NINT 2025 Field Guide: A Practical Primer to this Year's NINT Talks

I’ve been involved in the New Insights into the New Testament conference since its very first run in 2023, and I still think it’s one of the best concepts around! An absolutely remarkable way of bringing the academic and non-academic worlds into direct conversation. 

Every year, some of the most accomplished scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity present their research not just to colleagues in the field, but to anyone with a deep interest in the historical origins of Christianity.

This year’s theme, the Historical Jesus, could hardly be more compelling. Few figures in history have generated as much fascination, debate, and scholarship as Jesus of Nazareth. 

Questions about who he really was, what he taught, how he was perceived, and why his followers remembered him in the ways they did continue to animate research and spark lively discussion far beyond the academy.

What follows in this primer is a guide through each lecture, organized according to the conference schedule. 

For every talk, I’ll provide the title and description, give some background on the scholarly questions it raises, and note why I’m especially looking forward to it. My hope is that this will set the stage for you as an attendee, helping you not only to follow the presentations more easily but also to feel the same sense of excitement about the discussions that lie ahead.

Dr. Mark Goodacre: The Missing Pieces in the Quest for the Historical Jesus

I think it was Martin Hengel who once estimated that nearly 80 percent of early Christian literature has been lost to history. That observation resonates strongly with anyone working in the field of antiquity: much of what we would love to know about the past has simply disappeared.

As historians, we operate with fragments (occasional texts, scattered references, partial archaeological remains) while being fully aware that the vast majority of evidence has perished. It’s within this broader context that Dr. Mark Goodacre will deliver his lecture on the “missing pieces” in the quest for the historical Jesus. His talk asks us to reflect not only on what we have, but also on what we do not, and cannot, recover.

In other words, Dr. Goodacre’s talk will focus on these silences in the record and why it matters for how we approach the historical Jesus. Instead of assuming that the surviving Gospels provide an adequate or representative sample of his activity, Dr. Goodacre invites us to take seriously the gaps: the stories untold, the teachings forgotten, and the memories erased by time.

Personally, I find this a fascinating dimension of the Jesus quest, one that isn’t always foregrounded. What can missing evidence tell us, even in hypothetical form, about the figure we are studying? How might an awareness of these absences shape the questions we ask and the confidence we place in our answers? This isn’t a call to speculation for its own sake, but a reminder of humility! Our reconstructions rest on a slender and selective base of sources.

I’m eager to hear Dr. Goodacre develop this theme, as I suspect he will not only sharpen our historical awareness but also encourage us to see the pursuit of the historical Jesus in a new, more self-critical light.

Dr. Helen Bond: The Last Hours of Jesus: What Really Happened?

Have you ever paused to consider the sources behind the story of Jesus’ passion? Is it really possible that events unfolded exactly as the Gospels describe them? Most critical scholars would answer with a cautious “no.”

The passion narratives are among the most theologically charged sections of the New Testament, shaped not only by memory but also by the needs of early Christian communities to present Jesus’ death in meaningful, scriptural, and redemptive terms.

In this lecture, Dr. Helen Bond (an esteemed historian and the author of a highly respected biography of Pontius Pilate) invites us to look again at Jesus’ final hours, not through the lens of later theological reflection but with the investigative skepticism of the historian.

Her presentation will grapple with a number of contested issues that continue to stir debate: How likely is it that Jesus was subjected to a formal Jewish trial before the Sanhedrin? What do we really know about the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, and was a trial even necessary under his authority? 

Why does the Barabbas episode appear in all four Gospels, and what function might it have served? And what about Jesus’ burial?! Was he truly placed in a rich man’s tomb, as the Gospels claim?

What excites me most about Dr. Bond’s contribution is that it cuts through the layers of popular imagination. Many Christians picture the passion primarily through the eyes of devotional tradition or cultural portrayals such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

Bond promises instead a sober, historically grounded investigation into what may really have happened. 

Personally, I’m  especially eager to hear her assessment of the burial tradition. The figure of Joseph of Arimathea has long been a flashpoint of scholarly disagreement (witness the serious debates between Craig A. Evans and Bart Ehrman) and I’m curious to learn whether Bond sees his role as historically plausible or as a later narrative construction.

