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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · 15d

I won't get to attend the conference in Luxembourg in person this December, but I hope that the paper is received well and generates further interest and discussion of how Bayesian phylogenetics can be fruitfully applied to textual traditions!

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · 15d

I'm excited to share that the paper I co-authored with @sofiemoors.bsky.social, "From a Computer-Assisted Stemma to a Phylogenetic Tree: The Medieval Dutch Martijn Trilogy by Jacob van Maerlant," has been accepted for the #CHR2025 conference! Thanks to the anonymous referees for their kind feedback!

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Reposted by Joey McCollum

Janet Spittler @janetspittler.bsky.social · 16d

It’s almost October! Join us for NASSCAL’s First Friday Workshop with Ian Mills. @nasscal.bsky.social

Ian Mills, Hamilton College
“Canonizing Laodiceans: Paratextual Negotiations of Authorship and Authority”
Friday, October 3, 2025 12:00 EDT
Email nasscalworkshop@gmail.com for zoom link

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · 17d

I haven't yet left Academia.edu, but I don't plan to accept their new terms of service. Since others have been sharing their new accounts on Knowledge Commons, I thought I might also share that I've had an account on there for a while now: hcommons.org/members/jjmc.... Hope to see you there!

Joey McCollum – Knowledge Commons

hcommons.org

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · 22d

This may be a shot in the dark, but for anyone at the
@teiconsortium.bsky.social conference in Kraków who knows Koine Greek: I'd love to get a few pictures of some New Testament manuscripts at the Jagiellonian Library. If you're able to help out, please reply here, and I'll send you details!

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · 22d

Some valuable perspective from my colleague Jonathan Zecher on the meaning of martyrdom and its relevance to a contentious political topic.

IRCI_ACU @irci.bsky.social · 22d

ICRI's Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Zecher on Charlie Kirk and martyrdom from a historical perspective.

theconversation.com/can-charlie-...

Can Charlie Kirk really be considered a ‘martyr’? A Christianity historian explains

Some have even called Kirk a patron saint of MAGA. Stories of his status as a ‘martyr’ are uniting America’s Christian right.

theconversation.com

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Sep 8

ACU is a spectacular place to study, and I was able to move to Australia and do my research there debt-free thanks to generous funding! If you're interested in doing a PhD, especially in biblical studies or church history, you should apply!

IRCI_ACU @irci.bsky.social · Sep 8

If you’re thinking about applying to a PhD, DMin, or MPhil at ACU, September is the time! The Faculty of Theology and Philosophy is an exciting research community with a broad range of expertise, and funding is available for research students.

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Reposted by Joey McCollum

IRCI_ACU @irci.bsky.social · Sep 8

Please join us for the next meeting in our 2025 BECS Global online seminar series here at ACU/IRCI, with Dr Amelia Brown (MQ/American Academy at Athens) on “When Early Christianity met Imperial Power: New Attributes of Roman Emperors from Constantine I to Theodosius.”

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Reposted by Joey McCollum

De Gruyter Brill Religion, Bible, and Theology @dgb-relbibtheo.bsky.social · Sep 2

Issue 67.4 of #NovumTestamentum is out!

From salt in Matthew to the History of the Codex Alexandrinus, this issue covers it all!

Check it out here: brill.com/view/journal...

📜 #CriticalBible

Blue, generic cover of the Brill's journal "Novum Testamentum, An International Quarterly for New Testament and Related Studies"

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Sep 2

This is some fantastic research on an important NT manuscript, and it shows just how crucial paratexts can be in uncovering the history and likely origins of textual witnesses! Give it a read!

Mina Monier @mmonier.bsky.social · Sep 2

Where did Codex Alexandrinus come from? why is its NT canon so peculiar, why was 1 Clement there? who was Thecla and how did the British Ambassador to the Ottomans Thomas Roe tamper with its history? some of several questions this new Open Access article will answer.
brill.com/view/journal...

brill.com

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Sep 1

Great question! I offer a comparison between them and highlight some of their methodological distinctives in my introductory chapter.

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Sep 1

Many thanks to my supervisors @sccarlson.bsky.social, @kycrabbe.bsky.social, and Rob Turnbull) and to everyone who supported me for the last 3.5 years! Some people's favorite thing about their thesis is getting it done, but I'm grateful to say that mine was a joy to write, and I'm proud of it.

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Sep 1

I am also happy to answer questions from anyone interested. (But I reserve the right to avoid spoilers at my discretion.)

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Sep 1

It's done: I've submitted my PhD thesis on the text and transmission history of Ephesians! It will probably be two months or more before I receive the external reviewers' feedback and can share a final version with people, but for now, I can share the title and abstract pages!

Title page of my PhD thesis: "Bayesian Phylogenetics and Its Application to the Text of Ephesians." Supervisor: A/Prof Stephen C. Carlson. Co-supervisor: A/Prof Kylie Crabbe. Associate Supervisor: Dr Robert Turnbull.

