Eric Ottenheijm's prime interest is how religious identities are formed in cultural, political, and religious exchanges. In particular, the distinct articulations of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity in Roman, Greek, and Byzantine contexts are an underlying fascination. Polemics are related to material culture, as shown in his "Matthew and Yavne. Religious Authority in the Making?," 378-400, in Peter.J. Tomson and Joshua Schwartz (eds.), Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: The Interbellum (70-132 CE), CRINT 15, edited by Joshua Schwartz and Peter J. Tomson, Leiden, Brill, 2018. Anti-Pharisaic sensitivities in Matthew are analyzed as sectarian politics in “Between Straw Man and Punching Bag. “Pharisees” as a Character in the Gospel of Matthew,” 191-208 In Craig Evan Andersen and Matthew Ryan Hauge, eds., Character Studies in the Gospel of Matthew Library of New Testament Studies Studies 648 (Edinburgh: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2024) ISBN 978 0 5676 9948 0. Moreover, Ottenheijm delves into more contemporary issues of the relationship between religion and society. His interest in material culture (as a voluntary participant in the Horvath Kur project in Galilee) reflects a hermeneutical approach that includes material culture and texts concerning daily life. A good example is a co-authored study, with his Ph.D. student Jonathan Pater, "Meals in the Synagogue. Reassessing the Evidence," 247-269 in Rick Bonnie / Raimo Hakola / Ulla Tervahauta (eds.), The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 279 (Göttingen: Vandenhouck & Ruprecht, 2020) 247-269. ISBN 9783666522147.

Current Projects: 
1. Parables in Synoptic Gospels and Rabbinic Literature. This project, 'Parables and the Partings of the Ways' NWO funded 2014-2020), saw numerous scholarly publications, amongst which is the volume Parables in Changing Contexts. Essays on the Study of Parables in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Edited by Eric Ottenheijm and Marcel Poorthuis. Jewish and Christian Perspectives 35 (Brill: Leiden, 2020 (Brill, 2020). A second volume contains the essays that are based on the Utrecht 2019 conference: Eric Ottenheijm, Marcel Poorthuis and Annette Merz, eds., The Power of Parables. Essays on the Comparative Study of Jewish and Christian Parables. Leiden: Brill, 2024, also available as an open-access volume: 978-90-04-68002-9. 
Currently, Ottenheijm is working on a historical study of the Early Jewish Parable. A popular scientific volume in Dutch which appeared in 2020 witnessed its second print and will appear in a German translation in 2023: Parabels. Onderricht van Jezus en de rabbijnen (Berne Media). In 2024, a second book appeared dedicated to parables in world religions, philosophy, and popular culture, with contributions by several specialists in the field:  Eric Ottenheijm, Nikki Spoelstra en Martijn Stoutjesdijk, eds., Parels van Wisjheid. Parables, fabels en gelijkenissen in de wereldliteratuur. Leeuwarden: Adveniat: Leeuwarden, 2024. (331 pp.). ISBN: 9789493279926. 
Momentarily, Ottenheijm is about to finish his synthesis, about the history of the early Jewish parable.

2. The Gospel of Matthew in its Early Jewish Context.

Ottenheijm is especially interested in how text, material culture, and genre reflect the formations of competing elites and their communities. In line with critical scholars in the field (e.g. Boyarin), he argues for a less articulated religious profile of communities still sharing practices, and ideas, and inhabiting a shared social reality. To advance his proficiencies in material culture, he participated in the Horvath Kur project in Galilee (dir. Zangenberg a.o), between 2010-2019. A good example is his co-authored study with Jonathan Pater, "Meals in the Synagogue. Reassessing the Evidence," 245-269 in Rick Bonnie / Raimo Hakola / Ulla Tervahauta (eds.), The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 279 (Göttingen: Vandenhouck & Ruprecht, 2020) 247-269. ISBN 9783666522147.

3. Besides he regularly publishes on topics in Rabbinic literature (Pirkei Abot, Mishnah/Tosefta, and Amoraic Midrash, e.g. “Meshalim on Election and Power. Two Examples in Tanhuma Buber.” 266-285 In: Studies in the Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature. Arnon Atzmon and Ronit Nikolsky, eds. Leiden: Brill, 2022), on texts and material culture, as well as on modern Judaism and Interreligious relations in the contemporary world.

His pioneering study on the Inn of the Good Samaritan illustrates his interest in the relationship between religion and the secular society in a politically wrought context (The ‘Inn of the Good Samaritan’. Religious, Civic, and Political Rhetoric of a Biblical Site,’ in Peter B. Hartogh, Shulamith Laderman, Vered Tohar, Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen (eds.), Jerusalem and other holy places as foci of multireligious and ideological confrontation. JCP 45 (Brill: Leiden, 2021), ). Ottenheijm moreover seeks to understand issues such as religious violence, but also the way secular society and the presence of religious traditions influence new ways of belonging. The edited book 'Geloven in Geweld (Soest, 2020) is an example of Ottenheijm’s yearlong active involvement in national Jewish-Christian Dialogue organizations: Sha’ar, Ojec, as well as the Catholic Council for Judaism. Ottenheijm is chairman of the CRINT Foundation, responsible for the series Compendia Rerum Judaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, and a member of the Editorial Board of Jewish and Christian Perspectives (Brill, Leiden).