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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 2h

For those of you who couldn't make it to the Wild Goose festival last month, here's a handy recording of my conversation with @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social about exciting Bible scholarship updates: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zCT...

youtube.com

Mary Magdalene Unbound with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer and Diane Butler Bass

YouTube video by Wild Goose (Wild Goose Festival)

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Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer

Bowie Snodgrass @bowiesnodgrass.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. #John11 #dailyoffice Was Martha added? Check out @libbiesp.bsky.social’s research

christiancentury.org

Signs of Mary Magdalene in John 11

“If John’s christological confessor is also the first person the risen Jesus appears to,” says biblical scholar Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, “that could make her a competitor to Peter’s...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

@joantaylor.bsky.social we did it!! We got the Bible changed! Honestly I wasn't even thinking about how the footnotes might change in Matthew 27 and Luke 8. These updated footnotes are in the brand-new third edition of the Jewish Annotated New Testament. Buy it here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Unexpected result of publicly transitioning from music to academia: someone named "Tony" is impersonating me with a "free piano" scam, e-mailing people to say that I am offering my "Yamaha baby grand piano for free." For the record, NOBODY can ever separate me from my piano - which is a Steinway! ;)

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Thanks to Broadview Magazine and @annetheriault.bsky.social for this nice feature about my research.

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

That is hotly contested :) Alas, we cannot know for certain because by the time of our manuscript record, both “true” Lukan and Marcionite readings had entered the transmission and were mixing. Marcion only used Luke (or “Proto-Luke,“ e.g. no birth narratives) and some of Paul’s letters. Not Mark.

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Oh gosh, every extant NT manuscript is almost certainly post Marcion!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

(Although the II/III cent. P137 should now be added to Mark)

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

PSA in case you didn’t know: Matthew and John were BY FAR the most popular gospels in early Christianity. (Helpful chart of extant manuscripts in Scott Charlesworth, Early Christian Gospels, pg. 8. Roman numerals indicate the century of production)

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

PS I do know the difference between scribes and editors, but interventional activity occurred on a spectrum; a usually-faithful scribe can still change something here and there (e.g. P75 in Luke 16:19). Since I'm interested in the text rather than the agents of change, I simply refer to "copyists."

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

So indeed, I believe that these variants "an vielen Orten von vielen Schreibern zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten in die Textüberlieferung gekommen sein." I'd be happy to send you the list of 1900 gospel variants if they interest you. (It's basically an English translation of the Nestle-Aland apparatus)

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I also catalogued every example of meaningful narrative change in gospel manuscripts of the 2nd-5th centuries (Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic). There are ~1900 of them. Admittedly more in Luke than the other gospels, but the non-"Western" Greek manuscripts show plenty of meaningful interventions.

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I'm interested in this comment from you: "Die redaktionellen Varianten können angesichts der relativen Konstanz der Verteilung nicht an vielen Orten von vielen Schreibern zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten in die Textüberlieferung gekommen sein." What do you mean by the "relativen Konstanz der Verteilung"?

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

My forthcoming monograph addresses exactly these issues. I argue that meaningful textual changes took place on a spectrum: copyists could alter a single letter, a single word, add or rewrite a phrase, rewrite a section, or rewrite a book.

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Happy feast day of St. Mary Magdalene! From the Mária Magdolna tower in Budapest 💗

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Reposted by Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer

Diana Butler Bass @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Happy Feast Day of Mary Magdalene! To celebrate, I'm sharing big news from @libbiesp.bsky.social about MM and the Gospel of John!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

And how does your model handle examples like the “Helen episode” in the Aeneid Book 2? The text underwent major interpolations, known and discussed by the grammarian Servius in the late 4th/early 5th century. (See Peirano's Rhetoric of the Roman Fake, 242-63) Or were Virgil's works not "protected"?

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

This factor isn't persuasive to me. Zenodotus, Aristophanes, and Aristarchus were editing the Homeric text after it was already considered "Scripture" (i.e. centuries after composition). At the origins, before any work had this kind of authority, the text was always vulnerable to intervention.

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I can access your article and I am reading it now. Thank you for calling it to my attention! Question: how does your model account for cases where the "last edits of the author" were considered unacceptable by competing Christian circles?

