Research

My research centers both on the manuscript witnesses to early Christian texts and on the field of digital humanities.

Manuscript Page with Ornate Heading

Manuscripts of John of Damascus on Paul

I completed my PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Summer of 2024. Here is the abstract:

This thesis sets out to determine whether the following three manuscripts constitute a newly identified textual family in Rom 13–1 Cor 4: Gregory-Aland (GA) 0150, GA 2110, and GA 1506. The term “family” refers to a homogeneous group for which a textual critic can confidently construct the archetypal text. The steps taken to prove a family relationship between the above witnesses include quantitative analysis, reading by reading analysis, and consideration of the scholia and marginalia. Others have suggested that the relationship of GA 0150 and GA 2110 is one of exemplar and of copy. Without any clear causal connections between the two manuscripts, however, a common exemplar best explains their remarkable similarity. Since the scholia of John of Damascus account for half the text on any given page, examination of these demonstrated that the special relationship shared by the lemmata extends to the scholia. The family is important because its archetypal text represents that which was available to John of Damascus. Therefore, the archetypal text of the family dates to the Umayyad Caliphate (mid-seventh to mid-eighth centuries) and comes from the Mar Saba monastery east of Jerusalem. Since the family represents the text available to—and transmitted by—a specific person, it should be referenced in critical editions as relating to John of Damascus rather than direct New Testament witnesses. There is also a component of digital humanities in this thesis since the study included the creation and utilization of a new desktop computer application and a web application.