dr. Silvia Castelli

Building on my first PhD dissertation on Josephus' interpretation in the third book of the Jewish Antiquities, which was published as a monograph in 2002 in the peer-reviewed series of Classics La biblioteca di Athenaeum, I have developed a sustained publication record on the Jewish context of the Greek New Testament, especially the writings of Josephus, with a focus on his biblical interpretation, narrative, and reception. In the course of the years, my research also included Philo of Alexandria, the Septuagint, and the broader Greco-Roman context of first-century Judaism (see Research output.)

This long-term research has been enriched by an 18-month fellowship at the Leibniz Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz and a one-year Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem awarded by the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust. During my first PhD, I also conducted a three-month research stay at Yale University.

My strong philological training and work in reception history, naturally expanded into the history of New Testament textual criticism, with a special focus on methodological questions. My second PhD dissertation (2019), developed within the NWO project New Testament Conjectural Emendation: A Comprehensive Enquiry (2010–2016) examined the historical development of the criteria for evaluating New Testament variant readings, and was published in Brill's peer-reviwed series NTTSD series in 2020 (see here). This research at the VU marked my first engagement with Team Science.

Trained as a Classicist and a firm believer in interdisciplinary research and Team Science, I have also worked on the role of agency in innovation within the Anchoring Innovation project (Dutch National Research School in Classical Studies) at Leiden University. The resulting volume was published by Brill in 2023 and is available Open Access (see here). The collaboration with the Leiden team led also to my engagement with cognitive approaches in the conceptualization of ancient values, particularly patience/endurance.

This work on ancient values subsequently informed my engagement with transdisciplinary research on the role of religious sources in spiritual care. In response to the lack of a coherent interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of biblical studies and spiritual care, I initiated and now co-chair, together with Peter-Ben Smit, the SBL Annual Meeting program unit Biblical Studies and Spiritual Care: Intersections of Pastoral Praxis and Biblical Hermeneutics. The unit promotes methodologically rigorous research through sustained interdisciplinary collaboration and actively works in partnership with other SBL units and the AAR Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care unit. A volume on Biblical Interpretation and Spiritual Care in the Context of Healthcare has been accepted in Biblical Interpretation Series, and a second volume on the carceral context is in preparation. Several valorisation initiatives are also connected to this research project, such as the symposium The Bible in Prison; please feel free to contact me if you are interested in this line of inquiry.

For an updated overview of my publications, see my Research output.

My teaching history spans all academic levels. At the University of Trento, Italy (2004-2009) I designed and taught several courses in Greek and Roman History for advanced BA and MA students: Ancient Greek historiography of the Near-East: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia, Palestine; Ancient Judaism from a Greek perspective; Diaspora: Jewish Interaction in the Greco-Roman World; An introduction to Ancient Greek Religion; Ancient Greek divination; Early Christianity in the Roman empire; Roman Palestine: A Geographic and Archaeological Approach; Anti-Semitism in ancient Rome? Problem and Sources; An Introduction to Ancient Roman Religion; The Jewish Community of Ancient Rome. 

At Leiden University (2021-22 and 2023-24), I taught the (Res)MA course Shem in the Tents of Japhet: Exploring Cultural Negotiation in Greco-Roman Jewish-Greek Literature. 

In 2022, I was invited as a Visiting Professor at the University of Pavia, where I taught the MA course History of Judaism in the Roman Age.

At VU Amsterdam, I am the coordinator of the MA Track Exploring a Discipline and the coordinator of the BA Greek courses.

Moreover, I teach Greek II+ NT and Greek III, and co-teach the Reading Group NT Greek with Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, which is primarily aimed at PhD students but open to BA and MA students as well. 

Supervision

I am currently co-supervising four PhD students: Marie-Josée Fortin, whose research focuses on composite citations in the NT; Troy Bierma, working on embodied ecotheology; Ramy Shenouda, on the Samaritans in the New Testament; and Henk Veldhuijzen, on Hebrews 13.

I consider the supervision of PhD students as one of the most rewarding aspects of academic life and welcome projects in the area of  the Greco-Roman and Jewish backgrounds of the New Testament, Hellenistic Judaism, cognitive studies and the New Testament, the textual history of the Greek New Testament, and the intersection of biblical studies and spiritual care.

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