Dr. David Anthony (“Tony”) Basham is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Assistant Director of Student & Program Development. From 2021–23, Tony was a Scholar-in-Residence with Ashland University’s Religion Department. As Assistant Director of Student & Program Development, Tony helps oversee the pre-seminary track for AU Religion majors and minors. After earning degrees at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Durham University in the North of England, Tony completed his Ph.D. in Early Judaism & New Testament Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Travel Award for McGill Ph.D. Students/Postdocs to the University of Glasgow, Scotland. From 2019–2021, he was an Assistant Researcher for the Oxford Press-funded Contexticon Project based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, having authored and contributed to several articles on the history of usage for New Testament Greek terms. In 2022, Tony was a Dirk Smilde Scholar at the University of Groningen’s Qumran Institute in the Netherlands, where he and others led a research seminar and gave public lectures on the use of ritual studies to better understand those behind the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Tony’s journey has made him particularly aware of certain challenges that students can face, especially first-generation students of higher education. A desire to study the Bible academically propelled him to be the first in his family from Appalachia to complete high school. Several church communities were instrumental in this regard through their patience and generosity. Furthermore, he knows what it is like to hold ministry positions while completing one’s education. For these reasons, Tony is committed to theological education that benefits the local church.
Tony and his wife, Mallonee, live in Ashland and have three children, Josephine, Lawrence and Philip.
Books
Paul, the Temple, and Building a Metaphor. LNTS (Library of New Testament Studies) 710. London: T&T Clark, 2024.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/paul-the-temple-and-building-a-metaphor-9780567718358/
Good and Pure: The Role of Conscience in Maintaining Early Orthodoxy. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, forthcoming 2025.
Book Chapter
“Turn the Cheek but Buy a Sword: Responding to Violence in Luke-Acts.” Religion and Violence in Western Traditions: Select Studies. Edited by André Gagné, Jennifer Guyver, and Gerbern S. Oegema. London: Routledge, 2021. https://www.routledge.com/Religion-and-Violence-in-Western-Traditions-Selected-Studies/Gagne-Guyver-Oegema/p/book/9780367474362.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“The Ransom Logion and the Cost of Discipleship in Mark.” Journal of Theological Interpretation 18.2 (2024).
“The Role of Conscience in Maintaining Early Orthodoxy.” Australian Biblical Review 72 (2024).
Encyclopedia Entries
Oegema, Gerbern S. and David Anthony Basham. “μονογενής » MONOGENES.” Contexticon of New Testament Language. General Editor, Richard M. Harley. Cambridge, MA: Contexticon Learning and Research, Inc., 2021. http://contexticon.com/.
Oegema, Gerbern S., David Anthony Basham, and Matheus de Carvalho. “νόμος » NOMOS.” Contexticon of New Testament Language. General Editor, Richard M. Harley. Cambridge, MA: Contexticon Learning and Research, Inc., 2021. http://contexticon.com/.
Oegema, Gerbern S., David Anthony Basham, and Matheus de Carvalho. “ὄνομα » ONOMA.” Contexticon of New Testament Language. General Editor, Richard M. Harley. Cambridge, MA: Contexticon Learning and Research, Inc., 2020. http://contexticon.com/.
Book Reviews
Basham, David Anthony, and Joseph K Griffith II. Review of Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies, by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird. Current (2024).
REVIEW: Jesus and the Powers
Uncut version: Jesus and the Powers (Review)
Review of Introduction to the New Testament: Reference Edition, by Carl R. Holladay. Arc—The Journal of the School of Religious Studies, McGill University 45 (2017): 203–4.
Conference Papers & Talks
Keynote speaker for The Brethren Church General Conference in Lancaster, PA, July 2024.
“The Desolating Sacrilege in Mark: What is it, and what does it mean for us?” Joint talk given at Ashland Theological Seminary with Craig Hovey (Professor of Religion at Ashland University), April 2024.
“Fixed or Malleable? Conscience in the Pauline Corpus.” Talk given at the Ashbrook Center of Ashland University, Ashland, OH, February 2023.
“Legacy Through Metaphor: Grafting the Nations into Israel’s Worship.” Paper presented at the Montréal Biblical Colloquium, Concordia University, QC, September 2022.
“Did the Corinthians Know? Analogy and Homology in the Ουκ Οιδατε Question.” Paper presented at the Midwest SBL Regional Meeting. Saint Mary’s College, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, February 2022.
“Torn Asunder: A Collision of Worlds in Mark.” Paper presented at TheOh: Theologians of Ohio. University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, October 2021.
“A Framework of Exchange in Mark.” Paper presented at the St Andrews Symposium on Atonement. St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, UK, June 2018.
“Health of Conscience in the Pastoral Epistles.” Paper presented at “Religion and Difference.” Brown University, Providence, RI, March 2018.
