Jacob Ferrier is a doctoral student in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. His work focuses on the texts and traditions of the Second Temple period and how early Jewish and Christian traditions reflect the complex Mediterranean and Mesopotamian worlds in which they arose. He is particularly interested in the development of cosmological, eschatological, messianic, and apocalyptic traditions and their relationships as evidenced by our extent texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew Bible, New Testament and Patristics, Greco-Roman philosophy, and the Jewish and Christian Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Beyond the texts, Jacob studies the unique social, political, and intellectual setting of the post-Hellenistic world that catalyzed the development of these novel traditions – and the revaluation of old traditions – in Judaism and Christianity. Before coming to NYU, Jacob earned a MA in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and a BA in Religious Studies from UNC Charlotte. Jacob also holds a MS in Bioinformatics as well as a BS in Mathematics and Bioinformatics and Genomics from UNC Charlotte.