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Meeting Abstracts

2011 Annual Meeting

San Francisco, CA

Meeting Begins11/19/2011
Meeting Ends11/22/2011

Call for Papers Opens: 1/25/2011
Call for Papers Closes: 3/4/2011

Requirements for Participation

  Meeting Abstracts


Scholars and Soccer Moms: Some Reflections on Objectivity and Subjectivity in Moving From Text to Sermon
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Charles Aaron, Whaley United Methodist Church

I propose a paper exploring the relationship between the scholarly approaches developed within academic biblical studies and the more subjective methods suggested by several preachers and homileticians, as exemplified by Anna Carter Florence’s book, Preaching as Testimony. Although scholars strive in evaluating texts for criteria that can be discussed with at least a measure of objectivity, preachers, even with strong academic credentials, write of evaluating texts with more intuitive, subjective approaches. In a lecture at SBL, Florence talks of allowing the text to kill the preacher and raise him/her back up. She suggests several methods for eliciting subjective reactions to a text. Can scholars reflect on this process of vulnerability to a text, this intuitive response? I propose to use John 12:1-8 as a test case. The narrative of the woman anointing Jesus' feet appears in the synoptic gospels as well as John, so the text lends itself well to redaction criticism and narrative criticism. I will compare the results of these academic approaches with the more subjective, intuitive approaches suggested by Florence and other preachers/homileticians.


Picturing Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Aaron Rosen, Yale University

Calls for interfaith dialogue usually begin with the claim that what binds together Jews, Christians, and Muslims is their common identity as people of the book. In my research, I argue that members of these faiths are also—despite prevailing assumptions about Judaism, and especially Islam—people of the image. Using works by modern and contemporary Jewish, Christian, and Muslim artists, I hope to initiate a “trialogue” between the three Abrahamic religions. The visual arts, I contend, have the potential to open up uniquely hospitable spaces for inter-religious dialogue, enriching not only how members of the Abrahamic faiths perceive their own traditions, but encouraging genuinely new ways of seeing the Other. As a case study for this approach, I will look at how artists from the three Abrahamic traditions have depicted scenes from the life of Abraham, in particular the hospitality of Abraham and the binding of Isaac (or Ishmael). Utilizing works by Marc Chagall, Roger Wagner, Nazif Topcuoglu, and Anthony Dubovsky (based in the Bay Area), I will point to parallel dilemmas which these artists have faced as they have engaged with the Abrahamic narratives in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the Qur’an. I will also aim to show how each of these artists displays a fundamental hospitality, opening their images of Abraham to interpretations from other perspectives, including other religious traditions. Taking my cue from Abraham’s fabled generosity under the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18; Surah 11), I will reflect on what it means to take up an hospitable attitude towards works of art, and how works of art in turn might engender acts of hospitality.


Growing Up in Early Constantinople: Life in a Christian City from a Child's Perspective
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Reidar Aasgaard, Universitetet i Oslo

When Constantine in A.D. 330 established Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire, the nea Roma, this was a novel enterprise. Differently from the old Rome, Constantinople was from the outset planned as a Christian city: churches were made an integral part of the city centre; the clergy were to serve important functions in its everyday life; even time, the calendar, was organised in keeping with the needs of the new, and now state supported, faith. In this way, Constantinople emerged as a grand experiment: an attempt at the formation of a new identity for a collective, a city. Not only individuals and families, but also society as a whole should be shaped according to the new, Christian paideia. In A.D. 330 Constantinople (the former Byzantium) had about 30 000 inhabitants. A century later the population had multiplied by ten. And by the middle of the sixth century it had doubled again, with about 600 000 people living within its walls – an extreme increase. A large percentage, possibly almost half of the population, was likely to have been children under the age of twelve. In fundamental ways, they too took part in and were influenced by the radical transformation taking place. In this paper, I shall attempt to describe what life in early Constantinople may have looked like from a child's perspective, for a child about ten years of age. The time of focus will be A.D. 450, a time in which the city was still in its childhood, but in the process of becoming a "personality" with its own distinctive characteristics. What may growing up in Constantinople have entailed for a child? In what manners was this city likely to shape its worldview? In what ways can this urban social and religious experiment have influenced such a child’s life? A central intention with the paper is to reflect on what difference a look at this city from such a perspective may make, if any. The matter will be presented by means of a variety of sources related to mid-5th century Constantinople, such as inscriptions, archaeological remains, art, biblical manuscripts, and patristic texts. Ninian Smart's "dimensions of religion" will be used as a main methodological framework for the discussion.


Where Wisdom Leads Me: The Travels of Apollonius of Tyana
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Roshan J. Abraham, Washington University

Travel in Philostratus’ Vita Apolloni (VA) functions to transform the protagonist from local sage to universalizing holy man. When Apollonius of Tyana announces his plans to travel to India, he informs his disciples, “I must go to the place where wisdom and the daimon lead me” (VA 1.18). So begins a journey from Roman Greece to beyond the limits of empire. As a pilgrimage tale, the ordeal demonstrates Apollonius courage and superiority over other men. Philostratus notes “the bravery Apollonius displayed as he traveled through barbarian and brigand tribes who were not yet subject to Rome” ( VA 1.20). His goal is to reach a people “wiser and by far more divine” (VA 3.16) than the Greeks. Apollonius crosses the furthest point of Alexander the Great’s empire (VA 2.42) to reach Paraca, the land of the Indian Brahmans. Paradoxically, though Apollonius is the first Greek to visit the Brahmans, he finds that they speak perfect Greek (VA 3.12), worship the most ancient of Greek deities (VA 3.14), and live on the omphalos of India (ibid.). Philostratus transforms the Indian land into a Greek utopia both temporally, by harkening to the culture and religion of the Hellenistic past, and spatially, through his descriptions of the land and the city itself. Apollonius’ journey to India thus becomes a journey through history, marked by encounters with memorials of both Alexander the Great’s conquests and important moments of Greek mythic history. And, India becomes the ideal space in which to assert Apollonius’ Hellenic identity, since Greece is preserved there undefiled and unaltered by the realities of the Roman Empire. Apollonius’ return to Greece is celebrated by oracles, shrines, and the Greek people, who then embark on their own pilgrimages to him as he begins a quest to renew Greek culture and religious practices. The travel narrative thus reveals a tension in the religious ideology of the Second Sophistic: Travel to Apollonius represents the rise of the holy man, which itself suggests the shift from locative to utopian religion, as described by J.Z. Smith and Peter Brown. Pilgrims ignore the traditional festivals and initiations in order to follow the charismatic authority of the holy man. In the eyes of the traditional religious authority, particularly the hierophant at the Epidauria and the priests at the oracle of Trophonius, Apollonius as holy man represents a threat to their traditional power structures. However, Apollonius’ travels to the decaying shrines of Greece allow him to reinvigorate the very religious form they fear he has replaced.


Is There Room for Scientists in Adventism: A New Frontier for Adventist Missions
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Karen Abrahamson, Andrews University

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What is Deuteronomistic in Samuel? Characters, Themes, and Legal Thought in (non-Dtr) Narratives
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
K.-P. Adam, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

The lack of explicitly deuteronomistic language in many parts of Samuel poses numerous questions. A prominent source critical answer from the mid 20th century has suggested a scarcely visible exilic dtr editor/author who for the most part has been arranging long, formerly and thematically independent pre-dtr sources into one single continuous thread of events. Basic assumptions of this suggestion are open to debate: neither are the narratives thought to form unified wholes that have originated as independent sources, nor does scholarship agree on their intentions. This paper examines the extent of dtr themes in exemplary narratives that are classically judged to be non-deuteronomistic from the so-called History of David’s Rise (esp. 1Sam 18-27) and from the Succession Narrative. Methodologically, based on formal considerations about the genre, the plots, and, especially, the character constellation of Saul and David, it extrapolates typical thematic profiles. The narratives’ views on kings, on prophets, on the law and their self-understanding as a history of the origins of Judah and Israel will then be compared to the more idiomatic deuteronomistic passages in Samuel-Kings.


What Is African Biblical Hermeneutics?
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
David Tuesday Adamo, Kogi State University

What is African Biblical Hermeneutics? For along time the question of a distinctive African biblical methodology has not been settled. Many African scholars and few Euro/American scholars have struggled to legitimate the distinctive African Biblical Hermeneutics, not only for African scholars but also for the world. Because we are permitted to have a separate unit at the SBL annual meeting, we should not take for granted that the question of a distinctive African methodology called African Biblical Hermeneutics has been legitimized and therefore settled. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to present a scholarly definition of what I called a distinctive African Biblical hermeneutics and the very purpose and form of this hermeneutic. For clarity I also intend to illustrate this methodology with a particular chosen passage. In my researches throughout the past years, I have called African Biblical Hermeneutics several names such as African Cultural Hermeneutics, African Biblical Studies and African Contextual studies and others. It is the methodology that makes “African social cultural context a subject of interpretation.” Analysis of the text is done from the perspective of African world view and culture. Gone are those days when the Western methodology is considered to be the only true and legitimate method for the world of biblical scholarship. Since it is a fact that a casual glance at the history of biblical hermeneutics has revealed that no interpretation that is one hundred percent without references to or dependent on a particular code, thought patterns or social location and no individual has been completely detached from everything in his or her environment or experience and culture so as to be able to render one hundred percent objectivity in everything done, African cultural hermeneutics are therefore legitimate and valid for a distinctive biblical interpretation.


Beyond Borrowing: The Past Problems and Future Prospects of the Study of Biblical Traditions in the Qur’an
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Richard Manly Adams, Jr., Emory University

This paper argues for the benefits of a synchronic, rhetorical view of Biblical traditions in the Qur’an over the long-established assumption of borrowed traditions. The first section summarizes and critiques the traditional approach, represented by the work of Geiger, Bell and Torrey, identifying two major problems with the assumption that the Qur’an imperfectly borrows Jewish and Christian traditions. First, such an approach overlooks recent work on the creative and rhetorical act of retelling traditions. Second, the hermeneutics of tradition in the Qur’an itself resists such a rigid, historicizing approach. The Qur’an has a rhetorical, referential hermeneutic, wherein tradition is not quoted, but rather is referred to in order as part of the text’s persuasive strategy. This hermeneutic is briefly explored through the use of the tradition of Abraham as a hospitable host in the Qur’an. The second part of the paper is a positive proposal for studying the creative use of traditions in the Qur’an and the benefits such an approach may have for the comparative study of sacred texts. More recent synchronic studies have asked not about a tradition’s origin but how it functions in the Qur’an. This focus on the rhetorical use of tradition moves away from the dangers of considering the later tradition either as supersession or bastardization of the earlier one. Rather, traditions are used in creative ways to address specific rhetorical situations. A rhetorical approach demands that one focus not on how the tradition was erroneously transmitted, but rather how it was effectively adopted and adapted for the purpose of persuasion. Focusing on the rhetorical function of tradition opens up the potential for more productive comparative studies of the Qur’an and the New Testament. This paper closes with an examination of how the study of the use of traditions in the Qur’an can help scholars read the New Testament. For all of their differences, both the New Testament and the Qur’an reformulate past, often Jewish, traditions in order to form present identity. Both texts are engaged in that awkward battle of maintaining continuity with tradition and yet distinguishing a new group identity. The student of the New Testament can learn much by studying how the Qur’an addresses a similar problem faced by the New Testament authors. This potential is demonstrated through exploring the similarities between the rhetorical function of the Jesus traditions in Surahs 3 and 5 and the Abraham traditions in the fourth gospel, arguing that each figure is used as part of a polemic against Jewish opponents.


Jesus Did Many Other Signs: Aelius Aristides’ Parchment Books and the Fourth Gospel’s View of History
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Richard Manly Adams, Jr., Emory University

The summary comments of John 20:30-31 stand at the center of the debate about the purpose of the fourth gospel. Previous focus on v. 31, though, has led many to overlook v. 30; this reference to “other signs” is often read as a moment of hyperbole, intended to impress upon the audience that the narrator could, if necessary, continue recounting Jesus’ great deeds. In this paper I suggest an alternative rhetorical reading, arguing that here the audience learns more about the function of what the evangelist does report than what he omits. I read this text in conversation with similar comments in Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales. Aristides contrasts the tales he presently narrates with his 300,000-word “parchment books,” an unreadable effort to record “with utmost precision what has befallen us” (48.8). While the parchment books reflect the task of “recording events,” the tales are Aristides’ “narrating the providence of the god.” Consistent reference to the parchment books reminds his audience that they are hearing Aristides’ construction of the events wherein he attempts to give his audience an experience of the god’s power, an experience that Aristides admits cannot be achieved by simply recording events. Aristides’ distinction is a helpful way to read John 20:30-31 and the gospel’s view of history. Like Aristides, John offers his selection and configuration of events, written not to record, but to narrate, to offer the audience the ineffable experience of the glory of Jesus Christ. After briefly discussing how this accords with the gospel’s argument about signs and belief, I demonstrate the implications of this distinction by focusing on audience construction and participation in two episodes, the report of the baptism (1:29-34) and the conversation between Jesus and Thomas (20:24-29).


The Ethics of Wealth and Poverty in Proverbs (and Subsequent Literature)
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Samuel L. Adams, Union Presbyterian Seminary

This paper will address the ethics of wealth and poverty in the book of Proverbs and later instructions of the Second Temple period. Material gain is a reward for "fear of the Lord" and attentiveness to wisdom in certain sayings, while other maxims emphasize the superiority of virtue over all forms of wealth. According to another line of thinking in Proverbs, the Deity intervenes on behalf of the poor and takes up their case when they are oppressed by the wealthy. The current paper will consider this diverse content in an effort to understand why the editors of Proverbs chose to include such an array of perspectives on financial matters. One central argument will be that the sages responsible for Proverbs sought to instill a proper work ethic and sense of fairness in the public sphere, while at the same time acknowledging actual social realities and behavioral dynamics. The association of poverty with laziness and drunkenness in Proverbs follows a similar pattern. With stereotypical assertions about what leads a person to financial ruin, the ancient sages encourage industriousness. Yet they also cite the benefits of living sparsely, especially when wealth leads to anxiety. Such assertions reflect the difficult balance for the purveyors of this advice: to affirm wealth as a gift from God for hard-working persons, while also acknowledging its pitfalls and tendency to create discord in the social realm. This paper will examine representative passages that provide a window into the sages' ethical framework for pecuniary matters and the social context in which they offered their advice. Key vocabulary in this area will receive attention, as our discussion underscores the complex task these editors faced in affirming wealth as a reward for wisdom, but an ambiguous one. The concluding section of the paper will demonstrate the impact of the discourse in Proverbs on subsequent sages, as figures like Ben Sira adapted these maxims to address the concerns of later eras. The dependence of later texts on Proverbs demonstrates the profound influence of this ethical framework for financial matters on the wisdom tradition of the Second Temple period (and beyond).


Jerusalem’s Lament and Consolation: Baruch’s Appropriation of LXX Isaiah 49 in 1 Baruch 4:5–5:9
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Sean A. Adams, University of Edinburgh

The Song of Lament by Jerusalem and her consolation in 1 Baruch 4:5—5:9 is one of the most original parts of 1 Baruch and is strategically located at the conclusion of the narrative. Prior to this section, the wisdom poem (1 Baruch 3:9—4:4) reframed Job 28 and questioned where wisdom was found. It is at this point, however, that there is a radical shift in perspective. Not only is the theme of wisdom abandoned, but the hopeful perspective is refocused on the grieving Jerusalem. Here the author of Baruch adopts Greek Isianic language, not only to recount the sins of the Israelites, but also in his oracle of consolation (esp. Isa 49:14-26). In addition to providing the model for this section, Second and Third Isaiah also provide specific images and details that frame Jerusalem’s suffering and consolation in light of Isianic promises (e.g., Isa 52:1-12; 54:1-17; 60:1-22; 62:1-12). This paper seeks to tease out how 1 Baruch’s appropriation of Second Isaiah, both in this section and in the work as a whole. Ultimately Baruch makes use of Greek Isaiah to provide a theological understanding of the people’s place within God’s cosmos and ultimately concludes on a positive note, confident in final redemption.


Descent of the Soul and the Interpretation of Genesis 1–3 among Jews, Christians, and Later Platonists
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Grant Adamson, Rice University

The double creation of the first human being/s in Genesis interested not only Jews and Christians of various sorts but also Greco-Roman interpreters of scripture. It was a central text for discussing the relationship between soul and body, even multiple souls and bodies, throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. A comparative approach to the reception of such passages as Gen 1:26-27, 2:7, and 3:21 in both Judeo-Christian and pagan literature, orthodox and heretical, illustrates similarities and differences that at the same time unify and individuate traditions and exegetes, regardless of modern categorizations. It also gets at interdisciplinary questions about the vehicle of the soul, for instance, a concept on which the theurgic ritual of Neoplatonism was based. How might interpretation of Adam and Eve’s skin tunics as a reference to the physical body have been involved in the development of the doctrine of the vehicle of the soul? Does it not presuppose a more subtle, astral, luminous, psychic or divine body?


