Professor Hugh Houghton FHEA

Professor Hugh Houghton

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

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 41 58341
Email
h.a.g.houghton@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@HAGHoughton
View my research portal
Address
ITSEE,
Department of Theology and Religion
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I work on the text of the New Testament in Latin and Greek, using and developing electronic tools to create digital editions of individual manuscripts and biblical books which will provide the basis for future generations of scholarship. I have been on the committee of the International Greek New Testament project for over a decade, and in 2016 was appointed Executive Editor for the Pauline Epistles. I am currently leading work on the Editio Critica Maior of Galatians. In 2021, I became a member of the editorial committee of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece. 

I have led a number of research projects, including the European Research Council COMPAUL project, which ran from 2011–16, and the Workspace for Collaborative Editing, creating an online environment for editing New Testament materials. I was co-investigator on the AHRC Codex Zacynthius project from 2018–20. From 2018–23, I am principal investigator on the European Research Council CATENA project. In recent years, I have identified new witnesses to the earliest Latin translations of the Gospels, worked on the online Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Bezae and published a study of the evidence for the gospel text used by Augustine. My recent publications include a monograph on The Latin New Testament with Oxford University Press and an English translation of the rediscovered fourth-century Commentary on the Gospels by Fortunatianus of Aquileia. Both of these are available online in open access.

I was appointed Director of ITSEE in 2017. I served as Director of Research for the Department of Theology and Religion from 2017 to 2021. I am one of the convenors of the Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. I have been executive editor of the Texts and Studies book series for over a decade, and serve on various editorial boards including the Journal of Theological Studies and the Corpus Christianorum series latina.

My personal website can be found at: www.hughhoughton.uk

Feedback and office hours

My office is Room 347 in the ERI Building.

All post should be addressed to me at ITSEE, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Birmingham)
  • MPhil (Cantab.)
  • MA (Cantab.)
  • BA (Leeds)

Biography

Hugh Houghton is Professor of New Testament Textual Scholarship and Director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing. He holds two degrees in Classics from Cambridge, specialising in the linguistics of early Christian texts, and degrees in Theology from Leeds and Birmingham. His first appointment at the University of Birmingham was in 2003 as a Teaching Fellow in the Institute for Archaeology and Antiquity, writing and delivering courses on Greek and Latin language and literature. He has been involved with ITSEE since its inception, working as a Research Fellow on the Vetus Latina Iohannes and Codex Sinaiticus projects. He was Principal Investigator on the COMPAUL project funded by the European Research Council from 2011 to 2016; from 2010 to 2013, he was also Principal Investigator on the “Workspace for Collaborative Editing”, a collaborative endeavour between the universities of Birmingham, Münster and Trier funded by the AHRC/DFG.

From 2018-23, he is principal investigator on the European Research Council CATENA project, and was co-investigator on the AHRC Codex Zacynthius project from 2018–20. In recent years, he has identified new witnesses to the earliest Latin translations of the Gospels, worked on the online Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Bezae and published a study of the evidence for the gospel text used by Augustine. His recent publications include a monograph on The Latin New Testament with Oxford University Press and an English translation of the rediscovered fourth-century Commentary on the Gospels by Fortunatianus of Aquileia. Both of these are available online in open access.

He was appointed Director of ITSEE and Director of Research for the Department of Theology and Religion in 2017. He is one of the convenors of the Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament and was a Director of the International Patristics Conference from 2015–20. He serves as executive editor of the Texts and Studies book series and has been on various editorial boards including the Journal of Theological Studies and New Testament Studies and the Corpus Christianorum series latina (Brepols). He is on the editorial committee of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.

Teaching

Professor Houghton has taught modules on New Testament Greek and the Pauline Epistles, as well as the Special Study Module and Undergraduate Dissertation.

Postgraduate supervision

I would be glad to hear from potential students interested in:

The New Testament in Latin
The New Testament in Greek
The Bible in Early Christian Authors

Birmingham offers doctoral and masters level research degrees by Distance Learning, with regular supervisions by video conference. Even though it is best for doctoral students to come to Birmingham and work along team members in ITSEE, I have found Distance Learning to be a very successful model for those unable to relocate.

I am currently lead supervisor for the following doctoral research projects:

Family Π in the Gospel according to Mark (Timothy Mitchell)
The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Romans (Jacopo Marcon)
Chrysostom's Homilies on Romans (Peter Montoro)
The Text and Transmission of Colossians (Zachary Skarka)
The Arabic Tradition of the Epistle to the Romans (Duane McCrory)
The Catenae on the Acts of the Apostles (Emanuele Scieri)
Codex Boernerianus (Alec Fisher)
The Development of Catenae on the Gospels (Andrew Patton)
The Catena on Ephesians (Clark Bates)
The Verona Psalter (Oliver Norris)

I was lead supervisor for the following completed doctoral projects:

Origen's Quotations of Romans, 2 Corinthians and Galatians (Matthew Steinfeld)
An Online Environment for Collaborative New Testament Research (Troy Griffitts)
The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Galatians (Dora Panella)
Tertullian's Text of the New Testament outside the Gospels (Benjamin D. Haupt)
The Text and Transmission of 2 Thessalonians (Grant Edwards)
The Vulgate Text of the Catholic Epistles: Its Language, Origin and Relationship with the Vetus Latina (Anna Persig)
A New Analysis of the Scholia Photiana in the Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena Tradition (Chiara Coppola)


For details of other recent and ongoing doctorates in the field of New Testament Textual Criticism, visit http://www.igntp.org/doctoral.html

Find out more - our PhD Theology and Religion  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Other activities

  • Department of Theology and Religion, Collaborative Programmes Officer (St Mary's College, Oscott)
  • Departmental Representative, Anglican Chaplaincy Trust
  • Executive Editor (Pauline Epistles), Treasurer and Webmaster for the International Greek New Testament Project (www.igntp.org)
  • Executive Editor of the book series Texts and Studies (Gorgias Press)
  • Academic Board of Corpus Christianorum
  • Co-organiser, Birmingham Colloquium
  • Member of the Society of Biblical Literature, Studiorum Noui Testamenti Societas (SNTS), International Association of Patristic Studies, Association of Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections, European Association of Digital Humanities

Publications

Highlight publications

Houghton, H 2016, The Latin New Testament: A Guide to its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts. Oxford University Press, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744733.001.0001

Houghton, H 2008, Augustine's Text of John. Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts. Oxford University Press.

