Dr Matthew Collins

Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism

+44 (0) 1244 511073
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
m.collins@chester.ac.uk
Dr Matthew Collins

My main research interests centre around the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls and their academic and popular impact, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament narratives in their ancient Near Eastern context, ancient Israelite religion, and the Bible in popular culture.

I completed my PhD in 2006 at the University of Bristol, where I also taught in the fields of Biblical Studies and ancient Judaism, first as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (2003–2006) and then as a Visiting Lecturer (2006–2007). My doctoral work examined the reception of Hebrew scripture in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls and the development of sectarian terminology, viewed against a wider sociological context of labelling practices. In 2007 I moved to Berlin in order to take up a post co-managing the international and interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (EBR) project, which examines the cultural and religious influence, impact, and reception of the biblical texts throughout history.

After four years living in Berlin, I returned to the UK and joined the department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Chester in October 2011.

I am co-chair of ‘The Biblical World and its Reception’ seminar for the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS), member of the Publications Sub-Committee for The Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS), and series editor for the book series ‘Scriptural Traces: Critical Perspectives on the Reception and Influence of the Bible’ (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark).

Undergraduate

  • The Bible: Contents and Contexts
  • The Religion of Ancient Israel
  • Biblical Hebrew
  • Novelistic Texts in the Hebrew Bible
  • Dissertation

Postgraduate

  • Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
  • Independent Biblical Study
  • Dissertation

Research Interests

  • The Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls and their academic and popular impact;
  • Hebrew Bible/Old Testament narratives in their ancient Near Eastern context;
  • Demonology in the ancient world and its later reception;
  • The formation and development of ancient Israelite religion;
  • Jewish writings of the Second Temple period;
  • The Bible in popular culture (biblical reception in art, literature, music, and film).

PhD Supervision

I welcome enquiries for research at doctoral level in any of the research areas listed above, or from students wishing to explore other areas within the fields of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Israelite Religion, Second Temple Judaism, or the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Currently principal supervisor for the following students:

  • Paige Hunt - 'Lady Wisdom: The Divine Femininity of Yahweh Throughout Creation'
  • Surya Singh - 'The dating, authorship, and provenance of the book of Deuteronomy'

External Funding

2015–2017. AHRC Research Networking Grant (with colleagues at Cambridge, Munich, and Helsinki) for a two-year collaborative research project. [‘The Book and the Sword: The Bible in the Experience and Legacy of the Great War’]

2016. Event sponsorship by Brill Academic Publishers. [‘The Dead Sea Copper Scroll: From Ancient Treasure to Modern Fixation’]

2014. Conference sponsorship by Alban Books and Christian Focus Publishers. [‘Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety’]

2014. Conference sponsorship by the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. [‘Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety’]

2013. Conference sponsorship by philanthropist Dan Arnold (Rockford, Ill., USA). [‘Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety’]

2003–2005. University of Bristol Arts Faculty Scholarship for doctoral research. [‘The Use of Sobriquets in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls’]

2002–2003. University of Bristol Alumni Foundation Bursary for doctoral research. [‘The Use of Sobriquets in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls’]

Elsewhere on the Web

Matthew's Academia profile

Books

Forthcoming. T&T Clark Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: T&T Clark).

2019. Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety – A Tercentenary Celebration, co-edited with Paul Middleton (London: T&T Clark).

2018. The First World War and the Mobilization of Biblical Scholarship, co-edited with Andrew Mein and Nathan MacDonald (STr 15/LHBOTS 676; London: T&T Clark).

2009. The Use of Sobriquets in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls (LSTS 67; London: T&T Clark). [Paperback: 2011].

Other Select Publications

2021.‘Television and the Bible in American Popular Culture’, in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and American Popular Culture (ed. D.W. Clanton, Jr., and T.R. Clark; Oxford: Oxford University Press), 309–29.

2020. ‘Micah, Pesher of’, in T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, 2 vols (ed. D.M. Gurtner and L.T. Stuckenbruck; London: T&T Clark), 1:374–75.

2019. ‘Professors of Religion and their Strange Wives: Diluvian Discord in the Eyes of Matthew Henry’, in Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety – A Tercentenary Celebration (ed. M.A. Collins and P. Middleton; London: T&T Clark), 97–113.

2019. ‘On the Trail of a Biblical Serial Killer: Sherlock Holmes and the Book of Tobit’, in The Bible in Crime Fiction and Drama: Murderous Texts (ed. C. Blyth and A. Jack; STr 16/LHBOTS 678; London: T&T Clark), 9–28.

2018. ‘SOTS, SBL, and WWI: Anglo-American Scholarly Societies and the Great War’, in The First World War and the Mobilization of Biblical Scholarship (ed. A. Mein, N. Macdonald, and M.A. Collins; STr 15/LHBOTS 676; London: T&T Clark), 89–108.

2018. ‘Scholarly and Popular Reception’, in T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. G.J. Brooke and C. Hempel; London: T&T Clark), 59–73.

2017. ‘An Ongoing Tradition: Aronofsky’s Noah as 21st-Century Rewritten Scripture’, in Noah as Antihero: Darren Aronofsky’s Cinematic Deluge (ed. R. Burnette-Bletsch and J. Morgan; New York: Routledge), 8–33.

2017. ‘Text, Intertext, and Conceptual Identity: The Case of Ephraim and the Seekers of Smooth Things’, in Is There a Text in this Cave? Studies in the Textuality of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Honour of George J. Brooke (ed. A. Feldman, M. Cioată, and C. Hempel; STDJ 119; Leiden: Brill), 209–25.

2016. ‘Depicting the Divine: The Ambiguity of Exodus 3 in Exodus: Gods and Kings’, in Biblical Reception 4, 9–39.

2015. ‘Loss of the Bible and the Bible in Lost: Biblical Literacy and Mainstream Television’, in Rethinking Biblical Literacy (ed. K.B. Edwards; London: T&T Clark), 71–93.

2012. ‘Lot’s Daughters’, in Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture (ed. M. Gilmour and M.A. Beavis; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press), 308–9.

2012. ‘Asmodeus’, in Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture (ed. M. Gilmour and M.A. Beavis; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press), 35.

2012. 'Ahithophel’, in Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture (ed. M. Gilmour and M.A. Beavis; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press), 12–13.

2011. ‘Examining the Reception and Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Some Possibilities for Future Investigation’, in Dead Sea Discoveries, 18/2, 226–46.

2009. ‘Asmodeus: Reception History’, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 2 (ed. H.J. Klauck et al.; Berlin: De Gruyter), 1046–49.

2009. ‘Alexander Jannaeus’, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 1 (ed. H.J. Klauck et al.; Berlin: De Gruyter), 733.

2009. ‘Ahithophel: Reception in Literature’, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 1 (ed. H.J. Klauck et al.; Berlin: De Gruyter), 665–66.

2009. ‘Abraham, Testament of: Reception in Literature’, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, vol. 1 (ed. H.J. Klauck et al.; Berlin: De Gruyter), 213.

  • BA (Bristol)
  • PhD (Bristol)
  • FHEA