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 PhD 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 PhD 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 two children, Josephine and Lawrence.
Selected Publications
“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.
“The Ransom Logion and the Cost of Discipleship in Mark” (2024). Article forthcoming with the Journal of Theological Interpretation (Penn State Press).
“The Role of Conscience in Maintaining Early Orthodoxy” (2024). Article forthcoming with the Australian Biblical Review.
Paul, the Temple & Building a Metaphor. Book proposal approved. Manuscript in progress.
Conference Papers
“Legacy Through Metaphor: Grafting the Nations into Israel’s Worship.” Presented at the Montréal Biblical Colloquium, Concordia University, QC, 2022.
“Did the Corinthians Know? Analogy and Homology in the Ουκ Οιδατε Question.” Presented at the Midwest SBL Regional Meeting. Saint Mary’s College, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, 2022.
“Torn Asunder: A Collision of Worlds in Mark.” Presented at TheOh: Theologians of Ohio. University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, 2021.
“A Framework of Exchange in Mark.” Presented at the St Andrews Symposium on Atonement. St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, UK, 2018.
“Health of Conscience in the Pastoral Epistles.” Presented at “Religion and Difference.” Brown University, Providence, RI, 2018.