Dr. Dale C. Allison: Did Jesus Really Do Miracles?

I must admit: this is the lecture I’m most excited about. Ever since the days of Heinrich Paulus in the early 19th century, scholars have wrestled with the miracle stories in the Gospels. The German scholar himself famously tried to explain them away as misunderstood natural phenomena.

Since then, critical scholarship has offered a wide range of approaches: some have dismissed the stories as legendary creations, others have interpreted them as symbolic narratives crafted to communicate theological truth, while still others have suggested that misremembered or misinterpreted events might stand behind at least some accounts.

Few scholars are better equipped to navigate this complex terrain than Dr. Dale C. Allison. Among his many publications, his work on the resurrection narratives (the “biggest” miracle in the NT!) remains, in my view, one of the most insightful analyses available, drawing insights from different areas such as anthropology, psychology, and history! 

His lecture on Jesus’ miracles, therefore, promises to bring that same depth of learning and balance of judgment to an issue central to the study of the historical Jesus.

As a Catholic with a strong respect for methodological naturalism and the necessity of critical scholarship, I find myself particularly eager for this discussion. How should we, as historians, handle reports of supernatural events?

Is it enough simply to dismiss them as beyond the reach of historical investigation? Or can we still learn something from them about Jesus, about his followers, and about the cultural world in which these stories circulated?

I’m hoping Allison’s lecture will push us beyond the easy answers. It’s one thing to protect ourselves with the shield of methodological naturalism, but another to ignore what these stories meant to the earliest communities. For me, this talk promises to be the intellectual highlight of the conference! 

Dr. Joel Marcus: Jesus and the Law

It was exactly 40 years ago that E. P. Sanders published his groundbreaking study Jesus and Judaism. That work decisively shifted the conversation, emphasizing that Jesus must be understood within the framework of 1st-century Judaism rather than against it.

Since then, scholars have continued to wrestle with one of the most difficult and consequential questions in the study of the historical Jesus: What was his relationship to the Jewish tradition and the Mosaic Law? The answer has far-reaching implications, not only for how we reconstruct Jesus himself but also for how we understand the emergence of early Christianity from its Jewish matrix.

Joel Marcus, a widely respected scholar and the author of the most important critical biography of John the Baptist, will take up this challenge in his lecture, seeking to clarify how Jesus related to the Torah and how his eschatological outlook shaped that relationship.

Marcus points out that our main sources (the Synoptic Gospels) aren’t neutral transmitters of tradition. They were composed by authors who themselves stood at the intersection of competing views: The anti-Torah stance associated with Paul and the more conservative impulses of early Jewish-Christian communities who resisted that radical move.

This makes it difficult to pin down the historical Jesus. Yet Marcus will likely argue that Jesus, like other Jewish teachers of his time, interpreted the Law creatively.

What excites me most about this lecture is how it promises to situate Jesus within the broad diversity of Second Temple Judaism. Jewish teachers of the time offered a wide spectrum of interpretations of the Torah. 

Where does Jesus belong on that spectrum? How do his teachings and actions compare with those of his contemporaries? And how did his eschatological expectations influence his understanding of the Law’s authority and application? 

These are questions I’m eager to hear Dr. Marcus address. His nuanced approach will no doubt help us see Jesus not simply as an opponent of Judaism, nor as a “traditionalist” rabbi, but as a creative interpreter whose particular vision of God’s imminent kingdom reshaped how the Law itself was understood.

Dr. Paula Fredriksen: Turning the Tables on the ‘Purification’ of the Temple

All scholarship, as the saying goes, stands on the shoulders of those who came before. Yet the task of every historian is also to move the conversation forward, testing inherited theories and proposing new interpretations where the evidence allows.

In this lecture, Dr. Paula Fredriksen (one of the most influential voices in the study of early Christianity) turns her attention to one of the most iconic episodes in the Gospels: Jesus’ disruption in the Temple. 

Building on and challenging the seminal work of E. P. Sanders, she revisits the incident not by focusing on what Jesus might have said, but by probing what he may actually have done – or not done at all.

