James Murphy

James Murphy is an Associate Professor of Religion and Associate Director of the School of American and Global Studies at South Dakota State University (SDSU). He holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Interpretation from the University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology (2011), an M.A. in Religious Studies from Missouri State (2000), and a B.A. in History and Social Science Education from Evangel University (1998). His research focuses on children in the biblical world of antiquity, a pioneering field he has contributed to since the 2000s. He explores themes such as kinship, sexuality, asceticism, and Greco-Roman religions, with a specialization in Jewish sectarian texts of the Second Temple period and the Jesus movement's portrayal of childhood.

Academic responsibilities include teaching courses like Introduction to Religion, Old Testament, New Testament, and The Gospels/Historical Jesus. Professional memberships include the Society of Biblical Literature. Murphy has co-led study abroad programs in Greece and participated in archaeological excavations at Banias, Israel. His work emphasizes deconstructive literary analysis and interdisciplinary approaches to biblical texts, particularly examining the socio-religious contexts of children in early Christian and Jewish writings.

His scholarly awards include the 2017 Hendrickson Scholar/Cheever Lecture Award. Research outputs span monographs, peer-reviewed articles, and book chapters analyzing children’s roles in texts like 1 Enoch, Jubilees, the Synoptic Gospels, and the hypothetical Q source. Current projects investigate Jewish sectarian documents from the Second Temple period in relation to childhood studies.