Isaac Oliver/de Oliveira

Biography

Isaac W. Oliver/de Oliveira is Brazilian-American Jewish (Reform) scholar and Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Bradley University. He earned his PhD in Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan and was a fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies in the Fall of 2012.

Oliver has authored numerous studies dealing with ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His books include, Torah Praxis after 70 CE: Reading Matthew and Luke-Acts as Jewish Texts (Mohr Siebeck, 2013) as well as Luke's Jewish Eschatology: The National Restoration of Israel in Luke-Acts (Oxford University Press, 2021). Currently, Oliver is working on a commentary on the Gospel of Luke for the Oxford Bible Commentary Series (Oxford University Press).

Oliver has studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as in France, Argentina, and Austria. He speaks English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Modern Hebrew. He is a citizen of the USA and Brazil, and is married to a French citizen. He also lived for six years in French Guiana.

At Bradley, Oliver has received several awards including the Bradley First Year Faculty Award (2014), the Bradley University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Notable Publication Award (2016), and the Student Senate Outstanding Academic Advisor of the Year (2017).

In the fall of 2016, Oliver founded "Talmud for Everyone," a bi-monthly event devoted to the study of the Talmud that is designed for non-Jews and Jews alike, which is held at the Bradley campus.

Teaching

• RLS 114 – Introduction to Judaism
• RLS 300 – Hebrew Bible
• RLS 302 – New Testament
• RLS 332 – Religions of the World II: Abrahamic Traditions
• RLS 313 – Rabbinic Judaism: Introduction to the Talmud
• RLS 350 – Topics in Religious Studies: Jewish and Christian Apocalypses

Scholarship

Books

• Torah Praxis after 70 CE: Reading Matthew and Luke-Acts as Jewish Texts. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/355. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, December 2013.
• Luke’s Jewish Eschatology: The National Restoration of Israel in Luke-Acts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• The Gospel of Luke. The Oxford Bible Commentary Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Under Contract.

Edited Volumes

• The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew.Co-edited with Gabriele Boccaccini. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018.
• Wisdom Poured Out Like Water”: Studies on Jewish and Christian Antiquity in Honor of Gabriele Boccaccini’s 60th Birthday. Co-edited with J. Harold Ellens, Jason von Ehrenkrook, James Waddell, and Jason Zurawski. Berlin: De Gruyter: 2018.
• New Perspectives and Contexts in the Study of Islamic Origins. Co-edited with G. Dye, M. Bjerregaard, and T. Tesei. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – Tension, Transmission, Transformation. Berlin: De Gruyter. Forthcoming.

Selected Articles

• Isaac W. Oliver and Veronika Bachmann. “The Book of Jubilees: An Annotated Bibliography from the First German Translation of 1850 to the Enoch Seminar of 2007.” Henoch 31.1 (2009): 123–64.
• “Simon Peter Meets Simon the Tanner: The Ritual Insignificance of Tanning in Ancient Judaism.” New Testament Studies 59.1 (2013): 50–60.
• “Forming Jewish Identity by Formulating Legislation for Gentiles.” Journal of Ancient Judaism 4.1 (2013): 105–32.
• “Jewish Followers of Jesus and the Bar Kokhba Revolt: Re-examining the Christian Sources.” Pages 109–27 in The Psychological Dynamics of Revolution: Religious Revolts. Vol. 1 of Winning Revolutions: The Psychology of Successful Revolts for Freedom, Fairness, and Rights. Edited by J. Harold Ellens. Praeger, 2014.
• “The ‘Historical Paul’ and the Paul of Acts: Which Is More Jewish?” Pages 51–71 in Paul the Jew: A Conversation between Pauline and Second Temple Scholars. Edited by Carlos A. Segovia and Gabriele Boccaccini. Fortress, 2016.
• "Messianic Jews and the Early Jewish Followers of Jesus,” Hebrew Studies Journal 57 (2016): 201–209.
• “Matthieu est-il plus juif que Luc?” Judaïsme ancien/Ancient Judaism 5 (2017): 109–145.
• "The Calling of Paul in the Acts of the Apostles,” Pages 179–91 in The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew. Edited by Isaac W. Oliver and Gabriele Boccaccini. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018.
• "Are Luke and Acts Anti-Marcionite?” Pages 499–525 in Wisdom Poured Out Like Water”: Studies on Jewish and Christian Antiquity in Honor of Gabriele Boccaccini’s 60^th Birthday. Co-edited with J. Harold Ellens, Jason von Ehrenkrook, Isaac W. Oliver, James Waddell, and Jason Zurawski. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018.
• “When and How Did the Ekklēsia Split from the Synagogue?” In The Jewish Roots of Christianity, ed. Gerald McDermott. Bellingham: Lexham, 2021.
• “Standing under the Mountain: Jewish and Christian Threads to a Qurʾānic Construction.” In New Perspectives and Contexts in the Study of Islamic Origins. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – Tension, Transmission, Transformation. Berlin: De Gruyter. Forthcoming.