The Elusive Ark
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Rachel Adelman, Harvard University

Contrary to Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, one rabbinic tradition contends that the central locus of worship for the Tabernacle and First Temple was never lost following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. Rather, Josiah buried the Ark, along with its contents, in the precincts of the Temple (b. Yoma 52b, b. Horayot 12a, y. Shekalim 6:1). Was this part of Josiah’s religious reform, when he destroyed the high places, the idolatrous priests and their vessels? Anxious that it would become an object of idolatry, did the king bury the Ark just as Hezekiah had destroyed the bronze serpent (2 Kgs. 18:4)? Or did he fear its desecration in the hands of the enemy? The Ark expresses a reification of the Divine Presence in the Hebrew Bible – a magical force that arrested the Jordan River, and accompanied the Israelites into battle. Yet the Rabbis imply that force must be held in abeyance with its burial. Following the period of Return under Zerubbabel, the rabbinic tradition contends that prophecy was lost, miracles were no longer overt, and the Ark was absent from the Second Temple. Does the tradition that claims the Ark was hidden, perhaps buried below the Holy of Holies, signify the exile of the Divine Presence (hester panim)? Or her eternal, unconditional abiding in Jerusalem despite the exile? One reading does not preclude the other, but holy objects hidden from the eye, full of nascent power, gesture towards a mythic, symbolic meaning. I suggest that the Rabbis imbue the burial of the Ark with the symbolism of exile both of the Divine Presence and the people (what J.Z. Smith calls “the counter-locative”), while evoking the elusive center to which they would return. This paper engages in a close examination of the description of the Ark in biblical texts, where it is said to contain only the Tablets of Testimony (of the ‘Ten Sayings’, 1 Kgs. 8:9), and intimates that it was taken as booty long before the Babylonian exile (Jer. 3:16). I then go on to explore the rabbinic tradition that describes its burial, along with the contents of the Ark: the jar of manna, Aaron’s staff with its almonds and blossoms, the anointing oil, the Philistines’ gift, and the Tablets – both the second, whole set and the shards of the first (T. Sota 13:1, and various parallels). I point to the exegetical basis for these traditions, but also gesture beyond the verse to a thematic unity underlying them. They symbolize both the potential for divine wrath and God’s beneficence. Like “the fiery ever-turning sword, guarding the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24), the Ark and its contents recall the consequences of divine retribution – banishment – and the longing for return to the epicenter of God’s Presence.


Preempting the Redemption: The Bones of the Ephraimites and the Messianic Pretender in Midrash
Program Unit: Midrash
Rachel Adelman, Harvard University

According to a Tannaitic tradition, God led the Israelites by the circuitous route out of Egypt, not by way of the Land of the Philistines, lest the Israelites turn back in horror from the sight of the strewn bones of the sons of Ephraim killed in battle (Exod. 13:17, Mekhilta BeShallah 1). Based on scant hints in the Hebrew Bible (1 Chron. 7:20; Ps. 78:9), the midrashim reconstruct the tragedy that befell the descendants of Ephraim – either they mis-calculated the timing of the Redemption from Egypt, or they deliberately abrogated 'the vow' and were slaughtered. In this paper I explore the possible origins of 'the vow,' in Genesis, and its implications: not to take military action in preempting ‘the End.’ I then trace the exegetical motif of the ‘bones of the Ephraimites’ from classic rabbinic texts (Mekhilta, Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana, and the Talmud), to its later permutation in Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer (PRE) and the Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Heinemann analyses the differences between the midrashic traditions in historical terms, the pivotal point being the messianic fervor that surrounded Bar Kokhba, and the disastrous consequences of the Revolt. I suggest that a similar messianic pretender – actually named Nun or Yinon – appears in PRE. I argue that the mystery underlying the timing of Redemption and the problematic role of human initiative in ushering in the Messianic era play as significant a role in second as in the mid-eighth century CE. Indeed, these issues stalk us into the twenty-first century.


A Narrative and Synchronic Reading of Genesis 1–3 in African Perspective
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Sola Ademiluka, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria

The Old Testament has been subjected to what is often referred to as the historical-critical approach but one major defect of this method of interpretation is that it does not take due cognizance of the meaning of the text to the modern reader. Hence, recent trends in modern scholarship have led to the discovery of various literary methods among which are the narrative and synchronic readings of the text. The narrative analysis studies how the Bible uses the form of story to communicate its message. It also invites the reader to explore the dimensions of the narrative in its final form. Hence, the method is complementary to the synchronic reading which considers the text as the reader encounters it in its completed (i.e. canonical) form. The present study applies the narrative and synchronic method to the creation narratives in their canonical form with a view to making the text meaningful to the African reader in the context of his/her traditional setting. Using this approach Genesis 1-3 is taken it in its story form. The reader may recognize but need not to be bothered by its mythical nature. Rather the method emphasizes the canonical form of the text and the intended theological meaning of this final form. The African context enhances this approach because, (1) storytelling is an effective method of teaching in the traditional setting, and the issue of the historicity of the stories bothers neither the teller nor the listeners; and (2) in Africa very few Christians question the historicity of the creation narratives, so all the African pastor need do is to narrate the story of creation, using African images to bring home the lessons the canonical form intends to teach.


Reading Ephesians 6:10–18 in Light of African Pentecostal Spirituality
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
J. Ayo Adewuya, Pentecostal Theological Seminary

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Internal and External Criteria in Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible with Examples from 1 Samuel
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Anneli Aejmelaeus, University of Helsinki

A major problem concerning textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible is the scarcity of witnesses, from which follows that the external criteria are practically unserviceable in discussions of textual problems. Although one single external criterion – the alleged reliability of the MT – is repeatedly invoked in handbooks and studies, in reality, all serious textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible necessarily bases its decisions on internal criteria. For the very same reason – the scarcity of witnesses – conjecture needs to be regarded as a normal text-critical tool. A radical change in the significance of the external criteria – for instance, through the discovery of large amounts of manuscripts – can hardly be expected. However, research on the characteristic features of the existing witnesses will help to balance the application of the internal criteria.


Tamez and Paul
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Efrain Agosto, Hartford Seminary

N/A


Isaiah’s “Immanuel” (Isa 7:14; 8:8, 10) in Matthew’s Gospel
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
John Ahn, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Prepositions have a wide range of meanings in biblical Hebrew. Affix a pronominal suffix, it becomes more interesting. In Isaiah’s Denkschrift, "Immanuel" has often been rendered simply as “God with us.” However, the preposition ‘m in the context of war or hostility is best rendered “against.” So, the giving of "Immanuel" as a sign to Ahaz isn't just "God with us," but also "God against us." This double entendre fits the promise of salvation and judgment on King Ahaz's quagmire stand when commanded to seek a sign. This additional layer then adds new meaning to the sign of Immanuel in chapter 8 of Isaiah. The Matthean text is fully cognizant of this dual feature. The gospel writer uses "Immanuel" (King Ahaz in comparison to Hezekiah [or even Josaiah]) for Jesus over against Herod the Great. Yet, there is one great tragedy that is often overlooked in the canonical consciousness of this Immanuel "child" laden imagery for scripturalization.


Alphabetical Versus Root-Based Lexicons
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
James K. Aitken, University of Cambridge

Lexicons organised by roots have been a common feature in Semitic lexicons (including Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac) and the case has recently been made by some that this principle is advisable for new Semitic lexicons. This paper will examine the origins of this method, noting the differences in what appears to be a uniform method, and then advocate that the prime purpose of lexicons to display meaning requires the lexicons to be alphabetic. The apparent advantages of root-based lexicons are outweighed by their disadvantages, and the apparent small gains can equally be applied to great effect in alphabetical lexicons, with suitable arrangement and additional sections.


Where are We Now? Doing Theology with Words Fifty Years after Barr
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
James K. Aitken, University of Cambridge

This paper will examine how far we have come since the time of Barr's Semantics of Biblical Language. It will show the advances in language studies in that time, and the limitations still in some biblical scholarship, and focus on some of the principles underlying Barr's thesis.


The Formation of Theology at Meals: How the Hellenistic Meal Shaped Early Christian Theology
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Soham Al-Suadi, Bergische Universität Wuppertal

Special occasions like the participation at a festive meal are regarded as having the ability to transform and challenge a person in his or her daily life. Knowing that there was no dichotomy of religious and non-religious characteristics of the festive meal encourages one to look at the formation of theology at meals from a new perspective. This paper will analyze early Christian theology represented, transformed, and developed at the Hellenistic Meals.


On the Permeability of the Frontiers between Monotheisms: Some Mediterranean Examples
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Dionigi Albera, Directeur de recherche au CNRS

The history of the monotheisms in the Mediterranean has been influenced by powerfully exclusivist tendencies, which are still very much at work. It is, however, also possible to observe the effect of the overcrowding that results from the everlasting presence within the same space of the three monotheisms and their countless followers. This context gives us an opportunity to examine how ordinary behaviors can deviate from institutionalized religions. If we look at the religion in terms of lived experience and in terms of everyday practices, we find that traditions and forms of worship sometimes overlap. The paper will take an unusual look at the religious behaviors of Mediterranean populations, by exploring the permeability of the frontiers that divide its religious communities. It will try to reconstruct an overall picture of a transitional phases characterized by the dissolution of an old Mediterranean order based on enclaves and connections, on a patchwork of territories, peoples and religious forms in which devotional overlapping was frequently socially acceptable. Yet the powerful drive to homogenize both territories and identities has not completely destroyed local specificities. If there appears to have been a decline in religious mixing as a result of the combined aggressiveness of nationalism and of a religious reformism with rigorist and scriptural overtones, the extent of the resistance should not be under-estimated. In some cases, religious pluralism is actually becoming more common, as, for example, in some post-socialist countries. By examining a corpus of data on contemporary phenomena, the paper will put forward a number of general remarks about the division of sacred space, about practices and sociability, and about the interaction between the actors and the structures at sacred places which are nowadays attended by different religious groups. These cross-border explorations ‘make do’ with elements derived from two or more structured religious ensembles, but do not generally result in the construction of new syncretic entities, and nor do they appear, for that matter, to be associated with any significant incidence of conversion.


Jesus (mis)Shaped and Spirit (dis)Empowered: Christomorphic Nonviolence from One White Male’s Perspective
Program Unit: Society of Christian Ethics
Paul Alexander, Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University

Abstract Pending


Towards a More Perfect Union: A Scriptural Reading of the Purpose of Marriage in Luke-Acts
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Amy L. Allen, Vanderbilt University

Marriage has long been a controversial topic in biblical studies; however, most discussions focus upon what makes a marriage, what is permissible within a marriage, who can marry, and other such prescriptions and laws. In the context of a 21st Century protestant church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America), what is needed today is not more prescriptions, but rather a clear vision for the purpose and function of marriage. Luke-Acts, often neglected in biblical marriage debates because it lacks much prescription, serves as a window for the application of such a vision. This paper explores the context of Luke-Acts as a community living into God’s Kingdom in the present while proclaiming the future coming of this Kingdom in fullness. Exegesis demonstrates a shift in Luke-Acts from the common property oriented vision for marriage in the first century to a new vision for marriage as a partnership in service to and for the proclamation of God’s Kingdom, paying particular attention to Jesus' confrontation with the Sadduccees in Luke 20, the community described in Acts 2 and the characters of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Drawing analogies between the paradigm shift in Luke-Acts and the present paradigm shift in North American culture that rearranges the values and definitions of marriage and has led to such controversy and debate, this paper suggests that in order for marriage to survive in this present context, an analogous shift is necessary. Reading Luke-Acts through a metaphor of corrective lenses, this paper calls for a re-visioning of marriage in the ELCA not simply as a social good or expectation, but rather as a partnership in and for God’s present and coming Kingdom.


“The Righteousness of God Is Revealed from Faith for Faith”: The Dogmatic Location of the Pistis Christou Debate
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Michael Allen, Knox Theological Seminary

Galatians 2 presents major interpretive and synthetic dilemmas when it comes to interpreting the role of faith in the lived experience of Jesus and the believer. This paper will reflect on the pistis christou debate of the last several decades, noting that soteriological misunderstandings have unnecessarily hindered exegetical and theological consensus of texts (for example, Galatians 2:15-21). Some persons have interpreted key Pauline texts as speaking of Christ’s faith, suggesting that a “christological reading” of Paul leaves little or no room for a call to faith. In fact any emphasis on the necessity of faith has been termed “anthropological” and contrary to the gospel. At the same time other persons have rejected such readings of this phrase, precisely because they do not know what sense to make of the savior exercising faith. I will suggest that category confusion has skewed both approaches, and that careful exegesis of Pauline texts (viewed in light of the whole canon) forces us to hold on to key aspects of both sides. Jesus is the faithful one—beloved of the Father, dependent upon the Spirit, the true last Adam—and yet he makes the way for real ethical activity on the part of his people: those who live by faith. I will argue this by way of reading Galatians 2 in light of Romans 1:16-17 and 3:21-31, showing how the subjective genitive reading of the pistis christou phrase actually supports and strengthens the classic Protestant approach to justification.


The Question of Eloquence in the King James Version
Program Unit:
Robert Alter, University of California-Berkeley

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The Economics of Community and Theology in Ezra
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Peter Altmann, University of Zurich

Ezra is replete with explicit references and implicit allusions to the importance of economics. Specific terms for coinage appear (i.e., Ezra 2:69 counts the amount of gold donated for the construction of the Jerusalem temple in “darics”), yet on a more fundamental level, Ezra highlights economic decisions and “discourse” in its vision of Jewish unity as YHWH’s elect and of YHWH’s interaction in political events. Economic discourse provides the guiding motif in Ezra 4:13, 20, where Rehum and Shimshai’s complain to King Artaxerxes that the Jews would revolt by discontinuing payment of three kinds of taxes if allowed to finish rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. This contention assumes that economics issues were important for the Persian emperor either for “pure” economic reasons or for political status. Ezra 6:4, 8–10; 7:14–17 go onto report, however, that the Emperor offers payment for the refurbishing of the Jerusalem Temple out of the Persian imperial treasury. The irony of the events occurs through the economic discourse of “Who will pay?” Instead of the Persian Empire losing taxes on account of Jewish rebelliousness, the Persian Empire willingly provides the economic resources to support Jewish rebuilding efforts. This paper will investigate the rise of this economic language in the book as a whole, as well as briefly discussing its relationship with the economics of the Yehud in the early Second Temple Period.


Womanist Thought and Parable Theory through the Lens of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Kindred
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Richetta N. Amen, Graduate Theological Union

A womanist hermeneutic, an interpretive procedure that takes seriously the everyday experiences of being African American and female in the diaspora, says that the life and ministry of Jesus is central to the theology of African American women. Likewise, parables, one of the main genres of the teachings of Jesus, compel the hearers to come to a decision about the person and mission of Jesus. They speak on two levels: the aspects of everyday life and the content which speaks about God or the kingdom of God. The understanding of the relationship between these two levels is reflected in parable theories. Just as Jesus does in the parables, the novelist Octavia Butler cloaks her ideas in metaphorical language. Well-versed in the Bible and the machinations of the African American church, she effortlessly tackles issues in her work that are prevalent in the overall society and in the church such as slavery, class struggle and patriarchy. Butler, with her penchant for science fiction, writes many unusual features into her stories - Butler goes forward in time in The Parable of the Sower and travels to the past in Kindred. Butler’s Kindred, like a fable or parable, tackles the issues of memory, hauntings and resolving old wrongs. This novel describes the slavery of an oppressive and violent regime and resistance to that very same slavery. Kindred, like almost all of Butler’s work, is a text of “quiet” resistance as she makes an African American woman, a very real and visible heroine who is not silenced, ignored or powerless but who, while enslaved, liberates herself from her white enslaver. This paper within the framework of a womanist analysis of Parable of the Sower focuses on the themes of dangerous memory, sacrifice, and eschatology within Butler’s Kindred.


Ancient Israelite Warfare and the Stained Body
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Frank Ritchel Ames, Rocky Vista University College of Medicine

Symbols associated with ancient Israelite warfare include, among others, clothing, armament, and other adornments of the body. This paper explores the staining of the body and interprets its meaning from an interdisciplinary perspective. Consideration is given to contemporary theory, ancient Near Eastern context, and biblical text, with attention to textual representations such as Nah 2:3 and Aqht c: iv 203-209.


“The Voice of a Woman” in 1 Corinthians and Rabbinic Literature
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Aaron Amit, Bar-Ilan University

In I Corinthians 12-14 Paul discusses the question of prophecy and speaking in tongues in the context of Christian worship. Throughout the discussion Paul addresses his “brothers and sisters”, and in chapter 14 he welcomes their speaking in tongues, but urges them to give precedence to “prophecy”, or coherent preaching. Presumably both men and women are encouraged to prophesy. Nonetheless, in verses 33-36 of chapter 14, Paul says in no uncertain terms that women should keep silent in the church. The contradiction between these verses and the tenor of the passage as a whole has led some scholars to characterize these verses as a later addition to the epistle. Similar contradictory statements characterize the discussion of women reading the Torah in public in Tosefta Megillah 3:11 (Lieberman edition, p. 356) and BT Megillah 23a. Likewise, the amora Samuel characterizes “the voice of a woman” as lewdness (BT Berakhot 24a and BT Kiddushin 70a), but the context in which the original statement was made is unclear, and it is used in very different ways in the two BT passages in which it is cited. In the former, recitation of the Shema is prohibited in the presence of a woman’s voice. In the latter, it is forbidden to greet a woman, since her greeting in return would be lewd. Later halakhic authorities have turned Samuel’s statement into a ban on hearing women’s singing, but neither passage seems to deal with a singing voice per se. In this lecture we will attempt to elucidate the Pauline epistle and the rabbinic texts in light of one another.


Polemics Meet Wisdom: Aniconic "Monotheism" as Superior Intellectual Discourse
Program Unit: Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms
Sonja Ammann, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Polemical texts against idols like Isaiah 44, Jeremiah 10, and Wisdom of Solomon 13-15 use terms and concepts commonly found in Wisdom literature. This paper will examine how wisdom and idol polemics are related in these texts and what role sapiential ideas play in such polemics against idols. Based on the Wisdom of Solomon and Isaiah 44, I will show that the idol worshippers are modelled on the sapiential fool. In particular, these texts emphasize the lack of insight that characterises the idol worshippers, their lack of insight specified in Jeremiah 10:12-16 as a lack of knowledge about the creator. In Jeremiah 10:6-10, the idol polemics turn into polemics against alien wisdom: idolatry is associated with foolishness, and the wise of the nations are denigrated through their equation with idol makers. I will argue that polemical texts against idols not only use sapiential terminology but are also based on a way of thinking that stands within sapiential tradition. Idol worshippers, idol makers, and the wise associated with them are portrayed similarly to the fool and the wicked in that they have an erroneous conception of reality. The idol polemics presuppose an antithetical pattern of thought according to which the knowledge about the world and the knowledge about God are strongly correlated. Outside the relationship to the one creator God, there is only idolatry and error. The exploration of sapiential features in these texts thus provides a clue for understanding the "monotheism" of idol polemics.


