Villanova University was founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine. To this day, Villanova’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition is the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. Villanova prepares students to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.


The strength of the Villanova experience comes in part from the University’s welcoming community. All members are bonded together by a shared responsibility to uphold the ideals of Saint Augustine and let the principles of truth, unity and love guide their lives. The Villanova community helps students grow intellectually, professionally and spiritually, and challenges them to reach their full potential.


The University’s rigorous academic experience, rooted in the liberal arts, forms an environment in which students and professors are partners in learning. The Villanova community is dedicated to providing a personalized experience that fosters every student’s intellectual and spiritual well-being. As part of their education, students are encouraged to enrich their own lives by working for those in need. Through academic and service programs, students use their knowledge, skills and compassion to better the world around them.


There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University’s six colleges—the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. These colleges are the setting for an experience that develops both the heart and the mind, and creates the atmosphere where students are called to ignite change.


Villanova University is located in a suburban community 12 miles west of Philadelphia, Pa.

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Member, Society of Biblical Literature (2015–Present)

Member, American Society of Papyrologists (2018–Present)

Was Salome at the Markan Tomb? Another Ending to Mark's Gospel

The Meaning of "Magdalene": A Review of Literary Evidence

"Rabbouni," Which Means Lord: Narrative Variants in John 20:16

Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Villanova University. She holds a doctorate in Early Christianity from Duke University, with a focus on textual criticism, Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of John. Dr. Schrader Polczer has been invited to present her peer-reviewed research at Duke University, Princeton University, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Pepperdine University, Elon University, Wheaton College, Perkins School of Theology, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Regensburg and the University of Leipzig, Germany, along with dozens of churches across the U.S. and Canada. 

Dr. Schrader Polczer's interest in the text of John's Gospel culminated in the publication of her master's thesis in the Harvard Theological Review. She has published additional peer-reviewed papers in the Journal of Biblical Literature, TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism and the Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin.

Mary Magdalene

Manuscripts of the Gospels

New Testament

Early Christianity

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Who Was Mary Magdalene? Historians Are Still Trying to Figure That Out.

Mistaking Mary Magdalene

In Consideration of a Female Diaconate, Look to Mary Magdalene

Signs of Mary Magdalene in John 11

Was Mary Magdalene Really From Magdala? Two Scholars Examine the Evidence

One Biblical Scholar's Attempt to Uncover the Real Mary Magdalene

Scribes Tried to Blot Her Out. Now a Scholar Is Trying to Recover the Real Mary Magdalene.

A Conspiracy to Suppress Mary Magdalene? No Longer Just a Dan Brown Plotline

Assistant Professor of New Testament

Elizabeth Schrader is a Ph.D. candidate in Early Christianity at Duke University. Her research interests include the New Testament Gospels, the Nag Hammadi corpus, Mary Magdalene, textual criticism, and feminist theology. She holds an M.A. and an S.T.M. from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church. Her work about the potential suppression of Mary Magdalene was published in the Harvard Theological Review and featured by both the Daily Beast  and Religion News Service.

Schrader has focused her research on the way Mary Magdalene’s role was deliberately downplayed by biblical scribes to minimize her importance.

Specifically, she looks at the story of the raising of Lazarus told in the Gospel of John. In today’s Bibles, Lazarus has two sisters, Mary and Martha. But poring over hundreds of hand-copied early Greek and Latin manuscripts of the Gospel, Schrader found the name Martha had been altered. The scribes scratched out one Greek letter and replaced it with another, thereby changing the original name “Mary” to read “Martha.” They then split one woman into two.

Schrader argues that the Mary of the original text is Mary Magdalene, not Martha or Martha’s sister, Mary. The two sisters belong to another story, in the Gospel of Luke, that is not repeated in John’s Gospel.

Women Erased: Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of John with Elizabeth Schrader

This event took place on Wednesday, November 16, at 4:00 p.m. in Goodson Chapel at Duke University.

In addition to her academic research on women and religion in medieval and early modern England, Professor Barr is a highly sought-after public scholar. Her most recent book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth (2021), was a USA Today and Publisher's Weekly best seller and a 2022 Christianity Today book award finalist.

Professor Barr was in conversation with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at Duke and the 2022-23 Anne Firor Scott Public Scholarship Fellow. This is the second in Polczer's four-part series, "Contemporary Conversations in Christianity." More information at https://fsp.duke.edu/events/christianity-conversations-2-barr/

Christianity and Women: Beth Allison Barr with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer

This is the full interview with Duke University Doctoral Student Elizabeth Schrader. We discuss New Testament textual criticism, Duke University, Mary Magdalene, and the Gospel of John. Watch the synopsis video of this research here: https://youtu.be/rfy6oiB_U-A 

You can follow Schrader on Twitter at: @libbieschrader

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Was Martha Added to the Gospel of John? [feat. Elizabeth Schrader]

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