Skip to main content
Professor Joan Taylor
Professor Joan Taylor

Professor Joan Taylor

Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism

Research interests

  • Religion

Biography

After a BA degree at Auckland University, New Zealand, Joan completed post-graduate studies at the University of Otago and then went to the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (Kenyon Institute) as Annual Scholar in 1986. She undertook a PhD at New College, Edinburgh University, and was appointed in 1992 to a position of lecturer (subsequently senior lecturer) at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, in the departments of both Religious Studies and History. In 1995 she won an Irene Levi-Sala Award in Israel’s archaeology, for the book version of her PhD thesis, Christians and the Holy Places (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993, rev. 2003). In 1996-7 she was Visiting Lecturer and Research Associate in Women’s Studies in Religion at Harvard Divinity School, a position she held in association with a Fulbright Award. She has also been Honorary Research Fellow in the Departments of History and Jewish Studies at University College London. She has taught at King’s College London since 2009.

Research interests and PhD supervision

Joan’s approach is multi-disciplinary; she works in literature, language, history and archaeology. She has written numerous books and articles in her fields of interest.

  • The New Testament and other early Christian texts within their wider social, historical and cultural contexts, with a special interest in archaeological evidence.
  • The historical figures of Jesus of Nazareth, John the Baptist, Judas Iscariot, Paul, Pontius Pilate, Mary Magdalene, and other New Testament persons, both in terms of the ancient evidence and how they have been constructed over time, including in modern literature and film.
  • Second Temple Judaism, particularly the Jewish legal schools (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, ‘Zealots’) and popular religious movements.
  • The Dead Sea Scrolls and the archaeology of Qumran.
  • Alexandrian Judaism, Philo of Alexandria, and the ‘Therapeutae’
  • Women and gender within early Judaism and Christianity, especially regarding women in leadership roles.
  • Jewish-Christianity and early Christian constructions of history and orthodoxy.
  • Comparative Graeco-Roman religion and philosophy: literary, epigraphical and archaeological evidence.
  • The archaeology and history of Christian holy places and travel to Palestine over the centuries, with special interest in the sites of Golgotha, Gethsemane, Eleona, Nazareth, Capernaum and Bethlehem, as well as historical geography.
  • Reception exegesis: using creative artefacts to reflect on texts and history.

For more details, please see her full research profile.

Teaching

Joan is a historian who teaches in early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism.

Expertise and public engagement

Joan regularly works in media and gives public talks. 

Selected publications 

What did Jesus look like? Taylor, J. E., 8 Feb 2018, 1st ed. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.

Jesus and the Mechanics of Empowerment Taylor, J., 2020, Revolutionary: Who was Jesus? Why does he still matter?. Holland, T. (ed.). London: SPCK Publishers, p. 1-33

Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life: Introduction, Translation and Commentary Taylor, J. & Hay, D., 2020, Leiden: Brill. (Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series)

Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian Taylor, J. E. (ed.), 10 Sep 2015, 1st ed. Bloomsbury T&T Clark.

The Essenes, the Scrolls and the Dead Sea Taylor, J., 5 Feb 2015, Revised Paperback ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Research

    herobanner.jewish-studies-new
    Jewish Studies at King's

    Jewish Studies at King’s is an interdisciplinary network of students and scholars associated with King’s College London. Our research draws on anthropology, history, linguistics, literary studies, religious studies, sociology and related fields to explore Jewish life from antiquity to the present moment.

    medieval england main
    Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies

    Interdisciplinary centre for the study of late antique and medieval history, languages, philosophy, religion, literature and music in western and eastern Europe.

    presentPasts
    presentPasts

    Across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, King’s academics study cultural interactions across time and the transhistorical traditions that often frame, foster, and shape them.

    News

    Professor Joan Taylor nominated for Jewish Studies book prize

    Judges for the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies (BIAJS ) book prize give Joan Taylor honourable mention.

    Joan Taylor at BIAJS awards

    Dead Sea Scroll fragments thought to be blank reveal text

    New research has revealed that four Dead Sea Scroll manuscript fragments housed at The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library, which were previously...

    All of these small pieces were unearthed in the official excavations of the Qumran caves

    Prof Joan Taylor discusses Mary Magdalene on BBC4

    Professor Joan Taylor discusses Mary Magdalene on BBC4 with Dr Joanne Anderson, Lecturer in Art History at the Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Study),...

    Professor Joan Taylor writes for the BBC about the appearance of Jesus

    Professor Joan Taylor provides a summary of her talk on the appearance of Jesus from the Arts and Humanities Fabrication Festival for the BBC online magazine.

    Leverhulme International Network Grant Success for Qumran Caves Dispersed Artefacts and Archives Project

    The Leverhulme Trust has agreed to fund a new international initiative entitled The Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Caves Artefacts and Archival...

    Professor Joan Taylor gives a talk at annual ideacity conference

    Professor Taylor discussed her book ‘What did Jesus Look Like?’ which offers new representations of Jesus based on historical findings.

    Image: Professor Joan Taylor

    Features

    Dead Sea Scrolls: how we accidentally discovered missing text

    The 2,000-year-old scrolls were found in the Qumran caves next to the Dead Sea in the 1940s.

    Dead Sea Scroll findings

      Research

      herobanner.jewish-studies-new
      Jewish Studies at King's

      Jewish Studies at King’s is an interdisciplinary network of students and scholars associated with King’s College London. Our research draws on anthropology, history, linguistics, literary studies, religious studies, sociology and related fields to explore Jewish life from antiquity to the present moment.

      medieval england main
      Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies

      Interdisciplinary centre for the study of late antique and medieval history, languages, philosophy, religion, literature and music in western and eastern Europe.

      presentPasts
      presentPasts

      Across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, King’s academics study cultural interactions across time and the transhistorical traditions that often frame, foster, and shape them.

      News

      Professor Joan Taylor nominated for Jewish Studies book prize

      Judges for the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies (BIAJS ) book prize give Joan Taylor honourable mention.

      Joan Taylor at BIAJS awards

      Dead Sea Scroll fragments thought to be blank reveal text

      New research has revealed that four Dead Sea Scroll manuscript fragments housed at The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library, which were previously...

      All of these small pieces were unearthed in the official excavations of the Qumran caves

      Prof Joan Taylor discusses Mary Magdalene on BBC4

      Professor Joan Taylor discusses Mary Magdalene on BBC4 with Dr Joanne Anderson, Lecturer in Art History at the Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Study),...

      Professor Joan Taylor writes for the BBC about the appearance of Jesus

      Professor Joan Taylor provides a summary of her talk on the appearance of Jesus from the Arts and Humanities Fabrication Festival for the BBC online magazine.

      Leverhulme International Network Grant Success for Qumran Caves Dispersed Artefacts and Archives Project

      The Leverhulme Trust has agreed to fund a new international initiative entitled The Network for the Study of Dispersed Qumran Caves Artefacts and Archival...

      Professor Joan Taylor gives a talk at annual ideacity conference

      Professor Taylor discussed her book ‘What did Jesus Look Like?’ which offers new representations of Jesus based on historical findings.

      Image: Professor Joan Taylor

      Features

      Dead Sea Scrolls: how we accidentally discovered missing text

      The 2,000-year-old scrolls were found in the Qumran caves next to the Dead Sea in the 1940s.

      Dead Sea Scroll findings