Rate My Professor Matthew Larsen

Matthew Larsen is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian History and Archaeology at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, a position to which he was appointed in December 2025. His research centers on the cultural and material histories of ancient Christian communities from the first to the fifth centuries CE, with particular emphasis on archaeology, material culture, and the history of incarceration. As Principal Investigator of the Prison Project—Materiality of Incarceration in Mediterranean Antiquity (2023–2026), funded by a Carlsberg Foundation Semper Ardens Accelerate grant—he leads efforts to survey ancient prisons, create 3D models, and catalog incarceration-related artifacts, informing studies in early Christianity, New Testament, ancient Judaism, classics, and beyond. Larsen earned a PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University (2017), MA and MPhil from Yale, ThM in New Testament (2006–2011), and BA in Economics from Texas A&M University (2006).

Prior to his Copenhagen tenure appointment, Larsen held faculty positions at Yale University (Lecturer, 2017–2018) and Princeton University (Lecturer and Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows, 2018–2021). His influential monograph, Gospels before the Book (Oxford University Press, 2018), received the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award, with an Italian translation forthcoming. Forthcoming works include Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration (University of California Press, 2025, co-authored with Mark Letteney) and a monograph on early Christians and incarceration. Key peer-reviewed articles feature “A Prison in Late Antique Corinth” (Hesperia, 2024), “A Roman Military Prison at Lambaesis” (Studies in Late Antiquity, 2021), “Christians and the Codex: Generic Materiality and Early Gospel Traditions” (Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2019), and “Carceral Practices and Geographies in Roman North Africa” (Studies in Late Antiquity, 2019). Larsen's scholarship has appeared in leading journals such as Journal for the Study of Judaism, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and Early Christianity, and has garnered media attention in The Daily Beast, CHOICE, and Christian Century. He engages the public through a major biography of Paul and a documentary series on Paul’s life premiering on Amazon Prime.