Sanders, of course, famously argued that Jesus’ action in overturning the tables should be read as a prophetic gesture: A symbolic foreshadowing of the Temple’s eschatological destruction and eventual restoration. Since then, many scholars have accepted the idea of a prophetic gesture but retained the traditional assumption that Jesus carried it out because he opposed the Temple’s practices. 

Fredriksen offers a strikingly different proposal. Drawing on evidence from Mark, John, and the letters of Paul, she contends that Jesus neither performed such a symbolic act nor prophesied the destruction of the Temple in this way. Instead, she invites us to reconsider the entire framework in which the story has been read.

For me, this is precisely the kind of lecture that makes NINT so intellectually stimulating. To hear a scholar of Fredriksen’s stature propose a fresh, unconventional reading of a well-worn episode is both exciting and challenging.

Personally, I look forward to seeing how she constructs her case and what implications it may have for our broader understanding of Jesus’ relationship to the Temple—a central institution in Jewish life. 

This is scholarship at its best: Not content with recycling familiar arguments but pushing us to ask new questions, debate alternative possibilities, and rethink assumptions that have long gone unexamined.

Dr. Bart D. Ehrman: A Core Teaching of Jesus. And Why His Followers Abandoned It

More than a century ago, the French Catholic scholar Alfred Loisy famously remarked, “Jésus annonçait le Royaume, et c’est l’Église qui est venue” (“Jesus announced the Kingdom, and it was the Church that arrived”). 

With this pithy phrase, Loisy underscored the profound discontinuity between Jesus’ own proclamation and the message of the movement that later bore his name.

In his lecture, Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, one of the foremost authorities on the historical Jesus, returns to this tension with a particularly interesting and promising focus: Jesus’ teaching on repentance and forgiveness.

According to the Gospels, Jesus insisted that those who returned to God would be forgiven freely, without penalty, sacrifice, or mediation. Yet within a generation, Jesus’ followers proclaimed that forgiveness came only through Jesus’ own death, understood as an atoning sacrifice. Dr. Ehrman will explore how and why this fundamental reversal took place.

The significance of this question is difficult to overstate. If central to Jesus’ message was the immediacy of divine forgiveness for the repentant, then the Christian proclamation that only through Christ’s death could sins be absolved represents a decisive shift in theological orientation. What accounts for such a dramatic transformation?

I’m especially eager to hear how Dr. Ehrman frames this development. To my mind, the interpretative gap between Jesus and his earliest followers is one of the most important factors in the rise of Christianity. Without it, the small apocalyptic movement around Jesus could never have become the most influential religion in Western history.

Moreover, Dr. Ehrman has a unique ability to present such complex historical and theological transitions in a nuanced yet approachable way, and I anticipate that his lecture will illuminate not only the origins of Christian doctrine but also the broader processes by which religious movements adapt and transform in the wake of crisis. 

Dr. James Tabor: The Making of a Messiah: How the Gospels Shaped Jesus – or Jesus Shaped the Gospels

One could argue that the question of prophecy and fulfillment is as old as Christianity itself. One thinks immediately of the 2nd-century dialogue between Justin Martyr and the Jewish philosopher Trypho. 

For Justin, the Hebrew Scriptures pointed directly to Jesus, whose life and death literally fulfilled ancient prophecies. For Trypho, such claims were little more than inventions. Just Christian efforts to retrofit Israel’s sacred texts to the story of Jesus.

This tension has never disappeared, and it remains one of the most fascinating and difficult issues in New Testament scholarship. In his lecture, Dr. James Tabor revisits the problem, not through the lens of ancient polemics but with the tools of modern historical inquiry.

Dr. Tabor will examine how the Gospel writers wove citations and allusions from the Hebrew Bible into their narratives of Jesus’ final days, portraying him as the long-awaited fulfillment of prophecy. In many cases, these references are clearly literary insertions designed to shape the story.

However, Dr. Tabor raises a more provocative possibility! Namely, that in some instances Jesus himself, aware of his redemptive role, may have acted deliberately in ways that could later be seen as fulfilling Scripture. 