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

New Testament scholarship all too often avoids the very straightforward observation that "The modern category of one 'original' text or 'Urtext'...never existed in antiquity." Hezser articulated this all the way back in *2001* ! (From C. Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine, 434; photo 424)

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

New podcast episode out from Religion to Reality! Thanks to Dave Plisky and Fr. John Gribowich for taking the time to talk about my research. religiontoreality.org/podcast/the-...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Happy Fourth of July! 🎆 I think my husband just reached enlightenment...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

If you're interested in learning more about Women in the New Testament and Early Christianity, I'll be teaching an online course in July for @biblicalarchaeology.org. Details here: www.biblicalarchaeology.org/travel-study...

biblicalarchaeology.org

Women in the New Testament and Early Christianity

Learn More

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Big thanks to @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social for inviting me on her Substack, where we announced some big news today! www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW03...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

It's true! Villanova is hiring a tenure-track position in Eastern Christianity! Please share far and wide. aarsbl.org/job/tenure-t...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Looking forward to presenting at this conference tomorrow in Greenwich, CT! More details here: www.christchurchgreenwich.org/womens-confe...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

A nice Easter present: a hard copy of the Oxford Handbook of Mary Magdalene finally arrived in the mail!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

If you'd like to see the video of my presentation at the INTF in Münster last October, where I addressed various other authors' relevant contributions (including articles by Piotr Jutkiewicz, Richard Fellows, Darrell Post, and Ally Kateusz), it is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJdk...

youtube.com

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Exciting news: the Nestle-Aland committee decided to take my recommendations on updating the NA29 apparatus in John 11 to better reflect the issues around Martha. I'll be talking about these updates to the apparatus at the Johannine Literature panel at SBL in Denver. Hope to see some of you there!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

On April 18th I'll be presenting my research at Christ Church Greenwich's Annual Women's Conference. The keynote speaker is Kate Bowler. To register, follow this link: www.christchurchgreenwich.org/womens-confe... Hope to see some of you in CT!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

I've got two presentations coming up in the coming weeks: a lecture in New York City in February, and a retreat in Asheville, North Carolina in March. Details below. Hope to see some of you there!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Ooooh a new "Maria" changed to "Martha"! This is from a 12th-century drama attributed to Hilarius, a student of Abelard. Perhaps just a mistake - or perhaps a bit of confusion about which sister confessed Jesus as the Christ? ;) Thanks to Prof. Carol Symes for calling this to my attention!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Stopped by the @nationalgalleryuk.bsky.social yesterday on our long layover in London. My husband and I had to say hi to the Marys and Jesus!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Boston!

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I've got a new publication about Mary and Martha in John 11 out today in the latest issue of TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism. Enjoy! scholarlypublishingcollective.org/sblpress/tc/...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Missing the Forest for the Trees: A Response to Richard Fellows

Abstract. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer responds to a 2023 article by Richard Fellows.

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Reading James Barker's new book from @ebyrbooks.bsky.social and realizing that in many respects we are saying the same thing: the gospels were influenced by literary multiformity in Greco-Roman and Second Temple Jewish circles (although his perspective is source-critical, and mine is text-critical).

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Really lovely day today in Münster, Germany! I came here to present a boatload of new information to scholars at the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung, and gave a few recommendations for updates to the NA29 apparatus. 🤞🏻

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

All Americans need Turkey on Thanksgiving

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

We're looking forward to hosting Pete Enns from @theb4np.bsky.social Eastern U for the CBA's upcoming regional conference at Villanova in March! Want to join us? The call for papers is here: assets.noviams.com/novi-file-up...

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Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer @libbiesp.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Fascinating new piece by @allykateusz.bsky.social:"of the sixty-one surviving third and fourth-century pieces of art that securely depict one or more sisters at the Raising of Lazarus, fifty-nine depict one sister (96%) while only two depict two sisters (4%)" www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2025/9/...

ancientjewreview.com

Art as Text: When Mary Was Lazarus’s Sole Sister — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW

The question of how many sisters were portrayed with Jesus at the Raising of Lazarus in early Christian art has not previously been explored, and interestingly, the hypothesis that Martha was added la...

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