Dr. Michael B. Cover

Dr. Michael B. CoverMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 312

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-7648michael.cover@marquette.edu

Professor

Theology Department (Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity)

Henri de Lubac Chair in Theology (2022-2025)

“Trained as a Classicist and New Testament Scholar, I am drawn to the peripheries of the canon—Philo of Alexandria, on the one hand, and the Apostolic Fathers, on the other—as well as to their later Christian reception. If I am not always working within the Temple itself, then at least, in J.B. Lightfoot’s words, on ‘the immediately outlying buildings’—or, as Clement of Alexandria has put it, on ‘the mysteries before the mysteries’.”

Michael Cover is Professor of New Testament and coordinator of the Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity area. His research investigates the development of early Christian theology within the triple matrices of Second Temple Judaism, Hellenistic philosophy, and classical literature. Following his first book on Paul and the Corinthian Correspondence, current New Testament projects focus on the theology and literary artistry of Luke-Acts, the Fourth Gospel, and the Apostolic Fathers. In early Judaism, Cover’s chief focus is the corpus of Philo of Alexandria and its reception from Clement and Origen to Ambrose and Ps.-Dionysius. Having completed a commentary on Philo’s De mutatione nominum for the Brill Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, as well as an edited volume on Philo and Hellenistic Philosophy, Cover has begun work on a second commentary on all three books of Philo’s Legum allegoriae. He is editor of The Studia Philonica Monograph Series and serves as the program unit coordinator for the Philo of Alexandria Seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature. Before coming to Marquette, Cover was a Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at Valparaiso University. He was awarded the 2016 Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship. His work has been supported by the Catholic Biblical Association and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is a priest in the Episcopal Church, Affiliated Minister at Marquette, and served on the most recent round of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the USA (ARC-USA).

Education

A.B. Harvard University (The Classics) 

M.St. University of Oxford (Greek Language and Literature) 

M.Div. Yale Divinity School 

Dipl. Anglican Studies, Berkeley Divinity School 

Ph.D. University of Notre Dame (Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity) 

Courses Taught

Undergraduate Courses

• Introduction to Theology
• Methods of Inquiry: The Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien
• Miracles
• Theology Engaging Culture: Letters from Prison
• University Core Capstone: The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice
• Theology Capstone: The Paschal Mystery

Graduate Seminars

• The Apostolic Fathers
• The Fourth Gospel
• The Works of Philo (Hellenistic Backgrounds of the NT)
• Luke-Acts and Historiography
• Paul’s Epistle to the Romans
• The Corinthian Correspondence

Publications

Books (Author)

Philo of Alexandria: On the Change of Names. Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. PACS 8. Leiden: Brill, 2024.

Lifting the Veil: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 in Light of Jewish Homiletic and Commentary Traditions. BZNW 210; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015.

Books (Edited)

Philo of Alexandria and Philosophical Discourse. Edited with Lutz Doering. Ioudaioi 14. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2024.

The Studia Philonica Annual 32 (2020). FS Gregory E. Sterling. Edited with David T. Runia. Atlanta: SBL Press.

Bridging Scripture and Moral Theology: Essays in Dialogue with Yiu Sing Lúcás Chan, SJ. Edited with Joshua Ezra Burns and John Thiede, SJ. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2019.

Selected Recent Articles and Book Chapters

“Luke-Acts and the Transfiguration of History.” The New Ressourcement 2/2 (2025): 342–74.

“Three Riffs on the Same Sophia? Philo, Paul, and Ptolemy on Wisdom as a Divine Person.” Pages 63–86 in Embodying the Tradition: Essays in Memory of Joseph Mueller, S.J. (1960-2023). Edited by Andrei Orlov. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2025.

“Origen.” Pages 76–92 in The Reception of Philo of Alexandria. Edited by Courtney Friesen, David Lincicum, and David Runia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.

“Symbolic Purity and the Temple of the Soul in Philo’s Allegorical Commentary.” Pages 323–43 in Purity in Ancient Judaism: Texts, Contexts, and Concepts. Edited by Lutz Doering, Jörg Frey, and Laura von Bartenwerffer. WUNT 528. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2025.

“Philo of Alexandria, Eunomius, and Gregory of Nyssa on Divine Names and Power(s).” Pages 103–122 in New Narratives for Old: Reading Early Christian Theology Using the Historical Method. Edited by Anthony Briggman and Ellen Scully. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022.

“The Conversion and Return of Simon Peter.” Pages 131–49 in Celebrating the Work of Arthur Darby Nock: Choice, Change, and Conversion. Edited by R. Matthew Calhoun, James Kelhoffer, and Clare Rothschild. WUNT 472. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.

“Historically, Was Jesus’s Mother from a Priestly Family?” Pages 127–42 in The Figure of Jesus in History and Theology: Essays in Honor of John Meier. Edited by Kelley Coblentz Bautch and Vincent Skemp. CBQ Imprints 1. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2020.

“Philo’s ‘Confessions’: An Alexandrian Jew between Nothing and Something.” SPhiloA 32 (2020): 113–35.

“The Death of Tragedy: The Form of God in Euripides’s Bacchae and Paul’s Carmen Christi.” Harvard Theological Review 111 (2018): 66–89.

“The Divine Comedy at Corinth: Paul, Menander, and the Rhetoric of Resurrection.” New Testament Studies 64 (2018): 532–50.

“A New Fragment of Philo’s Quaestiones in Exodum in Origen’s Newly Discovered Homilies on the Psalms? A Preliminary Note.” SPhiloA 30 (2018): 15–29.

“Paulus als Yischmaelit? The Personification of Scripture as Interpretive Authority in Paul and the School of Rabbi Ishmael.” Journal of Biblical Literature 135 (2016): 611–631.

Honors and Awards

Henri de Lubac Chair in Theology (2022-2025), Marquette University

Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (Elected Athens, 2018)

Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2018-2019), Universität Münster

Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship (2016), Society of Biblical Literature

Additional Information

Office Hours - Fall 2025

Office Hours: https://michaelcover.youcanbook.me/  
Tues 12:30-3:30pm
Thurs 12:00-2:00pm