She Has Done What She Could: Gift, Otherness, and Silence of the Anointing Womain in Mark 14
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
An Yountae, Drew University

This paper reads the story of the woman who anoints Jesus in Mark 14 with the goal of probing the irreducibility of colonial-gender difference looming in the Markan text. In the first part, I read the disciples’ rebuke of the woman as a mimicry or replication of the colonial logic of representation and fixity (Bhabha) through which the marginalized other is constructed/represented by the conscientized elite group. As a result, it is not only the other herself who is reduced but also her needs, as her role is fixed or restricted to mere economic survival. In the second part, I read the woman’s act of giving in tandem with the philosophical discourse of gift. Here, I raise critical questions as to Elaine Wainwright’s eco-feminist reading in which she associates the woman’s act of free giving with both the Earth that freely gives and Jesus who gives his life freely for others. I argue that while the idea of the “Earth that freely gives” has been the anthropocentric rhetoric for the free plundering of the Earth, Wainwright’s uncritical adoption of the Anselmian atonement theology is also problematic in that what lies at the heart of Anselmian atonement theology is the very economy of exchange that she is trying to subvert. Nevertheless, Wainwright’s reading, when aided by both Derrida’s and Anne Primavesi’s philosophical articulation of gift, highlights the singular-eventive character of the woman’s giving as well as reconfiguring the power dynamics between the woman (giver) and Jesus (receiver). In the last part of the paper, I turn to the unresolved tension in the text which regards the woman’s identity as she is left nameless and speechless through the entire body of the narrative. If silence has been often read by literary critics as the erasure of identity or voice, I suggest that we read silence, as Patricia Duncan argues, as a part of the production of power (Foucault), a radical alterity (Spivak, Chow), and a refusal to participate in the dominant system of articulation. The mysterious presence of the woman in Mark 14 renders both the meaning and the future of the text open ended thus reminding us of the irreducible alterity of the other which lies beyond any totalitarian desire to master the other.


The Machiavellian Methods of David
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Craig Evan Anderson, Claremont Graduate University

The presentation of David in the Book of Samuel is one of the most fascinatingly complex portrayals of a character within the Hebrew Bible. The highly textured presentation of David has inspired a variety of ways in which interpreters render his character. Perhaps the most common interpretation reads the presentation of David within the Book of Samuel, especially the material preceding the Bathsheba affair, as an apology, defending the legitimacy of the reign of Judean kings. However, reading the Book of Samuel in the light of Machiavelli’s, The Prince, indicates a potentially much more insidious way to read the character of David. David’s circumstance matches those of Machiavelli’s “new prince.” David fits the role of “new prince” as opposed to that of “hereditary prince” in two ways. First, the Book of Samuel introduces David explicitly as a character designed to usurp the power of Saul, the existing king. Second, the Book of Samuel presents David trying to establish his reign at a time in which the institution of monarchy itself was new to the people. Accordingly, David attained kingship in a precarious circumstance in which he could not utilize traditional institutions to order to establish his power. This circumstance required David to embrace the challenge of the new prince in order to establish his reputation while simultaneously engage in highly manipulative and immoral politicking. By comparing the political tactics that David employs with those expressed by Machiavelli, this paper attempts to argue that the Book of Samuel presents David as a nefarious character. Ultimately, this operates as an attempt to illustrate that the Book of Samuel presents David’s character not as an apology for the monarchy, but rather as an indictment of it.


Divine Deception in Genesis: What and Whose Theology?
Program Unit: Genesis
John Anderson, Augustana College

Within the book of Genesis, interpretations typically focus on the human characters and their interactions and oftentimes troublesome nature. This predominance of anthrocentric readings has been practiced to the detriment of the most dynamic, interesting, and unsettling character in the text: God. Foregrounding a theocentric interpretation of various texts in Genesis and their disconcerting nature, I will suggest some theological implications for this oft-neglected portrait of God in the book of Genesis.


Poor Spaces of Power: Mapping Divine and Family Economies in 4Q416
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
William Andrews, Jr., Chicago Theological Seminary

This paper will apply methods from the field of cognitive linguistics to 4Q416 1 and 4Q416 2, two of the larger fragments among the texts collectively known as 4QInstruction. The analysis will address 1) the complex mental spaces evoked; 2) the significance of the recurring concepts of poverty and dominion; 3) the “economic” relationship between God and the elect community of the text; and 4) how that relationship is mapped onto a construction of the family unit and the rapport with “outsiders” that the text prescribes. This cognitive linguistic reading will provide additional support for the unity of the text and insight into how the text may have functioned for the community.


"Adorned...as Abigail": Prophecy in Selected Works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
William Andrews, Chicago Theological Seminary

This paper explores the understanding of prophecy reflected in several works by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th century writer in colonial Mexico. The examination begins by analyzing the personification of “Prophecy” as a character in “El cetro de José,” a theatrical work based on the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. This will in turn clarify the function of prophecy and direct references to prophetic figures in "Respuesta a Sor Filotea," Sor Juana’s defense of women's ability and right to engage in scholarly pursuits. As the “Respuesta a Sor Filotea” is a response to an earlier critique that the Bishop of Puebla made of Sor Juana’s “Carta atenagórica,” some consideration will be given to the latter work.


Supernal Knowledge in Liturgical Time: Maskil, Community, and Religious Experience in 4QSongs of the Sage
Program Unit: Qumran
Joseph L. Angel, Yeshiva University

In two parts, this paper explores aspects of the religious experience engendered by recitation of the prophylactic magical hymns known as 4QSongs of the Sage. Previous research on this text has focused on it as a repository of Qumranite magical belief/practice, but little attention has been paid to the apotropaic function of the Songs within the larger religious experiential framework implied by the text. This analysis treats the Songs not just as a remedy for demonic affliction, but also as an instrument through which participants came to share in the God-granted gifts of the Maskil--access to supernal knowledge and a position among the angels in the “eternal temple.” It is the liturgical community’s participation in these gifts that ensured the efficaciousness of the anti-demonic ritual. First, the paper considers the construction of the Maskil’s identity as well as the efficacy of this figure’s first-person speech in triggering ritual experience. The Maskil’s authority “to frighten” the demons spawns from his embodiment of communal ideals (e.g., alignment against impurity/sin, possession of divine knowledge, angel-like identity) familiar from core sectarian works. In the ritual context, these characteristics also underscore his role as a template, or as what Carol Newsom has termed “an apotheosis of sectarian identity.” Indeed, like the leader, the liturgical community is cast as embodying the same well-documented Qumranite ideals. This mirror imagery suggests that the ritual was constructed so that each participant should identify with the powerful speech of the Maskil and share in his gifts. Accordingly, their praise, as his, became imbued with apotropaic energy Second, it is argued that the ritual performance disrupted both ordinary time and ontological barriers for worshippers. While no ascent to heaven is expressed, the intentional use of parallel language to describe human participants and angels served to obscure the ontological boundary between earthly and heavenly communities. The mirror imagery, in this case, implies that the rite effectuated an experience of liturgical time whereby participants escaped linear history, currently dominated by Belial, and participated in the imaginal temple. This conclusion is supported by explicit statements in the Songs (and other texts) that through the liturgy, earthly and heavenly camps both participate “in God’s lot.”


Marinus' Vita Procli: The Biography of a Pagan in a Christian World
Program Unit:
Silviu Anghel, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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Assimilation and Innovation: Anthropology and Epistemology in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Christopher Ansberry, Wheaton College (Illinois)

This paper will explore the distinctive ways in which the Joban poet incorporates, modifies, and exploits ancient Near Eastern as well as ancient Israelite traditions concerning anthropology and epistemology. The essay will consist of two parts. The first will investigate the pastiche of conventional ancient Near Eastern anthropologies within the discourse and their contribution to the conceptual world of the dialogue. To be specific, the section will examine the adaptation of anthropological traditions in the dialogue and the way in which they shape each party’s interpretation of the dilemma. In view of the anthropological vision of the constituent parties in the debate, the second section will examine the epistemological perspective of the protagonist and his interlocutors. Together, these sections will form a framework within which to identify the poet’s incorporation and reformulation of conventional theological dogmas associated with the human constitution, the nature of humanity, and the epistemological gulf that separated humans from the gods. In so doing, the essay seeks to illuminate the Joban poet’s contribution to ancient Near Eastern wisdom tradition. It attempts to move beyond the poet’s innovative use of literary forms and demonstrate that the exploitation of tradition was also part and parcel of the Joban poet’s modus operandi.


The Embrace of Wisdom: Prov 8, Gen 1, and the Covenantal Dynamics of Existence
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Nicholas Ansell, Institute for Christian Studies

If Wisdom is intrinsically enigmatic, there is something appropriate about her use of a hapax legomenon when she describes herself as an ’amôn in Prov 8:30 (MT). Also telling is the fact that we cannot decide whether God “begot” (Murphy), “brought forth” (NIV, tNIV), “created” (JPS, NET, NJB, NRSV, REB, RSV), “fathered” (Perdue), “formed” (NLT), “made” (Msg), or “possessed” (ASV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, WEB) Wisdom in Prov 8:22. In this case, however, the verb is hardly obscure. And there is little doubt that it refers to the acquiring of Wisdom when used of humans in 1:5; 4:5, 4:7 [bis]; 16:16 [bis], 17:16; 18:15 and 23:23. Although the case for “acquire” in 8:22 has certainly been made (e.g. Bruce Vawter, “Wisdom and Creation,” JBL 9 (1980): 205–16), as a translation, this is remarkably rare. That God may acquire Wisdom, or become wise, would seem hard to believe. This paper will explore how the divine and human embrace of Wisdom in Proverbs not only sheds light on the biblical understanding of covenant, but also helps us fathom the enigmatic nature of Wisdom herself. In a human context, I will suggest, it is most helpful to pay attention to the different meaning this embrace has for Wisdom’s sons and daughters. (Here, I will argue, the counter-patriarchal potential of this distinction has been unwittingly masked by inclusive language translations of the book). In a divine context, my proposal that creation is to be seen as both co-creator and as receptive/responsive will appeal to an understanding of ’amôn as an intentionally bi-vocalizable term. The way in which both meanings illuminate God’s embrace of wisdom will be further illustrated via a sapiential reading of Gen 1.


Creating Safe Sanctuaries: Reading King David’s Last Days (1 Kings 1–2) through the Lens of Elder Abuse
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Deborah Appler, Moravian College & Theological Seminary

Widower Charles Smith, having lived a full, successful, and active life in his church, retired with a decent pension and the dream of supporting himself in his final years. A stroke ended these plans as Charles found himself physically relying on his trusted son for help with finances and other parts of his life until his health required assisted living. When the time came to make these plans, Charles discovered that his son had misled him and emptied his bank accounts. Destitute, he found himself among the 11% of Americans over the age of 60 abused that year. Elder abuse, manifested in physical and sexual violence, neglect and financial exploitation, is growing exponentially with the rise of the “silver Tsunami” both in society and, presumably, within faith communities. Yet this dishonoring of our elders is usually acted out privately, difficult to identify, or denied by victims and perpetrators alike. Feelings of shame or even the fear of abandonment make it difficult for elders to share these painful experiences and get help. Biblical narratives can open up avenues for pastoral care and healing for victims of elder abuse, especially when shared in the safety of the faith community. One such narrative, on which this paper will focus, is the account of King David’s last days—an account that opens a dialogue with contemporary readers on this issue because David himself could be considered a victim. This celebrated king, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), who unites his people in Jerusalem, and whose house is established for all time (2 Sam 7:11-13), is now “old and advanced in years” (1 Kgs 1:1, 15). His political and physical impotence becomes public when it is discovered that he cannot consummate a relationship with the beautiful Abishag (1 Kgs 1:1-4), which leads to a chain of violent events as his family maneuvers for power. The people whom David loves and trusts, including Nathan his faithful prophet and Bathsheba his beloved wife, take advantage of his vulnerability and manipulate him for their own personal gain as they plot to place Solomon on the throne instead of Adonijah. Hearing David’s story of vulnerability and manipulation opens safe sanctuaries for abused elders and faith communities to unleash personal feelings, hidden secrets, and obtain much needed healing and intervention.


Worship in the Apocalypse: A Narrative Pentecostal Reading
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Melissa Archer, Pentecostal Theological Seminary

The book of Revelation is a liturgical text. While the scenes of heavenly worship are its most recognizably liturgical feature, the theme of worship in Revelation is not limited to or exhausted by these worship scenes. Indeed, elements of worship are found throughout the entirety of the Apocalypse. This essay seeks to engage in a narrative Pentecostal reading of the Apocalypse as a way both to discover elements of worship and discern the role of worship in the narrative.


Tragedy, Rhetorical Analysis, and Ethical Diatribe: Transformation of Classical Genres in John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
David Armstrong, University of Texas at Austin

Chrysostom's oeuvre reflects the influence of Antioch as opposed to Alexandria: restrained use of allegory, typology and Platonizing mystical theology, recourse to sober ethical exhortation and audience appeal. Thus, his presentation of the Gospel of John is an entertaining, ad populum commentary in almost polar opposition to Origen's. Chrysostom expounds the Logos-doctrine at the opening in orthodox terms, but simply and clearly, and makes relatively sober and restrained use of typology. But this is hardly his emphasis. A. The first is his running comparison of the Gospel to the exciting popular entertainments in Antioch--races, athletic contests, and especially drama, and there especially tragedy. This comparison is given meaning for the whole series by the long parallel between the "simple" son of Zebedee and the most intellectual of popular entertainers, tragedians, developed in Homily 1. The parallels with drama do not end here: in the manner of a commentator on poetry, Chrysostom calls his congregation to imagine themselves further into the intentions of doings and sayings in his text by filling in emotions and gestures as do the scholiasts on tragedy or epic. B. In Homily 2 Chrysostom promises that the audience will find in John a greater philosopher than Plato, Pythagoras and Socrates, whose philosophy has outdated theirs, and conquered the whole oikoumenê. But elaborate philosophical argument and mystical vision play small part compared to the simpler genre of protreptic ethical "diatribe." Throughout the series Chrysostom abandons detailed exposition for general addresses related (sometimes distantly) to the text. He delivers a Christianized version of the pictorial (pro ommatôn, "before the eyes") ethical diatribe intended to halt sinners in mid-emotion and sober them by portraying, say, their ugly facial expressions and self-damaging violence as they pursue advantage (as they think) by anger, envy, philotimia, and avarice. I shall give comparisons with such writers of diatribe as Philodemus (especially On Anger), Epictetus and Seneca.


The Fountain of Youth or the Lake of Fire? Job 33:25 in 11Q10 and Greek Bible
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Ryan Armstrong, Princeton Theological Seminary

It has been observed that 11Q10 (11QTargumJob) and the Old Greek corroborate one another in many places. This has prompted some scholars to posit similar characteristics on the part of the translators, but they also note the possibility of a common Vorlage. By first delineating what was in the text of the Hebrew Bible used by these earliest translators, and then by exploring the relationship of these earliest translations of the book of Job, we are able to develop a fuller picture of how the writer of 11Q10 viewed his Hebrew text of Job. Modern exegesis can be informed not only by textual critical concerns of recovering the Hebrew Vorlage, but also by these early interpretations themselves. This paper examines a significant portion of text found in the rendition of Job 33:25 in 11Q10 that is absent from the Masoretic Text. While two lacunae in the scroll make this verse difficult to analyze, part of this plus is also represented in the OG, lending further evidence that there is indeed a similar shared Vorlage, or at least a relationship between the two versions. The shared material contains elements from Job 20–21, which fits well with the poem of Job 33—a poem that draws heavily from earlier chapters of the book of Job. With the help of the Masoretic Text, the OG, other Aramaic versions of Job, and the Hebrew of Job 20–21, parts of the lacunae can be reconstructed with a fair degree of certainty. The rest of the plus is more difficult to relate to the OG, but it entails an interpretation that may be similar to that found in the Talmud as well as the Latin Vulgate. Such early interpretation is helpful for understanding the portrayal of the character of Elihu within the book of Job.


Blessed Are the Solitary: The Paradox of a Thomas Community
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
William Arnal, University of Regina

The Gospel of Thomas' role in forging a meaningful sense of community does not arise from its promulgation of some distant, disconnected, and desultory assent to its content. Quite the contrary, it is Thomas' explicit encouragements to interpretation, penetration, and readerly effort that creates the group-constituting practice: in this case, the practice of close textual interpretation and exegesis, a process perpetuated by Thomas' failure to promote any single, clear, or straightforward insight, while simultaneously claiming a hidden meaning with salvific import. The group, such as it is, is not constituted by the text's content, but by its lack of content, which generates and requires intensive scrutiny. Secrecy,or rather the same border-creating effect as secrecy, is maintained in the face of publication by the text's deliberate and announced obscurity, which in turn is fostered by distinctively textual technology: minor but meaningful variations of substantially similar sayings; self-contradiction within the writing and textual distance between related sayings.


Course Design and the Use of Meta-Questions in an Interdisciplinary First-Year Seminar on the Ethics of Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Russell C.D. Arnold, DePauw University

Introductory undergraduate courses in biblical literature are frequently structured by the desire to survey a particular collection of that literature. As a result, course design is frequently governed by a primary concern for the content to be covered. The methods and practice of interpretation of these texts follow then as they relate to this particular content. In Creating Significant Learning Experiences (2003), L. Dee Fink advocates a process of course design that focuses on the situational factors of the class and on generating clear learning goals before developing assignments, class activities, and content to be covered. This paper will discuss my application of Fink’s model to the design of a First-Year Seminar course entitled “Ethics of Biblical Interpretation.” Using this approach, I was able to identify and articulate a meta-question that shaped our discussions: How do we make moral judgments about interpretations of the Bible and their use in contemporary discourse? Framing the class around this question contributed significantly to achieving the major goals of our First Year Seminar program, resulting in a class that was discussion-based, interdisciplinary, personally engaging, and that would foster critical thinking about ourselves and about the texts we read. In this paper, I will discuss how Fink’s model of course design and the use of a clear meta-question affected the choices I made regarding assignments, activities and readings, and I will reflect on what worked well and what improvements could be made.


