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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Our next lecture will be Prof. Hindy Najman (Oxford) who will present on the topic "Prophetic Ends: Vitality and Interpretation in Ancient Judaism" (Wednesday, 21 October, 6pm CET). Please email me (mateusz.kusio[at]kuleuven.be) to receive the invite. See you there!

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The series "Prophecy, Divination, Verification and Failure in Antiquity and Beyond" off to a great start. We have heard Matthew Dillon takes on a tour of Delphi and other Greek oracular sites to show us how they interacted--and were remembered to interact--with their clients. youtu.be/ovtekYsqUQg

youtu.be

WHEN THE ENQUIRER MISINTERPRETS: Veracity and Prophetic Non-Fulfilment in Greek Oracular Divination

YouTube video by New Perspectives on the Delay of the Parousia

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

First online public lecture happening today! Matthew Dillon (University of New England), "When the Enquirer Misinterprets: Veracity and Prophetic Non-fulfilment in Greek Oracular Divination"; 5pm (CET) on Zoom. Drop me a line (mateusz.kusio[at]kuleuven.be) in order to receive the link

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Please contact me (mateusz.kusio@kuleuven.be) to receive the Zoom invitation. Hope to see many of you in the audience!

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Friday, 28 May 2027, 3pm Roland Boer (Chinese International Experts Bureau), The Interim Becomes the Norm: How Socialism was Transformed from a Brief Transition to a Long Historical Phase +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Wednesday, 5 May 2027, 5pm David Cook (Rice University), When/Where in the Week Is It? Specific Predictions and Their Failure During the First Islamic Centuries +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Wednesday, 14 April 2027, 5pm Hauke Rietsch (Brunel), Science, Risk and Prophecy Friday, 23 April 2027, 5pm Todd Lawson (Toronto), Protology, Eschatology, and the Seal of the Prophets in the Quran +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Friday, 19 February 2027, 9am (note the hour) Michael Hanaghan (ACU), Imperial Prophecy in Ammianus’ Res Gestae Friday, 5 March 2027, 5pm James Crossley (Cambridge), Apocalypticism and the Development of Radical Traditions +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Friday, 5 February 2027, 5pm Tucker Ferda (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), Process Eschatologies, Interim Periods, the Question of Delay in Christian Origins +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Friday, 15 January 2027, 5pm Robert Wiśniewski @relicsclerics.bsky.social (Warsaw), To Catch a Thief: On Late Antique Thieves, Policemen, Neighbours, and Unexpected Benefits of Divination +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Wednesday, 21 October 2026, 6pm Hindy Najman (Oxford), Prophetic Ends: Vitality and Interpretation in Ancient Judaism Friday, 6 November 2026, 4pm Lindsay Driediger-Murphy (Calgary), Wake Up Dead Man: Talking Corpses and Other Misdirections in Roman Divination +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

All times CET. Friday, 2 October 2026, 5pm Matthew Dillon (University of New England), When the Enquirer Misinterprets: Veracity and Prophetic Non-fulfilment in Greek Oracular Divination +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The series offers a panoramic view of the ways in which ancient (and late) mantic and predictive techniques were verified and falsified. Lectures, scheduled across the 2026–27 academic year, will be held on Zoom and open to the public. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Feel invited to attend all or any of the sessions in this new online public lecture series, entitled "Prophecy, Divination, Verification, and Failure in Antiquity and Beyond", which I am organising within the framework of my FWO project "New Perspectives on the Delay of Parousia" +

Poster of a new lecture online public lecture series, organised within the framework of my research project “New Perspectives on the Delay of the Parousia”, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO; grant number: 1214026N). Lectures, scheduled across the 2026–27 academic year, will be held on Zoom and open to the public.

