Theology and the Faculty of Divinity may be Dr Arjen Bakker’s academic home, but the Gonville & Caius College Fellow’s interest has not always been close to home.

“I come from a secular background. I knew very little about religion until I went to university and decided I wanted to study it,” Dr Bakker says.

His research focuses on Jewish literature in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek from the Persian and Greco-Roman periods, early Jewish liturgy, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

He takes new findings into account to re-tell the story of Judaism in antiquity.

“A lot of my work is through reading of texts. Some texts are discovered at ancient sites, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls,” he adds. “Many of the texts are in fragments, and it’s about trying to make sense of what they mean, in context. Comparing textual records with material culture. Trying to understand the way people thought and read, the way rituals were practised.”

Dr Bakker completed his PhD at University of Leuven in Belgium and was a lecturer in the Hebrew Bible in Oxford for three years before moving to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands where he taught for four years. He joined Caius in October 2024 and is the University’s Assistant Professor in Second Temple Judaism.

The University of Cambridge’s Cairo Genizah Collection – the world’s largest and most important single collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts – is a welcome resource, while Cambridge has a strong history of theological research. At Caius, Dr Bakker works alongside the Dean, The Revd Dr Carolyn Hammond, a renowned scholar in Theology and Classics, and the College offers the Cook-Crone Bye-Fellowship to scholars. It is named after Stanley Cook, Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Professor Patricia Crone, University lecturer in Arabic. One former Cook-Crone Fellow, Professor Aaron Koller, has just taken up the position of Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge and is returning to Caius as a Fellow in October.

Dr Bakker is working on a book about the early history of Jewish worship, at a time when most religions were focused on temples and sacrifice, often animal sacrifice, and new forms of worship emerged in the context of the early synagogue. 

He says: “Ceremonies taking place there focused on texts and reading, reciting, teaching, and prayer. That’s a history we’ve learned much more about thanks to new excavations of synagogues in recent decades.”

He enjoys exposing new perspectives.

He adds: “There’s something about discovering an ancient text that’s like finding an old letter in a box… suddenly you begin to look at history in a different light. The perspective begins to shift. Once you pull one thread, something else begins to move… it doesn’t stop. It becomes a passion to keep digging and finding more things. And you really do find more.”

He also enjoys teaching.

He adds: “Students are very excited, driven and passionate. That’s great as a teacher. That’s very rewarding. They constantly give you new ideas. The students are very smart and ask good questions. It’s very stimulating.”