Bio: Dr. Matthew Grey is an associate professor of ancient scripture and an affiliate faculty member of the ancient Near Eastern studies program at Brigham Young University. He was born and raised in the Chicago area, served as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the California Santa Rosa Mission (1995–1997), and attended Brigham Young University where he received a B.A. in Near Eastern studies (1999–2003). Following his undergraduate work, he received an M.A. in archaeology and the history of antiquity from Andrews University (2003–2005), an M.St. in Jewish studies (with an emphasis on Judaism in the Greco-Roman world) from the University of Oxford (2005–2006), and a Ph.D. in ancient Mediterranean religions (with a major emphasis on archaeology and the history of early Judaism and a minor emphasis on New Testament studies) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2006–2011).

Before being hired in BYU’s Department of Ancient Scripture, Dr. Grey taught Latter-day Saint Institute of Religion courses at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Oxford, and UNC-Chapel Hill/Duke University. Since being hired at BYU, he has taught courses on the New Testament gospels, the second half of the New Testament, Jesus in his Jewish context, and the archaeology of New Testament Palestine. For the 2017–2018 academic year he was also assigned to teach Near Eastern history and archaeology courses at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.

For almost twenty years, Dr. Grey has been actively involved in archaeological research and publication relating to the world of the Bible in Israel, Jordan, and Italy. Since 2011 he has supervised excavations at the Roman-era village and synagogue at Huqoq (in Israel’s Galilee region); he has been an associate research fellow at the William F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem; and he is a founding co-chair of the Archaeology of Roman Palestine program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Dr. Grey and his wife Mary have three children (Priscilla, Hannah, and John) and currently live in Springville, Utah.

Research Interests: Jesus and his Jewish Setting; Daily Life in Roman Galilee; Sacred Space, Ritual, and Priesthood in Early Judaism; Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Sectarianism; Judeans and Jesus Followers in the Roman World; Joseph Smith's Study and Uses of Hebrew