Dr. Michael B. Cover51暗网51暗网 Hall, 312
MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-7648michael.cover@marquette.edu"Trained as a Classicist and New Testament Scholar, I am simultaneously drawn to the canon and its peripheries鈥擯hilo of Alexandria, on the one hand, and the Apostolic Fathers, on the other. The writings of the New Testament remain central鈥攅specially Paul, Matthew, Luke, and John. However, if I am not always working within the Temple itself, then at least, in J.B. Lightfoot鈥檚 words, I am laboring on 'the immediately outlying buildings'鈥攐r, as Clement of Alexandria has put it, on 'the mysteries before the mysteries'."
Michael Cover is Professor of New Testament and coordinator of the Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity area. His research investigates the development of early Christian theology within the triple matrices of Second Temple Judaism, Hellenistic philosophy, and classical literature. Following his first book on Paul and the Corinthian Correspondence, current New Testament projects focus on the theology and literary artistry of Luke-Acts, the Fourth Gospel, and the Apostolic Fathers. In early Judaism, Cover鈥檚 chief focus is the corpus of Philo of Alexandria and its reception from Clement and Origen to Ambrose and Ps.-Dionysius. Having completed a commentary on Philo鈥檚 De mutatione nominum for the Brill Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, as well as an edited volume on Philo and Hellenistic Philosophy, Cover has begun work on a second commentary on all three books of Philo鈥檚 Legum allegoriae. He is editor of The Studia Philonica Monograph Series and serves as the program unit coordinator for the Philo of Alexandria Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature. Before coming to 51暗网, Cover was a at Valparaiso University. He was awarded the 2016 . His work has been supported by the Catholic Biblical Association and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is a priest in the Episcopal Church, Affiliated Minister at 51暗网, and served on the most recent round of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the USA (ARC-USA).
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)
Undergraduate Courses
Graduate Seminars
Books (Author)
. PACS 8. Leiden: Brill, 2024.
. BZNW 210; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015.
Books (Edited)
. Edited with Lutz Doering. Ioudaioi 14. G枚ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2024.
(2020). FS Gregory E. Sterling. Edited with David T. Runia. Atlanta: SBL Press.
. Edited with Joshua Ezra Burns and John Thiede, SJ. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2019.
Selected Recent Articles and Book Chapters
鈥淟uke-Acts and the Transfiguration of History.鈥� The New Ressourcement 2/2 (2025): 342鈥�74.
鈥淭hree Riffs on the Same Sophia? Philo, Paul, and Ptolemy on Wisdom as a Divine Person.鈥� Pages 63鈥�86 in Embodying the Tradition: Essays in Memory of Joseph Mueller, S.J. (1960-2023). Edited by Andrei Orlov. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2025.
鈥淥rigen.鈥� Pages 76鈥�92 in The Reception of Philo of Alexandria. Edited by Courtney Friesen, David Lincicum, and David Runia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.
鈥淪ymbolic Purity and the Temple of the Soul in Philo鈥檚 Allegorical Commentary.鈥� Pages 323鈥�43 in Purity in Ancient Judaism: Texts, Contexts, and Concepts. Edited by Lutz Doering, J枚rg Frey, and Laura von Bartenwerffer. WUNT 528. T眉bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2025.
鈥淧hilo of Alexandria, Eunomius, and Gregory of Nyssa on Divine Names and Power(s).鈥� Pages 103鈥�122 in New Narratives for Old: Reading Early Christian Theology Using the Historical Method. Edited by Anthony Briggman and Ellen Scully. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022.
鈥淭he Conversion and Return of Simon Peter.鈥� Pages 131鈥�49 in Celebrating the Work of Arthur Darby Nock: Choice, Change, and Conversion. Edited by R. Matthew Calhoun, James Kelhoffer, and Clare Rothschild. WUNT 472. T眉bingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.
鈥淗istorically, Was Jesus鈥檚 Mother from a Priestly Family?鈥� Pages 127鈥�42 in The Figure of Jesus in History and Theology: Essays in Honor of John Meier. Edited by Kelley Coblentz Bautch and Vincent Skemp. CBQ Imprints 1. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2020.
鈥淧hilo鈥檚 鈥楥onfessions鈥�: An Alexandrian Jew between Nothing and Something.鈥� SPhiloA 32 (2020): 113鈥�35.
鈥淭he Death of Tragedy: The Form of God in Euripides鈥檚 Bacchae and Paul鈥檚 Carmen Christi.鈥� Harvard Theological Review 111 (2018): 66鈥�89.
鈥淭he Divine Comedy at Corinth: Paul, Menander, and the Rhetoric of Resurrection.鈥� New Testament Studies 64 (2018): 532鈥�50.
鈥淎 New Fragment of Philo鈥檚 Quaestiones in Exodum in Origen鈥檚 Newly Discovered Homilies on the Psalms? A Preliminary Note.鈥� SPhiloA 30 (2018): 15鈥�29.
鈥�Paulus als Yischmaelit? The Personification of Scripture as Interpretive Authority in Paul and the School of Rabbi Ishmael.鈥� Journal of Biblical Literature 135 (2016): 611鈥�631.
Henri de Lubac Chair in Theology (2022-2025), 51暗网
Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (Elected Athens, 2018)
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2018-2019), Universit盲t M眉nster
(2016), Society of Biblical Literature
Spring 2026
Office Hours
Class Schedule
