Michael Cover // Theology // Marquette University

Associate Professor

Theology Department (Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity)

Henri de Lubac Chair in Theology (2022-2025)

Professor Cover specializes in New Testament and early Judaism, particularly the Pauline letters, Philo of Alexandria, and their reception in early Christianity. His articles appear (or are forthcoming) in the Harvard Theological Review, the Journal of Biblical Literature, and the Studia Philonica Annual. His first book, Lifting the Veil: 2 Cor 3:7-18 in Light of Jewish Homiletic and Commentary Traditions (De Gruyter, 2015), examines Paul's biblical interpretation in the Corinthian Correspondence. Current research interests include the study of echoes of classical tragedy and comedy in the New Testament. He is also working on a book-length commentary on Philo of Alexandria's allegorical treatise, De mutatione nominum, for the Brill Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series (PACS). Michael has been a Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities and was awarded the 2017 Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship. He is a priest in the Episcopal Church and a member of the current round of Anglican-Roman Catholic Ecumenical Dialogue in the United States (ARC-USA). His work is supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Fellow 2018-2019, WWU Münster).

Education

A.B. Harvard University (The Classics)

M.St. University of Oxford (Greek Language and Literature)

M.Div. Yale Divinity School

Dipl. Anglican Studies, Berkeley Divinity School

Ph.D. University of Notre Dame (Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity)

Courses Taught

Introduction to Theology

Miracles

Conversion

Theology Engaging Culture: Letters from Prison

Luke-Acts and Historiography

The Fourth Gospel

The Corinthian Correspondence

The Works of Philo (Hellenistic Backgrounds of the NT)

The Trial and Death of Socrates (Antecedents of the Christian Martyrdom Tradition)

Publications

“Jewish Wisdom in the Contest of Hellenistic Philosophy and Culture: Pseudo-Phocylides and Philo of Alexandria.” Pages 229–247 in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature. Edited by Matthew Goff and Samuel Adams. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020.

“The Death of Tragedy: The Form of God in Euripides’s Bacchae and Paul’s Carmen Christi.” Harvard Theological Review 111 (2018): 66–89.

“The Divine Comedy at Corinth: Paul, Menander, and the Rhetoric of Resurrection.” New Testament Studies 64 (2018): 532–50.

“A New Fragment of Philo’s Quaestiones in Exodum in Origen’s Newly Discovered Homilies on the Psalms? A Preliminary Note.” The Studia Philonica Annual 30 (2018): 15–29.

“Paulus als Yischmaelit? The Personification of Scripture as Interpretive Authority in Paul and the School of Rabbi Ishmael.” Journal of Biblical Literature 135 (2016): 611–631.

Additional Information

Office Hours - Fall 2024

MTu 2:00-3:30