Prophecy, Divination, Verification, and Failure in Antiquity and Beyond

(all times CET)

Friday, 2 October 2026, 5pm
Matthew Dillon (University of New England), When the Enquirer Misinterprets: Veracity and Prophetic Non-fulfilment in Greek Oracular Divination

Wednesday, 21 October 2026, 6pm
Hindy Najman (Oxford), Prophetic Ends: Vitality and Interpretation in Ancient Judaism

Friday, 6 November 2026, 4pm
Lindsay Driediger-Murphy (Calgary), Wake Up Dead Man: Talking Corpses and Other Misdirections in Roman Divination

Friday, 15 January 2027, 5pm
Robert Wiśniewski (Warsaw), To Catch a Thief: On Late Antique Thieves, Policemen, Neighbours, and Unexpected Benefits of Divination

Friday, 5 February 2027, 5pm
Tucker Ferda (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), Process Eschatologies, Interim Periods, the Question of Delay in Christian Origins

Friday, 19 February 2027, 9am (note the hour)
Michael Hanaghan (ACU), Imperial Prophecy in Ammianus’ Res

Friday, 5 March 2027, 5pm
James Crossley (Cambridge), Apocalypticism and the Development of Radical Traditions

Wednesday, 14 April 2027, 5pm
Hauke Rietsch (Brunel), Science, Risk and Prophecy

Friday, 23 April 2027, 5pm
Todd Lawson (Toronto), Protology, Eschatology, and the Seal of the Prophets in the Quran

Wednesday, 5 May 2027, 5pm
David Cook (Rice University), When/Where in the Week Is It? Specific Predictions and Their Failure During the First Islamic Centuries

Friday, 28 May 2027, 3pm
Roland Boer (Chinese International Experts Bureau), The Interim Becomes the Norm: How Socialism was Transformed from a Brief Transition to a Long Historical Phase

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Pleased to see my article on the weird walking trees in Mark 8:24 (and beyond) out now in the most recent issue of JSNT. Let me know if you'd like a copy. doi.org/10.1177/0142...

The beginning of the article: Title: Mark 8.24—An Apocalyptic
Vision? Author: Mateusz Kusio, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium. Abstract: The article offers a new interpretation of the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida in Mark 8.22–26, and especially his vision of walking trees in verse 24. The argument
begins with a survey of premodern reception and critical scholarship on the episode, revealing the lack of engagement with the blind man’s vision of the trees. It is then put into the context of references to humans and human groups as trees and plants in the Second Temple Jewish literature. The Markan blind man is shown to have received a very brief apocalyptic vision of walking trees, typical of the imagery of other visionary reports contained in the pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The conclusion of the argument summarizes the interpretative insights relating to Mk 8.22–26 and the second Gospel more generally.
Keywords: Apocalyptic literature, Gospel of Mark, Mark 8.22–26, Second Temple Judaism, trees

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Colleagues at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (Toruń, PL) have an exciting opening for a 36-month long postdoc in Greek literature within a new project on book circulation in late antiquity. See www.umk.pl/en/jobs/?tas... for details. Note the deadline: 02 Oct 26.

Screenshot of a job posting referenced in the post. The content is as follows: Offer No.: 4973

Institution: Faculty of Humanities

City: Toruń

Position: assistant professor (adjunkt) - research staff

Discipline: The Field of the Humanities - Literary Studies, The Field of the Humanities - History

Posted: 2026-09-03

Expires: 2026-10-02

Keywords: Ancient Greek literature, Byzantine literature, ancient history, Ancient Greek language, digital humanities, post-doc project NCN

Description (field, expectations, comments): The competition is open to persons who meet the conditions set out in Article 113 of the Act of 20 July 2018 - Law on higher education and science (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 1668) and the following qualification criteria:
The job offer concerns a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher position within an NCN-funded research project “Networks of Book Circulation and the Making of Reading Communities in Late Antiquity” led by Dr Marta Szada (m.szada@umk.pl).