Languages in Contact: Re-examining Greek and Iranian Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
André Arsenault, University of Toronto

In Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts (2008), Young and Rezetko suggest that it is not possible to use loanwords to date Biblical texts because we can not determine when a particular loanword entered the language. In regards to Greek and Iranian loans in particular, they point to the fact that both Greek and Iranian languages could have come into contact with Hebrew at an early date; via Philistines or mercenaries for the case of Greek, and via deportees and soldiers in the case of Iranian. This view is problematic in that it does not define linguistic contact in any meaningful maner, nor does it take into account historical and comparative evidence. This paper proposes a more balanced view of Greek and Iranian loanwords in Biblical Hebrew by examining the data throught the theoretical lens provided by modern contact linguistic theory and by cosidering comparative data from Neo- and Late Babylonian. By applying this methodology, and by disabiguating terms often abused in the literature, the results show that although neither absolute nor relative dating can be supported with loanwords, this is not to say that we can not determine at what time loanwords were adopted. I propose that the suggested Greek loanwords are need-based and that they entered Hebrew at an early date. This proposal is supported by their usage in classical Greek sources, and makes it extremely unlikely for them to date from the Hellenistic period. The suggested Iranian loanwords found in early books are also considered need-based and likely to date from an early period. The suggested Iranian loanwords in late books, when compared to similar Iranian loanwords in Neo- and Late Bablylonian, are clearly late and prestige-based in character. For the most part they are related to Achaemenid administration terms, and fall more specifically within the domain of taxation.


'Righteousness' in Paul: Philological Analysis Beyond the Bultmann/Kasemann Debate
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
R. G. Artinian, King's College London

In his widely influential essay on ‘Righteousness of God’ (1961/1968), Ernst Kasemann declared ‘philology’ a ‘broken reed’ in ascertaining the lexical meaning of dikaiosu&ne in Paul’s letters (a relatively pervasive term in Greek literature). Rather than advancing a more sophisticated linguistic analysis in its stead, however, Kasemann went on to insist that the term must be set in the ‘wider horizon’ of ‘the whole Pauline theology,’ which would now be summoned to determine Paul’s meaning in dikaiosu&ne and dikaiosu&ne qeou~. While many writers have recognized the lasting influence of Kasemann’s subsequent definition (i.e., dikaiosu&ne as God’s ‘salvation-creating power’), few have noted the impact of his methodological decision (i.e., his abandonment of philology) in more recent discussions. While Kasemann’s methodological turn may have received cover from Barr’s landmark and scathing critique of philology (Semantics of Biblical Language, 1961), Kasemann’s approach broke decisively with the course-correction counseled by Barr (who advocated the assimilation of ‘philology’ into ‘general linguistics’). For the belief that ‘too much had been attempted by philology’ (particularly in service of biblical theology)—Barr’s central contention—did not mean philology itself was to be abandoned. Much less did it mean that historical exegesis was to be attempted in the absence of philology—which would have appeared to Barr as ‘flying blind.’ In this paper, I will review the oft-cited but little-studied Bultmann/Kasemann disagreement over the meaning of dikaiosu&ne, summarize the most often-encountered ‘pattern of rereading’ in the post-Sanders era, and then (for the majority of the paper) discuss what is arguably//outline the most relevant considerations in the philological data for the determination of Paul’s meaning in this term: i.e., the use of dikaiosu&ne in the LXX Pentateuch and (above all) in the Apocrypha (arguably, the authors closest in spirit to Paul).


Learning Languages in the Twenty-First Century
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
James J. Asher, Originator of Total Physical Response, TPR-World

The noble goal of the 20th century was to acquire a second language. The effort was not a stunning success since less than five percent of students actually achieved fluency in another language. Given the explosion of valuable information in the last decade or two about the right hemisphere of the brain, a realistic goal in the 21st century is fluency in multiple languages. For example, one discovery is that language instruction was “dragged underwater” in the 20th century by the myth that fluency begins with speaking. Actually, the reverse is true. When speaking appears, language learning has already taken place. There is no way students of all ages can acquire multiple languages if we continue playing to the left hemisphere of the brain with exercises such as “Listen and repeat after me!” or “Memorize this dialogue”, or maybe more appropriately for this forum, “Conjugate this verb”, or “Translate this page.” My research shows that the best chance for long-term retention of anything, including mathematical concepts, is to get it in the first exposure. Each repetition indicates that the left brain is resisting the intake of the information. You may have experienced this in “cramming for a test.” This is a “sledge-hammer” strategy with repetition, repetition repetition until your brain says, “OK, I give up! I can’t take any more. I’m tired. I’ll retain the information until this test is over and then I will erase it.” . . . (This paper is in conjunction with the following presentation, "Learning Languages in the 21st Century: Part 2"


De Indolentia and Epicureanism
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Elizabeth Asmis, University of Chicago

Panelist


Covenant in the Book of Malachi
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
Elie Assis, Bar-Ilan University

Covenant is mentioned three times in Malachi: 2:8; 2:10; 2:14. McKenzie and Wallace have convincingly demonstrated that references to covenant are inferred in other passages as well, mainly in Mal 1:2-5, 1:6-14. In this paper I intend to show that covenant plays an even greater role in the Book. References to covenant are found, additionally in other passages in the Book: 2:17-3:6; 3:7-12; 3:13-21 and 3:22-24. I suggest, however, that the idea of covenant is the primary structuring element of all the pericopes in the Book. This suggestion sheds new light on the widely discussed topic of the question/answer format of in the Book. Contrary to other suggestions, I maintain that the "disputation" oracles were designed primarily to address the most acute problem of the time: the strained covenantal relationship between God and Israel. I conclude that the idea of covenant is the most fundamental topic of Malachi. The historical and social background of this topic within the society of Persian Yehud will be discussed.


Images of the Palace of Ashurnasripal II at Calah in the Throne-Room Vision of Isaiah 6
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Shawn Zelig Aster, Yeshiva University

The vision of the divine throne in Isaiah 6 has attracted a great deal of scholarly discussion. Many aspects of this striking vision remain unclear: the unusual imagery surrounding the divine throne, the call for a volunteer in this context, the meaning of the impurity of lips and the burning coal, and the unusual command beginning “Let them hear but not understand…” (v. 10) Each of these elements can best be understood in the context of the interaction between Judah and Assyria. Assyrian activity is alluded to in vv. 10-11, which speak clearly of destruction and exile. But scholars have not explored the wider implications of a possible Assyrian background to this vision. This paper, which is part of a larger study of the Assyrian background to Isaiah 1-39, explores specific links between this vision and the art and architecture of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Calah. Although constructed in the 9th century, the palace was in use during much of the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III, and served as a model for palaces constructed by this king and by Sargon II. Parallels between elements of palace art and Isaiah’s vision include: a) similarities between the multi-winged apkallu figures surrounding the throne and the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision; b) similarities between the purifying coal and the mullilu at palace gates and doors; and c) the awe-inspiring throne room. There are also important parallels between the palace’s function, from the standpoint of a Judahite observer, and the vision of Isaiah. The palace served as a destination for delegations of tribute-bearers from Judah and surrounding states in the years between Tiglath-Pileser’s accession and his first campaign to the southern Levant in 734. These tribute-bearers would then be tasked with the responsibility of returning to their homelands and conveying Assyrian imperial ideology to the political elites. Since they were tradents of political propaganda, the strange message of vv. 10-11 is an apt depiction of their mission: to hide certain pieces of evidence while highlighting others, in order to convince Judahites and others to submit to Assyria. The evidence from Isaiah 7-8 suggests that Isaiah was not supportive of the enthusiasm with which some of Judah’s elite accepted the Assyrian imperial claims of power, and Isaiah 6 critiques this enthusiasm. More specifically, it ought to be read as a critique of the awe of Assyria which the reports of the tribute-bearers inspired. It accomplishes this critique by subverting the reports of the awe-inspiring palace and converting the images of Assyrian imperial power into images of Divine power.


Periodizing First Isaiah’s Responses to Neo-Assyrian Claims of Empire
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Shawn Zelig Aster, Yeshiva University

Despite the later editing of Isaiah 1-39, these chapters contain specific ideas and motifs which clearly respond to those of 8th c. Neo-Assyrian claims of empire. The author of Isaiah 1-39 was forced to confront the reality of a universal empire, accompanied by a theology legitimating its universal reach. In response, he articulated a “replacement theology,” which emphasized the universal dominion of YHWH, and which subversively employed motifs from Neo-Assyrian claims of empire in advancing the claims of YHWH as a competing universal sovereign. A careful comparison of the motifs he borrows and subverts reveals three distinct stages of response. The first stage consists of the period up to and including the exile of 720, in which the prophet views the Assyrian empire as a salubrious force, which will cause Judah to return to YHWH. To this stage belong Isaiah 6 (which responds to Neo-Assyrian art), Isaiah 7-8 (738-734 BCE), Isaiah 14:28-32, Isaiah 19 (which can be dated to Tiglath Pileser’s campaign of 734 BCE against Philistia, which reached the border of Egypt). The exile of 720 forced the prophet to reconsider his positive evaluation of Assyria. Thus, Isaiah 10:5-12:6 (720), 20:1-6, 31:1-9 (712) describe the conflict between YHWH and Assyria, and the hubris of Assyria is emphasized. This stage culminates in the narratives of Isaiah 36-37, which transforms the events of 701 into an epic battle. The third stage consists of prophecies which recognize the temporal dominion of Assyria, and envision a universal submission to YHWH at some as-yet-undefined period in the future. These include the bulk of chapters 1-5. The talk will focus on the possibility of dating these chapters by means of the use of these motifs, and will consider the coherence of the theology in each group of chapters.


The Origins of Deuteronomic Prophecy: Early Moses Traditions in Deut 18:15–22
Program Unit: Biblical Law
J.D. Atkins, Marquette University

The traditions about prophecy contained in Deuteronomy 18:15-22 have often been characterized as exilic or post-exilic insertions that retrospectively redefine prophecy in response to a “crisis” in prophecy that arose during the final years of the Judean monarchy. Against this viewpoint, this paper will argue that nearly every major concept in Deuteronomy 18:15-22 can be shown to have roots in earlier traditions preserved in Exodus and Numbers, and therefore, that the passage would be better described as a compilation and formalization of earlier traditions than as a late “redefinition” of prophecy. Arguments for a pre-exilic date of composition will also be provided.


Twelve Prophets like Moses: The Commissioning of the Apostles in the Epistula Apostolorum
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
J. D. Atkins, Marquette University

This paper will argue that the commissioning of the apostles in the Epistula Apostolorum transforms NT traditions in a deliberate attempt to imitate the form and content of the call of Moses in Exod 3-4. This poses a challenge to standard interpretations of the Epistula. Scholars typically assume that: a) the author of the Epistula utilized a post-resurrection dialogue genre in an attempt “to combat…Gnostic opponents with their own weapons” and b) that Simon Magus and Cerinthus function as “mere types” of these later Gnostic opponents. However, the Epistula’s use of Moses typology to legitimate the apostles suggests a set of opponents who questioned apostolic authority and respected Moses traditions. Extant Gnostic dialogues simply do not fit this profile, whereas ancient descriptions of Simonism and Cerinthianism offer a good match.


The Historical-Critical Historical/Theological Enterprise: Why Are We Asking These Questions?
Program Unit:
Kenneth Atkinson, University of Northern Iowa

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Symposia and the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Harold Attridge, Yale University

The Fourth Gospel displays interesting similarities with many literary forms familiar from the Greco-Roman world. Yet the author exercises considerable liberty in adapting elements of those forms to his story of Jesus. One literary tradition that merits closer scrutiny for its role in shaping the Fourth Gospel is the “Symposium.” Plato’s version of a philosophical dinner conversation inspired several imitations in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, from Xenophon (probably) through Plutarch down to Methodius of Olympus. This essay will explore the genre and its affinities to the Fourth Gospel and its dinner discourses on Love.


Was Samuel Born Deuteronomistic, Achieve Deuteronomistic Status, or Have Deuteronomism Thrust upon Him?
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Graeme Auld, University of Edinburgh

The paper considers, with particular reference to 1 Samuel 8-12 and 2 Samuel 7, and furthering the discussion in Christa Schäfer-Lichtenberger (ed.), Die Samuelbücher und die Deuteronomisten, 2010, how far it is sensible to use the D-word in discussion of the book of Samuel.


From Liberation Theology to Empirical Hermeneutics: How Can Empirical Research Contribute to the Understanding of Biblical Texts?
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Esa Autero, University of Helsinki

Many Latin American liberation theologians have argued that a new way of reading the Bible emerged in the basic ecclesiastical communities in the 1960s and 1970s (Mesters, 1989; Boff & Boff 1989; Rowland and Corner 1988). Be as it may, a plethora of new approaches have emerged in biblical studies since the 1980s. Some of these are well known such as postcolonial biblical criticism. One of the less known recent trends is the so called empirical hermeneutics. It is a method that employs empirical research methodology (grounded theory, case study etc.) while investigating the reading processes of contemporary readers of the Bible. It an heir of “reading with” approach in which ordinary readers of the Bible read with academically trained scholars (West, 2007); and it is closely related to intercontextual approaches (Latvus, 2010; 2008; 2007). Compared to the previously mentioned approaches, the use of empirical research methods can bring added control mechanisms and give a wider picture of the reading processes than those which merely rely on people’s experiences. The proposed presentation starts with a brief review and analysis of the classical Latin American liberation hermeneutics from the 1960s to 1980s. Highlights of the well-known works of Severino Croatto, Clodovis Boff, and Ernesto Cardenal (The Gospel in Solentiname) will be briefly presented. The section that follows notes the crisis of the classical liberation hermeneutics in the 1980s and moves to present recent trends in hermeneutics of liberation. Further, a brief review on how Latin American biblical scholars have faced the rise of postcolonial biblical criticism, intercultural hermeneutics, and other new methods will be given. A particular focus is placed on the Intercultural Reading Project (Hans de Wit et. al., 2004), which combines intercultural criticism and empirical research methodology (grounded theory) with the reading of biblical texts. Finally, the author recounts his preliminary experiences of using comparative case study methodology in his research project of Luke’s gospel among the poor communities of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It will be argued that investigating the communal reading processes of real readers by using empirical research methods can open up new avenues in discovering both the historical and contemporary meanings of biblical texts.


The Angry Nose (khrh af)—An Old Riddle Revisited
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Yael Avrahami, Oranim: Academic College of Education

A common idiom for anger in the HB, and specifically divine anger, is the combination of the root khrh and the noun af, either as the act of anger (khrh af) or anger itself (kharon/khari af). Despite the numerous attempts to decipher these phrases from etymological, lexicographical, metaphorical and physiological perspectives (Dhorme 1923; Johnson 1974; Gruber 1980; Morag 1987; Kedar-Kopfstein 1994; Myhill 1997; Smith 1998; Kruger 2000; Kotzé 2005; van Wolde 2008) there is still disagreement between the lexical definition of khrh as ‘to burn’ agreed upon by the aforementioned scholars and all dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, and the etymological definition of khrh as ‘to cringe’ (Ehrlich 1899 apud Greenstein 2002). In this paper, I want to suggest further evidence to support the etymological definition, which would give the literal translation ‘cringed nose’ or ‘to cringe the nose’ for the undoubtedly contextual meaning ‘anger’, ‘to be angry’. By comparing the functioning of the nose to that of other organs it will be evident that all organs (the eye, the ear, the mouth, the hand, the womb) function appropriately when open, and dysfunctionally when closed. In other words, the ‘cringed nose’ is the opposite of the ‘open’, or ‘flowing’, expressed in the phrase erek appayim. Divine anger occurs when the divine nose is shut and refuses to accept the scents of sacrifices.


Can Blogging at 3 AM Be Considered Scholarship?
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Alice Bach, Case Western Reserve University

Suddenly last summer I realized I needed to find a soapbox from which I could speak my mind, share what I know about the Middle East and North Africa, and try to educate people, other than my students, about the occupation of Palestine. Since many of my colleagues believe that the study of religion has nothing to do with contemporary Israel/ Palestine, I knew I had to engage some new friends. I would need a digital soapbox to find these intellectual kindred spirits, one not of major interest to the folks with whom I teach. I found more treasure than I had hoped for. As I joined the public debate about Palestine and Israel, I realized the importance of gaining name recognition on internet sites. After slowing climbing the Facebook ladder, making friends with journalists, activists, policy-makers, Arabs and Jews, Christians and stolidly nonreligious bloggers, I was asked to blog regularly for the Huffington Post. From there, I saw what a vital tool Facebook can be, as my students were eager to “thumbs up” what I write and share my blogs with a wider circle. Last semester my ethnic studies class and I even made a few U Tube cartoons on the topics of xenophobia and Islamophobia. In this multimedia presentation, I shall show how Twitter can improve contact between students and faculty; how the Internet social media sites can build a strong learning community, and how my non-scholarly journey through as an active contributor to Internet-based sites has made my work more accessible to students and general readers as well. Finally, I will raise some of the possibilities for extended use of social media and joint websites as a forum for scholars and activists to combine their work. At every turn I will wonder if the Academy will ever respect my blogs, podcasts, and facetime with a global constituency.


The Heavenly Life of Horses in Second Temple Judaism
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Veronika Bachmann, University of Zurich

Exodus 15:21 recounts Miriam’s prominent call to praise YHWH “for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.” Her statement mirrors the negative portrayal of horses in the texts of the Hebrew Bible, primarily as a means and symbol of imperial powers oppressing and threatening weaker nations (cf. Hab 1:8; Ps 20:8). The people of YHWH is advised to shun such power (cf. Isa 2:7; Hos 14:4; Ps 33:17; 147:10). Against this background it is surprising that Zechariah depicts horsemen and horses with chariots among God’s agents. Indeed, the horse imagery seems to have gained access to the Jewish heavenly realm during the Persian period. This paper seeks to trace this heavenly career of horses within early Judaism through the textual and iconographic sources in their historical-cultural settings.


