Kristian S. Heal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. His research focuses on the reception of the Hebrew Bible in early Christian literature and worship. He received a BA in Jewish History from University College London, an MSt in Syriac studies from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in Theology from the University of Birmingham. Prior to his current appointment, he was the Associate Director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (2017-2018), the Director of BYU’s Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (2004-2016), and the editor of BYU’s Eastern Christian Texts Series (2002-2018). He is the author of Genesis 37 and 39 in the Early Syriac Tradition (Brill, 2023) and co-editor of Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints, published by the Maxwell Institute. Kristian was also the resident scholar for the Maxwell Institute’s Abide podcast on the Old Testament (50 episodes).
For further information, see byu.academia.edu/KristianHeal
Books
Genesis 37 and 39 in the Early Syriac Tradition (Brill, 2023)
Jacob of Sarug’s Homily on Aaron the Priest (Gorgias Press, 2022)
Clavis to the Metrical Homilies of Narsai (Peeters, 2021). (with Aaron M. Butts and Sebastian P. Brock)
Edited Volumes
Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints (Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2022). (edited with Jason R. Combs, Mark D. Ellison, and Catherine Gines Taylor)
Narsai: Rethinking his Work and his World (Mohr Siebeck, 2020). (edited with Aaron M. Butts and Robert A. Kitchen)
Literature, Rhetoric, and Exegesis in Syriac Verse (Peeters, 2017). (edited with Jeffrey Wickes)
Breaking the Mind: New Studies in the Syriac Book of Steps (The Catholic University of American Press, 2014). (edited with Robert A. Kitchen)
Foundations for Syriac Lexicography IV: Colloquia of the International Syriac Language Project (Gorgias Press, 2014). (edited with Alison Salvesen)
Selected Book Chapter and Articles
“Early Christian Biblical Interpretation.” Pages 297–309 in The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition, edited by Taylor G. Petrey, Cory Crawford, and Eric Eliason. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2023. (with Carl W. Griffin)
“How the Book of Mormon Reads Ancient Religious Texts.” BYU Studies Quarterly 61.3 (2022): 103–121. (with Zachary Stevenson)
“Preaching Christ: Scripture, Sermons, and Practical Exegesis.” Pages 25–61 in Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints, edited by Jason R. Combs, Mark D. Ellison, Catherine Gines Taylor, and Kristian S. Heal. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2022.
“Syriac Studies in the Contemporary Academy: Some Reflections.” Pages 279-286 in Syriac Christian Culture: Beginnings to Renaissance, edited by Aaron Butts and Robin Darling Young. Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021.
“New Sources for the Armenian Commentary on Genesis Attributed to Ephrem.” Pages 522-532 in The Embroidered Bible: Studies in Biblical Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Honour of Michael E. Stone (Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha) edited by Lorenzo DiTommaso, Matthias Henze, and William Adler. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2018. (with John R. Manis)
“Catalogues and the Poetics of Syriac Manuscript Cultures,” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 20 (2017): 375-417.
“Patristic Writings in Early Mormon Periodicals,” in Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith’s Study of the Ancient World, eds. Lincoln Blumell, Matthew Grey & Andrew Hedges (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2015) 407-24.
“Joseph as a Type of Christ in the Syriac Tradition,” BYU Studies Quarterly 41, no. 1 (2002): 29-49.