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Had a wonderful #SNTS meeting @durham.ac.uk, first one since I became an associate member last year. Met, listened to, and learnt from colleagues and friends, presented a short paper on my current project, and visited the Hadrian's Wall, including the stunning #Vindolanda

SNTS General Meeting program book, with the Durham University bag and a lecture theatre in the background

Durham Cathedral seen from the river bank

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Had the pleasure over the last two days to contribute to the conference on post-mortem existence in honour of Loren T. Stuckenbruck, a brilliant scholar of Second Temple Judaism and a dear friend, on the occasion of his 65th birthday, held @lmu.de. Congrats to the organisers and to Loren!

Poster of the conference, listing the organisers and speakers, at the backdrop of a fresco of Enoch from an Ethiopian church.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Thoroughly enjoyed my first day at @imc-leeds.bsky.social. Do join us on Thursday, online or in person, for three excellent sessions on future insight and its discontents in the long late antiquity. The Leeds bunny for attention

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Reposted by Mateusz Kusio

Francesca Stavrakopoulou @proffrancesca.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I’d love it if you’d sign this. It might not prevent me and my colleagues losing our jobs, but it will draw attention to the ideological vandalism being perpetrated by the wealthy execs running our university. Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter - sign the petition below! c.org/NpvY4sR9gH

c.org

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

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Reposted by Mateusz Kusio

The CLAIM & GenAut Projects @receptionmatters.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Come work with the CLAIM team in the new ERC project in Vienna! Apply here: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Postdoct... Details CLAIM.univie.ac.at/ @erc.europa.eu | @univie.ac.at | @etf-univienna.bsky.social

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Send your abstracts by the end of this week!

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Happy to see the publication of my article "Nathanael, the Fig Tree, and the Retrieval of Johannine Polysemy", available in open access in the forthcoming issue of NTS, exploring the significance of the fig tree in the story of calling of Nathanael (John 1:48). doi.org/10.1017/S002...

A screenshot of the beginning of the article entitled "Nathanael, the Fig Tree, and the Retrieval of Johannine Polysemy", authored by Mateusz Kusio and coming out in the New Testament Studies. Contains the following abstract: "The article argues that the reference to the fig tree under which Jesus claims to have seen Nathanael (John 1.48) has not been satisfactorily discussed by previous critical interpreters. Instead, the tree should be understood against the backdrop of Second Temple and later Jewish and Christian exegetical discussions about what species the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil exactly was. After tracing these debates in ancient and early medieval sources, including iconography, the argument moves on to show the interpretative possibilities created by this proposal. The conclusion makes a case for understanding the Fourth Gospel as an inherently open work which invites the audience to actively participate in a variety of exegetical discourses, and whose author function builds its authority through polysemy."

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

- Early Christian eschatology and divinatory practices; - Late antique approaches to divination, oracles, and the knowledge of the future; - Eschatology in the Quran and apocalyptic reactions to the rise of Islam.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Potential topics of presentations include (but are not limited to): - Greek and Roman public and private mantic practices (oracles, prodigies, lot divinations, oneiromancy, etc.) in late antiquity; - Jewish Rabbinic attitudes towards the future and eschatology; +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Neoplatonic philosophers challenged Christian future insight and sought to reinvent the significance of oracular texts. The rise of Islam with its own eschatological valence challenged the Mediterranean world to revisit the questions of insight into the future and of the end of the world. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Rabbinic Judaism decidedly turned away from the eschatological speculation of the Second Temple period, but retained a memory of it. Early Christianity developed different strategies of coming to terms with its apocalyptic heritage and with its shifting imperial context. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Late Antiquity, far from being a time of decline and anxiety, was a period of new, exciting, and competing visions and ways of studying of the future. Traditional oracular shrines sought to reinvent themselves, while private mantic practices abounded. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

CfP 'Contested Prophecies, Uncertain Futures - Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Views of the Future in Late Antiquity' @ Late Antique Encounters Conference, Ghent, 3-5 February, 2027 Please send in your abstracts (<300 words) and a brief academic CV to mateusz.kusio[at]kuleuven.be by 10 May, 2026. +

Poster for the CfP 'Contested Prophecies, Uncertain Futures - Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Views of the Future in Late Antiquity' @ Late Antique Encounters Conference, Ghent, 3-5 February, 2027. Images contain a 16th-century Dutch print of the Erithrean Sibyl, as well as the logos of the Ghent Centre for Late Antiquity, KU Leuven, and FWO. The text is identical to the one contained in this thread.