The Power of Knowledge and the Curse of Ignorance in 4QInstruction and Wisdom of Solomon
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
C. Andrew Ballard, Fordham University

4QInstruction is one of the most important texts for our understanding of the intersection between apocalypticism and wisdom in Second Temple Judaism. One of the motifs that is prominent in 4QInstruction is the ignorance of the wicked vs. the power of divine knowledge. The community responsible for creating the document saw themselves as the ones who had privileged divine knowledge of the past, present, and future concerning the salvation of God’s chosen ones and the damnation of all opposed to the God of Israel. The wicked are spoken of as ignorant and lacking discernment concerning the knowledge of God’s plans. This theme is also picked up by a later Jewish work, The Wisdom of Solomon. In Wis. the enlightened group is comprised of members who have apocalyptic knowledge and are true offspring of the deity because they walk in his ways. They are able to discern properly and reason soundly. However, the evildoers are denied such cognitive abilities and will be judged accordingly. In this paper I will argue that while both 4QInstruction and Wis. present the struggle of the godly and the ungodly in terms of revealed knowledge, Wis. is more apprehensive about this approach and is thus conflicted when trying to explain the state of the evildoers. This intriguing move on the part of the author of Wis. sheds light on the state of the intersecting themes of wisdom and apocalypticism in antiquity.


Acts of Mania in the Acts of the Apostles: Plutarch, a Pythic Maiden, and Prophetic Madness
Program Unit: Book of Acts
C. Andrew Ballard, Fordham University

Ecstatic prophecy in the ancient world has been the subject of much concern in the modern era. One of the most well-known and beloved subjects for the study of ancient prophecy is the Delphic Oracle. At its pinnacle of influence, the Oracle at Delphi advised kings and predicted the rise and fall of nations. The renown of its prophetic prowess spread far and wide. In the New Testament book of Acts of the Apostles, a possible allusion to the Delphic priestess in chapter 16 may further confirm her widespread influence as a cultural symbol. Though both the Delphic Oracle and the possessed maiden in Acts have been typically thought to be exhibitors of manic or frenzied prophecy, this assumption has recently come under scrutiny. In this treatment, I will examine the question of whether each of these prophetesses undertakes frenzied prophecy in light of the best available evidence. Through a careful study of the ancient literary sources on this topic, I will consider the merits and shortcomings of each position. Ultimately, I will argue that neither Plutarch’s portrayal of the Delphic Pythia nor Luke’s narrative of the slave girl necessarily validate the idea that either seer performed their oracular function under the influence of a frenzied state of being. I will demonstrate that the assumption of frenzied madness on the part of these two prophetesses ventures too far into the category of speculation, while a more moderate view provides an interpretation that better conforms to the available data.


The Mythic Motif of Yahweh’s Authority over the Sea: The Cases of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Jesus, and Gamaliel
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Debra Scoggins Ballentine, Brown University

Many passages in the Hebrew Bible claim that Yahweh has authority over the sea, an authority that then substantiates his status among divine beings and his kingship. In this paper I discuss how the motif of Yahweh’s authority over the sea was used to promote and to attack the legitimacy of particular humans: Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Jesus, and Gamaliel. Mark 4:35-41 (and parallels) narrates the story of Jesus commanding the sea, and Mark 6:45-52 (and parallels) relates the episode of Jesus walking on water. These early Christian literary traditions portray Jesus as having divine authority over the sea, in order to validate claims that Jesus had special divine and social status. By the same logic, but to opposite ends, the author of 2 Maccabees employs the motif of Yahweh’s authority over the sea to attack a disfavored political figure, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The author accuses Antiochus IV Epiphanes of imagining that he possesses power over the sea—to walk on the sea (2 Macc 5:21) and to command the sea (2 Macc 9:8). Finally, b.Baba Me?i‘a 59b relates a story about Gamaliel invoking Yahweh to calm a life-threatening storm. This narrative contributes to a positive characterization of Gamaliel by portraying him as deferring honor and power to Yahweh, while also asserting that Yahweh alone has power over the sea. Within these literary traditions, authors creatively adapted the motif of Yahweh’s authority over the sea to suit their specific socio-political and theological aims. More broadly, this paper addresses the use of mythological motifs for ideological purposes.


Yours and Mine, but Not Ours: The Toledot Yeshu and Identity Construction in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Victoria Ballmes, University of California-Santa Barbara

Daniel Boyarin argues in Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity that the split between Christianity and Judaism was neither so early nor so definitive as previously argued. In fact, Boyarin claims, “Judaism and Christianity were not separate entities until very late in late antiquity.” (22) The Jewish anti-gospels known as the Toledot Yeshu lend weight to the argument that the split between these two groups was a process of self-definition that was articulated in texts and circulated within communities, aimed in particular at those ‘dangerous ones in between’ (to borrow a phrase from John Gager) – that is, at those who might be seen as claiming dual citizenship, e.g. Jewish Christians or Christian Judaizers. The Toledot Yeshu’s portrayal of the split between Christianity and Judaism as something that was not only desired by the Jews but also deliberately engineered by them, with the figure of Peter acting as a sort of double agent on behalf of the separation-seeking Jews, provides evidence that the issue of the ‘parting of the ways’ between Christianity and Judaism remained an issue in some areas long after the first few centuries of the Common Era. The continued importance of self-definition over and against the other can been seen in this text, in particular in the subset of Toledot Yeshu manuscripts that contain an anti-Acts chapter after the death of Jesus. While the dating of these texts is still contested, recent scholars such as Hillel Newman and William Horbury have argued for a date between the fourth and seventh centuries. The texts remained in use up to and throughout the Middle Ages, however, and their continued use indicates that the issues that they addressed remained important to the community in some way.


Review of 1 Enoch 2
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Klaus Baltzer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

A review of the Hermeneia commentary on 1 Enoch, vol. 2, focusing on the Astronomical Book.


The Tract "On the Mystery of Letters" in Context of Late Antique Jewish, Gnostic, and Christian Letter Mysticism
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Cordula Bandt, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Speculations on letters play an important role within Late Antique mystical and magical tradition. Letters are regarded as smallest units of speech, but on a more esoteric level they are also understood as tools to gain spiritual progress or even influence reality. Names of angels and heavenly powers which are nonsense clusters of letters, composed by combining them according to certain rules, occur as prominent means of protection and power in early and later Jewish mysticism as well as in Gnostic texts, which are preserved in original or as quotations in polemical writings by the Church fathers. However, in orthodox Christian tradition references and responses on the symbolism of letters are rather rare, despite Christ's famous saying in the Book of Revelation "I am the Alpha and the Omega" (Rev. 1:8, 21:6, 22:13). Nevertheless, exactly this cryptic dictum inspires the remarkable tract "On the mystery of Letters" which was composed probably by a Christian monk in mid-6th century Palestine. This tract is thoroughly rooted in orthodoxy, but presents an astonishing variety of interpretations of the Greek alphabet, revealing hidden secrets by close examination of certain features of the letters like name, shape, numerical value, position in alphabet, pronunciation etc. In 2007, I published the editio princeps of this unique work, accompanied by a German translation and analysis of its content. In order to give a wider public access to this still quite little known text, I am currently preparing an English version of my book. My paper at the SBL Annual Meeting 2011 will focus on similarities between Jewish and Gnostic letter mysticism in the first centuries of the Christian era and the tract "On the mystery of letters". I will show how the author transforms rather heterodox ideas into a truly orthodox approach towards the alphabet. I will also discuss why mainstream Christianity at this time seems to be reluctant to involve into mystical letter speculations.


Jesus’ Teaching on the Law in Matthew 5 and the Concept of Deuteronomic Concessions: An Examination of the Teaching on Divorce and Remarriage in Matthew 5:31–32
Program Unit: Matthew
Michael Patrick Barber, John Paul the Great Catholic University

In the Sermon on the Mount we find Matthew’s most explicit account of Jesus’ teaching about his relationship to the Law. However, as is well known, Matthew’s report of Jesus’ teaching is particularly difficult to follow. In 5:17, Jesus insists that he has not come to “abolish” the Torah. Yet the teachings that follow this statement, the so-called “antitheses” (5:21–48), appear to do just that, i.e., they appear to nullify the Law. While some of the antitheses may be seen in terms of an intensification of the demands of the Torah (e.g., lust as adultery in 5:27–30), others are harder to explain along those lines. One particularly notable example is Jesus’ equation of divorce and remarriage with adultery (5:31–32). The Law in fact allows for divorce and remarriage (cf. Deut 24:1–4). It is difficult then to see Jesus’ teaching on this matter as merely an intensification of the Law’s requirements since Jesus is here explicitly prohibiting something the Torah clearly permits. Is there any possible explanation for this apparent problem? This paper proposes a solution. As many Old Testament scholars now recognize (e.g., Goldingay), Deuteronomy appears to have been understood as a kind of “lower law”, making concessions that are absent in the previous covenant legislation (e.g., profane slaughter, cf. Deut 12:15–25 with Lev 17:1–4). In fact, recently some have demonstrated that it is likely Ezekiel had precisely these types of concessions in view when he declared that God gave Israel “laws that were not good” (Ezek 20:25; Hahn, Bergsma). Is Matthew’s Jesus aware that certain laws were seen as concessions to sinfulness? Did he therefore expect to reinstitute the stricter standards of holiness they abrogated? Here we may find an important key that helps to better explicate Jesus’ view of Torah-righteousness in Matthew 5.


The Oriental King in Qohelet: A Novelistic Motif in a Jewish Prose Fiction
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Jennie Barbour, Harvard University

The book of Qohelet shares a number of traits with novelistic texts: the setting in a far distant time and place, deliberate historical anachronism, emphasis on the inner world of thought and feeling, and a narrative structure organised around an autobiographical retrospect. In this paper I will examine one particular motif which Qohelet holds in common with a number of early Jewish prose fictions, but which this author uses for different ideological ends. The Greek-derived stereotype of the Oriental despot has been found in Jewish texts such as Daniel, Esther, 4 Ezra, 3 Maccabees, and Bel and the Dragon; I suggest that Qohelet’s fictional king is drawn along exactly these lines, with his luxurious wealth and works, his position as the magnet at the center of empire, his over-staffed court, strange peaceableness, and carpe diem melancholy. What is singular about the book of Qohelet is the uses to which this author puts that common trope: the caricature of the foreign oppressor usually expresses the confidence and resistance of diaspora Judaism, but Qohelet’s treatment of his king turns this topos to self-satire, painting the tyrant not as an external oppressor but as a composite king of Israel in Jerusalem. Thus a borrowed motif illustrates the flexibility of prose fiction not only for participation in cultural transfer, but for sophisticated ideological critique and for the re-assessment of historical self-perception taking place in Persian and Hellenistic Judaism.


Echoes of Exile in the Book of Qohelet
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Jennie Barbour, Harvard University

This paper explores the likelihood that a book so late and literary as Qohelet, written at a time of solidifying canon-consciousness, is inhabited by textual echoes of a literary tradition which cast a long shadow across the writing of Qohelet’s contemporaries, namely the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile. The fictional setting of the book invites us to read it as in part an exploration of the failure of Solomonic kingship: these words of a ‘king over Israel in Jerusalem’ are framed between twin tableaus of the creation and destruction of that king's splendid city at the opening and close of the book. Throughout Qohelet’s observations and complaints, habits of speech recur which belong to earlier biblical and later exegetical patterns of memorializing the shared national disaster of exile: I will explore the book’s particular ways of speaking about acute distress, its anxiety over disrupted succession, and its consciousness of history in the light of the wider growth of collective memory of the Exile.


The Subversion of Patriarchal Wisdom in Ecclesiastes (and Its Reassertion)
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Kevin J. Barbour, Emory University

While scholars may point out how certain claims within the book of Ecclesiastes seem at odds with notions found in the book of Proverbs, this paper argues that such a discussion is better framed at the level of an entire discourse than isolating different verses or phrases. To this end, the paper relies upon the insights of critical discourse analysis (with an emphasis upon the ideological and sociological functions of language) in order to demonstrate that, taken as a whole, the discursive world of Qohelet contrasts markedly with that of Proverbs (particularly Proverbs 1-9). Specifically, Qohelet is in tension with the overwhelmingly patriarchal character of Proverbs 1-9 and indeed often appears to subvert the worldview of the book of Proverbs, whether intentionally or accidentally. This is illustrated via an analysis of the ways in which Qohelet’s discourse constructs various identities (especially Qohelet’s own), contracts various relationships (particularly with the reader/addressee of the text), depicts the distribution of social goods and certain cultural values (within the writer’s socio-historical context), and privileges certain epistemologies or “ways of knowing” for the wise. The discussion proceeds in two parts. The first part aims to establish and describe what “critical discourse analysis” attempts to accomplish, mainly addressing issues of methodology and terminology. The second part illustrates how discourse analysis may be applied to a biblical text, suggesting its usefulness within biblical studies more generally. The primary goal of the paper, however, is to draw attention to the differences between Proverbs 1-9 and Ecclesiastes that are operative at the level of an entire discourse, and that such differences challenge any oversimplified notion of “patriarchal wisdom” in the Hebrew Bible.


The Dating of Early Christian Papyri
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Don Barker, Macquarie University

There is a tendency by some palaeographers to give a narrow date range to a number of early Christian papyri. This paper will explore the evidence as to whether we are able to narrowly date early Christian papyri written in the round decorated script.


Soren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth on Theological Interpretation
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Brian Barlow, Anderson University

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The Multidirectional Memory of the Exodus
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Pamela Barmash, Washington University

The Exodus tradition interacts with a number of other historical memories and ideologies, and this dynamic cross-referencing reflects a productive dynamic in which the Exodus is used to articulate other cultural visions. Deuteronomy recasts the commemoration of the Exodus on a new basis and uses the Exodus to forestall the sense of dislocation that might result from cult centralization. Psalm 78 deploys the Exodus as a way of amplifying royal Davidic ideology and besmirching the northern kingdom. Deutero-Isaiah uses Exodus imagery to amplify and enhance a prophetic mission.


The Johannine Commandment and the Law
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Lori Baron, Duke University

The use of the singular form of the Greek word entole in John's Gospel and in 1 John (e.g. John 13:34, 15:12, 1 John 3:23) reflects the singular form of mitzvah in Deuteronomy (e.g. 5:31, 8:1, 11:8). Lohfink (Das Hauptgebot), Dillman, and others have argued that this use of the singular noun represents the basic covenantal oath to which individual statutes and ordinances are added. The use of this form of entole in Johannine literature has implications that have largely gone unrecognized for both John's christology and John's relation to the Law of Moses. By issuing his own commandment, the Johannine Jesus, in effect, issues his own "Law," replacing the requirements of the Mosaic legislation. This radical development signals both continuity with Second Temple Judaism and a radical break from it.


Kierkegaard and Pietist Hermeneutics
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Lee Barrett, Lancaster Theological Seminary

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Reading Matthew 13 Missionally: Training for the Reign of God
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Lois Barrett, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

This paper will explore how the parables in Matthew 13, read through a missional lens, illuminate the Matthean understanding of "training for the Reign of God."


The Tenth Commandment, René Girard, and the Good Neighborhood of Hebrew Wisdom
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Craig Bartholomew, Redeemer University College

Michael Fox and others have rightly noted that the wisdom of Proverbs is not empirical; its observations are informed by a set of values or an orientation towards the world. Patrick Miller evocatively argues that the Ten Commandments establish the ethos of the good neighborhood. This paper will explore the good neighborhood of wisdom in Proverbs through an examination of the relationship between the tenth commandment and the values of Proverbs. René Girard (I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightning) explores the pivotal role of the tenth commandment in containing mimetic desire, which he argues is at the heart of violence. It is one of the longest commandments and the final one and yet impossible to legislate, dealing as it does with desire. Intriguingly, in this respect the tenth commandment has strong analogues in Proverbs, in which inappropriate and appropriate desire is frequently addressed. By focusing on the folly and wisdom of desire in Proverbs through the grid of Girard’s notion of mimetic desire this paper will explore an aspect of the good neighborhood of Proverbs as well as the relationship between the good neighborhood of Proverbs and that of Sinai, i.e. the relationship between wisdom and law and why the essence of the tenth commandment figures prominently in Proverbs. The overlap as well as the difference between the Decalogue’s notion of desire and that of Proverbs will be attended to with a view to discerning the different roles of these genres in the life of Israel. The paper will conclude by noting the relevance of this topic to contemporary philosophy in which desire is a major theme.


What Social Psychologists Wish Biblical Scholars Knew about Cognition
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Robert Bascom, United Bible Societies

The study of cognition has been an important part of a number of different disciplines over the last several decades. Psychology and Linguistics are the best known for incorporating cognitive studies into their fields, borrowing extensively from recent advances in brain and human consciousness research in areas such as Neurology, Neuropsychology and Primatology. But Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Psychology have also been interested in cognition for some time now. These fields contribute uniquely to the study of cognition because they approach the subject from a group-social rather than an individual perspective. Cognition (for some social scientists, at least) is something that is itself negotiated in the context of human interaction. Such an approach changes how one looks at something so basic to cognitive studies as frames and framing. As biblical studies attempts to take on board the results of cognitive research, it needs to look at the various fields where it has been applied and use them all where appropriate. Social Psychology in particular is one of the fields biblical scholars cannot afford to ignore when looking at ways cognition has been considered and understood. Scripture translation is the laboratory in which the social understanding of cognition will be applied to biblical studies. The social construction (or negotiation) of the self and subsequent self-understanding and self-presentation are fundamental in how key biblical concepts are understood when translated into different cultural contexts.


