

Adjunct Faculty
Biblical Studies (New Testament)
Stokes Hall N316
Telephone: 617-552-3071
Email: miuran@bc.edu
Teaching Assistant
Teaching Fellow
Part-Time Teaching
Sr. Sophia Miura, R.S.C.J., is a graduate in biblical studies (New Testament). She is a native of Tokyo, Japan, and a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. She has a prior doctorate in biblical studies (Mediterranean Studies) from the University of Tokyo (2012).
Her dissertation, "A Journey around the Comma Johanneum: A Transmission History and Interpretations of 1 John 5:6-8," examines the so-called Johannine Comma (Comma Johanneum, 1 John 5:7b-8a) through textual criticism and cultural history of the Spanish Latin manuscripts. The Comma is a Latin addition to 1 John 5:7-8 that evinces a reading from Old Latin and its variants.
This dissertation is related to Sophia's broader research exploring Johannine literature.
Monograph
2020 First, Second, and Third John. Novum Testamentum Japonicum [NTJ] New Testament Commentary. Tokyo: The Board of Publication of UCC Japan. [in Japanese] Reviewed: New Testament Abstract 64/2 (2020), 134; by Y. Azuma, Journal of Japanese New Testament Studies 49 (2021), 81-85.
Book Chapters
2019 “John 19:34b: Blood and Water.” In From Jesus to Early Christianity—New Testament Thought and Its Development in Honor of Dr. Tashio Aono. Ed. by Japan Society of New Testament Studies. Tokyo: Lithon, 211-232.
2014 “A Study of hilasmos in the First Epistle of John 2:2 and 4:10—Atonement in the First Epistle of John—.” In Biblical Religion and Its Surrounding Cultures. Tokyo: Lithon, 617- 652. [in Japanese]
2014 “Religious Education in Japanese’ Mission Schools’—A Case Study of Sacred Heart Schools in Japan.” In International Handbook on Learning, Teaching, Leading in Faith-Based Schools. Eds. by Judith Chapman and Sue McNamara et al. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 619-638.
2010 “The Temple Motifs in the Fourth Gospel.” In Various Readings of the Gospel of John. Tokyo: Sophia University/Lithon, 61-92. [in Japanese]
2009 “‘The Eternal Life’ in the light of Two-Aeon Theory—a study of John 12:25.” In The Bible and Our Life—in Honor of Dr. Takashi Onuki—. Tokyo: Lithon, 353-388. [in Japanese]
2007 “Pauline Body in 1 Corinthians—A Metaphor of Whole Human Being and Christian Community.” In Body and Sexuality: Theological and Pastoral Perspectives of Women in Asia, The Ecclesia of Women in Asia 2004 Conference. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 120-138.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
2021 “Mapping the Scholarship on 1 John: A History of Scholarship and Variations in Methodology.” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 46/47 (2021): 55-88.
2021 “Dying for God and the Law: Jewish Identity Formulation through the Martyrdom Episodes in 2 Maccabees.” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 46/47 (2021): 5-38.
2018 “Persuasion through Formulaic Rhetorical Devices in 1 John.” Journal of New Testament Studies in Japan 46 (2018). [in Japanese] (DOI: https://doi.org/10.24758/jsnts.46.0_7)
2018 “A Narrative-Critical Reading of Mark 16:1-8.” Gospel and the World 73:4 (2018): 22-27. [in Japanese]
2016 “The Primary Intention of the First Epistle of John: ‘Non-Polemical’ Reading in Recent Research Trends.” Journal of New Testament Studies in Japan 44 (2016): 43-64. [in Japanese] (DOI: https://doi.org/10.24758/jsnts.44.0_43)
2014 “Prologue: I John 1-4, Commentary.” Board of Publication of UCCJ. http://bp-uccj.jp/publications/tokusetsu/sample/ [in Japanese]
2014 “Prologue: I John 1-4, Translation, Structure, Background.” Board of Publication of UCCJ. http://bp-uccj.jp/publications/tokusetsu/sample/ [in Japanese]
2014 “‘Evil’ in the Gospel of John and Today.” Gospel and the World 69:7 (2014): 22-28. [in Japanese]
2014 “The Father’s House (Familia Dei): A Network of the Family Metaphors in the Gospel of John.” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 39 (2014): 21-63.
2012 “The Temple Motifs in the Fourth Gospel: Intertextuality and Intratextuality of the Temple Motifs.” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 37 (2012): 19-59.
2009 “The Words of Mission in Paul—Mother-and-Child Metaphors in the Pauline Epistles.” The Gospel and Mission: vol. 64:7, 30-34. [in Japanese]
2009 “J.S. Bach’ Matthew Passion: Mercifulness of Divine Outlook in the Aria of Judas (Nr. 42)—A Study of the image of Judas Iscariot—. Sacred Heart Studies. vol. 112, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo. 87-135. [in Japanese]
2007 “A Typology of Personified Wisdom Hymns: as a Hermeneutical Construct for the Prologue of the Gospel of John.” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute. vol. 39, Japanese Biblical Institute, 107-151. [in Japanese]
2007 “Pauline Christology—Adam Christology and Lordship Christology in Philippians 2: 6-11.” The Komaba Journal of Area Studies. The University of Tokyo: vol. 10, 202-231.
2004 “A Typology of Personified Wisdom Hymns.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 34:4, 138-149. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461079040340040201)
2004 “Justice in the Bible, Globalization, and Jubilee.” Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa 28:2, 38-57.
Translations (from English to Japanese)
2011 The Interpretation of Genesis in the Dead Sea Scrolls, by J. J. Collins. Trans. by Nozomi Miura. In Traditions of the Pentateuch in the Ancient World. Eds. by Gohei Hata and Akio Moriya. Kyoto: The University of Kyoto Press.
2010 Jesus in the Talmud, by Peter Shäfer. Trans. by Nozomi Miura and Shizuka Uemura. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, Publishers. English original: Peter Shäfer, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).