Associate Professor Kylie Crabbe

Biblical and Early Christian Studies

Kylie Crabbe

Areas of expertise: New Testament, including gospels and Acts; Second Temple Judaism; non-canonical acts; apocalypses; Greek and Roman historiography; genre; disability studies; gendered violence and domestic abuse in antiquity; intersectional studies of early Jewish and Christian literature including gender; reception history.

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5223-4138

Phone: +61 3 9230 8397

Email: kylie.crabbe@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

BA, BTheol, AdvDipMin, MTheol, DPhil (Oxon.)

Kylie Crabbe is Associate Professor of Biblical and Early Christian Studies in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. She joined ACU in late 2017 from the University of Oxford, where she undertook her doctorate and was Lecturer in Theology at Trinity College (2015-2017), Instructor in New Testament Greek for the Faculty of Theology and Religion (2016), and Assistant Welfare Dean at Trinity College (2017). She is also a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia. Kylie has published and taught widely in New Testament studies and Second Temple Judaism, including her 2019 monograph Luke/Acts and the End of History, and 2021, edited with John M.G. Barclay, The Reception of Jewish Tradition in the Social Imagination of the Early Christians. She has particular interests in understandings of time, hope, and eschatology in antiquity, emotions in historical work, and disability and intersectionality in biblical studies and ancient and contemporary settings. She holds a current Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (2022-2026) for her project 'Inside Others: Early Christian Protagonists and Their Impairments' (DE220101054). And she is lead Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (2025–2027) ‘Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean’ (DP250100603), with colleagues at ACU, ANU, University of Auckland, Loyola Chicago, and Baylor University.

Kylie is available to supervise Honours, Masters, and PhD students, and welcomes inquiries from students wishing to pursue research into the texts of the New Testament, their Graeco-Roman, Jewish, and early Christian literary and material environments, and the texts of Second Temple Judaism, as well as other hermeneutical approaches such as reception history, gender, or disability studies. Her recent and current doctoral students have worked in purity and holiness in Matthew's Gospel, politics and eschatology in Luke and Acts, early Christian portraits of intimacy between women, gender and gender inequality in the household codes of Ephesians, textual criticism of Ephesians, and feminist interpretation of Judges. All prospective graduate students are strongly encouraged to contact Kylie by email prior to submitting their application directly to the University. The Discovery Project ‘Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean’ is also currently inviting applicants for funded PhD places. Please get in touch if you would like to explore this opportunity with us!

Kylie is also a member of ACU's Gender and Women's History Research Centre.

Academia profile

Select publications

Books

  • Co-authored monograph, with Helen Bond, Heike Omerzu, Sarah Parkhouse, and Catrin Williams, Crafting Lives of Jesus: How the Gospels Interact with the Biographical Genre. London: Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming.
  • Edited with Christine Joynes, Reconfiguring Biblical Disability: Reception Historical Studies of Disability and the Bible. Scriptural Traces series. London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming.
  • Edited with David Lincicum, Divine and Human Love in Jewish and Christian Antiquity. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament I.523. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024.
  • Edited with John M.G. Barclay, The Reception of Jewish Tradition in the Social Imagination of the Early Christians. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2021.
  • Luke/Acts and the End of History. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 238. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019.

Journal articles and essays

  • “The Stone that Will Crush” (Luke 20.18): Insights from Daniel in Luke/Acts.’ Pages 205–28 in Luke and Acts with(in) Judaism. Edited by Isaac Oliver, Joshua Scott, and Jocelyn McWhirter. Berlin: Brill de Gruyter, forthcoming
  • Crabbe, Kylie. “Temporalities in the Ancient Mediterranean.” Pages 215–33 in The World of the New Testament: Encountering Texts in Context. Edited by David Dielontko, Tobias Nicklas, Lily C. Vuong, and Predrag Dragutinović. Minneapolis: Fortress, forthcoming 2026.
  • Crabbe, Kylie. “Eschatology in Luke and Acts.” In Oxford Handbook of Luke-Acts. Edited by Gregory E. Sterling and Michal Beth Dinkler. New York: OUP, forthcoming.
  • ‘Reimagining Ability and Disability in the New Testament Infancy Narratives’. In Reconfiguring Biblical Disability: Reception Historical Studies of Disability and the Bible, ed. Crabbe and Joynes. London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming.
  • 'The Anti-Father and His Silent Sons: Disability, Healing, and Critique in the Acts of John.' Harvard Theological Review 117.1 (2024): 113–137 [Open Access].
  • ‘Luke, Acts, and Their Generic Conversation Partners.’ Early Christianity 15.1 (2024): 27–49.
  • 'Who Will Love More? Loving Rightly as Discipleship Response in Luke.' Pages 71–89 in Divine and Human Love in Jewish and Christian Antiquity. Edited by Kylie Crabbe and David Lincicum. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament I.123. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024.
  • ‘Domestic Sexual Abuse in Early Christianity: Conflations of Violence and Desire in the Acts of John.’ Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies2 (2023): 163–74 [Open Access].
  • 'Oneness, Unity, and Josephus's Theological Politics.' Pages 145–67 in One God, One People: Oneness and Unity in Early Christianity. Edited by Stephen C. Barton and Andrew J. Byers. SBLRBS. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2023.
  • 'Character and Conflict: Who Parts Company in Acts?' Pages 141-73 in Jews and Christians: Parting Ways in the First Two Centuries CE? Reflections on the Gains and Losses of a Model. Edited by Jens Schröter, Benjamin Edsall, and Joseph Verheyden. BZNW 253. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021.
  • "'The Blind and the Lame': An adapted Category in early Christian Communal Self-Understanding." Pages 107-28 in The Reception of Jewish Tradition in the Social Imagination of the Early Christians. Edited by John M.G. Barclay and Kylie Crabbe. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2021.
  • 'Gospels and Acts.' Pages 206-32 in The Biblical World. Revd. ed. Edited by Katharine Dell. Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2021.
  • 'The Generation of Iron and the Final Stumbling Block: The Present Time in Hesiod's Works and Days 106-201 and Barnabas 4.' Pages 142-66 in Four Kingdom Motifs before and beyond the Book of Daniel. Edited by Loren Stuckenbruck and Andrew Perrin, with the assistance of Shelby Bennett and Matthew Hama. Themes in Biblical Narrative 28. Leuven: Brill, 2020.
  • 'Accepting Prophecy: Paul's Response to Agabus with Insights from Valerius Maximus and Josephus.' Journal for the Study of the New Testament 39.2 (2016): 188-208.
  • 'Being Found Fighting Against God: Luke's Gamaliel and Josephus on Human Responses to Divine Providence.' Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 106.1 (2015): 21-39.
  • 'A Sinner and A Pharisee: Challenge at Simon's Table in Luke 7:36-50.' Pacifica 24.3 (2011): 247-266.