Jesus’s Demand to Abandon Worldly Possessions to Enter the Everlasting Kingdom
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Herbert Basser, Queens University

One of the most radical teachings of Jesus in the NT is his directive to abandon one’s worldly goods. It is not enough to keep essential commandments and be ethical. In the heavenly Kingdom those who have surrendered everything material will find miraculous riches . But what is one to do in the meantime before the Kingdom of Plenty comes? (Matt. 19:27). The answer in Matt. 19:28 requires understanding of the issues involved“ His answer assumes a new founding myth of Israel and a displacement of the original 12 Fathers of Israel who are to be replaced by the 12 disciples. Might these be original Jesus teachings? Are there Jewish materials that might shed light on his pronouncements. This talk investigate these questions and offers some insight into the issues.


Veiled Resistance to a Violent King: Rereading Matthew 11:12 and Luke 16:16–18
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Matthew W. Bates, Quincy University

Both Matthew 11:12 and Luke 16:16 have long puzzled interpreters. Some interpreters have understood these verses as a positive expression regarding the advance of the kingdom—e.g. "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it" (Matt 11:12, NIV). Other expositors have understood these verses as reflecting opposition to the kingdom—e.g. "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt 11:12, NRSV). Apart from these two options, a myriad of other interpretative possibilities are on the table. Drawing upon the theoretical model of James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), this paper will argue that both verses are best explained as a veiled reference to the violent actions of Herod against John the Baptist. In other words, Jesus is offering resistance to a violent and dangerous official representative of imperial power by giving a cryptic rather than an overt critique. A novel yet confirming feature of this solution is that the verses subsequent to Luke 16:16 are also seen to be directed at Herod in a subtle fashion: the saying about divorce (Luke 16:17-18) and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Although this interpretation has been obfuscated by a hyper-emphasis on Formgeschichte within the guild, it can be demonstrated as probable by a contextual/literary reading.


Revelatory Experience and Christological Tension in Mark
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Mark Batluck, University of Edinburgh

The tension in Mark’s Gospel between the full humanity and divine privilege of Jesus is difficult to resolve. Mark presents Jesus both as one who has limitations but also one who has significant access to divine power. In the Prologue, for example, Jesus submits to John’s baptism at the outset of his public ministry and yet several verses later is found doing battle with Satan in the desert (Mk 1:9, 12-13). Or, at the end of the Gospel, Jesus cries out on the cross, “My, God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet chapter 16 records him being raised from the dead (Mk 15:34; 16:6). This tension is pervasive in Mark and makes it difficult to understand how the author is relating these characteristics in his portrait of Jesus. This paper’s contention is that the revelatory experiences of Jesus—events where a voice from heaven is heard and/or a vision is seen—represent the primary literary effort made by the evangelist to bridge the gap between the human and the divine in Mark’s description of Jesus. The baptism, Transfiguration, and crucifixion all depict a Jesus who limited in his humanity, but momentarily revealed in glory as the Son of God. These divine disclosures of visionary or prophetic means (Bockmuehl, Revelation and Mystery), as a unitary feature of Mark, have been largely neglected in the scholarship of the last century. This paper will first survey Mark's treatment of religious experiences as a whole, which are a prominent part of the Gospel and function in an unusual way in the narrative. Then, the baptism, Transfiguration, and crucifixion accounts will be examined discretely for the resolution they offer to this Christological tension in Mark.


“The Giblews” and the Palimpsest
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Alicia Batten,  University of Sudbury

The Scottish sisters, Margaret Dunlop Gibson and Agnes Smith Lewis, who were known affectionately as “the Giblews,” are perhaps most famous for their discovery of the late fourth century palimpsest, the “Lewis Syriac Gospels,” at St. Catherine’s monastery in 1892. This paper narrates the history of this discovery, and examines their analysis and translation of the palimpsest. The discussion will pay special attention to how the sisters’ extensive travels throughout the Mediterranean (described in their travel diaries) inform their interpretation of the palimpsest and its role in textual criticism of the four gospels.


Pearls in the Ancient Economy and in Early Christian Literature
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Alicia Batten, University of Sudbury

Although not all cultures have valued pearls as treasures, many throughout the Greco-Roman world appear to have had a near obsession with them. Julius Caesar dedicated a cuirass made of pearls to Venus while later on Augustus, inspired by Caesar’s action, also bestowed a gift of pearls to Venus but for a different purpose. This paper will examine the reasons for the importance of pearls amongst the Greco-Romans and focus especially on the role of pearls within the Roman economy and what they could symbolize. With this contextual background, I will then survey a range of early Christian texts that refer to pearls. While some writings forbid Christian women from wearing such things (e.g. 1 Pet 3:3) presumably because they were perceived as indicative of luxury and vanity, others refer to them as precious objects that must be cherished and protected (e.g. Matt 7:6; 13:45-46; GThom 76:1). Still other examples of Christian literature, including those which advocate a life of renunciation, feature pearl merchants as key protagonists or pearls playing important roles within their stories (e.g. Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles; Hymn of the Pearl). The paper will thus shed light on these varying references to pearls given the significance of pearls within the Greco-Roman economy and imagination.


Identity and Inclusivity
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Stephen Bauer, Southern Adventist University

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Biblical Authenticity in the Jesus Films: The Issue of Subtext
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Lloyd Baugh, Pontificia Università Gregoriana

A thorny but critical issue regarding the many film representations of the Gospel is that of the authenticity of the film texts and of the images of Jesus that they propose. Though many of them claim Gospel authenticity, in fact, and for a wide variety of reasons, most, if not all, of these films fall short of the mark. A useful way to appreciate the distance between a Jesus film and the Gospel text is to examine the subtexts that function within the film; more often than not, even in the films often praised as valid and authentic versions of the story of Jesus, these subtexts shift, subvert or destroy the film’s authenticity. The paper will begin with a discussion of subtexts in general, the effect they have, and, with a few examples, show how they are functional in the Jesus films. Then it will examine in more detail some of the categories of subtexts operative in the Jesus films, including: theological-devotional subtexts (Pasolini, Gibson); anti-feminist and feminist subtexts (Ray, Scorsese, Dornford-May); auteur elements as subtexts (Scorsese, Gibson, Pasolini); socio-political subtexts (Pasolini, Zeffirelli, Dornford-May); anti-semitic subtexts (Griffith, Jewison, Gibson); film medium subtexts (Ray, Stevens, Zeffirelli); painterly subtexts (Stevens, Gibson, Pasolini, Zeffirelli); the Jesus-film tradition as a subtext (Stevens, Zeffirelli, Scorsese). Finally, the paper will consider the dynamic of interacting subtexts in four films, demonstrating how in two of the films, the subtexts compete or clash, further vitiating the representation of Jesus and the Gospel proposed—Scorsese (Kazantzakis/low Christology/interiority) and Gibson (devotional imagery/Emmerich/high-density Hollywood style), and how in two, the dynamic is complementary and the interaction of the subtexts serves the films well—Pasolini (political-ideological/pure Gospel) and Dornford-May (socio-political/demythologizing of cinema). A series of illustrative film clips will support the presentation.


Secret Spaces: Apocalyptic and Sexuality
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Betsy Bauman, Saint Norbert College

In this article I read 1Enoch to show that the apocalyptic process is a gendered and sexual one: its writers equate it with uncovering and unmasking, but it is a process of the construction of secrets/spaces simply to reinforce the categories of knower, known and knowledge, and then the subsequent exposing of those secret spaces to knowledge. Such exposing/discovering/consuming secrets is proposed as a male right and reward, and in a woman’s hands it is profane, sexualized, distorted and disturbing to the cosmos. The article takes the work of earlier exegetes of apocalyptic literature, who view the genre in a more traditional, historical-critical way, and builds on this by using feminist and postcolonial theories to further illuminate the gendered and political assumptions that inform such texts. The only scholar to have undertaken such a combination of fields is Catherine Keller, and she limits her work primarily to the New Testament book of Revelation. My article looks more closely at earlier apocalyptic texts, situated in the political environment of empire that engendered the apocalyptic impulse. I more fully use feminist literary and critical theorists such as Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler and Gloria Anzaldua to build on more traditional interpretations. I define apocalyptic as a hybrid/resistance genre that appropriates the pervasive gendered discourse of the colonizers into its own claims, thus perpetuating connections between power, knowledge and the female, simultaneously valorizing in new ways the very power relations they claim to critique because those power relations are defined as resistance/sacred – combining the authority of the concepts of empire, the sacred, gender, and subaltern idealism and self-righteousness.


Practices in Ethiopic Philology and an Ancient MS of the Ethiopic Octateuch (OT)
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Alessandro Bausi, University of Hamburg

A. Ethiopic philology has frequently assumed the “base manuscript method” as the standard method for critical editions. With a few exceptions -- also including a few Biblical and Apocryphal texts -- this “method” has been largely applied for establishing purported “critical texts,” almost without exception and mostly in the “CSCO” and “Patrologia Orientalis” series, the latter strongly revitalizing it in a number of very recent publications. While the assumption of the “base manuscript method” might sometimes be justified by specific peculiarities of a given manuscript tradition, stability of language and substantially “mechanical” textual traditions seem to prevent its systematic application in the case of Ethiopic texts. (A. Bausi, “Current Trends in Ethiopian Studies: Philology,” in: Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies [Aethiopistische Forschun-gen 65], eds. S. Uhlig et al., Wiesbaden 2006, 542-551; Id., “Philology as Textual Criticism: ‘Normalization’ of Ethiopian Studies,” Ethiopian Philology. Bulletin of Philological Society of Ethiopia 1/1 [November 2008], 13-46; P. Marrassini, “Problems in Critical Edition and the State of Ethiopian Philology”, Journal of Ethiopian Studies 42 (1999), 25-68.) -- B. The occasion of the discovery and the task of the scientific description of a new ancient manuscript witness to the Ethiopic Octateuch (or “Orit”, i.e. an Old Testament manuscript including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth) provides clues to evaluating the so far not yet fully exploited possibilities of field research. Archaic palaeographic peculiarities and interesting textual data clearly appear.


Zechariah 11 and the Shepherd’s Broken Covenant
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
Richard Bautch, St. Edward's University

Zechariah 11 recounts the actions of an enigmatic shepherd who, among other things, employs two staffs with the monikers “favor” and “unity.” Upon becoming dismayed with his flock, the shepherd breaks his two staffs, which become doubly symbolic when the shepherd reports that he is also breaking the covenant that he had made “with all the people” (Zech 11:10) as well as the kinship bonds between Judah and Israel (11:14). The episode of the two staffs establishes covenant and kinship as keys to understanding (1) the shepherd and by extension leadership in Second Temple Judaism during the Persian Period, (2) the community as it comprised different social groups based in and around Jerusalem, and (3) the identity that said groups created for themselves using distinctively postexilic references to covenants made and broken. This paper explores the issues of leadership, community and identity by studying covenant as it is attested in Second Zechariah. While the shepherd’s broken covenant is the focus, there is consideration of the oracles that begin in Zechariah 9 and continue through chapter 13 in order to indicate an arc of interest in covenant and kinship. Special attention is paid to the covenant of blood cited in 9:11 and the clear intimations of covenant in 13:7-9. In light of the linkage between these passages and the shepherd’s remarks on covenant and kinship (11:10-14), it becomes evident that Second Zechariah has strategically incorporated covenant language into select oracles that collectively mark a new development in Yahwistic religion. Among the paper’s conclusions is that Second Zechariah employs covenant to promote a comprehensive understanding of Israel after the exile, not unlike the view that prevails in 1 Chr 9:3 (but in contrast to Neh 11:4, which parallels the citation in Chronicles). Moreover, while Second Zechariah reflects the discussions about Judean identity carried on in Chronicles and Nehemiah, and is indebted as well to the prophetic literature writ large (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel), its covenantal oracles function no less significantly as a precursor to the eschatological writings of later generations, especially texts associated with the community at Qumran.


Reading Symbolism in John’s Apocalypse Now and Then: The Case of the Millennium
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Leslie Baynes, Missouri State University

A perennial question in reading Revelation has to do with hermeneutics: how does one interpret its symbolic language? Symbolic language demands a reader who approaches it with a conscious hermeneutical method. Broadly speaking, two popular methods have been the allegorical and the literal. The allegorical method is relatively easy to recognize and define. But what does it mean to read anything “literally,” much less something as multivalent as figurative language? The first part of this paper will address these questions, and the second part of the paper will apply them to a specific example in Revelation. In the early church, perhaps the most controversial and enduring arguments between those who advocated a “literal” approach and those who insisted on an allegorical or spiritualizing hermeneutic concerned the nature of the millennium in Revelation 20. Eusebius famously disparaged Papias as a man of limited understanding at least in part for his literal views on the millennium. Interestingly, some modern evangelical proponents of a literal thousand-year reign condemn Eusebius and his fellows (particularly Origen and Augustine) for their spiritualization of Revelation 20, a hermeneutics they view as disastrous. Central to the controversy now as then is how to read symbolic language, a question at the heart of any theological reading of Revelation. This paper will use the work of ancient exegetes as well as G. B. Caird, N. T. Wright, Dale Allison, Dale Martin, and others to investigate that question.


The Historical Jesus and Hellenistic Royal Ideology in the Lord's Prayer
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Giovanni Bazzana, Harvard University

This paper examines the Lord's Prayer against the background of the papyri. In particular, it focuses on the use of Hellenistic royal ideology in the papyri and the Lord's Prayer and explores the implications of the findings for the historical Jesus.


"Deity Name of Geographical Name" Formulations in Ancient Near Eastern Epigraphs and the Phenomenon of Local Manifestations of Deities
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Adam L. Bean, Johns Hopkins University

In the decades since the identification of the formulations "Yahweh of Samaria" and "Yahweh of Teman" in the epigraphic materials from Kuntillet 'Ajrud, the concept of "local manifestations of deities" has received increased attention within the field of the study of Ancient Israel. P. Kyle McCarter's important 1987 essay led the way in interpreting these "DN of GN" formulations within the context of similar expressions within the ANE religious milieu, and more recent contributions from Benjamin D. Sommer and Jeremy M. Hutton have furthered that line of investigation. This study advances the discussion by considering an even larger corpus of DN of GN formulations and related data, comparing numerous examples from Mesopotamian, Hittite, and Northwest Semitic sources, some of which have receive minimal attention previously.


New Methods of Reading Ostraca
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Gregory Bearman, ANE Image

We report here the application of various spectroscopic imaging methods to ostraca. The methods are Mid-Infrared, Raman and the newly developed, Contrast Enhanced X-Ray Fluorescence (CE-XRF) imaging. The imaging methods were tested on ostraca analogs with several different ink formulations; carbon black, India ink and fullerene soot. We chose carbons inks as we are interested in ostraca from the Ancient Neat East and iron-gall inks came into use well after these ostraca were produced We start with Mid-Infrared spectral imaging that, while useful for some samples, has mixed results due to the lack of consistent differences in the vibrational spectra of the ink and the substrate. Raman spectroscopy at 785 nm easily showed the carbon soot peaks at ~1500 cm-1 without any fluorescence from the pottery substrate. This provides another contrast mechanism suitable for imaging with moderate signal to noise. The best results were based on XRF imaging. The contrast between the ink and clay substrate was apparent using any number of elemental lines for imaging for all the inks. XRF imaging was further improved by exploiting the property of carbon soot to actively absorb I2 vapor. The contrast enhancement is a result of the large x-ray florescence of I2 and the preferential absorption of I2 by the ink relative to the clay substrate, since I2 has a larg x-ray absorption cross-section. This also suggests using other exogenous contrast markers such as fluorescent tags linked to ligands selectively adsorbed by carbon.


Aspect in Biblical Greek Discourse: Insights from Hungarian, Russian, Vietnamese, English, and Modern Greek
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Mark Beatty, Pacific Rim Bible College

From such Biblical Greek grammarians as Campbell, Fanning, Porter and Wallace, a prospective Greek Exegete is presented with a perplexity of aspectual schemata. An empirical flaw common to all, however, is the failure of each grammarian to fully incorporate periphrastic structures in their proposed aspectual systems. If one views “aspect” as human beings linguistically encoding kinds of action; and if one considers all human beings similar in their cognitive potential; then the question must be asked how the vast number of languages are similar in expressing aspect. The answer to this question lies in the periphrastic structures used in many languages. Hungarian and Russian have extensive morphological aspect. English, Modern Greek and Biblical Greek have a combination of morphological and lexical aspect. Vietnamese has no morphological aspect what-so-ever and thus all aspect in Vietnamese is lexical which can be considered “periphrastic.” This paper will show that all languages are similar in their aspectual abilities. The proposed aspectual schema will be verified by examining discourse patterns in the New Testament.


Disputing Jesus’ Divine Status: The Rhetorical Functions of Lukan Humor (16:14–18)
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Terri Bednarz, Loyola University-New Orleans

This paper explores the rhetorical functions of the barbed commentary and the disparate dicta found in Luke 16:14-18. In order to understand the rhetorical thrust of these peculiarly placed dicta, it is necessary to situate them within their broader Lukan context and within the framework of forceful style rhetoric, particularly as described in Demetrius’ On Style. The context suggests that Luke’s repeated references to the law of Moses and the prophets serve as forensic arguments to settle disputes about Jesus’ divine status. The stinging commentary and barb of vss. 14-15 and the disjointed dicta of vs. 16-18 are particularly indicative of Lukan forensic-type humor in which harsh Greek sounds, and seemingly disjointed dicta produce Demetrian punch-like effects. Why does Luke use such harsh rhetoric? The trajectory of Lukan rhetoric persistently aims to de-legitimize Jesus’ rivals as lawless pretenders (20:20), while legitimizing Jesus as the law-abiding Just One (Luke 23:47; Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14). Barbed humor is an effective way of de-legitimizing a rival in Roman antiquity. As in-group literature, the forensic rhetoric of Luke 16:14-18 carries primarily a didactic function. The placement of the dicta between the parables of the Dishonest Household Manager (16:1-8a) and the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31) makes a strong rhetorical point to the Lukan hearers that defrauding and oppressing the poor is tantamount to idolatry, and constitutes a rejection of God’s Just One.


