iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It was a great experience with so many people who are dear to me—including @jrrdodson who gets the photo credit. 😊

Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yesterday I presented at the Logos Institute Research Seminar here at @divinitysta. More on messiahs, but this time considering the theological implications for my research on our christologies.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We (@divinitysta) are hiring in systematic theology! The role is at .8 FTE for two years, covering for a staff member during a grant. (Since it is .8 FTE, only those with the right to work in the UK should apply.)

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Just finished my first lecture of the year in "Bible through the Ages." Grateful to be starting my second year at @divinitysta and my ninth (!) year of full-time teaching.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This may be my favourite start to an article that I've ever seen. (The first paragraph is also the abstract!)

J. A. T. Robinson's "ELIJAH, JOHN AND JESUS"
Opening lines (and abstract!)I have called this an essay in detection. That means it is a tale of some mystery and still more imagination. It must be left to the reader to decide whether it should properly be classed as detective fiction.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Saturday marked one year since my ordination (and about one year since we left Michigan). It is such a privilege to serve God through my role at St Andrews. I am hopeful that this year also will hold more preaching and teaching as we continue to settle into our new context.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Well, at present my two SBL papers are literally 35 minutes apart. 🫠 Perhaps I should be grateful since I almost always have absolutely no voice by Monday and Tuesday... But this might be a little too snug.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Today I'm writing about Elijah and the Prophet in the Gospels. I started this paper for the upcoming #BNTS meeting with a few pieces of evidence in hand. But I've found way more than I expected (partly because I'm way less conversant with Gospels scholarship). I'm having so much fun. 😊

From Wikimedia: The Saviour's Transfiguration, icon. Ab. 1403, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Author unknown (until recently it was believed that the icon was painted by Theophanes the Greek).

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

It was very exciting to receive proofs back on this essay – the first I'm publishing related to my work on messiahs. The volume is available for pre-order and should be out early 2027. (Link below.)

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Melchizedek, for one, and 1 Enoch’s “son of man, for another. The compositional history of some of the Psalms related to servant traditions also illustrate just one way that modern scholarship inserts or at least overemphasizes Davidic traditions.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I showed how servant traditions are used consistently in relationship to Jesus’ ministry instead and how the uses of those traditions (in the NT and beyond) sometimes intersect with messiah language. I also showed how some other traditions often appear adjacent to servant trads:

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

In it I argued that some errors are pretty persistent in scholarship: 1. Many assume messiah language primarily evokes royal ideologies. 2. Many assume servant traditions primarily evoke themes related to “suffering.” (And that *this* is what’s “new” in the NT.)

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I am at the train station on my way back to Scotland. SNTS in Durham has been wonderful. I love the city and felt right at home, and all the more with lots of loved ones around. Beyond time with them, I really enjoyed presenting another paper from my messiah book.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Thank you so much, Dan. I’m so grateful for you too, and I really miss y’all in the classis (and TRC).

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Reposted by Madison N Pierce

Alexiana Fry @alexianafry.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Thankful to have joined the good folks over at The Two Cities podcast (@madisonpierce.bsky.social, @brandonhurlbert.bsky.social, and John Anthony Dunne) to talk about Esther Keeps the Score. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Today marks one year since we found out we were moving to Scotland. We experienced this as God's gracious redemption of an unjust situation, and we remain so grateful.

Me standing on the Isle of May looking out at the Firth

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

*In what way* is Jesus like Melchizedek? The testimony is that they are priests who live (Heb 7:8).

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Some problems: The author doesn't innovate in presenting Jesus as a priest. That's a common expectation for a messiah. Unless one claims Hebrews introduces the interp of Ps 110, the author merely answers questions implied by the identification of this figure with Jesus.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

People say: 1. Hebrews finds Ps 110:4 to prove the "innovative" idea that Jesus is a high priest. 2. Hebrews' use of Psalm 110 (broadly) is derivative of other early Christian authors. These are competing claims if Jewish interpreters take contexts of verses quoted seriously.

A photo of a Mosaic of Melchizedek from our recent trip to Ravenna

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Planned a library day at a crucial point in my research. Every biblical studies book is blocked off… The best laid plans of mice and Madison oft go awry.

A sign in the library that says “area closed”

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I’ve had this happen, and I disclose the situation to the editor and see what they think. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

So before you come after the SBC: Mind own your plank first. Their decision is representative of something much bigger that we can’t ignore any longer.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I mean, come on, it’s a real conversation in the US whether women should be allowed to vote. And “moderate” men platform a man who wrote an article entitled “How Women Ruined the Workplace” for the *New York Times* (Douthat). Fringe publication?

