Ekaputra Tupamahu, PhD

Ekaputra Tupamahu is Associate Professor of New Testament and Chair of the Bible, History, and Theology program at Portland Seminary, George Fox University. He earned his PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity from Vanderbilt University. In 2022, he received George Fox University’s Faculty Achievement Award for Graduate Teaching.

Dr. Tupamahu’s research examines the New Testament and early Christianity through the lenses of language and power, race and ethnicity, migration, postcolonial theory, and the critical study of religion. He is also interested in global Christianity, particularly Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Across his scholarship and teaching, he explores how biblical interpretation is shaped by social location, political power, cultural difference, and the multilingual character of human communities.

His monograph, Contesting Languages: Heteroglossia and the Politics of Language in the Early Church, (Oxford University Press, 2022), explores the complex dynamics of language and power in the early Christian context. His second book, 1 Corinthians: A Community in Dissent (T&T Clark Bloomsbury, 2026), interprets the Corinthian church as a community whose disagreements and differences are central to understanding the letter. He is currently writing In the Shadow of Paul: Rediscovering the Apostle in a Complex World, under contract with Westminster John Knox Press.

Dr. Tupamahu’s scholarship has appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, The Bible and Critical Theory, Pneuma, Interpretation, and other publications. His recent work addresses the modern afterlives of the Great Commission, the reception history of Acts, the relationship between biblical interpretation and empire, and the politics of respectability in Paul.

He serves as New Testament editor for Currents in Biblical Research and as a member of the editorial board for the Society of Biblical Literature’s Early Christianity and Its Literature (ECL) series. He is co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics program unit, a committee member of the Book of Acts program unit, and a member of its Committee of Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession (CUREMP). He is also a full member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS).

Dr. Tupamahu has delivered public lectures and keynote addresses at universities and scholarly gatherings in the United States and internationally, including McMaster University, the University of Minnesota, Calvin University, Belmont University, Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana, the Society for Pentecostal Studies, and the Society of Asian Biblical Studies.

Before entering academic life, Dr. Tupamahu served as pastor of an Indonesian congregation in Redlands, California, and as a worship pastor in Nashville, Tennessee. Outside the classroom, he enjoys hiking, running, exploring the outdoors with his family, and sampling local cuisines while traveling.

You can find Dr. Tupamahu's latest CV here.

Academic Background

PhD, Vanderbilt University; MA, Claremont School of Theology; MA/MDIV, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary; BTh, Sekolah Tinggi Theology Satyabhakti

Expertise and Research Interests

Pauline studies, Acts of the Apostles, Postcolonial theory, Politics of Language, Race/Ethnic theory, Global Pentecostal/Charismatic movement.

Research Bibliography

Books

• Contesting Languages: Heteroglossia and the Politics of Language in the Early Church.  Oxford University Press, 2022.
• 1 Corinthians: A Community in Dissent, T&T Clark Bloomsbury, 2026.

Edited Works

• A special issue reviewing Jeremy Williams’ book, Criminalization in Acts of the Apostles: Race, Rhetoric, and the Prosecution of an Early Christian Movement, in Religious Studies Review, 2026.
• Ekaputra Tupamahu and Wongi Park, “Special Issue: Asian and Asian American Biblical Interpretation in East and Southeast Asia” Currents in Biblical Research 24:2 (2026).
• Ekaputra Tupamahu and Tanya Riches, Pentecostalism in Southeast Asia and Oceania, Brill, under contract (manuscript submitted).
• The Heteroglossic Spirit: Unruly Tongues and Translation after Pentecost, an edited volume of Amos Yong’s work on language and translation. In press.
• Ekaputra Tupamahu, Nindyo Sasongko and Hans A. Harmakaputra (editors), Our Stories, the Unfinished Stories:  Kumpulan Kisah Kelana Menempuh Studi Teologi di dalam dan di luar Negeri. Jakarta: Asosiasi Teolog Indonesia, 2014.  ISBN: 9786021158036.  A revised edition published by BPK Gunung Mulia, 2016.

Selected Journal Articles

• “A Genealogy of the ‘Great Commission’: Matthew 28:18–20 and Its Modern Afterlives,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, published online, June 2026.
•  “Editor's Introduction to Reading Luke as Criminographer: A Conversation on Jeremy Williams's Criminalization in the Acts of the Apostles,” Religious Studies Review (2026).
• “Biblical Interpretation Reading List: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò’s Elite Culture,” Biblical Interpretation 34:2 (2026): 260-61.
• Ekaputra Tupamahu and Wongi Park, “Special Issue: Asian and Asian American Biblical Interpretation in East and Southeast Asia,” Currents in Biblical Research 24:2 (2026): 108–117.
• “Disrupting the Master: Critical Theory Without Canonical Constraints” The Bible and Critical Theory 20:1 (2024): 1-6.
• “Is Acts Really “The Most Overtly Missionary Book”?: Challenging Whiteness in the Interpretation of Acts,” Pneuma 46/2 (2024): 177-195.
• “Between Text and Sermon: Ephesians 6:10-20” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 76/3 (2022): 251-253.
• “I Don’t Want to Hear Your Language!”: White Social Imagination and the Demography of Roman Corinth,” The Bible and Critical Theory 16/1 (2020): 64-91.
• “Language Politics and the Constitution of Racialized Subjects in the Corinthian Church.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 41:2 (December 2018): 223–245.
• "Tongues as a Site of Subversion: An Analysis from the Perspective of Postcolonial Politics of Language," Pneuma 38:3 (2016): 293-311.
• "Pela Gandong and υἱοθεσία: A Vernacular Reading of Paul," Journal Teologi Reformed Indonesia 6:1 (2016): 1-11.