The Life and Struggles of Our Mothers: Seventeenth Century Ethiopian Hagiographies about Female Orthodox Saints
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Wendy Laura Belcher, Princeton University

This paper introduces the genre of the Ethiopian hagiography, gadl, and a particular sub-genre, texts about Ethiopian female saints. Of over two hundred known gadl written by the Habesha in G?‘?z about indigenous saints--a huge body of early African literature that has gone largely untranslated and unstudied--only ten (of those yet discovered) are about women. Most of those ten are about seventeenth-century women who resisted conversion to Roman Catholicism, including Walatta Petros, Eheta Krestos, Eheta Petros, and Feqerta Krestos. These four gadl tell the stories of women who have been revered among the Habesha for saving the church and who should be acknowledged as some of the earliest pioneers against European colonial efforts in Africa.


Paul’s Use of the Moses Tradition in Galatians 3:19–20
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Linda Belleville, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

New Testament scholarship by-and-large has been quick to attribute “ordained through angels by a mediator” (Gal 3:19) as a Pauline creative addition to show the theological inferiority of Mosaic Law to the Abrahamic promise. No angels appear in the MT Sinai story and the language of mediation is foreign to the Hebrew Exodus narrative. Yet both are central to the tradition history of the Sinai events and presented in a positive light. Also, Paul’s further statement, “Now the mediator is not of one, but God is one” (v. 20) appears more creedal than creative. Investigation of the Sinai Moses tradition offers clarity regarding Paul’s use of Sinai story as well as an alternative perspective regarding the theological intent of Galatians 3.


A Translation Fallacy in Rendering Auvqentei/n in 1 Timothy 2.12: BDAG in Light of Greco-Roman Literary and Non-literary Usage
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Linda Belleville, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

On the basis of George Knight’s 1984 and Leland Wilshire’s 1988 studies in NTS, the 2000 edition of BDAG eliminated “domineer over someone” as a meaning of the Greek word a??e?t?? and substituted “to assume a stance of independent authority,” thereby discrediting translations of 1 Timothy 2:12 dating back to the Old Latin that render the phrase ??d? a??e?te?? ??d??? negatively as “nor to domineer” (Old Latin, Vulgate, Coptic, Nova Vulgata, Williams, Nynorsk, NEB, Spanish UBS, New Berkley, J.B. Cerf, French Trad.Oec. 1988, NVB 1995) or “nor to usurp authority over a man” (Gothic, Syriac Peshitta [Lamsa], Erasmus, Geneva, RV9, Bishops, KJV, Websters, L. Segond 1910, La Sainte 1938). Yet, examination of the a??e?t- word group in the literary and non-literary materials of the apostolic and post-apostolic periods shows that modern translations of a??e?te?? as “to exercise authority” or “assume authority” have no basis in the Greek of antiquity. Instead, the meanings of “murder” and “perpetrate” a criminal act surface as primary in the literary materials, while the meanings of “original,” and “dominate” surface in the non-literary materials. Primary materials validate Thayer’s literary meaning of “one who with his own hand kills” and his non-literary meanings of “author” and “autocrat,” “dominate.”


The History and Unfinished Business of the Ethiopic Manuscript Microfilm Library
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Alice Ogden Bellis, Howard University School of Divinity

This paper will focus on the origins of the Ethiopic Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) project in the 1970s, a collaboration between the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), Walter Harrelson, then Dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Ethiopian institutional partners. We will describe the equipment and the process used, as well as the locations at which manuscripts were filmed, including the Institute for Ethiopian Studies, the Patriarch’s Library, and the National Archives and Library of Ethiopia. Political upheavals affected the project, first in l987 and later when another set of upheavals prevented microfilming in the major regions of literary production, such as Gonder, Gojjam, Tigray, and Eritrea. In 2005, HMML returned to Ethiopia to recover lost and incomplete images, but the image sets for 2000+ manuscripts remain problematic. We will tell about the ten existing catalogues (mss 1-5000) by William MaComber and Getatchew Haile and the eleventh, which is in process. We will describe the metadata which has already been produced—including the information sheets prepared for each manuscript and shot as the first image, The Bulletin of Ethiopian Manuscripts: Trimester Publication of EMML, edited by Sergew Hable Selassie—and we will describe the unfinished business and work yet to be done: the “recovered” images and what they will require, cataloguing the rest of the mss (from 7001 up), and the question of what format or formats the catalogue information should be in, published catalogues and/ or searchable online databases.


If the Lord Delight in Us: Divine Reflexivity in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Daniel Belnap, Brigham Young University

In 2009, Kimberley Patton published a provocative study on the role of divine ritual activity as found in Greco-Roman religion. Noting that divinity could be found depicted on pottery as offering sacrifice or pouring libations, she set out to develop a new category of religious experience, which she called “divine reflexivity” or divine ritual activity reflecting similar mortal ritual activity. Though her primary focus is Indo-European tradition (including evidence as found in Zoroastrian and Scandinavian traditions), at the end of her volume, she briefly explores divine reflexivity in rabbinic Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all relatively late, monotheistic traditions. The purpose of my study is to examine whether or not divine reflexivity can be discerned in the Hebrew Bible. There are some intriguing texts within the Hebrew Bible that suggest divine reflexivity (Exodus 40; Isaiah 34:6-7, etc.), and if they are in fact examples of such, I will explore the implications of such and how they may change our understanding of human ritual activity. While my focus is primarily on the ritual activity described within the Hebrew Bible, it will also touch briefly on whether or not ritual reflexivity is found in ancient Near Eastern religious traditions outside of ancient Israel and the conclusions that one may make based on the comparison.


The Yehudite Prophetic Books and Imperial Context
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Ehud Ben Zvi, University of Alberta

This paper will explore some aspects of the imperial, cultural context in which the collection of prophetic books emerged in Yehud. First, it will note the underlying presence in these books (and in the general discourse of Yehud, which they reflected and shaped) of patterns of ideological resistance that facilitated social and political accommodation within the empire and conversely patterns of accommodation that facilitated ideological resistance, as accommodation and integration, empire and regional identity went hand in hand (at least for the most part) in Yehud. Second, it will explore some discursive, including memory implications of this pattern concerning memories of a future, internal socio-cultural organization of Israel communicated by the prophetic books and concerning the implied world of the intended readership. Then it will begin to explore some of the ways in which the prophetic books reflected a social mindscape in which many of its core concepts and images reflected close interaction, engagement, local appropriation, modification and at times radicalization or regionalization of traditional, imperial matrices of knowledge. For instance, it will dwell on the shaping of mental maps that organized or underlay memories of future socio-political structures (e.g., YHWH as imperial ruler of ‘heaven and earth;’ kingly images of Israel, etc.), future space (Jerusalem as an imperial city, ‘highways’ leading to the center), of peoples in the future YHWH’s kingdom and the like.


History and Ideology in Shishak’s Karnak Relief
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Shirly Ben-Dor Evian, Tel Aviv University

Shishak’s Karnak relief has been studied repeatedly for its unique compilation of Asiatic place-names, providing a rare insight into the geo-political state of Early Israel. However, the relief itself is made of more than the list of names, and includes a lengthy inscription and intricate representations. Upon close consideration, the inscription and the king’s image provide some historical information of their own. This becomes evident when comparing Shishak’s triumphal relief with others of its genre, and carefully separating traditional traits from innovative ones. The interpretation of these novelties as ideological markers, points to an earlier dating of the military campaign, sometime during the first decade of Shishak’s reign. This earlier date sheds new light on the campaign’s objectives and carries some implications on the Biblical account of Shishak’s campaign, which can now be read against the background of the 22nd Dynasty’s struggle for power in Egypt and beyond it.


Reassessing the Role of Natural Sciences in the Yahad
Program Unit: Qumran
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa

Outside the trodden path of the foundation documents, a significant corpus of texts from Qumran displays an interest with what we would call ‘Natural Science’: astronomy, astrology, physiognomy. These disciplines are, in turn, applied for sectarian use: in the calendrical corpus but also in the astrological-physiognomic text 4Q186. While no word for ‘Science’ exists in the scrolls’ vocabulary, modern scholarship must acknowledge the special interest given in the DSS to observing the natural world and producing systematic explanations for it. We must account for this interest by tracing its ideological, epistemological and institutional background, whether in apocalypticism or more specifically within the Yahad. The religious infrastructure for accommodating science in Early Apocalypticism has been studied recently in some detail. Part of the knowledge at Qumran derives from these earlier texts. In several cases it could be shown that this early, mainly Aramaic, knowledge, was translated into Hebrew and copied by Yahad scribes in cryptic script, a fact that may point to its religious function. However, other Qumran texts show novel scientific activity, for example the use of the ‘ascendant’ in 4Q186, a non-Enochic element, which was relatively new even in Hellenistic horoscopes of that period. The enigmatic ‘sundial’ found at Qumran also merits explanation in this respect. The above facts lead to an integrative view of Science as part of the sectarian ideology. Scientific knowledge seems to have been part of the graded revelation model in 1QS VIII. The effort to render science into Hebrew can be seen as part of the linguistic ideology of the Yahad. Science stopped being supported by the “speaking I” of a primordial apocalyptic seer, and became part of the anonymous ‘I’ of sectarian literature. The Yahad, in its unique way, produced a supportive environment for the absorption and development of scientific traditions. Much of the theory and terminology developed for the assessment of Jewish science in the Middle Ages can be used to elucidate the present issue as well.


Review of 1 Enoch 2
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa

A review of the Hermeneia commentary on 1 Enoch, vol. 2, focusing on the Astronomical Book.


Moral Evaluation and Complexity in 16th–17th Century Dutch Paintings of Bathsheba
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Amanda W. Benckhuysen, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary

The biblical scene of 2 Samuel 11:2-4a in which David gazes longingly at the beautiful Bathsheba is a common theme in Renaissance paintings. Artists like Rembrandt were drawn to Bathsheba for the challenge of capturing on canvas lifelike representations of the beauty and sensuousness of the female body. This, however, was not their only goal. The shift in the 16th century away from typological interpretations to reading the text for its plain sense confronted readers with the reprehensible nature of David’s moral offenses. The looming question for Dutch artists of the 16th and 17th century was how David, a man after God’s heart, could fall so far. The answer was inscribed in Bathsheba’s body and the negative or positive qualities that were attributed to her through the appropriation of visual conventions popular in medieval and renaissance art. In this respect, these artists granted Bathsheba a subjectivity that the biblical narrator denied her. Their work also engendered a moral evaluation of her character. While some artists implicated Bathsheba in David’s sin, others rendered the scene with greater moral complexity, evoking the viewer’s consideration of human sexuality and issues of power as well as the viewer’s own complicity in making a sexual spectacle of Bathsheba. This paper will explore the iconography of Dutch artwork of the Renaissance and the Golden Age with specific attention paid to the ways in which Bathsheba is represented and the strategies employed to evoke the viewer’s moral assessment and involvement in the scene.


Authorizing the Female Voice in Seventeenth Century Colonial America
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Amanda W. Benckhuysen, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary

In Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, Cotton Mather affirmed the propriety of women to be writers of God’s “declarative word” and the possibility of their being “scribes” of the same “Spirit, who moved Holy men to write the most sure word of Prophecy.” For 17th century Puritan women of colonial America, the appeal to a prophetic voice after the tradition of the biblical prophets became a common avenue by which to claim authority for their writings and religious teachings. In a culture where women were largely viewed with distrust and suspicion as daughters of Eve, the authorizing of the female voice became imperative for women to be heard. This paper aims to examine the work and words of Anne Bradstreet and Anne Hutchinson for how they established their prophetic voice and the strategies they employed to align themselves with the prophetic tradition of the Bible.


The Classroom and the Desert: Asceticim in Classical Education and the Life of Anthony
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Nathan K. Bennett, Claremont Graduate University

Greco-Roman education as discussed by authors such as Cicero, Quintilian and Apuleius was explicitly conceived as an exercise in self-discipline and renunciation. Student who completed study under a grammarian or rhetorician were considered morally advanced over those who did not. The cultural perception of education as a moral agent appears again in an unlikely place: The Life of Anthony. Though Anthony explicitly rejects learning, his ascetic regimen arguably draws on this Greco-Roman educational paradigm, effectively re-creating the moral components of classical education.


Anthony vs. Paul, Athanasius vs. Jerome, Asceticim vs. Education
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Nathan K. Bennett, Claremont Graduate University

The competition over the relationship between asceticism and education spans centuries and includes multiple participants, some real, some imagined. When Athanasius wrote the Life of Anthony, he set out to present the ideal model for a form of asceticism that promised to be much more than simple abstention from luxurious living. Athanasius’ portrait of Anthony suggested that asceticism was the source of a truly amazing education, one that allowed the ascetic to understand the world in a new way and rendered classical education useless. It was this vision that led Jerome, already a well-educated man, to the desert. In the end, however, Jerome found the Life of Anthony misleading. He therefore set out to write a competing Life, which would set the record straight on the true relationship between asceticism and education, and determine who was the true founder of the ascetic life. The text he produced was the Life of Paul. By comparing these two lives, we can witness the competition that developed between two idealized authorities of the ascetic life, as well as that between two impressive figures in the history of Christianity in late antiquity. Indeed, an understanding of this competition will provide insight into competing understandings of Christian asceticism and its perceived objectives.


Nomina Sacra in P.Lond. VI.1927: the Norm or Exception?
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Rick D. Bennett, Jr., Macquarie University

This paper will offer an extended discussion on the numerous occurrences of nomina sacra in P.Lond. VI.1927 (mid-4th c. CE), and their place within the larger practice in documentary papyri. Is the author operating within the norm for this medium, or is this simply a rare exception to the supposed varied practice of employing nomina sacra? Conclusions on the matter will be supported by data on occurrences in documentary papyri up to the 5th c. along with comparisons to their biblical counterparts.


The Zizania Problem
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Adam Beresford, University of Massachusetts Boston

The parable of the ‘weeds’ in Matthew 13 is central to the apocalyptic reading of the crucial ‘kingdom’ parables. Unlike most of the kingdom parables, it is explicitly apocalyptic. Unlike much of the apocalyptic material (e.g., in Mark or Q) it is doubly attested, since it also appears Thomas. But some scholars think that the ‘weeds’ parable is a re-working of the ‘growing seed’ parable in Mark 4. On that view, it seems that the seed parable (which is not explicitly apocalyptic) was apocalypticized by an early interpreter. If so, then the ‘weeds’ parable obviously offers no evidence for an apocalypticist reading of other parables. Can this issue be settled? I first consider the internal evidence that the ‘weeds’ parable re-works the ‘seed’ parable. Then I address a major philological difficulty in the former. The 'Greek' for ‘weeds‘ — zizania — is not a Greek word. It had no meaning in Greek before this text. Apparently the Greek translator did not think that the word meant ‘weeds‘ (or ‘darnel’). He apparently did not know what zizania meant. The same term, zizania, is used in the Latin and Syriac versions, and in Coptic in Thomas, even though zizania has no meaning in Latin, Syriac, or Coptic. It also has no meaning in Aramaic, as far as we know. So what are zizania? Nobody knows. I propose, using various independent pieces of evidence, that the word hides an Aramaic phrase that meant ‘bad seeds.’ This phrase was misread as the meaningless single term zizania. This solves the philological problem, and has a bearing on our larger question. Comparison with other texts in Matthew suggests that the ‘bad seeds’ are an intrusion into the original seed parable. Also, the highly distinctive translator’s error points to a textual bottleneck in the transmission of the zizania parable, further supporting the editorial theory.


Clemens Romanus and the Mystery of the Disappearing Bankers
Program Unit: Q
Adam Beresford, University of Massachusetts Boston

We do not know who ‘Clemens Romanus’ was, or his floruit. But there are reasons for thinking that he was embedded in an early Jewish-Christian community. In his heavily text-based arguments he quotes almost exclusively from Q material, supposedly verbatim. He has no interest in Paul. His quotations from Q differ from the synoptic text in ways that suggest an early and Jewish source: (1) His quotations contain more Aramaisms than the synoptics; (2) He avoids the word ‘God’, even where it occurs in synoptic Q sayings; (3) His variant readings seem superior in some cases; (4) He apparently denies the divinity of Jesus; (5) He quotes material that does not occur in the synoptic Q sayings at all (but takes the reader’s familiarity with it for granted.) These considerations recommend the tentative hypothesis that ‘Clemens’ is a witness for Q, both because of the variants that look better than the result of paraphrase or poor memory, and because his quotation of missing material is prima facie grounds for thinking he is quoting from a different text; an earlier text, as it seems. He quotes one complete saying, amid his Q sayings, that is completely absent from the synoptic Q material: “Be like reputable [?] bankers.” He is well supported in this. In spite of its absence from all four Gospels, and Thomas, the saying is also assigned to Jesus by Eusebius, Origen, Basilius, Chrysostom, and others. But then, why did the ‘reputable bankers’ disappear from the corpus? I shall examine the early interpretations of the saying, and argue that it is an authentic Q saying. I shall also propose, more speculatively, that it does survive, in highly modified form, in both Luke and Mark, as a parable and an anecdote respectively.


Spiritual Diagnostics in the Community Rule
Program Unit: Qumran
Shane Berg, Princeton Theological Seminary

At two key points in the Community Rule, there are references to the practice of examination with the group. In 1QS 5.20-24, there is a provision for the examination of prospective members that entails examining "their spirits," the criteria being the degree of a person's "insight" and "his deeds in the Torah." There is also a more general guideline stated that requires such examinations of a person's "spirit" annually for the purpose of ranking within the community. Members can be promoted or demoted based upon these spiritual diagnoses. In 1 QS 9.12-20 there is yet another example of spiritual diagnostics. The Maskîl is to evaluate the Sons of Righteousness “according to their spirits.” The dealings of the Maskîl with these examinees are to operate on a principle of strict proportionality that is determined by the status of their “spirits.” The practical significance of the worldview laid out in the Discourse on the Two Spirits (1QS 3.13-4.26) is apparent in 1 QS 5.20-24 and 9.12-20. The Discourse asserts that human actions and knowledge are a direct reflection of the degree to which the two spirits exercise influence over a particular individual. The examination of a member or potential member of the community yields not mere insights into human character and achievement but rather the active agency of beings in the spiritual realm. This paper will explore and describe how in its literary context in 1QS the Discourse on the Two Spirits undergirds key social practices within the community like admitting, evaluating, and ranking members. Particular attention will be paid to the role of observation in discerning the concrete outworking of God's deterministic plan in human life and experience.


