Dr Thea Gomelauri
Dr Thea Gomelauri is an Associate Faculty Member in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. She is a biblical scholar, codicologist, public historian, and multiple international award-winning Director, and Founder of the Oxford Interfaith Forum. Her special interests are in neglected literary and cultural treasures of marginal communities. Thea’s research interests include Biblical Exegesis, Reception History of the Bible, and Biblical Manuscripts. She is a member of the Jewish-Muslim Research Network, the Bible and Religions of the Ancient Near East Collective, and the British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies. Her current research is focused on Georgian Jewry—the world’s oldest living Jewish diaspora—and its forgotten contribution to the Jewish scribal traditions. Thea’s book The Lailashi Codex: The Crown of Georgian Jewry, (Oxford, 2023) explores the fascinating history of the miracle-working biblical codex, and its owners. She is currently working on a diplomatic edition of the 172-leaf Lailashi Codex. Her next book introduces the unknown Georgian Jewish manuscripts providing a necessary context for further interdisciplinary studies.
Thea has vast experience in different international, and intercultural contexts. She is a recipient of multiple research and teaching grants, including the Robert S. McNamara Fellowship at the World Bank Institute, the International OSI Policy Fellowship at the Open Society Institute, the Curriculum Development Fellowship at Central European University, and the European Commission Tempus Program. At different times, she worked on research and consultancy assignments with the EBRD, UNDP, and UNHCR in troubled and war-torn regions.
Thea has presented papers at the British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies, the International Conference of Patristic Studies, the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, and Freie Universität Berlin. She received the Interfaith Leadership in Multifaith World Grant from Interfaith America (2021-22), and the HM King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein Prize for the 2023 United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week for promoting Peace and Religious Education.
International Awards
The 2024 Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize, awarded by Hofstra University, NY, USA
The 2023 UN World Interfaith Harmony Week Prize, awarded by The HM King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein
Publications
Gomelauri, T. ‘Shared Sacred Artefacts in Medieval Georgia’, in Martini, A. (ed.) Creating Holiness: Books, Scrolls and Icons as Carriers of Sacredness. In progress.
Gomelauri, T. ‘David’s Children in the Arts’, in Tiemeyer, L-S. and Shepherd, D. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook on King David. Oxford University Press. Forthcoming.
Gomelauri, T. (2025). ‘Reimagining Abishag: Retelling Her Story‘, in Tiemeyer, L-S. (ed.) The Hebrew Bible in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry. Routledge.
Gomelauri, T. (2024). ‘Saint Paul of Thebes: The Holy Anchorite in Georgian Manuscript and Ecclesiastical Culture‘, in Agaiby, L. (ed.) First in the Desert: St. Paul the Hermit in Text and Tradition. Leiden: Brill, pp.282- 321.
Gomelauri, T. (2023), with a contribution by Joseph Ginsberg. The Lailashi Codex: The Crown of Georgian Jewry. Oxford: Taylor Institution Library. Ancient Jew Review by Prof Golda Akhiezer.
Gomelauri, T. (2021). ‘Satan between the Sages and the Fathers’, in Vinzent, M. (Ed.), Studia Patristica. Vol. CXXIII – Papers presented at the Eighteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2019: Volume 20: Biblica; Judaica; Philosophica, Theologica, Ethica. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, pp. 385-398.
Gomelauri, T. (2021). Women in the Bible, Jaime Clark-Soles. Westminster John Knox Press, 2020. Reviews in Religions and Theology, 28:3, 263-265.
Gomelauri, T. (2020). The Land and Its People: 1-2 Kings, Johanna W.H. Van Wijk-Bos. William B Eerdmans Publishing Company. Reviews in Religions and Theology, 28:2, 231-233.
Gomelauri, T. (2021). David in Distress: His Portrait Through the Historical Psalms. Vivian L. Johnson, Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020. Reviews in Religions and Theology, 28:1, 69-71.
Gomelauri, T. (2020). The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar, Eitan P. Fishbane. Oxford University Press, 2018. Reviews in Religions and Theology, 27:4, 518-520.
Online Articles
The Lailashi Codex: The Best-Kept Secret of Georgian Jewry
Theological Anti-Semitism
Scottish Episcopal Church and the G-d of Israel
Conference Papers
The Hebrew Bibles in Georgia, presented at the seventh International Conference on Jewish Field Studies: Findings, Experiences, and Conceptualization, organised by the Research Center of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center (Moscow), 18–20 November, 2024.
Sacred Jewish Books in Medieval Georgia: The Lailashi Codex and the Bret Bibles, presented at the conference on Creating More Holiness: Books, Scrolls and Icons as Carriers of Sacredness, organised by Freie Universität Berlin, 23-25 September, 2024.
Book Presentation: The Lailashi Codex, presented at the conference on At the Crossroads of Cultures: The Jews of Central Asia and the Caucasus, organised by the Research Center of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center (Moscow) together with the Ben-Zvi Institute (Jerusalem) and the Georgian American University (Tbilisi), 5-8 June, 2024.
Job in Crisis, presented at the Annual Conference of the British Association for Jewish Studies on World in Crisis: Reflections and Responses from Antiquity to the Present, University of Southampton and the Parkes Institute, 5-7 July, 2021.
King David Code: Mystery of Psalm 30, presented at the LOGOS Fellows webinar, organised by Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford (SCIO), 13 April 2021.
The Book of Job: Enigma, presented at the Oxford Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews. 26 October, 2020.
Responsible Reading of Sacred Scriptures of the Religious Other, presented at the conference on Crossing Boundaries of Faith – towards a Christian Theological Understanding of Inter-religious Ritual Participation: Challenges, Risks and Opportunities, organised by the Inter-Faith Theological Advisory Group of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, Glasgow, 3-5 March, 2020.
Exegetical (Ex)change: Jewish ‘Satan’ vs. Christian ‘Demon’, presented at the XVIII Quadrennial International Conference on Patristic Studies, University of Oxford, 19-24 August, 2019.
When Commentary is Not Commentary: the Reception Commentary of 1 Kings 1-2, presented at the Annual Conference of British Association of Jewish Studies on What is commentary? University of Oxford, 22-24 July, 2019.
Reading Job through the Lens of Moses, presented at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion Annual Conference on Compassion and Theodicy: Practice, Thought, and Tradition, University of Oxford, 19-20 July, 2019.
What Would You Do on the Worst Day of Your Life? The Pointers by King David, organised by the Oxford Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews, 23 January, 2019.
Moses about Moses: Unusual Letters of the Torah, organised by the Oxford Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews, 22 November, 2018.
King David in the Great Scriptures v. Modern Biblical Scholarship, presented at the Study Day on The Great Scriptures: 500 years since the publishing of the Great Scriptures – Mikraot Gadolot, organised by the Oxford University Chabad Society, 18 November, 2018.
The Puzzle of Psalm 30, presented at the Oxford Psalms Network, organised by the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), University of Oxford, 12 June, 2018.