Jennifer Wright Knust | Scholars@Duke

Jennifer Wright Knust
Professor of Religious Studies

Jennifer Knust is a scholar of religion who specializes in early Christian history and the religions of the ancient Mediterranean. Author of To Cast the First Stone: The Transmission of a Gospel Story(with Tommy Wasserman, Princeton 2018), Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire (HarperONE 2011), and Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity (Columbia 2005), she studies early Christian texts, their contexts, and their receptions from multiple angles, with a particular focus on rhetoric and gendered discourse. Her numerous articles, book chapters, and edited books address the materiality of texts, the intersection of Christian practices with other ancient religions, and the ethics of interpretation in ancient as well as contemporary contexts.

Office Hours

Tuesdays 12 pm - 2 pm and by appointment

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2019
Co-Director, Manuscript Migration Lab, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, University Institutes and Centers 2020
Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Department of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2020
Director, Elizabeth A. Clark Center for Late Ancient Studies, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2020

Contact Information

jennifer.knust@duke.edu

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Columbia University 2001
- M.Phil., Columbia University 1997
- M.Div., Union Theological Seminary 1991
- B.S., University of Illinois 1988
Recognition
In the News
- APR 18, 2019 CBC Radio
  
  "The First Stone: Jesus, the Accused, and Us"
- MAR 10, 2011 Fresh Air, NPR
  
  "'Unprotected Texts': The Bible On Sex And Marriage"
Expertise
Subject Headings
- Muser Mentor
Research
External Relationships
- Princeton University Press
- Society of Biblical Literature
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Wasserman, Tommy, and Jennifer W. Knust. To Cast the First Stone: The Transmission of a Gospel Story. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
  - Moser, Claudia, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. Ritual Matters: Material Remains and Ancient Religion. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.
  - Moser, Claudia, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. Ritual Matters: Material Remains and Ancient Religion. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.
  - Orlin, Eric, Michael Satlow, Lisbeth Fried, Michael Pregill, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. New York and London: Routledge, 2015. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203506240.
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  - Orlin, Eric, Michael Satlow, Lisbeth Fried, Michael Pregill, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. New York and London: Routledge, 2015. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203506240.
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  - Várhelyi, Zuzsanna, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice: Images, Acts, Meanings. New York and London: Oxford University press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738960.001.0001.
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  - Várhelyi, Zuzsanna, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice: Images, Acts, Meanings. New York and London: Oxford University press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738960.001.0001.
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  - Knust, Jennifer Wright. Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
  - Crawford, Sidnie White, Ron Hendel, Mike Holmes, Robert Kawashima, Judith Newman, Eugene Ulrich, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Thirty-Year Update (In preparation), n.d.
  - Crawford, Sidnie White, Ron Hendel, Mike Holmes, Robert Kawashima, Judith Newman, Eugene Ulrich, and Jennifer Wright Knust, eds. New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Thirty-Year Update (In preparation), n.d.
- Academic Articles
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Review of The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa’s Ascetical Theology, by Raphael A. Cadenhead.” Journal of Roman Studies 111 (November 2021): 338–39. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435821000174.
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  - Knust, Jennifer. “Review of Beyond Mary or Martha: Reclaiming Ancient Models of Discipleship, by Jennifer S. Wyant.” Review of Biblical Literature, July 30, 2020.
  - Knust, Jennifer, and Tommy Wasserman. “The Pericope of the Adulteress (John 7:53-8:11): A New Chapter in its Textual Transmission.” Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 85 (2020): 22–55.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Marriage as a Social Good: Origen of Alexandria and John Chrysostom, Revisited.” Marriage, Family, and Spirituality 26, no. 1 (2020): 7–25.
  - Wheeler-Reed, D., J. W. Knust, and D. B. Martin. “Can a Man Commit Porneia With His Wife?” Journal of Biblical Literature 137, no. 2 (January 1, 2018): 383–98. https://doi.org/10.1353/JBL.2018.0021.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Review of Kultmetaphorik und Christologie: Opfer- und Sühneterminologie im Neuen Testament, by Christian A. Eberhart.” Review of Biblical Literature 20 (January 2017).
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Review of Forbidden Oracles? The Gospel of the Lots of Mary, by AnneMarie Luijendijk.” Early Christianity 8, no. 2 (2017): 285–88.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Review of Teaching the Historical Jesus: Issues and Exegesis, ed. Zev Garber.” Review of Biblical Literature 05 (2016).
  - Knust, Jennifer, and Tommy Wasserman. “The Biblical Odes and the Text of the Christian Bible: A Reconsideration of the Impact of Liturgical Singing on the Transmission of the Gospel of Luke.” Journal of Biblical Literature 133, no. 2 (2014): 341–65. https://doi.org/10.1353/jbl.2014.0024.
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  - Knust, Jennifer, and Tommy Wasserman. “Earth Accuses Earth: Tracing What Jesus Wrote on the Ground.” Harvard Theological Review 103, no. 4 (October 2010): 407–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0017816010000799.
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  - Knust, Jennifer Wright. “In Pursuit of a Singular Text: New Testament Textual Criticism and the Desire for the True Original.” Religion Compass 2, no. 2 (March 2008): 180–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00062.x.
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  - Knust, J. W. “Early Christian Re-Writing and the History of the Pericope Adulterae.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 14, no. 4 (January 1, 2006): 485–536. https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2007.0009.
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  - Knust, Jennifer. “"Who's Afraid of Canaan's Curse? Genesis 9:18-29 and the Challenge of Reparative Reading".” Biblical Interpretation 22, no. 4–5 (n.d.): 388–413.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Where Did John Baptize? From Bethany to Bethabara and Back Again (In preparation).” Jahrbuch Fur Antike Und Christentum, n.d.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Love’s Limits. Love of Neighbor in the First Three Christian Centuries (In preparation).” Journal for Ethics in Antiquity and Christianity, n.d.
- Book Sections
  - Knust, Jennifer, and Tommy Wasserman. “Codex Bezae as Repository.” In Studies on the Intersection of Text, Paratext, and Reception A Festschrift in Honor of Charles E. Hill, edited by Gregory R. Lanier and J Nicolas Reid, 142–76. Leiden: BRILL, 2021.
  - Wright Knust, Jennifer. “‘Who Were the Maccabees?’ The Maccabean Martyrs and Performances of Christian Difference.” In Martyrdom: Canonization, Contestation, and Afterlives, edited by Jan Willem van Henten and Ihab Saloul, 79–104. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789462988187_ch03.
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  - Knust, Jennifer, and Tommy Wasserman. “The Wondrous Gospel of John: Jesus's Miraculous Deeds in Late Ancient Editorial and Scholarly Practice.” In Healing and Exorcism in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity, edited by Mikael Tellbe and Tommy Wasserman, 511:165–96. Tübinigen: Mohr Seibeck, 2019.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Marriage, Adultery, and Divorce.” In The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality, edited by Benjamin H. Dunning. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “On Textual Nostalgia: Herman C. Hoskier's Collation of 'Evangelism 604' Revisited.” In The Future of New Testament Scholarship: From H. C. Hoskier to the Editio Critica Major and Beyond, edited by Garrick Allen, 417:79–102. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1628/978-3-16-156663-9.
    Full Text Link to Item
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Editing without Interpreting: The Museum of the Bible and New Testament Textual Criticism.” In The Museum of the Bible A Critical Introduction, edited by Jill Hicks-Keeton and Cavan Concannon, 145–70. London and Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Late First-Century Christian Apocalyptic: Revelation.” In Enemies and Friends of the State Ancient Prophecy in Context, edited by Christopher A. Rollston, 545–64. University Park, PA: Pennslyvania State University Press, 2018.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Miscellany Manuscripts and the Christian Canonical Imaginary.” In Ritual Matters Material Remains and Ancient Religion, edited by Jennifer Knust and Claudia Moser, 13:99–118. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Miscellany Manuscripts and the Christian Canonical Imaginary.” In Ritual Matters Material Remains and Ancient Religion, edited by Jennifer Knust and Claudia Moser, 13:99–118. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.
  - Knust, Jennifer. “Can an Adulteress Save Jesus? The Pericope Adulterae, Feminist Interpretation, and the Limits of Narrative Agency.” In The Bible and Feminism: Remapping the Field, edited by Yvonne Sherwood, 402–31. Oxford: Oxford Unniversity Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198722618.001.0001.
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  - Knust, Jennifer. “'Taking Away From': Patristic Evidence and the Omission of the Pericope Adulterae from John's Gospel.” In The Pericope of the Adulteress in Contemporary Research, edited by David Alan Black and Jacob N. Cerone, Vol. 551. London and Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing, T&T Clark, 2016.
  - Knust, Jennifer W. “Jesus’ Conditional Forgiveness.” In Ancient Forgiveness: Classical, Judaic, and Christian, edited by Charles Griswold and David Konstan, 176–94. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978654.011.
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Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
Service to the Profession
Service to Duke
Academic & Administrative Activities
- Conferences, Lectures, Public Programs
  
