What the Bible Says and What it Means

10/14/2025

Markus Lau has recently been appointed Professor of New Testament at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Even ancient curses can be a source of inspiration for his research.

Markus Lau analyses the texts of the New Testament using scientific methods with the aim of revealing their significance for the present day. (Image: Gunnar Bartsch / Universität Würzburg)

The texts are a good 1900 years old - written by several authors and mostly at a great distance in time from the events they describe. Their interpretation is difficult, and their applicability to the present day even more so. And yet they are of central importance for the Christian religion. We are talking about the New Testament.

Markus Lau is one of those who study these texts intensively. Lau has held the Chair of New Testament Exegesis at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) since 1 September 2025. An essential part of his work is to analyse the texts of the New Testament scientifically in order to grasp and explain their original meaning potential. Among other things, the aim is to uncover the central statements of the biblical writings and to open up their significance for the present day.

A Text That ist never fully Interpreted

"An essential characteristic of these texts is the fact that they are never finished. They are never fully interpreted. Every generation poses new questions to the texts." This is Markus Lau's theological answer to the question of whether there are still any unanswered questions after 1900 years of intensive study of the New Testament. But there is also still a lot to be researched from a scholarly perspective.

"A historical-critical exegesis treats the New Testament like any other ancient literature," says the theologian. He therefore analyses the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Revelation and the letters using the same methods and hermeneutics that are used in literary and historical studies when it comes to texts by Plato or Aristotle, for example. However, there is one major difference: "The whole thing becomes theology because the results also resonate with the church and, as a scientist, you also hope for resonance from these areas."

It doesn't Work without Corrective Exegesis

Lau has a clear response to the claim: "But the Bible says ...": "The texts cannot be transferred one-to-one to the present day. Critical corrective exegesis is always required." Putting the New Testament up for debate and protecting it from inappropriate interpretation is therefore an important function of exegesis. Under no circumstances are these texts always meant literally: "That doesn't work with a text that is so contradictory in itself," he says. Accordingly, research has been carried out for centuries into which interpretation can be transferred to the present, or "what the spirit of this text is", as Lau says.

So is it all just a question of interpretation and no clear statements? No, the New Testament is not that vague after all. "There are plausible readings that have been accepted for centuries, and there are lines that link all the scriptures together," says Lau. Two of these central lines are: The world, or creation, is good! And: God is on the side of those who are in danger of missing out - the marginalised!

Ancient Curse Tablets Resemble Paul's Letters

Materiality, body modification, second skin: When Markus Lau talks about his research, he uses terms that a layperson would not necessarily have associated with the New Testament. Keyword materiality: "May Sulis take the life of the person who stole my hooded cloak - whether man or woman, suitor or slave." This can be read on an ancient lead curse tablet that was unearthed in the former Roman baths in Bath in southern England. "Sulis": This refers to the goddess Sulis Minerva. She is supposed to punish the thief drastically, if the author of the curse has his way.

Markus Lau came across this text by chance in the British Museum in London. What fascinated him about it: "It sounds exactly like some New Testament texts. In St Paul's letters, you find the passage 'be it slave, be it free, be it man, be it woman' as a fairly identical formulation."

Admission into the Sphere of God's Salvation

While in the case of the curse tablet this statement is intended to ensure that the curse has an effect regardless of gender or social status, in Paul's case it serves a different purpose: "The point here is that people are included in God's sphere of salvation regardless of gender and status and that the social boundaries based on gender and status no longer play a major role in the Pauline churches."

Since this first encounter with ancient curse tablets, Markus Lau has been researching ancient curse cultures together with colleagues from Bochum and Göttingen in order to interpret biblical texts in this light.

Practices of body marking, to which Lau also counts circumcision or clothing as an expression of certain affiliations: Descriptions of such elements can be found in abundance in the New Testament. Researching them in more detail will be the focus of a further research project by Markus Lau. He and his team in Würzburg will be working intensively on the corresponding proposal over the coming weeks and months.

Teaching without Didactic Prohibitions

"Accompanying learning paths with passion" is how Lau describes his idea of good teaching. He knows of no "didactic prohibitions". And so he sometimes plays theatre with his students, builds still images with Lego or investigates the reception of the Bible in the world of Harry Potter. He has found that participants in such activities stumble across passages in the text that they would otherwise probably have missed. "Learning projects like this therefore often lead to new insights and perspectives that a pure study of the text might not have led to."

And if such programmes have a side effect and word gets around that Würzburg is a good place to study theology, Markus Lau is satisfied. This type of "promotion of young talent" is essential - at a time when the Catholic Church and therefore the study of Catholic theology is continually losing its appeal in society.

About the Person

Markus Lau studied Catholic theology at the University of Münster from 1998 to 2003 and graduated with a diploma. After completing his doctoral studies at the Universities of Münster and Freiburg (Switzerland), he was awarded his doctorate in 2015 with the thesis: "Der gekreuzigte Triumphator. A critical study of motifs in the Gospel of Mark". He completed his habilitation at the University of Mainz in 2021 with the thesis: "Sündenvergebung. Studies on a Matthean programme".

Further stations in his academic career were deputy professorships for exegesis and theology of the New Testament at the University of Frankfurt/Main in the summer semester of 2021 and at the Chair of New Testament Exegesis and Biblical Hermeneutics at LMU Munich. Before moving to Würzburg, he had held the Chair of New Testament Studies at the Theological University of Chur since October 2023.