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School of American and Global Studies

James Murphy

James Murphy

Title

Associate Director and Associate Professor of Religion

Office Building

Lincoln Hall

Office

131

Mailing Address

Lincoln Hall 131
School of American and Global Studies-Box 2212
University Station
Brookings, SD 57007

Biography

Dr. Murphy is associate director of the School of American and Global Studies, faculty of religious studies and resident biblical scholar. He is one of less than 20 scholars in the world currently researching and writing about children in the biblical world of antiquity, a sub field of inquiry that emerged in the late 2000s. He has published on children in Deuteronomy and 1 Samuel, but primarily writes on children in relation to the Jesus movement, the Gospels and the hypothetical sayings gospel Q. He is currently exploring Jewish sectarian documents from the Second-Temple period in relation to children.
Specialties also include kinship, sexuality and asceticism, literary criticism, deconstruction, Greco-Roman religions and Second Temple Judaism. He has co-led study abroads to Greece and participated in excavations at Banias, Israel. He has been with South Dakota State University since 2011, taught history at Evangel University from 2002-2006 and taught Old Testament as a grad student as Missouri State 1999-2001.

Education

  • Ph.D. in biblical interpretation | University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology | 2011
  • M.A. in religious studies | Missouri State | 2000
  • B.A. in history and social science education | Evangel University | 1998

Academic Interests

  • Torah
  • Gospels
  • Historical Jesus
  • Jewish Sectarian Second-Temple history and literature
  • Literary and deconstructive analysis
  • Children in the Bible
  • Women in the Bible
  • Kinship, sexuality and asceticism
  • Greco-Roman religions
  • Hebrew Bible and Christian origins

Academic Responsibilities

  • Intro to Religion
  • World Religions
  • Old Testament
  • New Testament
  • The Gospels/Historical Jesus
  • Apocalyptic Texts and Sects
  • Women and Religion
  • Early Christian Era
  • The Reformation and Counter Reformation
  • Religion in American Culture

Committees and Professional Memberships

  • Society of Biblical Literature

Awards and Honors

  •  2017, Hendrickson Scholar/Cheever Lecture Award

Work Experience

  • 2019-present, associate director of American and Global Studies, South Dakota State University.
  • 2017-present, associate professor of Religion, South Dakota State University.
  • 2011-2017, assistant professor of Religion, South Dakota State University.
  • 2006-2011, affiliate faculty, Colorado Christian University.
  • 2002-2006, assistant professor of History, Evangel University.
  • 1999-2001, graduate teaching assistant, Missouri State University

Areas of Research

  • Children in relation 1 Enoch, Jubilees and other Jewish sectarian Second-Temple texts.
  • Jesus movement of the first century.
  • The hypothetical source behind Mathew and Luke known as "Q."

Publications

Books:

  1. 2013. Kids and Kingdom: the Precarious Presence of Children in the Synoptic Gospels. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications.

Articles:

  1. 2019. "Children and the Sayings Source Q - What the Double Tradition Reveals about Q's Attitude toward Children, Part B: Q 11:19-20; 12:53; 14:26; and 17:1-2," Biblical Interpretation 27, no. 1 (in press).
  2. 2018. "Contrasting Portrayals of Children in 1 Samuel." Point of View Publishing.
  3. 2018. "Focusing on the Child Next to Jesus in Mark 9:33-37." Point of View Publishing.
  4. 2014. "Undesired Offspring and Child Endangerment in Jewish Antiquity," Journal of Childhood and Religion 5.
  5. 2012. "Children in Deuteronomy: the Partisan Nature of Divine Justice," Biblical Interpretation 20, no. 1: 1-15.

Book Chapters:

  1. 2020. "Children in Mark: A Deconstructive Approach." Pages 196-216 in Listening to and Learning from Children in the Biblical World, eds. Kristine Henriksen Garroway and John W. Martens. Leiden: Brill.
  2. 2019. "The 'Lost Boys' (and Girls) of Q's 'Neverland.'" Pages 291-310 in T&T Clark Handbook to Children and Childhood in the Biblical World, eds. Sharon Betsworth and Julie Faith Parker. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark.

Book Reviews:

  1. 2019. Review of For Theirs is the Kingdom: Inclusion and Participation of Children in the Gospel According to Luke by Amy Lindeman Allen. Lexington/Fortress Press, 2019, in Review of Biblical Literature.
  2. 2016. Review of Children in Early Christian Narratives by Sharon Betsworth. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013, in Review of Biblical Literature.
  3. 2016. Review of The Reign of God is Such as These: a Socio-Literary Analysis of Daughters in the Gospel of Mark by Sharon Betsworth. London/New York: T&T Clark, 2010, in the Journal of Childhood and Religion.
  4. 2010. Review of The Child in the Bible, eds. Marcia J. Bunge, et al. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008, in the Journal of Childhood and Religion.

In Review:

  1. "Children and the Sayings Source Q - What the Double Tradition Reveals about Q's Attitude toward Children, Part A: Q 7:31-32; 9:59-62; and 11:11-13," (in review).

Department(s)

Related Links

Biblical Quests