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Reposted by Mateusz Kusio

NT at Oxford @nt4ox.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

2026-29 postdoc Junior Research Fellowship in Theology & Religious Studies, Trinity College, Oxford. Candidates with PhDs submitted Oct 2023-May 2026 and with no comparable prior appointment. Deadline 21 January 2026, interviews 16 March. nt4ox.link/JRF-TrinOx26

nt4ox.link

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Super excited to have the new strand "Future Insight and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (200–900 CE)" accepted for next year's @imc-leeds.bsky.social! Come join us on Thursday, 9 July

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

REMINDER IMC '26 CfP for a new strand Future Insight and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (200–900 CE) Proposals of ca. 200 words, along with a short academic bio, should be sent to Mateusz Kusio (mateusz.kusio@kuleuven.be) by 15 September, 2025.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

It's beginning to look a lot like the publishing process is slowly coming to an end! My edition of Commodianus hopefully out next year with OUP

Draft cover for "Commodianus: Introduction, Text, Translation, Commentary", edited and translated with scholarly commentary by Mateusz Kusio, fortcoming in the Oxford Early Christian Texts series with Oxford University Press

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Proposals of ca. 200 words, along with a short academic bio, should be sent to Mateusz Kusio (mateusz.kusio@kuleuven.be) by 15 September, 2025.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

– strategies of verifiability; – strategies of coping with non-fulfilment; – divination; – magic and its use for ascertaining the future; – cross-cultural and cross-regional approaches and comparisons; – insights from gender studies and cognitive psychology. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

The (non-exhaustive) list of topics to be considered includes: – traditional pagan oracles in late antiquity; – perceptions of future uncertainty; – prophecy; – apocalypticism and eschatology; – astrology; – philosophical (neo-Platonic, patristic, early scholastic) discussions of mantic knowledge; +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

This new session at IMC 2026 will create a space for a joint investigation of late antique and early medieval mantic techniques, prophecy, apocalypticism, astrology, magic, and the like. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

However, the need to circumscribe future uncertainty remained, creating a space for new and renewed technologies and discourses intended to offer humans future insight. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

The period in question, marked by the rise of Christianity and later Islam, saw a considerable shift in how future was conceptualised and interacted with. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

IMC '26 CfP for a new strand Future Insight and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (200–900 CE) We invite proposals for papers interrogating the methods and outcomes of acquiring future insight in the cultures of Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

The project is jointly supervised by Professors Johan Leemans from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and Geert Roskam from the Faculty of Arts to whom I am immensely grateful for their support and guidance.

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

On the other hand, ancient Jewish literature talks about prophets, whose predictions failed, and reinterprets earlier oracles to ensure their relevance. Early Christians relied on and enriched this wider discourse in their thinking about the delay of the Parousia." +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

My research will show that some of these ways were derived from the broader cultural context. Greeks and Romans had to come to terms with the fact that their oracular consultations and divinatory practices often yielded manifestly false results. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Ancient Christian literature does not display an overwhelming anxiety about the fact that Jesus’ Second Coming (Parousia) had not occurred as predicted (although some traces of such a concern do survive). This suggests that Christians found ways of dealing with this issue. +

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Mateusz Kusio @mateuszkusio.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

From the abstract: "My project, will answer the following question: how was it possible that early Christianity, founded on the belief that its key figure, Jesus of Nazareth, would soon return to earth, survived the failure of this prediction and became a major religion? +

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