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Topic · Religious studies

Biblical Studies and Interpretation

Biblical Studies and Interpretation is a research topic within Religious studies. Science Explorer counts 46k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on biblical studies, ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Christian theology. It explores topics such as biblical monotheism, Jewish society, Christian identity in the ancient world, the Hebrew Bible, early Christian literature, Iron Age chronology, theology, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

  • Biblical Monotheism
  • Jewish Society
  • Christian Identity
  • Ancient Judaism
  • Hebrew Bible
  • Early Christianity
  • Iron Age Chronology
  • Theology
  • Dead Sea Scrolls
  • Religious Interpretation
Research works
46k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-11%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
44% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Biblical Studies and Interpretation

Which countries lead Biblical Studies and Interpretation research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (1.9k and 566 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.9k works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 566 works
  3. 3 South Africa 349 works
  4. 4 Germany 309 works
  5. 5 Indonesia 275 works
  6. 6 Israel 253 works
  7. 7 France 182 works
  8. 8 Canada 174 works
  9. 9 Brazil 172 works
  10. 10 Poland 158 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 43.6%United Kingdom: 13.1%South Africa: 8.1%Germany: 7.1%6 others listed: 28.1%44%largest
United States1,885 · 43.6%United Kingdom566 · 13.1%South Africa349 · 8.1%Germany309 · 7.1%6 others listed1,215 · 28.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Biblical Studies and Interpretation research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Cambridge publishes the most Biblical Studies and Interpretation research, followed by University of Pretoria and University of South Africa.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 95 works
  2. 2 University of PretoriaSouth Africa 80 works
  3. 3 University of South AfricaSouth Africa 66 works
  4. 4 Bar-Ilan UniversityIsrael 59 works
  5. 5 University of the Free StateSouth Africa 58 works
  6. 6 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 55 works
  7. 7 Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 51 works
  8. 8 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 51 works
  9. 9 North-West UniversitySouth Africa 50 works
  10. 10 Biblical Theological SeminaryUnited States 50 works

Who are the leading researchers in Biblical Studies and Interpretation?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Biblical Studies and Interpretation include George Davey Smith, Wolfgang K. Huber and Peter John Barnes.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  3. 3 Peter John Barnes United Kingdom 225k citations
  4. 4 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  5. 5 David Altshuler United States 199k citations
  6. 6 Stefan Schreiber Germany 163k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Biblical Studies and Interpretation?

The most cited paper in Biblical Studies and Interpretation is "Faithfulness and Reduplicative Identity" (John J. McCarthy, Alan Prince, 1995), with 1,620 citations. Next come "Christian theology: An introduction" (405) and "Christian Identity In The Jewish And Graeco-Roman World" (390).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Faithfulness and Reduplicative Identity John J. McCarthy, Alan Prince · Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University) Open access 1995 1,620
2 Christian theology: An introduction Alister E. McGrath, M. Sarot · Sophia Dec 1995 405
3 Christian Identity In The Jewish And Graeco-Roman World JUDITH M. LIEU · SBL Press eBooks Book chapter 27 May 2004 390
4 Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature Elizabeth S. Belfiore, Douglas Cairns · The American Journal of Philology 1994 371
5 Jews, Judaeans, Judaizing, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History Steve M. Mason · Journal for the Study of Judaism 2007 357
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Biblical Studies and Interpretation research done?

The largest centres of Biblical Studies and Interpretation research in 2022-now are Pretoria (South Africa), Cambridge (United Kingdom), Jerusalem (Israel) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Hatfield, Wilmore and Kew East.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 PretoriaSouth Africa 150 works
  2. 2 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 97 works
  3. 3 JerusalemIsrael 93 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 81 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 80 works
  6. 6 OxfordUnited Kingdom 63 works
  7. 7 ParisFrance 63 works
  8. 8 Ramat GanIsrael 61 works
  9. 9 JakartaIndonesia 59 works
  10. 10 BloemfonteinSouth Africa 58 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. HatfieldUS · 49.5 works665×
  2. WilmoreUS · 34.3 works581×
  3. Kew EastAU · 20.6 works213×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Biblical Studies and Interpretation than the world average.

See Biblical Studies and Interpretation on the map

Where is the best place to study Biblical Studies and Interpretation?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Cambridge, Australian National University and University of South Africa score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 22.6%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Australian National …University of South …University of PretoriaUniversity of Cambri…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 70.010.3%15.1×95 +88.1%
2Australian National UniversityAustralia 66.650.9%3.8×10 +128.4%
3University of South AfricaSouth Africa 59.726.4%29.0×66 -24.3%
4University of PretoriaSouth Africa 59.417.3%35.3×80 -18.7%
5Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 59.031.5%11.6×15 +632.9%
6University of the Free StateSouth Africa 58.420.4%47.0×58 -8.1%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 57.715.4%6.9×51 -10.5%
8Institut Sains dan Teknologi Terpadu SurabayaIndonesia 56.512.5%31.6×46 +342.6%
9North-West UniversitySouth Africa 56.326.6%33.9×50 -36.5%
10Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael 56.114.7%18.7×51 -27.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Biblical Studies and Interpretation, country by country

Is Biblical Studies and Interpretation research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 11% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Biblical Studies and Interpretation as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.028% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%Biblical Studies and Interpretation0.023% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Biblical Studies and Interpretation over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Biblical Studies and Interpretation9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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