Hugo Mendez

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Hugo Méndez

Associate Professor, Ancient Mediterranean Religions

EDUCATION

Ph.D., M.A., University of Georgia, 2013, 2009
B.A., Southern Adventist University, 2006

FIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION

  • New Testament
  • Reception and Cultural History of New Testament Texts
  • Early and Late Antique Christianity

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Gospel and Epistles of John
  • Luke and Acts
  • Ritual uses of biblical texts (lectionaries, stational liturgy, hymnody)
  • Martyrs cults, feasts, pilgrimages, and relics

PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

My research explores how early Christians received and made usable pasts of biblical texts, images, and figures through the first five centuries CE. Increasingly, my work has turned to the role that invention and deception in these processes. In their attempts to lay claim to biblical tradition, early Christians resorted to such practices as pseudepigraphy/forgery, fabricating relics, and inventing traditions. I’m interested in why Christians opted to use these strategies and why they so often succeeded.

Since my interests span multiple centuries, I consider myself at home in both New Testament studies and Early/Late Ancient Christian studies, and I actively publish in both fields. Today, my work can be divided into two broad segments. The first centers on the Gospel of John and the epistles, or letters, of 1, 2, and 3 John. I’m currently completing two books that reimagine these four biblical books—some of most beloved works of the Bible—as a lineage of falsely authored works. A second line of research explores the use and reception of the Bible/biblical in ritual (worship, processions, saint devotions). This project is best represented by my first book, The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Besides these projects, I co-author the bestselling New Testament introductory textbook in the U.S.: The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (Oxford University Press, with my colleague Bart Ehrman). I’m a co-chair for the Society of Biblical Literature’s “Connecting John” consultation and a steering committee member for the SBL “Johannine Literature” unit. You’ll also see me on the History Channel, where I’m a repeat expert in ancient history and religion on shows such as “History’s Greatest Mysteries” and “Holy Marvels.”

COURSES RECENTLY TAUGHT

  • Early Christian Worship, Ritual, and Bodies
  • The Gospel of John and its Earliest Readers
  • Mark Written and Rewritten
  • Introduction to the New Testament
  • The Cult of Saints: Narratives, Materialities, Practices

SELECTED AWARDS

Member, Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS), 2023.

Summer Resident, National Humanities Center, 2023.

Borden Faculty Fellow, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022.

Fellowship, Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016–2018

ISM Fellowship in Sacred Music, Worship, and the Related Arts, Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University, 2014–2016.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem: Inventing a Patron Martyr. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. ISBN 978-0-19-284699-0. (Amazon)

“Jesus’s Secret Journey in John 7: A Symbol of the Ascension.” Harvard Theological Review 117 (2024): 58–78 (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816023000408).

“Revising the Date of the Armenian Lectionary of Jerusalem.” Journal of Early Christian Studies (2021): 61-92 (https://doi.org/10.1353/earl.2021.0002).

“Did the Johannine Community Exist?” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 43 (2020): 350-374 (https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X19890490).

“Mixed Metaphors: Resolving the ‘Eschatological Headache’ of John 5.” Journal of Biblical Literature 137 (2018): 711–732 (https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1373.2018.409291).

Stephen the Martyr (Acts vi-viii) in the Early Jerusalem Lectionary System, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2017): 22–39 (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046916001421).

“Semitic Poetic Techniques in the Magnificat: Luke 1:46–47, 55.” Journal of Biblical Literature (2016): 551–568 (https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1353.2016.2713).