Houghton, H & Dorfbauer, LJ 2017, Fortunatianus of Aquileia: Commentary on the Gospels: English translation and introduction. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) , vol. extra seriem, De Gruyter, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110516371

Houghton, HAG, Manafis, P & Myshrall, A 2020, The Palimpsest Catena of Codex Zacynthius: Text and Translation. Texts and Studies (Third Series), vol. 22, Gorgias Press, Piscataway NJ.

Recent publications

Book

Houghton, HAG & Parker, DC 2020, Codex Zacynthius: Catena, Palimpsest, Lectionary. Texts and Studies (Third Series), vol. 21, Gorgias Press, Piscataway NJ.

Article

Houghton, HAG & Monier, M 2020, 'Greek Manuscripts in Alexandria', The Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flaa041

Houghton, HAG 2020, 'New identifications among the sixth-century fragments of Augustine in Cambridge University library', Sacris Erudiri, vol. 59, pp. 171-180. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.SE.5.119450

Houghton, HAG, Parker, DC, Robinson, P & Wachtel, K 2020, 'The Editio Critica Maior of the Greek New Testament: twenty years of digital collaboration', Early Christianity, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 97-117. https://doi.org/10.1628/ec-2020-0009

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Houghton, HAG 2020, Scripture and Latin Christian Manuscripts from North Africa. in JP Yates & A Dupont (eds), The Bible in Christian North Africa. Part 1: Commencement to the Confessiones of Augustine (ca. 180 to 400 CE). : Handbooks of the Bible and Its Reception 4/1.., 2, De Gruyter, Berlin and New York, pp. 15-50. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516491-002

Houghton, HAG 2020, The Codex Zacynthius Project. in HAG Houghton & DC Parker (eds), Codex Zacynthius: Catena, Lectionary, Palimpsest. Gorgias Press, pp. 9-18. <https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/portal/files/102242218/Codex_Zacynthius_Catena_Palimpsest_Lectionary.pdf>

Anthology

Houghton, HAG & Montoro, P (eds) 2020, At One Remove: The Text of the New Testament in Early Translations and Quotations. Papers from the Eleventh Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. Texts and Studies, Gorgias Press, Piscataway NJ.

Houghton, HAG, Davies, M & Vinzent, M (eds) 2020, Studia Patristica, Vol. C: Including Papers Presented at the Sixth British Patristics Conference, Birmingham, 5–7 September 2016. vol. 100, Peeters Publishers and Booksellers, Leuven, Leuven.

Book/Film/Article review

Houghton, HAG 2021, 'Review of Daniel L. Akin and Thomas W. Hudgins, eds., Getting into the Text. New Testament Essays in Honor of David Alan Black. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick, 2017', Estudios Biblicos, vol. 79, no. 2, pp. 359‑361. <https://dialnet.unirioja.es/ejemplar/584556>

Houghton, HAG 2021, 'Review of Dorotei Getov, A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts in the National Library “Sts. Cyril and Methodius”, Sofia. Transmission des Textes: Catalogues. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019', Bryn Mawr Classical Review, vol. 2021, no. 2, 40. <https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2021/2021.02.40/>

Houghton, HAG 2021, 'Review of Jens Schröter, Tobias Nicklas, Joseph Verheyden, eds. Gospels and Gospel Traditions in the Second Century. Experiments in Reception (BZNW 235). Berlin & New York: De Gruyter, 2019', Novum Testamentum, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 131-132. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685365-12341685

Houghton, HAG 2021, 'Review of Pierre-Maurice Bogaert and Jean-Claude Haelewyck, Vetus Latina: Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel. 7/2: Judith. Freiburg: Herder, 2019–20.', The Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 72, no. 2. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flab080

Houghton, HAG 2020, 'Book Review: Exemplary Textual Criticism: Review of Elijah Hixson, Scribal Habits in Sixth-Century Greek Purple Codices (NTTSD 61). Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2019', The Expository Times, vol. 131, no. 8, pp. 358–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014524620916057

Foreword/postscript

Houghton, HAG 2020, Introduction: Studia Patristica Vol. C. in HAG Houghton, M Davies & M Vinzent (eds), Studia Patristica, Vol. C: Including Papers Presented at the Sixth British Patristics Conference, Birmingham, 5–7 September 2016. vol. 100, Peeters Publishers and Booksellers, Leuven, Leuven, pp. 1-2, Sixth British Patristics Conferece, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 5/09/16.

Scholarly edition

Houghton, HAG, Myshrall, A & Smith, C 2021, A collation of the Greek manuscripts selected for the Editio Critica Maior of the Epistle to the Galatians. <http://itseeweb.bham.ac.uk/epistulae/apparatus/galatians/>

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

  • Latin and Greek manuscripts of the New Testament

Media experience

  • The Conversation, BBC Radio 4, Premier Christian Radio, KCBS San Francisco

Expertise

  • Using new digital technologies to make editions and transcriptions of manuscripts
  • Biblical manuscripts and electronic editing 
  • The Text of the New Testament
  • Early Christian writers 

Culture and collections

Schools, institutes and departments

Services and facilities