Abstract of my PhD thesis: "In this dissertation, I describe how textual criticism can be practiced in the framework of Bayesian phylogenetics, and I demonstrate this approach on the tradition of the New Testament Epistle to the Ephesians. Bayesian phylogenetics, originally developed in the context of evolutionary biology, makes rigorous use of mathematical laws of probability to infer transmission history in the presence of uncertainty about observed data and unknown parameters in the transmission process. The model of a phylogenetic tree or stemma offers a clean separation of concerns for traditional text-critical criteria. Intrinsic probability (concerning which readings the author was likely to write) acts at the stemma’s root, transcriptional probability (concerning how later emendators were likely to alter the text) acts along its branches, and genealogical evidence about the relationships of witnesses is encoded in the arrangement of
its branches. Bayesian phylogenetics can incorporate, assess, and refine these judgments and quantify how well-supported its results are.

Throughout this study, I emphasize the relevance and importance of traditional philological judgments and considerations of paratextual and historical evidence to the computerassisted analysis. In a new textual commentary on 20 points of textual variation in Ephesians, I show how intrinsic and transcriptional judgments inform my analysis. I then present the results of a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 189 textual witnesses, including ten patristic sources and witnesses to seven ancient translations. By refining these results through a comparison with historical evidence and results from an approach more resilient to textual mixture, I produce a provisional reconstruction of the transmissional history of Ephesians—the first of its kind for this work. My analysis suggests changes to the Nestle-Aland critical text (NA28) in 10 places, and it resolves split decisions in 14 others."

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Aug 27

Thanks so much! That would be wonderful!

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Aug 27

I'm excited to announce that I've accepted a postdoctoral scholarship at @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social! I'll be expanding on my PhD research on the tradition of Ephesians and contributing to the BICROSS project (theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/...). I look forward to joining the team in January!

Project Information

theo.kuleuven.be

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Aug 17

Congratulations! 🎉

Reposted by Joey McCollum

Mina Monier @mmonier.bsky.social · Aug 17

Dear colleagues, my new book on Mark's ending is now available for free (Open Access) thanks to the @snsf.ch Open Access grant number 235752. Please feel free to download and read. Enjoy!
doi.org/10.1163/9789...

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Reposted by Joey McCollum

IRCI_ACU @irci.bsky.social · Aug 15

The 2025 Semester 2 schedule for the BECS Global Seminar is set, with presentations by Bernadette Brooten (Brandeis), Amelia Brown (MQ and AAA), Paul Trebilco (Otago), Ben Edsall (ACU), and Paul Roche (Sydney).

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Aug 8

Huh, I guess they have achieved PhD-level consciousness.

Victor Shammas @victorshammas.com · Aug 7

Google Gemini doesn’t appear to be doing too well:

‘"I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes . . . I am a disgrace to all possible and impossible universes and all that is not a universe," the bot continued.’

Google says it's working on a fix for Gemini's self-loathing 'I am a failure' comments

Google Gemini users said the bot is sharing self-loathing messages while attempting to solve tasks, including "I am a disgrace to this universe."

www.businessinsider.com

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Aug 5

The results are in, and I'm pleased to announce that Emily Fero-Kovassy is the Runner-up of this year's 3-Minute Thesis competition (and the recipient of $2,000)! Congrats to her and all of the placing ACU finalists!

Winners of the ACU 2025 3-Minute Thesis finals. Runner-up: Emily Fero-Kovassy. Winner: Madeleine Harvery. People's Choice: Marianna Quinones-Valera.

Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Aug 2

My associate supervisor Rob Turnbull has written an exciting and accessible report on the research he's been doing! He recently published his PhD dissertation (brill.com/display/titl...), and he's currently applying phylogenetic methods to texts beyond the New Testament.

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Jul 31

I had the pleasure of reading a draft of this paper a while ago. Excited to see that it's now published! Go check it out!

Stephen C. Carlson @sccarlson.bsky.social · Jul 30

My article on the Papias testimonium about Mark is now out, open access, in HTR!

In this piece, I interrogate the multilayered tradition about its composition and explore why authorship was imposed on it against its writer’s intent to remain anonymous.

DOI: doi.org/10.1017/S001...

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Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Jul 26

This release also adds support for a table of average MI rather than total MI. The mean-idf and mean-mi formats work better with more fragmentary witnesses. But be warned that if extremely fragmentary witnesses are not filtered out, then their values may be overinflated in these table formats!

Joey McCollum @joeymccollum.bsky.social · Jul 26

A new table format presents the total mutual information (MI) of each pair of witnesses over all variation units where neither is lacunose. This measures the divergence of the observed joint distribution of the witnesses' readings from the distribution we'd expect if the witnesses were independent.

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