Blake Wassell

Blake completed undergraduate studies with Macquarie University’s Department of Ancient History (2012, 2014), and then postgraduate studies with the University of Otago’s Theology Programme (2015, 2019), which included six months in Tübingen. Through Australian Catholic University he has been a Historical Children’s Book Collections Fellow and a Co-Chief Investigator in the Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit. His current projects include a monograph that reads John’s creative use of the Synoptics in terms of literary imitation.

Current Research Areas

• Rivalry between John and the Synoptics
• Romanness in the literary works of Josephus
• The fiscus Iudaicus and early Jewish identity
• Antisemitism in modern children’s Bibles
• Uses of the Bible in Australian missions to First Nations people
• John after Vatican II

Areas for Supervision

• Johannine studies
• Josephus
• Rome, Judea, and early Jesus followers
• Biblical reception and interpretation in Australia

Selected Publications

Books

• John 18:28–19:22 and the Paradox of Judgement, WUNT 2/543 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021).

Journal articles and volume chapters

• “Paving the Way into the Divine Family in John 1:18,” pp. 242-262 in S.E. Porter and D.I. Yoon, eds., The Johannine Prologue and its Resonances, JOST 4 (Leiden: Brill, 2024).
• “John’s Competition with the Synoptics,” pp. 139-172 in J. Verheyden and D. Smith, eds., From Difference to Deviance: Rivalry and Enmity in Earliest Christianity, BETL 339 (Leuven: Peeters, 2024).
• “Three Leuven-Type Readings of Romanness in John 18,28–19,22,” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 97 (2021): 591-627.
• “εἰ δή τις … συκοφαντοίη: Impiety and the Fiscus Iudaicus in Josephus, War 1.11,” Journal for the Study of Judaism 51 (2020): 525-570.
• “‘Doing Evil’ as Maiestas in John 18.30,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 42 (2020): 325-349.
• With A. Robinson and S. Llewelyn, “Showing Mercy to the Ungodly and the Inversion of Invective in Jude,” New Testament Studies 64 (2018): 194-212.
• “Hooks,” pp. 367-368 in D.C. Allison, Jr. et al., eds., Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception 12 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016).
• With S. Llewelyn, “‘Fishers of Humans,’ the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor, and Conceptual Blending Theory,” Journal of Biblical Literature 133 (2014): 627-646.

Community Engagement

• Podcast interview with S. Harstine and D. Estes on Jesus’ Roman trial in John’s gospel, for Conversations in the Gospel of John (2024).
• Internal report with C. Jacobs-Vandegeer on the Anti-Slavery Learning for the Future Workforce project, with the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network (2023).