back to the Norman Conquest, was just discovered. www.jpost.com/history/arti...
11.09.2025 17:36 β π 122 π 33 π¬ 4 π 3There is still one week to go before the application deadline for our two job openings in biblical and early Christian studies (15 August). Please spread the word! I would be glad to speak with anyone who has questions about the positions.
08.08.2025 06:43 β π 7 π 7 π¬ 0 π 0My associate supervisor Rob Turnbull has written an exciting and accessible report on the research he's been doing! He recently published his PhD dissertation (brill.com/display/titl...), and he's currently applying phylogenetic methods to texts beyond the New Testament.
02.08.2025 03:12 β π 8 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0Back in my happy place at the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome with the reading room all to myself today.
31.07.2025 21:59 β π 9 π 0 π¬ 0 π 011th July is the feast of St Benedict and here is the earliest extant copy of the Rule of St Benedict.
Bodleian Library MS. Hatton 48; Rule of St. Benedict; c.700 CE (?); England (Canterbury?); f.1r @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social
I can tell you from experience that the IRCI is a beautiful place to work! Don't miss this opportunity!
03.07.2025 16:59 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0I am delighted to announce the IRCI has 2 job openings in early Christianity (specialisation open, research-focus, early career). Closing date 15 Aug. Contact me with any questions. We hope you'll consider joining our excellent group of scholars!
candidate.aurion.cloud/acu/producti...
A small discovery: the Lexikon zur byzantinischen GrΓ€zitΓ€t includes an entry for Ξ΅α½Ξ¬Ξ³Ξ³Ξ΅Ξ»ΞΌΞ± with a single ref: Didymus, De Trin 1.29.8. The term shows up nowhere else in TLG. The ms actually reads αΌΟΞ±Ξ³Ξ³ΞλμαΟΞ± which was misread in the 1769 editio princeps and a new ed in 1975.
16.06.2025 06:19 β π 9 π 4 π¬ 0 π 0So far the standard version of Copilot (@msftresearch.bsky.social) can't transcribe an 11th c Greek manuscript and in fact made up a completely different text it claimed was the transcription. Seems to have picked up Ξ²Ξ±ΟΞΉΞ»ΞΞ± from the first line, misread it as a similar word, and then ran with it.
11.06.2025 04:21 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0So, here's the webpage of our project on Gospel harmonies. I will be working with a wonderful advisory board, including my wonderful Doktormutter @joantaylor.bsky.social, and @mcrawford.bsky.social .
mf.no/en/ungos
I asked one of supervisors about this (he'd spent some time at Saint Catherine's), and he responded with some relieving news. The Greek papers seem to have gotten the story wrong: newsprime.gr/sina-den-gin... (I had to use Google Translate on the page)
29.05.2025 23:56 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 1Spotted today at the Vatican Museums. An unusual depiction of the evangelists as oarsmen in a boat with Christ at the helm. Matthew is missing but we have John, Luke, and Mark, the so-called βWesternβ order of the gospels.
28.05.2025 15:30 β π 8 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0I am delighted to announce that I have received a fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation for a research stay in TΓΌbingen to produce an edition of The Emperor Julian's Against the Galileans and to study its 20th c. reception, including a German translation from the Third Reich.
16.05.2025 06:25 β π 36 π 5 π¬ 4 π 0If you like manuscripts, there's lots of interesting stuff in this new open access volume.
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Registration is still open for our Makarios conference on Love of Neighbor and Human Flourishing (deadline 15 May) which will take place at ACUβs Rome campus in partnership with Baylor, Harvard, and Boston College! >
17.04.2025 04:44 β π 5 π 3 π¬ 1 π 0I wrote a short piece on Easter and the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea
www.abc.net.au/religion/170...
Dual language editions on facing pages. Coming late 2025 or early 2026:
Phoebadius, Contra Arianos (DelCogliano)
Apollinarius, Kata Meros Pistos (Kelley Spoerl)
Theodore, Debate with Macedonians (Matt Crawford)
Join for a hybrid BECS Seminar with Prof. Bronwen Neil on βSarcophagi on the Street: Burial in the Necropoleis at Roman Ostiaβ to be held at 11:00 am AEDT on Thursday, 3 April 2025.
24.03.2025 23:19 β π 1 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0"Quite simply, this is one of the most important and exciting Iron Age period discoveries made in the UK"
Historic England Press release on the Melsonby hoard ππ
historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/ne...
Come do a PhD with me (and other excellent colleagues) as part of an ARC-funded projectβNight Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean! Funded places (fees and stipend) available!
More info here, and reach out with any questions. Applications due Monday 21 April.
www.acu.edu.au/research-and...
Cyril takes it upon himself to provide Julian with a response at various points, so that's already covered!
12.03.2025 23:42 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0Coming this July. www.cambridge.org/au/universit...
12.03.2025 22:44 β π 76 π 21 π¬ 4 π 3Oh my. I wasnβt even aware it was on the website yet! Thanks for the tip. We are just finishing up the copy edits now. Fingers crossed itβs out in July.
23.12.2024 12:44 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Iβm particularly excited about this piece because it makes extensive use of some extremely important but widely neglected texts: namely, the Pseudo-Athanasian dialogues (which @markdelcogliano.bsky.social and I are translating for CUA), and (Ps-)Didymus, De Trinitate, which (1/2)
01.12.2024 12:07 β π 6 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0Congratulations to two teams led by IRCI scholars for Discovery Project grant success from the Australian Research Council totalling almost a half a million dollars!
26.11.2024 05:54 β π 6 π 2 π¬ 0 π 1[sold out] Nov 25 Melbourne/NGV Discovering the βMelbourne Gospelsβ - "Discover The Gospel Book of Theophanes (Tetraevangelion) in an intimate workshop hosted by..Dr Jonathan Zecher &..Ruth Shervington as they guide us through..this incredible manuscript" events.unimelb.edu.au/arts/event/d...
24.11.2024 21:51 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Just a reminder about our reception tomorrow night with the University of Divinity. If youβre in San Diego for SBL/AAR, stop by!
24.11.2024 15:23 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0