  “The Corporeal Consequences of Discursive Violence,” organized with Todd Berzon (Bowdoin College). March 2022.
  
  “Of Peptides and Scribes: Applying Life Sciences to the Study of Manuscripts,” a presentation featuring Dr. Timothy L. Stinson, organized with the Manuscript Migration Lab. November 2021.
  
  “Ethiopic (Ge‘ez) Manuscripts: An Informational Event with Examples Drawn from Duke’s Collection,” a presentation by Dr. Gay Byron with manuscripts curated by J. Andrew Armacost organized with the Franklin Humanities Institute Manuscript Migration Lab. October 2021.
  
  “Dr. William H. Willis and the Duke Papyri: A Conversation,” a conversation featuring Dr. Daniel Sharp and Dr. Nicholas Wagner organized with the Franklin Humanities Institute Manuscript Migration Lab. September 2021.
  
  “Preservation, Restitution, and the Idea of ‘Cultural Heritage,” a workshop featuring Dr. Felwine Sarr and Dr. Astrid Swenson organized with the Franklin Humanities Institute Manuscript Migration Lab. April 2021.
  
  “Cultural Heritage Restitution: Ethical and Legal Issues,” a workshop featuring Dr. Patty Gerstenblith, Mr. András Riedelmyer, and Dr. Heghnar Watenpaugh organized with the Franklin Humanities Institute Manuscript Migration Lab. November 2020.
  
  “How Social Movements Feel,” a lecture by Dean Spade, organized with the Boston University Gender and Sexuality Faculty Studies Group. March 2018.

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Education, Training, & Certifications

In the News

Subject Headings

External Relationships

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Recent Courses

Presentations & Appearances

Outreach & Engaged Scholarship

Service to the Profession

Service to Duke

Academic & Administrative Activities