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

And I’ve heard so many of the spaces I’ve been in prop up the SBC and say, “at least I’m not them…” But those spaces get rid of women who speak up and who challenge powerful men too. They prop up women who enforce the hierarchy *just enough*.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I’ve been asked a lot how I feel about the SBC decision. In short, I’m not surprised. But our houses are not in order. What worries me is: my lack of surprise isn’t because it’s the SBC. It’s because it’s *everywhere* that women are losing the ground that took decades to gain.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I tried really hard to get this allusion into the commentary. Alas, the tweet will have to do…

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Those can be really valuable tools. I’m enjoying producing my own translation and diagramming the Greek. It’s a good encouragement to slow down.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Striving/Diligence/Exercise produces endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't fall away; they just don't.

static.klipy.com

Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods: Happy People Quote

Alt: Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods: Happy People Quote

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Becoming "unsluggish" as a result of hard work is perhaps as strange as hard work preventing sluggishness; however, the prior, I think, makes sense in light of the training imagery to come in Heb 12, in addition to accounting for 5:11 better.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Today I was writing about Heb 6:11–12 – "we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish" (NRSVue).

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Aspects of commentary writing are tough for me. (I often feel constrained by the genre.) But I am so grateful for the chance to think carefully about how every verse in Hebrews hangs together. I notice things that I've never noticed before.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

And for those who can't imagine a Research Excellence Framework convo being pleasant (🙃): We bracketed out our feelings about its value and modus operandi to speak together about how to assess research across different areas in Theology and Religion. I found it very fruitful.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Spent yesterday talking REF with my lovely colleagues at St Mary's I'm really grateful that I so often (perhaps always) walk away from them feeling valued and yet inspired to continue to grow as a teacher and scholar. That's precisely what I want from a School/Department.

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Reposted by Madison N Pierce

Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Journal for the Study of the New Testament Vol. 48, No. 4 (2026) journals.sagepub.com/toc/jnta/48/4 @lcbmphd.bsky.social @madisonpierce.bsky.social

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

I hope my work on messianism demonstrates this clearly (when it's done...), but in the meantime, as I've said before, a similar phenomenon occurs with references to Yom Kippur in the NT, especially in Hebrews.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Something like Hays' criteria of recurrence is applied over and over, but ultimately this is circular. The poorly substantiated allusions reinforce one another.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

These forced allusions flatten their use of Scripture and by extension their theology. With NT "messianism," this happens constantly; so many texts are interpreted through a messianic network of texts that arguably didn't exist in the first century.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

IOW, my reading *also* has theological significance, which is sometimes how the validity of allusions is judged... (wrongly) The forced messianic allusion represents a common move in NT scholarship, one where the NT authors only read Scripture for its latent christology.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

But it's a bad allusion, & the verse in Revelation has no messiah language. The verse doesn't have any clear messianic associations. Why is this deemed a plausible reading? Alternatively, my reading works from a literary perspective and happens to identify Jesus with the "Lord."

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

So I checked out some technical commentaries on Revelation & found that they instead argue for a reference to a classic "messianic" text – one with neither verbal parallels nor connections in the context. Suddenly, the text in Revelation becomes "messianic."

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

When writing on the double-edged weapon of Hebrews 4:12, my current projects (my commentary & messiah book) converged. I was looking at the similar weapon in Revelation & identified a likely allusion – substantiated through verbal parallels & other allusions in the context.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Yesterday I wrapped up my first of (D.v.) many, many years teaching here at St Andrews! We're still so thankful to be here and eager to enjoy a summer full of hikes, camping, bike rides, and visits from loved ones.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Last night I dreamed that SBL (in getting smaller) became a catered conference. Dinner and lunch was provided at one place and inexpensive. But then in Dreamland some very random people from high school etc. were suddenly SBL people and ate with me.

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

This was my favorite series for a while! And I definitely watched the first show too. I’ve been thinking about whether our daughter would enjoy them. She loves fantasy, but save intersections like Zelda, I’m not sure she’s spent time with much Sci-Fi (regrettably!).

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Madison N Pierce @madisonpierce.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

My work stands downstream of this. We both endeavor to show that the author's interpretations are fitting, but I am operating in an era where scholarship on Scripture in Hebrews is by no means rare.

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