Scholar-Activist Encounter: Epiphany in Exile

February 12, 2026, 7:30pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)

How do activism and scholarship contribute to our understanding of Scripture in the world today?

During this last week of the season of Epiphany, we will gather to focus our attention on the time that the Holy Family spent as migrants and refugees fleeing political violence, and how this story can inform our immigrant rights activism today.

Rev. Dr. Safwat Marzouk, a Hebrew Testament scholar and Egyptian Presbyterian, will provide a teaching on the Coptic understanding of the journey the Holy Family made in Egypt, including the roots of this story in Hebrew scripture and Jewish self-understanding. Following this we will engage in a participatory dialogue in which all who are engaged in activism to oppose the demonization and targeting of immigrant communities are invited to share. Together we will explore how a detailed understanding of the circumstances in which Jesus Christ and his family lived as immigrants can help us to make sense of the violent xenophobia we are facing today.

This event is co-sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature and the Committee on Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession (CUREMP).

Advanced registration is required. An option to donate is provided; all are welcome to attend regardless of ability to pay. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email followed by a separate email with information about how to join the session.

Please Note! Registration closes one half hour prior to the start of the event.

Speaker Bio

Rev. Dr. Safwat Marzouk is an Egyptian Presbyterian pastor and Associate Professor of Old Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. His research interests include thinking theologically about monsters in the Bible; the Bible and popular culture; and immigration and the Bible. He is the author of Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel (Mohr Siebeck, 2015) and Intercultural Church: A Biblical Vision for an Age of Migration (Fortress, 2019), as well as many articles and book chapters. He is currently working on a commentary on Exodus for the New Interpretation Series of Westminster John Knox Press. Dr. Marzouk was ordained as a pastor in 2002 by the Delta Presbytery of the Synod of the Nile (the governing body of the Presbyterian Church in Egypt), and in May 2021 he joined the Wabash Valley Presbytery of PC(USA). As a Christian Egyptian and migrant to the United States, he interprets the Bible in ways that are interreligiously and interculturally sensitive, seeking God’s shalom and justice for the vulnerable and the marginalized.