Encyclopedia entries

  • 'Partiality, Impartiality New Testament.' In Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Constance M. Furey, Peter Gemeinhardt, Joel Marcus LeMon, Thomas Chr. Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish, Eric Ziolkowski. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter (forthcoming).
  • 'Lystra.' Pages 273-76 in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Allison, Helmer, Schröter, Römer, Seow, Walfish, and Ziolkowski. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2019; vol. 16.
  • 'Lasea.' Page 830 in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Allison, Helmer, Schröter, Römer, Seow, Walfish, and Ziolkowski. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2017; vol. 15.

Projects

Australian Research Council funded projects

Additional projects

  • 2024–2026, ‘Biblical Disability: Recast and Remembered.’ Funded by the Australian Research in Theology Foundation Inc. $8000.
  • 2022-2026, ‘Flourishing in Early Christianity,’ (partnering with Durham University and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, as well as an international reference group). CI in the Strand, 'Health: Being and Feeling Well.'
  • 2021-2023, ‘The Wakeful Night: Nocturnal Imagination, Encounters, and Emotions in the Late Ancient Mediterranean,’ (with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions).
  • 2017-2021, 'Texts, Traditions, and Early Christian Identities,' (with KU Leuven and Durham University).

Accolades and awards

  • 2025–2027 ARC Discovery Project Lead CI
  • 2023 Short-term fellowship with “Beyond Canon: Heterotopias of Religious Authority in Late Antique Christianity,” University of Regensburg, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
  • 2022-2026 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
  • 2016 James William Squire Bursary
  • 2015 The Revd Alan Stockbridge Award
  • 2015 Crewdson Trust Award
  • 2012-2015 Clarendon Fund and Keble College Sloane-Robinson Scholarship

Appointments and affiliations

  • Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University (Senior Research Fellow 2020–2023; Research Fellow, 2017–2020)
  • Acting Director, Biblical and Early Christian Studies Program, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, and Acting Associate Dean of Research (multiple, short-term periods 2019–present)
  • Director of Graduate Research Programs, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University (2020–2023)
  • Coordinator, Graduate Student Experience, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University (2021–2023)
  • Associate Teacher, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity (2017–present)
  • Lecturer in Theology, Trinity College, University of Oxford (2015–2017)
  • Assistant Welfare Dean, Trinity College, University of Oxford (2017)
  • Instructor in New Testament Greek, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford (maternity cover, 2016)
  • Editorial Assistant, Journal of Theological Studies (2013–2016)

Professional memberships and select committees

  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK
  • Chair, Gospel of Luke Program Unit Steering Committee, Society of Biblical Literature (2022–present, committee member since 2018)
  • Elected member, Faculty Board, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, ACU
  • Chair, Research Capacity Task Group, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University (2022–2023)
  • Deputy Chair, Vice-Chancellor’s Priority Working Gropu on Higher Degree by Research Programs, ACU (2021–2022)
  • Chair, Diversity and Inclusion working group, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Dianoia Philosophy Institute, and Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University (2019–2021)
  • Steering Committee, Centre for Reception History of the Bible, University of Oxford (2016–2017)
  • Member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (elected 2022), the Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies, Australasian Society of Classical Studies, Enoch Seminar, Society of Biblical Literature, Fellowship of Biblical Studies, North American Patristics Society

Editorial boards

  • Novum Testamentum, Brill (2024–present)
  • Early Christianity and Its Literature, monograph series, Society of Biblical Literature (2024–present)
  • Library of the New Testament Studies Monograph Series Editorial Board, Bloomsbury/T&T Clark (2023–present)
  • Journal of Theological Studies, Oxford University Press (2021–present)

Grant agency review panel

  • Australian Research Council peer reviewer (2021–present)

Select public engagement

Find Kylie on Twitter and Bluesky at: @kycrabbe

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