Biblical Studies Section

The Section studies the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are considered, to varying degrees, foundational, normative and sacred. Our focus is on:

• the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and other formative documents of ancient Judaism (including, for example, Dead Sea Scrolls and Hellenistic Jewish sources),
• the New Testament and other sources from early Christian communities, including non-canonical sources, and
• the Qur'an and its earliest traditions and commentaries.

Our research encompasses the various exegetical traditions, material culture, and reception history that emerge around each of these three collections of sacred writings.

In line with the overall vision and ambition, we strive to establish the section as being world leading in scriptural studies. For the coming years, we foresee a special focus on digital, material, and interdisciplinary approaches to ancient texts, especially in ways that break traditional boundaries between the three religious traditions represented in the section.

End Time Studies and Eschatology

Our section will break new ground in the field of end time studies and eschatology. Building on the ongoing research project AMRAM and new research on topics of hope, happiness, and despair, the section will expand the scope of this research to the cross-historical and cross-cultural phenomenon of end time narratives more broadly. This would require a transdisciplinary and international research team.

Diaspora and Human Mobility

Building on the ongoing research project “Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism”, the section will look for ways to integrate its existing themes of diaspora, migration, and incarceration around the theme of human mobility. Alongside current migration scholarship, we aim to adequately map the earliest noted movements of ancient Israelites and add textured, nuanced accounts of their lives affected by said movement over and against singular, narrow narratives.

Materiality and Lived Religion

The Section enjoys a long history of commitment to archaeology and material culture, especially throughout the 20th century. In the coming years it will renew this area of research in ways that push beyond its previous focus. Building on the ongoing “Prison Project” and the thematic and methodological focuses of other ongoing research projects, faculty members of the section will seek to perform research at the forefront of materiality and lived religion, in relation to both ancient contexts and modern uses of scriptural traditions and their implementation, both existing work on the law and incarceration and beyond.

Texts and Reception

Religious texts and their interpretations are at the core of our scholarly activities. As the indispensable foundation for an adequate understanding of Scriptures, the section promotes the ongoing study of the source languages. Apart from this, the section will develop new themes and approaches to study the movement of Scriptures. Members of the section will be centrally involved in producing the new authorized Danish Bible translation by 2036. Together with international partners, we will also further develop our research on the mutual reception of scriptures into a large-scale project.

Digital Humanities

The section will consolidate its position as a leading institution of studying scriptural and related texts with the help of Large Language Models and advanced statistical methods. Building on the project “Artificial Intelligence and Ancient Hebrew Texts”, the section will continue to produce and improve on open source datasets of the most important ancient religious texts.

The Qurʾān (the Koran)

Building on the research projects “The European Qur’an” and “Producing Sharia in Context”, the section will consolidate its position as a leading institution of Qur’anic scholarship. The Qurʾān is regionally, linguistically, stylistically, thematically, theologically and historically related to a variety of biblical texts. This relationship is recognized in the Qurʾān itself; it mentions biblical texts such as Torah, the Psalms of David, and the Gospel and it refers to biblical characters and narratives. Research has also revealed numerous links to biblical material beyond the canonical scriptures, e.g. various form of Jewish-Rabbinic and Christian texts. However, the Qurʾān is not only interconnected with the biblical literature and milieus but also stemmed from and relates to an Arabian polytheistic culture. These contextual factors demand a cross-disciplinary combination of qurʾānic and biblical scholarship to which the present focus area is committed. This focus area is also based on the conviction that modern qurʾānic studies can make use of the rich theoretical and methodological apparatuses of biblical studies.

The section hosts the following research centres and projects:

• Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism (2022-2026)
• The Prison Project (2023-2026)
• The European Qur’an (2019-2026)
• AMRAM (2021-2025)
• Producing Sharia in Context (2021-2024)
• AI and Ancient Hebrew Texts (2021-2024)

The section cooperates with the following MA programmes and research institutions:

• Religious Roots of Europe
• IRIS
• Forum for Bibelsk Eksegese
• Collegium Biblicum
• OTSEM
• The University of Edinburgh
• NYU Abu Dhabi

See the full list of the section publications here.