
Jürgen Zangenberg
Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
- Name
- Prof.dr. J.K. Zangenberg
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2579
- j.k.zangenberg@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-7894-3605
Jurgen Zangenberg is Professor for Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. His research focuses on the place of ancient Jewish communities in the Greco-Roman context, their self-definition as cultural and ethnic minority, their literature and material culture, and on how early Christianity originated from its Jewish and Greco-Roman matrix and slowly developed its peculiar way of life and thought.
Research
Many different cultures shaped what we now call the Ancient Mediterranean World. Next to Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians deeply influenced our Western way of perceiving ourselves and the many worlds around us. As Professor for Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, my research focuses on the place of ancient Jewish communities in the Greco-Roman context, their self-definition as cultural and ethnic minority, their literature and material culture, and on how early Christianity originated from its Jewish and Greco-Roman matrix and slowly developed its peculiar way of life and thought.
Material culture always plays an important role in this context, above all research in places and regions like Jerusalem, Rome, Qumran, the Galilee or Samaria with their many cultures, but also social-religious institutions such as early churches or ancient synagogues. It is a particular privilege to be able to excavate an unexplored Galilean synagogue with students and colleagues from Leiden, Bern, Helsinki and Wofford College and many other volunteers in the context of Kinneret Regional Project (www.kinneret-excavations.org). New finds always produce new insights and new questions.
C.V.
Since 2014 | Professor for the History and Culture of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity at the Leiden University Institute of History and the Leiden University Center for the Arts in Society |
Since 10/2011 | Honorary Professorship at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest Academic |
09/2008–08/2010 | Director of Leiden Institute of Religious Studies (term ended August 31, 2010) |
Since 09/2008 | Additional appointment as Professor of Archaeology at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University |
Since 09/2006 | Professor for New Testament Exegesis and Early Christian Literature at Leiden University |
2005-2006/7 | Researcher for New Testament at Tilburg University |
2003 | Habilitation and Venia Legendi for New Testament Studies in Wuppertal |
2000-2001 | Humboldt Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University |
1996-2004 | Wissenschaftlicher Assistent for New Testament Studies in Wuppertal |
1996 | Ph.D. in New Testament Studies in Heidelberg |
1983-1990 | Study of Evangelische Theologie in Erlangen, Heidelberg and Edinburgh/Scotland including courses in Judaic Studies and classics in Heidelberg and Edinburgh |
18/01/1964 | Born in Erlangen, Germany |
Other activities
- Member of Societas Novi Testamenti Studiorum, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Conventus, NOSTER, Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Theologie, Society of Biblical Literature, American Schools of Oriental Research, European Association for Biblical Studies, Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas.
- Extensive archaeological training and fieldwork as member of excavation teams to Callirhoe/Jordan (1986, German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in the Holy Land), Petra/Jordan (1992, Naturhistorische Gesellschaft Nuremberg) as volunteer.
- Staff member with responsibility in teaching, fieldwork and publication in excavations teams to Sepphoris/Israel (1993-1994 and 1996-1997, Prof. Dr. Eric M. Meyers), Tel Kinrot/ Israel (1994, 1998 Prof. Dr. Volkmar Fritz).
- Co-director of Kinneret Regional Project since 2001 ( www.kinneret-excavations.org)
- Director of the excavations at the Roman-Byazantine village at Horvat Kur/Galilee, a sub-project of Kinnret Regional Project, since 2007, in 2010 discovery of a Byzantine synagogue, excavations with colleagues from Bern, Helsinki and Wofford College (USA) (www.kinneret-excavations.org).
Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
- Faculty of Humanities
- Institute for History
- Oude Geschiedenis
Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Griekse T&C
Professor
- Faculteit Archeologie
- World Archaeology
- Near Eastern
No relevant ancillary activities