Research: Biblical Studies specialism

We have an outstanding international reputation in the study of religious texts.

We provide expert supervision across the full range of Biblical literature and languages, textual criticism, hermeneutics and exegesis, reception history as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls and ideological-critical approaches to the Bible.

Biblical studies specialists

Professor Andrew Davies

Professor Andrew Davies

Professor of Public Religion
Director, Edward Cadbury Centre

Faith and social engagement; faith and leadership; religion in public life and policy; Pentecostal and Evangelical approaches to the Bible; literary and cultural criticism of the Bible; Pentecostalism; Pentecostal/Charismatic music and worship.

Professor Charlotte Hempel

Professor Charlotte Hempel

Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism
Head of School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion

Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, Dead Sea Scrolls.

Professor Hugh Houghton

Professor Hugh Houghton

Professor of New Testament Textual Scholarship
Director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing

The textual tradition of the New Testament; Digital editions of early Christian texts; Biblical quotations in Christian authors.

Professor Candida Moss

Professor Candida Moss

Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology

Martyrdom, death, suffering, and afterlife in the New Testament and literature of Early Christianity.

Dr Karen J. Wenell

Dr Karen J. Wenell

Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Theology

Historical Jesus; ethical and cultural Biblical interpretation; sociological and spatial-critical approaches to the NT

Some research topics that are of particular interest to the Biblical Studies cluster include:

  • Biblical hermeneutics
  • Gender criticism and the Bible
  • New Testament textual criticism
  • The study of the manuscripts of the New Testament
  • Queer approaches to the Bible 
  • The Latin Gospel Harmony tradition
  • The text of John's Gospel
  • The Bible in the Arts, particularly film and music
  • The Dead Sea Scrolls
  • Second Temple Judaism
  • Contemporary commentary on Judges, Samuel and Kings
  • Evangelical and Pentecostal approaches to the Bible
  • Biblical studies and the social sciences

Postgraduate research

Postgraduates can undertake research in this field by registering for either the PhD or MA by Research in Theology and Religion. All of our postgraduate students benefit from the academic strengths of our research clusters and are often co-supervised by members of staff from associated clusters across the College of Arts and Law, so that they have access to different perspectives on their research topic.   If you are interested in doing postgraduate research in Biblical Studies at Birmingham please feel free to contact the member of staff in the cluster that you think will be best suited to supervising your work here.

Theology and Religion research specialisms