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Staff profile

staff list  BackDr Brian Capper

  • Job title: Reader
  • Dept: Theology and Religious Studies
  • Tel: 01227 782345
  • Campus: Canterbury
 Dr Brian Capper

Reader in Christian Origins

Personal

Dr. Brian Capper's research and teaching focuses on the New Testament in its contexts of ancient Judaism and the graeco-roman world.

He is particularly interested in the social form of the early Christian churches and their charitable activities. He has written on the relationships between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the social form of earliest Judaean Christianity and the Jerusalem Church, the origins of the Johannine tradition, the role of women in the early church, order and ministry in early Christianity, and the social context of Paul's letter to the Philippians.

He is presently preparing a monograph entitled Jesus and the Covenant of the Poor on the origins of mutually supportive Christian community forms in Judaea at the time of Jesus' death and resurrection.

He holds his doctorate from Cambridge University, recently held a two-year senior research fellowship at Tübingen University, and taught at the universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, and St. Andrews before taking up his present responsibilities for New Testament in Canterbury.

Publications

Dr. Capper's recent publications include:

  • 'John, Qumran and Virtuoso Religion.' In Tom Thatcher and Mary L. Coloe eds., John and Qumran: Sixty Years of Discovery and Dialogue (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 93–116.

  • 'Jesus, Virtuoso Religion and Community of Goods.' In Bruce Longenecker and Kelly Liebengood, eds., Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), pp. 60–80.

  • 'Holy community of life and property and amongst the poor: A response to Steve Walton', Evangelical Quarterly 80, 2 (April 2008), pp. 113-27.

  • 'Essene Community Houses and Jesus' Early Community' in James H.Charlesworth, ed., Jesus and Archaeology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), pp. 472–502.
  • 'To Keep Silent, Ask Husbands at Home, and not to Have Authority over Men (I Corinthians 14:33-36 and I Timothy 2:11-12): The Transition from Gathering in Private to Meeting in Public Space in Second Generation Christianity and the Exclusion of Women from Leadership of the Public Assembly', Theologische Zeitschrift 61 (2005) pp. 113-131 and 301-319.
  • Encyclopedia article 'Wealth' in Jesus in History, Culture and Thought: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.L. Houlden  (Santa Barbara/ Denver/ Oxford: ABC–Clio,  2003), Vol. 2, pp. 864-869.
  • 'The New Covenant in Southern Palestine at the Arrest of Jesus' (An earlier version of the paper published as: 'The New Covenant in Southern Palestine at the Arrest of Jesus' in James R. Davila (ed.) The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003) pp. 90-116.
  • 'The Church as the New Covenant of Effective Economics: The Social Origins of Mutually Supportive Christian Community' in International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 2 (2002) pp. 83-102.
  • 'Two Types of Discipleship in Early Christianity' (Review article), in  Journal of Theological Studies 52 (2001) pp. 105-123.
  • Encyclopaedia article on 'The Holy Congregation in Jerusalem' for the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford University Press, New York, 2000), eds. Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. Vanderkam, pp. 369-370.
  • 'Public Body, Private Women. The Ideology of Gender and Space and the Exclusion of Women from Public Leadership in the Late First-Century Church', in Theology and the Body, ed. Robert Hannaford and J'annine  Jobling (Leominster, Gracewing, 1999) pp.  123-151.
  • 'Reciprocity and the Ethics of Acts', in I.Howard Marshall and David Peterson (eds.), Witness to the Gospel. The Theology of Acts  (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, 1998), pp. 499-518.
  • '"With the Oldest Monks..." Light from Essene History on the Career of the Beloved Disciple?', Journal of Theological Studies  49 (1998) pp. 1-55.
  • 'Order and Ministry in the Social Pattern of the New Testament Church', in Order and Ministry, ed. C. Hall and R. Hannaford (Leominster, Gracewing, 1996) pp. 61-103.
  • 'Community of Goods in the Early Jerusalem Church', in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini & W. Haase, series II, volume 26, part 2 (Berlin, De Gruyter, 1995), pp. 1730-1774.
  • 'The Palestinian Cultural Context of Earliest Christian Community of Goods' in The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1995), ed. R. J.  Bauckham (volume 4 of The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting), pp. 323-356.
  • 'Paul's Dispute with Philippi. Understanding the Argument of Philippians 1-2 from Paul's Thanks in 4.1-20', in Theologische Zeitschrift  49 (1993) pp. 193-214.

Research Interests

Dr. Brian Capper's research focuses on the New Testament in its social contexts of ancient Judaism and the graeco-roman world.

He is particularly interested in the social form of the early Christian churches and their charitable activities, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the origins of the Johannine tradition.

He is presently preparing a monograph entitled Jesus and the Covenant of the Poor on the origins of mutually supportive Christian community forms in Judaea at the time of Jesus' death and resurrection.

At present he supervises three full-time doctoral students in areas of study linked to these areas