Matthew Goff
Professor of Religion
Distinguished Research Professor
Contact Information
Religions of Western Antiquity
Faculty
Office Location
415/417 Diffenbaugh
Email
Resume / CV
Curriculum Vitae442.61 KB
Office Hours
By appointment only
Matthew Goff joined the faculty of the Department of Religion in 2005. He completed an M.T.S degree in 1997 at Harvard Divinity School and finished his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2002. Goff studied under John Collins and wrote a dissertation on a Qumran text entitled 4QInstruction. His publications focus on the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient Judaism. His most recent book is "The Apocrypha: A Guide" (Oxford, 2024). Goff's current book project is on demons and monsters in ancient Judaism and early Christianity.
Research Interests
Apocalypticism
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Second Temple Judaism
- “The Expansive Wisdom of a Great Sage: Is There a Book of Ben Sira in Rabbinic Literature?” in Teaching and Learning the Norms of Life and Faith: Pedagogues, Educators and their Heritage in Abrahamic Religions (ed. Catalin-Stefan Popa; Seraphim; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2025), 15-41.
- “Odd Conspiracies: John Allegro, Sacred Mushrooms, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Religions 16 (2025) (special issue, “On the Origins of Western Psychedelia: Exploring Allegro’s The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross”).
- “All in the Family: The Book of Tobit, the Legend of Ahiqar, and the Cultural Politics of Kinship in the Hellenistic Age,” in Missing Pieces: Essays in Honour of Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar (ed. Arjen F. Bakker et al.; STDJ 152; Leiden: Brill, 2025), 218-41.
