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Joel Marcus

Professor Emeritus of New Testament
Divinity School
Duke Box 90967, Durham, NC 27708-0967
217 Gray Building, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Joel Marcus teaches New Testament with an emphasis on the Gospels and the context of early Christianity within Judaism. His publications include two monographs on Mark, a two-volume commentary on the same Gospel in the Anchor Bible series (Doubleday, 2000, 2009), and several articles about the parting of the ways between Judaism and the Christianity of the first three centuries of the Christian era. He has a book in press on John the Baptist and is currently working on a monograph on the Gospel of Peter as a Jewish Christian document.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor Emeritus of New Testament · 2019 - Present Divinity School

Recent Publications


The Enigma of the Antitheses

Journal Article New Testament Studies · April 1, 2023 While it is easy to interpret the first and second of the Matthean Antitheses (5.21-30) as intensifications of the Mosaic law, it is difficult to interpret the remaining Antitheses (5.31-48) in this manner. In the history of interpretation, two main strate ... Full text Cite

Response to the respondents: Competition, Qumran and supersessionism

Journal Article Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus · January 1, 2021 The critics of JBHT in this issue have questioned three main aspects of the book: its assertion that early Christians competed with people who believed that John the Baptist was the principal figure in the history of salvation, its assertion that early in ... Full text Cite

John the Baptist in history and theology: A summary

Journal Article Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus · January 1, 2021 Full text Cite
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Education, Training & Certifications


Columbia University · 1985 Ph.D.
Columbia University · 1983 M.Phil.
Columbia University · 1981 M.A.
New York University · 1979 B.A.