About Matthew

Matthew Larsen is a historian, archaeologist, and storyteller who brings the ancient world to life. A professor at the University of Copenhagen, he specializes in uncovering the real lives of the first Christians—what they built, how they lived, and what history gets wrong about them.

Before teaching at the University of Copenhagen, he taught at Yale University (2017- 2018) and Princeton University (2018-2021). His latest book, Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration (University of California Press, co-authored with Mark Letteney), explores what imprisonment really meant in the ancient world. In December 2025, Ancient Meditrranean Incarceration was listed The New Yorker as one of the best books of 2025. His award-winning book Gospels before the Book (Oxford, 2018) has been translated into Italian.

Matthew’s research has been featured in The New Yorker Magazine, Newsweek, Smithsonian Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Live Science, The Daily Beast, Christian Century, and other major outlets, and he leads an ambitious project reconstructing ancient prisons in stunning 3D detail. With a passion for history that challenges assumptions and a knack for making the past feel urgent and real, he’s not only changing the way we see the ancient world, but also how we imagine the future.