Selected Book Chapters

• “From Conquest to Survival: Acts of the Apostles, Diaspora, and Epistemic Rebellion,” in Oxford Handbook of the Bible, Race, and Diaspora edited by Mitzi Smith, Raj Nadella, Luis Menéndez Antuña (Oxford University Press, 2026), published online.
• “The Synoptic Problem and German Nationalism,” in Advancing Biblical Scholarship, vol. 1, edited by Wongi Park (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2026), 188-204.
• “The Bible and the Wounds of Empire: Postcolonial Reflections on Interpretation,” in ed. Eleazar S. Fernandez, Constructive Theology from Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives (T&T Clark Bloomsbury, 2026), 53-68.
• “Ethnicity and Language,” Enslavement, Writing, and Power, edited by Candida Moss, Jeremiah Coogan, and Joseph A Howley, (Oxford University Press, 2025), 71-83.
• “’A Human Pleaser’: Paul and the Politics of Respectability,” in Amy Lindeman Allen, Francisco Lozada, and Yak-hwee Tan (eds.), The Critic in the World: Essays in Honor of Fernando F. Segovia (SBL Press, 2024), 435-58.
• “1 Corinthians” in Judeophobia in the New Testament: Texts, Contexts, and Pedagogy, edited by Meredith Warren, Eric Vanden Eykel, Sarah Rollens (Eerdmans, 2024), 176-184.
• “Multilingualism in the New Testament world” in The New Testament in Color edited by Esau McCaulley, Janette Ok, Amy Peeler and Osvaldo Padilla (IVP), 618-24.
• “Psalm 73: But I… (wa’ănî)” in My Psalms, My Context, edited by Gale Yee and Athalya Brenner-Idan (London: T&T Clark, 2024), chp. 16. 
• “Integrative and Responsible Biblical Scholarship,” in Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder and Mary F. Foskett (eds.), Remapping Biblical Studies.  (SBL Press, 2023), 145-54.
• “From Alienation to Inclusion: Reading Romans 3:21-26 from a Diaspora Lens” in Yung Suk Kim (ed.), Paul’s Gospel, Empire, and Race & Ethnicity: Through the Lens of Minoritized Scholarship, (Eugene, OR: Cascade Press, 2023), 107-20.
• “Asian Introduction to the Gospel of Luke,” in Johnson Thomaskutty (ed.), An Asian Introduction to the New Testament (Fortress Press, 2022), 103-25.
• "Lost and Silenced in Translation: Reading 1 Cor. 14:26-30 from an Asian American Perspective" in Seung Ai Yang and Uriah Kim (eds.) The T&T Clark Handbook to Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics (T&T Clark, 2018), 383-93.
• "American Missionaries and Pentecostal Theological Education in Indonesia" in Vinson Synan and Amos Yong (eds.), Global Renewal Christianity: Asia and Oceania, vol. 1. (Charisma House, 2015), 233-54.

Selected Online Articles

• “Remembering the Silenced: Social Justice, Democracy, and the Humanities,” in Theology & the Crises of Democracy, August 28, 2026. 
• “Teaching with an Accent: Sounding Otherness in the Classroom,” in Embodied Teaching Series, Wabash Center, January 6, 2023.  
• “Method, Ethics, and Historiography: The Shift of Interpretative Allegiance” Ancient Jews Review, January 27, 2022.  URL: 
• “The Stubborn Invisibility of Whiteness in Biblical Scholarship,” an Online Symposium on Whiteness and Biblical Studies organized by the Political Theology Network, November 2020. Responders: Jacqueline Hidalgo (Williams College), Angela Parker (McAfee School of Theology), M Adryael Tong (Interdenominational Theological Center), and Greg Carey (Lancaster Theological Seminary).
• Commentaries on Philippians 1, 2, 3. Working Preacher (hosted by Luther Seminary). URL: https://www.workingpreacher.org

Selected Lectures and Presentations

• “Hoping Against Hope: Revisiting Paul’s Notion of Hope in Romans,” a keynote address at the International Conference on Theology and Emerging Issues, Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana, August 5, 2026.
• “Paul, a Migrant Worker: Migration, Identity, and the Politics of Naming” a keynote address at the Society of Asian Biblical Studies annual meeting, Jakarta, Indonesia, June 24, 2026.
• “Demystifying Academic Publishing” a webinar organized by Westminster John Knox, July 20, 2026.
• “A Reflection from a Lion’s Den,” Student Caucus Meeting, Society of Pentecostal Studies, Baylor University, March 2026.
•  “Orientalism and the Historical Jesus Research,” Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor Public Lecture at McMaster University, October 21, 2024.
• “’You Lousy-Speaking Immigrant’: Language and Politics among Jesus Followers in Corinth.”  Public Lecture at Calvin University, March 19, 2024.
•  “Paul and the Politics of Language,” Public Lecture at Belmont University, September 25, 2024.
• Keynote speaker at the 2023 Society for Pentecostal Studies annual meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• “The Future of the Past: Rethinking Legacies of Injustice in the Study of Antiquity (Biblical Studies),” University of Minnesota, March 4, 2022.
• Kritik Postkolonial, Kitab Suci, dan Disparitas Sosial (Postcolonial Criticism, Scriptures, and the Social Disparity), a webinar lecture hosted by the Satya Wacana Christian University, Department of Theology, July 23, 2020.
• “Race and Biblical Interpretation,” The Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies (CIRIS), Cambridge University, February 11, 2021.
• A Roundtable Conversation (with Annette Yoshiko Reed, David Maldonado Rivera, Alexandra Leewon Schultz, and Young Richard Kim) on “Method, Ethics, and Historiography” The Global Late Antiquity Society, March 30, 2021.