Timothy Brookins, PhD

School of Christian Thought
Classics and Biblical Languages
  • Professor of Early Christianity
  • Program Coordinator, Biblical Languages (BA, MA), Classics (BA)
  • Program Coordinator, Classics and Early Christianity (MA)

Education

  • PhD, Religion / New Testament, Baylor University
  • Post-Bacc, Classics, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
  • MDiv, Biblical Languages, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
  • BS, Communications, James Madison University

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to the New Testament
  • Greek Grammar I
  • Greek Grammar II
  • Greek Readings and Syntax I-II
  • Advanced Studies in Greek
  • Latin I
  • Latin II
  • Latin Readings in Vergil
  • Latin Readings in Roman Philosophers
  • Introduction to the Old Testament
  • Western Civilization I
  • Pauline Epistles (graduate class)
  • Apostolic Fathers (graduate class)
  • Second Temple Judaism (graduate class)
  • Classics and Christianity (graduate class)
  • Greco-Roman Philosophy (graduate class)
  • Greco-Roman Religions (graduate class)

Teaching Focus

Dr. Brookins specializes in early Christianity, with a primary specialization in the Pauline epistles. Other areas of interest include Greco-Roman philosophy and Greco-Roman rhetoric.

Publications

Books:

Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Corinthians. Eerdmans, 2024.

Rhetoric and the Style of Paul’s Letters. Cascade, 2022.

First and Second Thessalonians. Paideia. Baker Academic, 2021.

Reading 1 Corinthians. Reading the New Testament. Smyth & Helwys, 2020.

1 Corinthians: A Handbook on the Greek Text. With co-author Bruce W. Longenecker. Waco, Tx.: Baylor University Press (2016).

Corinthian Wisdom, Stoic Philosophy, and the Ancient Economy. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Select articles

“From Analogy to Identity: Did an Association of Leather-Workers ‘Turn’ into the Thessalonian Church?” Pages 271-87 in Associations, Deities, and Early Christianity. Edited by Bruce W. Longenecker. Baylor University Press, 2022.

“The Alleged ‘Letter Allegedly from Us’: The Parallel Function of ὡς δι’ ἡμῶν in 2 Thess. 2.2.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 44 (2022).

“An Obligation of Thanks (2 Thess 1,3): Gift and Return in Divine-Human Relationships.” Zeitschrift für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 112 (2021): 201-217.

“A Tense Discussion: Understanding Greek Indicative Verbs through Cognitive Linguistics.” Journal of Biblical Literature 137 (2018): 141-165.

“Greco-Roman Ideas on Anthropology.” Pages 43-63 in Anthropology and New Testament Theology. Edited by Jason Maston and Benjamin E. Reynolds. Library of New Testament Studies. T & T Clark, 2017.

“‘Natural Hair’: A ‘New Rhetorical’ Assessment of 1 Cor 11:14-15.” Pages 173-195 in Paul and the Greco-Roman Philosophical Tradition. Edited by Joseph R. Dodson and Andrew W. Pitts . Library of New Testament Studies. T & T Clark, 2017.

“Economic Profiling of Early Christian Communities.” Pages 57-88 in Paul and Economics. Edited by Thomas Blanton and Ray Pickett. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2017.

“(Dis)Correspondence of Paul and Seneca on Slavery: A Sociological Perspective.” Pages 179-207 in Paul and Seneca in Dialogue. Edited by Joseph R. Dodson and David E. Briones. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

“Paul and the Ancient Body Metaphor: Reassessing Parallels.” Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 4 (2016): 75-100.

“‘I Rather Appeal to Auctoritas’: Roman Conceptualizations of Power and Paul’s Appeal to Philemon.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 77 (2015): 302-321.

“The Supposed Election of Officers in 1 Cor 11.19: A Response to Richard Last.” New Testament Studies 60.3 (2013): 423-432.

“The (I)nfrequency of the Name ‘Erastus’ in Antiquity: A Literary, Papyrological, and Epigraphical Catalog.” New Testament Studies 59.4 (2013): 496-516.

“Luke’s Use of Mark as Παράφρασις: Its Effects on Characterization in the ‘Healing of Blind Bartimaeus’ Pericope (Mark 10:46-52/Luke18:35-43).” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34.1 (2011): 70-89.

“In Paul’s Defense: The Contribution of Cramer’s Catena to the Early Reception of Paul in Acts” (with Peter Reynolds and Mikeal Parsons). In Paul and the Heritage of Israel. Vol. 2. T & T Clark, 2012.