His lecture will explore whether historical methods can help us untangle this “chicken-or-egg” question. Did the prophecies shape the Gospels’ Jesus, or did Jesus’ own actions shape how the Gospels framed him? This question cuts to the core of theology and history, but also psychology, and memory studies! 

I find this lecture particularly compelling because it brings methodology to the forefront. How do we as historians distinguish between scriptural retrojection and historical recollection? Can we responsibly decide whether Jesus consciously aligned his actions with scriptural patterns, or whether later authors imposed those patterns upon him? 

These aren’t only technical questions but ones that cut to the heart of how the early Christian movement understood both Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel. 

I’m very eager to see how Dr. Tabor approaches this problem, what methodological principles he will employ, and whether his analysis will suggest new ways of reading the interplay between prophecy and history in the Gospels.

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine: Jesus and the Pharisees: Correcting Stereotypes

To fully grasp the historical Jesus, it’s essential to place him within the social and religious environment of his time. Among the most influential groups shaping first-century Judaism were the Pharisees, and Jesus’ interactions with them represent a crucial dimension of his public ministry.

Yet throughout Christian history, Pharisees have often been caricatured in profoundly negative ways: as rigid legalists, self-righteous hypocrites, or elitist defenders of empty tradition. In her lecture, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine will dismantle these stereotypes and offer a more balanced, historically grounded understanding of the Pharisees and their role in Jewish society.

Drawing on evidence from Paul, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, and even the New Testament itself, Levine will demonstrate that the Pharisees were, in fact, widely respected, popular teachers who sought to make the Torah livable and relevant.

Against this backdrop, Jesus emerges not as the radical reformer in opposition to the Pharisees but, in many ways, as a more conservative and divisive figure, with an eschatological urgency that set him apart.

I’m especially looking forward to this presentation. A few weeks ago, I had the chance to watch Dr. Levine’s course on the parables of Jesus, and I was struck both by her extraordinary depth of knowledge about Second Temple Judaism and by her skill as a communicator.

I’m sure her talk on the Pharisees will be equally insightful, correcting misconceptions that continue to influence Christian preaching and popular imagination. 

For me, one of the most exciting aspects of this lecture will be seeing how Levine reframes Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees! Not as a battle between enlightened reformer and narrow-minded opponents, but as a more complex interaction between two voices within a vibrant and multifaceted Jewish tradition.

Dr. Robyn Walsh: The Historical Jesus in Light of Paul’s Letters

No serious discussion of the historical Jesus can avoid the figure of Paul. Although Paul never knew Jesus during his public ministry, his letters remain our earliest surviving Christian writings and thus the closest textual witnesses we have to the first generation of the movement. 

In this lecture, Dr. Robyn Walsh (an accomplished scholar of early Christianity) will examine what these letters can and cannot tell us about the historical Jesus.

Paul offers little in the way of biographical detail, but his writings contain crucial references to Jesus’ teachings, his role as Messiah, his death and resurrection, and the circle of disciples who first proclaimed him. 

At the same time, Paul’s rhetorical strategies and theological aims complicate the historian’s task, raising questions about how we extract reliable historical information from texts that weren’t intended as biographies.

Dr. Walsh’s presentation will guide us through these difficulties, showing both the potential and the limitations of Paul as a source for Jesus.

Personally, I’m eager to hear this talk because Paul so often becomes the center of modern debates about Jesus’ historicity. In the online world, mythicist arguments frequently appeal to Paul’s supposed silence about the earthly Jesus as “evidence” that he never existed. 

Yet such claims overlook the fact that Paul’s letters actually preserve significant and revealing information about Jesus, even if not in the form of a detailed biography. I look forward to seeing how Dr. Walsh highlights what can be gleaned from Paul’s writings, and how she addresses the interpretative challenges they pose.

Dr. Ian Mills: The Messianic Secret from Theology to History

One of the most intriguing motifs in the Gospel of Mark is the theme of secrecy. Again and again, Jesus commands his followers not to reveal his identity, warns those he heals to keep silent, and teaches in parables that seem deliberately obscure. 

