Prof. Dr. Dr. Matthias Becker

Matthias Becker has been Professor of New Testament Theology at the Faculty of Theology at Heidelberg University since the winter semester of 2020/21. Given his interdisciplinary academic background in Classical Philology (Greek Studies), Church History (Patristics), and New Testament studies, he is particularly committed to interdisciplinary research within the broader context of Classical Studies. Before joining Heidelberg University, he held positions at the University of Tübingen and the University of Göttingen, among other institutions, where he was involved in Collaborative Research Centre 923, “Bedrohte Ordnungen,” and Collaborative Research Centre 1136, “Bildung und Religion.”

Professor Becker’s main research interests lie in the numerous points of intersection between ancient Christianity and pagan antiquity, particularly the New Testament and its various interconnections with Greco-Roman literature, rhetoric, religion, and philosophy. His research focuses on early Christian ethics of marriage and family, education in early Christianity, the Gospels in the context of Greco-Roman biography, ecclesiology in the New Testament, and polemics, intellectual and religious rivalries, and threat communication in ancient Christian and pagan literature.

His publications include: Lukas und Dion von Prusa. Das lukanische Doppelwerk im Kontext paganer Bildungsdiskurse (Paderborn 2020); Die Bedrohung der Polis. Hesiods Werke und Tage als Zeugnis literarischer Bedrohungskommunikation (Tübingen 2018); Porphyrios: Contra Christianos. Neue Sammlung der Fragmente, Testimonien und Dubia with an introduction, translation, and notes (Berlin/Boston 2016); and Eunapios aus Sardes: Biographien über Philosophen und Sophisten. Introduction, translation, and notes (Stuttgart 2013).

Arbeitsbereiche:

XVI. Early Christianity and Greco-Roman Culture

Projekte:

Marriage and Family in Biblical Theology
The Canonical Gospels and Greco-Roman Biography
Ecclesiology(/-ies) in the New Testament