This so-called “Messianic Secret” has fascinated scholars ever since the German theologian William Wrede famously analyzed it at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, debate has swirled. Was the motif a theological invention of the evangelist, an attempt to explain why Jesus was not widely recognized during his lifetime, or does it point to something different? 

In his lecture, Dr. Ian Mills brings a fresh perspective by placing Mark’s secrecy motif in dialogue with the letters of Paul.

Dr. Mills’ argument is that to truly understand Mark’s portrayal of a deliberately hidden Messiah, one must first take into account the Pauline theological framework that shaped so much of early Christian thought.

By drawing these connections, Dr. Mills will challenge us to see the Gospel not merely as a stand-alone text but as part of a wider web of early Christian interpretation, where theology and history were inextricably intertwined.

For me personally, the most exciting part of this lecture will be seeing how Mills links Paul’s theology with Mark’s narrative strategy. The Messianic Secret has been dissected and debated for more than a century, yet it remains one of the great puzzles of Gospel interpretation.

To hear a scholar connect it with Paul’s letters promises a different angle on a familiar issue.

I always find it stimulating when longstanding debates are approached from a fresh perspective, and I’m confident that Dr. Mills’ analysis will renew discussion and deepen our understanding of how early Christians grappled with the paradox of a hidden yet exalted Messiah.

Dr. Jodi Magness: Daily Life in the Time of Jesus

One cannot fully understand the historical Jesus without a grasp of the material culture in which he lived.

Archaeology gives us an indispensable window into that world, revealing the rhythms of daily existence in 1st-century Galilee and Judea: What people ate, how they dressed, the houses they inhabited, and even the facilities they used.

Few are better equipped to guide us through this landscape than Dr. Jodi Magness, one of the most distinguished archaeologists of the region. In her lecture, she will bring together the latest archaeological findings to reconstruct the everyday life of Jews in the Roman period, from meals and clothing to toilets and hygiene practices.

I’m particularly excited for this talk because of my past experience with Dr. Magness’ work. I found her course on the archaeology of Jesus’ world both fascinating and accessible, and it left me with a deep appreciation for how material remains can enrich our understanding of texts.

Her experience excavating in Galilee and Judea lends her scholarship additional authority, while her ability as a communicator makes the ancient world vivid and tangible. 

I’m confident that her lecture will once again animate the material culture of Jesus’ time, reminding us that history isn’t only about texts and ideas but also about the physical realities of daily life. 

Dr. Tom Schmidt: Jesus in the Writings of Josephus: Considering New Data

The testimony of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus has long stood at the center of debates about the historical Jesus. His brief references to Jesus in the Antiquities of the Jews have been pored over for centuries, questioned, defended, and reinterpreted in countless ways.

Yet, as Dr. Tom Schmidt demonstrated in his recent book Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ, there is still room for fresh insights and significant discoveries. 

In his lecture, Schmidt argues on the basis of detailed linguistic analysis that Josephus himself wrote the contested passage (so-called Testimonium Flavianum), and that its content has often been misunderstood. 

Rather than offering a Christian interpolation or a pious endorsement of Jesus, the text reflects Josephus’ own style and perspective.

Schmidt goes further by examining Josephus’ social and political networks, suggesting that the historian was directly connected to individuals who had attended the trial of Jesus. If correct, this would make Josephus a rare and invaluable non-Christian witness to Jesus of Nazareth.

I’m especially looking forward to this lecture, having already read Dr. Schmidt’s recent book with great interest. What excites me most is precisely this combination of approaches and how careful linguistic scrutiny and attention to ancient networks can cast new light on old problems

In other words, Dr. Schmidt’s work demonstrates that with new tools and fresh perspectives, we can continue to refine our understanding and challenge inherited assumptions. He still has to persuade both scholars and non-scholars alike, but his lecture promises to ignite fresh debate on the complex relationship between Josephus and Jesus.

Conclusion

There you go! An exceptional roster of respected scholars tackling some of the most consequential questions about the historical Jesus, presented for a wide public already eager to dig in. 

Since you’re registered, consider this your roadmap: Skim the relevant Gospel passages (especially Mark), glance at 1 Corinthians 15, and keep Josephus in mind; then come ready with questions.