The Ethical Function of Religious Epistemology in Paul’s Letters
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Shane Berg, Princeton Theological Seminary

This paper will explore the relationship between Paul’s religious epistemology and his ethical admonitions. It will attempt to show that Paul often appeals to the realm of the mind or intellect when making ethical exhortations. The believer is enjoined, for example, to “reckon” him/herself “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11) in order to prevent sin from mastering the body (Romans 6:12-14). Later in Romans Paul will speak of being transferred by “the renewal of the mind” so as not to be “conformed to this world” (12:2). Paul relates humility and selflessness to having the “same mind” that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:1-5). On the flip side of this same coin, Paul can speak of the failure of mind as the root cause of sinful actions. In Romans 1:18-32, idolatry is understood as stemming from the failure of the knowledge of God to lead to the worship of God, and in 7:7-13 the knowledge of the law leads ultimately to sinful actions. It is quite clear that there is an interesting link in Paul’s anthropology between activity in the mind/intellect and actions of the body. 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4 is an important example of how Paul imagines that his assertions about divine revelation relate to the ethical obligations of the believers. Paul’s discussion of revelation in 2:6-16 amounts to a mini-treatise in religious epistemology in which he emphasizes divine initiative (in the form of the spirit) in the process of comprehending the “mystery” of Jesus’ death. Paul makes stark distinctions between outsiders—those who are perishing and are unable to discern spiritual matters—from insiders—those who understand spiritual things and have the “mind of Christ.” It is clear that one of the conclusions Paul draws from this way of understanding revelation is that the access to divine revelation provided to believers by the spirit should result in a unanimity of thought and judgment (cf. 1:10). In 3:1-4, Paul brings home the point of his instruction on religious epistemology—the behavior of those engaged in quarreling and in-fighting demonstrates that they have failed to appropriate or appreciate the discernment made available to them by the spirit. Paul thus refers to them as “fleshly” and immature. Thus in 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4 Paul deploys a discourse about the mind and the intellect to address the social problem of factionalism. 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4 suggests that Paul has wedded Second Temple Jewish apocalyptic concepts of revelation with the Greco-Roman rhetorical notions of homonoia /concordia. Paul contextualizes rhetorical topoi that call for communal harmony and consensus within a Jewish apocalyptic cosmology and anthropology in which various suprahuman agencies are at work within the human. This conception of the world and the human within it gives a distinctive cast to Paul’s moral discourse.


Reading Joshua/Judges in Oz: Postcolonialism in Kansas?
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Wes Bergen, Wichita State University

Joshua and Judges are written both about and within a specific geographical and historical location. A modern reader is also affected by geography and history. This paper will explore the books of Joshua and Judges as they apply to the present context of Kansas. I have lived and taught in Kansas for the past fifteen years, but am originally from the Canadian prairies. Thus I am both an insider and an outsider in Kansas- the prairies are home, but the nation is not my own. From this perspective, I can offer an appreciative analysis of life in Kansas while still being aware of alternative ways of looking at the world. The paper will be grounded in postimperialist theory. Postimperialism is a logical offshoot of postcolonialism- postcolonialism for the colonizer. While Kansas was originally colonized by white settlers, the native population was so thoroughly removed that few remain, at least in my part of the state. Kansas nonetheless continues to be part of the larger colonialist and neocolonialist project of America, thinking as colonizer rather than as colonized. While this might be seen as a minor part of life in Kansas, so far from any actual colonies, it is still a significant part of the worldview of most of my students. I take as a conversation partner the book What’s the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank. This book details the current political situation in Kansas, and gives one explanation for how a specific type of conservative political thought, driven significantly by a specific religious agenda, became the dominant political movement in an historically liberal state. In outline, the paper will be divided into five sections. The first is a summary of the current state of Kansas politics, and some remarks about life in Kansas in general. The second section will be brief remarks on theory, explaining how postcolonial theory interacts with life in the geographical and ideological heart of the American empire. The third section will be an overview of the many ways Joshua and Judges intersect with the issues and lives of ordinary Kansans, especially as they relate to the church. These include (but are not limited to): - God working through conquest, - warfare and its consequences, - attitudes towards government, - “us” and “them” (immigration, other religions, atheism, Democrats), - national vs religious identity; communal vs individual identity; how do these two interact? - how does all of this interact with sexual politics (i.e. the abortion debate)? - silence on class issues in Kansas and Joshua/Judges. If I can explain all of these with sufficient brevity, I will have time for the fourth section, a more detailed analysis of one specific topic from the list above and its relationship to the books of Joshua and Judges. The final section will be a conclusion.


Incorporating God’s Will: The Human Mouth as Entrance Gate for the Divine
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Claudia D. Bergmann, Universität Erfurt

Eating and drinking are regular human activities that first and foremost serve to keep a human being alive. Thus, ingesting and digesting are characteristics of living creatures. The actions of eating and drinking, however, can also take on symbolic value when they express something that goes beyond fulfilling physical human needs. Sharing in a meal can strengthen the bonds within a group. Meals can (re)create common group memories. They can communicate truth, set things in motion, confirm changes in life, and accompany rites of passage. This paper will consider three text genres inside and outside the canon of the Hebrew Bible that use the human activities of eating and drinking in a symbolic fashion. In particular, it will focus on the human mouth as the metaphorical entrance gate to the human body, through which the divine will enters an individual. First, prophetic call narratives of the Hebrew Bible illustrate that the human mouth can be the location of divine performance rituals that turn the unwilling prophet into the mouthpiece of God. Second, biblical stories about divinely provided or withheld food portray the human mouth as the place where divine salvation or judgment can enter. Third, extra-biblical texts describing the eschatological meal make the human mouth the location where divine knowledge about the beginning and the end of the world is incorporated into the human body. By examine these three ways of symbolic eating/drinking, this paper will explore the metaphorical use of the human mouth from an exegetical, theological, and ritual studies perspective. It will also ask how metaphor theory (or theories) can contribute to our understanding of the human mouth as the place for ingesting, digesting, and finally incorporating the divine will into the human body.


Histories Twice Told: Deuteronomy 1–3 and the Hittite Treaty Prologue Tradition
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Joshua Berman, Bar-Ilan University

The many discrepancies between the historical accounts in Deut 1-3 and the parallel accounts in Exodus and Numbers led classical scholarship to conclude that the author of Deuteronomy could not have intended his work to be read together with those alternative traditions. A cogent historical record, it is reasoned, cannot have conflicting versions of the same events. In this paper, I claim that an ancient literary model for precisely such activity was available to the author of Deuteronomy in the Hittite treaty prologue tradition. Building on work by Moshe Weinfeld and his students, I begin by highlighting the many elements and motifs of Deut 1-3 that find parallel in the Hittite treaty prologue tradition, demonstrating that the author of Deuteronomy was familiar with this tradition. In the second part of the paper I analyze the four successive treaties between the Hittite kingdom and the kings of Amurru. As we move from treaty to treaty we see history retold again and again and that the various retellings of the same event differ markedly one from another. I demonstrate that even as the Hittite kings redrafted their historical accounts in accord with the needs of the moment, both they and their vassals would read these accounts while retaining, and recalling the earlier, conflicting versions of events. Drawing inspiration from studies of the El Amarna letters, I turn to the field of international relations for a social science perspective to explain why the Hittite kings composed such conflicting histories and how, in turn, these were read and interpreted by their vassals. Finally, I return to Deuteronomy and discuss the implications of this practice for our understanding of the historical accounts of Deuteronomy 1-3 within the context of the Pentateuch, where other, conflicting versions of those same stories are found.


The New Lakota Translation of the Bible: Anti-imperial and “Non-white”
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Steven Berneking, Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship at the American Bible Society

My aim in this paper is to explore the objectives, the scope, and examples from the ongoing Lakota translation of the Bible from the perspective of Arnold Krupat’s working description of “anti-imperial translation.” I will also draw from the writings of Thomas King and Gerald Vizenor, as well as from the ideas of Winfried Siemerling. As a Translation Consultant with the United Bible Societies, I have worked several years directly with the Lakota team of native speakers in their translation of the Bible into Lakota. My role as the TC of this project is not to translate but to inform, guide, critique, probe their work from my experience as a biblical scholar. I am committed to helping them imagine the biblical text and its narratives from their worldview as Lakota natives (i.e., domesticating the text), not expecting them to confine their translation to the worldview of the Bible, and certainly not that of the European-American colonial powers (i.e., foreignizing the text). In their own words, the translators of the Lakota Bible hope “to replace the white man’s Bible” (i.e., the so-called missionary translations of the 19th century) with “a Lakota Bible that draws from both our traditional spirituality and our Christian faith.” It is with their choice of concepts, metaphors, and vocabulary drawn from their tradition that, I will argue, makes this translation a example of Krupat’s “anti-imperial translation.” In Krupat’s description of “anti-imperial translation,” this kind of “cultural transformation” creates a dissonance in the target language and culture because it results in texts that are written in an English powerfully affected by the indigenous world. According to Krupat, such translations transform the cultural practice of both the “target” and the “source.” The combination of traditional Lakota spirituality and Western Christianity results in what Siemerling has identified as the interplay of “western forms” and “Native practices.” By analyzing the Lakota translation of the Bible through these lens offered by Krupat and Siemerling, this paper expects to contribute to the ongoing discussion in cultural studies about the shape of postcolonial translation theory and practice.


When Sources Prove to Be Layers: A New Approach Towards the Literary Development of the Exodus Narrative (Exod 1–15)
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Christoph Berner, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The paper summarizes the resuts of my Habilitationsschrift “Die Exoduserzählung. Das literarische Werden einer Ursprungslegende Israels” (FAT 73, Tübingen 2010). The book provides a comprehensive redaction critical analysis of the literary development of the Exodus Narrative (Ex 1-15) and the closely related chapter on Jethro (Ex 18). It shows that the present form of the text does result neither from the compilation of sources nor from the work of one or a few large-scale redactions. Rather, it is the product of a continuous process of literary expansions through which the foundation myth of the Exodus constantly gained narrative complexity and theological depth.


The Natural Intelligence of the Bible: A Jewish Perspective
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Ellen Bernstein, Holyoke, MA

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Critical Spatiality and the Book of Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Jon Berquist, Disciples Seminary Foundation

Critical spatial theory depicts a world of dynamic interrelationships between physicality, perceptions, rhetorics, and actions. The book of Hebrews offers rhetorics of space that range from the heavenly to homeless cave-dwellers, often interacting through the transitional spaces of the temple. So much is connected through the sacrificed body of Jesus, a body that has moved through the many spaces of the book of Hebrews. This set of spaces – real and imagined, remembered and projected – opens up to the possible embodiment of the book’s rhetorics into practices and actions. This paper will examine recent advances in critical spatiality in an attempt to suggest possible gains for interpreting the book of Hebrews.


Heresiology as Ethnography: Christianity and the Performance of Knowledge
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Todd Berzon, Columbia University

In an essay entitled “How to Read Heresiology,” Averil Cameron challenges scholars to consider anew this seemingly superficial literature of religious ‘othering’ and competitive differentiation. In her analysis of the various obstacles confronting the study of heresiological texts, Cameron suggests most scholarly treatments operate under a false premise, viz. “that heresiologies are there as sources of information, rather than as performative or functional texts” (473). In answering the call put forward by Cameron, this paper attempts to read heresiology as a Christian adaptation (and appropriation) of modes and methods of classical ethnography. As acts of theological classification (and refutation), the heresiological works of Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus, Epiphanius of Salamis, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus parrot classical ethnographic works in their encyclopedic performance of knowledge production. Christian authors, however, turned the genre inward. This paper will begin by mapping the contours of “classical ethnography,” emphasizing the rhetorical, ideological, and literary aspects of a wide swathe of authors, including Herodotus, Josephus, Strabo, Tacitus, and Diodorus Siculus. Even when it is characterizing peoples in passing, pre-Christian ethnography engages in a process of categorizing in a variety of distinct but overlapping ways: cultural translation, normative claims, and techniques of competitive differentiation. Drawing on the work of anthropologists Johannes Fabian and James Clifford, I will argue that Christian ethnographic reasoning is itself a mode of knowledge production, which simultaneously aims to construct the theological, genealogical, geographical, and temporal borders of orthodoxy and heresy. Heresiology operates as ethnography in its aim to taxonomize the contours of an ever-changing Christian oikoumene. The very fact that Christianity was geographically and theologically diverse testifies to the relevance of viewing ethnography as embedded within orthodox Christianity project of classifying its competitors.


A New Papyrus Codex with Texts from the Pauline Letters in Coptic: A Preliminary Report
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Hans-Gebhard Bethge, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Along with Codex Tchacos of which major parts were published more than four years ago and some missing fragments recently, another Coptic manuscript emerged. This papyrus codex contains parts of an originally larger manuscript. It dates back to the 3rd oder 4th century. The remains belong to the most important Coptic manuscripts. They are currently in the posession of Frieda Tchacos-Nussberger (Switzerland). In 2010 an in the first half of this year the manuscript was conserved at the University Library of Augsburg. Gregor Wurst an I are responsible for the preparation of the publication of this important text. This difficult process is still ongoing. The papyrus manuscript contains texts from 21 leaves including fragments of variabele size from 1 Cor, Heb, Gal, Eph, Phil, Col, and 1 Thes which makes a total amount of 42 pages or their fragnmentary parts respectively. Also maintained was the original cover of the codex with cartonnage for its stabilisation. This material has to be examined yet. The paper aims at introducing the manuscript and its most interesting variant readings but also naming the remaining open questions.


Students Serving through Teaching: Service-Learning in Introduction to Biblical Literature
Program Unit: Service-Learning and Biblical Studies
Sharon Betsworth, Oklahoma City University

At Oklahoma City University, Service Learning is a University requirement for all students earning a Bachelor's degree. The "Introduction to Biblical Literature" course fulfills a General Education requirement for students as well. We have successfully combined these requirements through service learning projects in which students turn their learning into teaching. We will discuss three recent service learning projects: teaching a youth group Arts-Integrated Bible lessons; teaching select Bible passages to older adults at a church-related retirement facility; and teaching about Jewish holidays alongside local synagogue members for a Festival of Jewish Living. In each case, students incorporated material from the "Introduction to Biblical Literature" class and supplemented it with their own research to develop lessons and activities for participants. This resulted in learning for both the students and those they served.


Wisdom and Monotheism in Ancient Jewish Writings
Program Unit: Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms
Stefan Beyerle, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald

While the Book of Proverbs introduces us to “Dame Folly” (Prov. 9:13–18), the name of “Lady Wisdom” is a construct of modern exegesis. Nevertheless, in several ancient Jewish wisdom texts the use of Hebrew hokhmah or Greek sophia gave rise to the idea personified Wisdom. This happened in sources that date only after the Babylonian Exile when the concept of Jewish monotheism was already established. In his very influential book “The Hebrew God” (2002), Bernhard Lang draw the conclusion that hokhmah represented a Wisdom deity who was subordinated to the God of creation. This paper wants to examine the relationship between the “monotheistic” god YHWH and personified Wisdom in light of Bernhard Lang’s thesis.


"Apocalypse against Empire": Anathea Portier-Young’s Book in the Context of Recent Scholarship
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Stefan Beyerle, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald

Anathea Portier-Young’s book on "Apocalypse Against Empire" combines a thorough analysis of the historical backgrounds of apocalyptic writings with questions and conclusions concerning a theological interpretation of "Apocalypses." By focusing on the earlier apocalyptic compositions, like the Book of Daniel and some significant parts of 1 Enoch, Portier-Young highlights a historical context that primarily has the Jewish revolt against Antiochus IV in view. Therefore, "Resistance Theology" in those apocalypses considers the relationship between Hellenism and Judaism. This paper provides a review of the monograph within the context of recent publications.


The Numerous Deaths of King Saul
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Hannes Bezzel, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

The discussion of the last few years about the existence and the extent of one or several “deuteronomistic histories” has only lightly grazed the books of Samuel. While the original ending of the books of Kings, the nature of Deuteronomy, a possible Hexateuchal ending in Joshua and the dating of the book of Judges are being debated, the books of Samuel seem to stand as solid as a rock, unaffected by the breakers of the actual scholarly debate. Sometimes they constitute the beginning of one DtrH, sometimes they stand in the middle of another one, and never they are to be found at its ending. The consensus goes even farther. The pattern which Noth assumed for the genesis of his entire DtrG, videlicet different originally independent traditions would have been connected redactionally, is pursued further on more or less unchallenged only on a smaller scale. But it is a matter of discussion to what extent such traditions could or should be supposed to be in the literary prehistory and history of Sam. This paper wants to contribute to this debate by bringing into question the Saul-tradition(s). As it is well known, the story of his death is twofold told: I Sam 31 and II Sam 1. The differences between both versions of the story are usually traced either to the different literary genres of both chapters or to old independent traditions and “Erzählkränze” (Dietrich) being in their background. But besides I Sam 31 and II Sam 1, Saul actually has already died for the first time in I Sam 14,47-51, since in these verses we can read his obituary. In its presumably older shape which has been preserved by LXX and VL it told the reader, pursuant to the genre, de mortuo nil nisi bene and therefore stands in contrast with both the stories of Saul’s rejection and his tragic fate in I Sam 31. The question arises whether the relationship of these texts is described adequately in terms of separate more or less old traditions or if it would make more sense to suppose here Forschreibungen – be they called midrashic or not – of a Saul-tradition in I Sam 1-14* which originally had been of a rather modest scale. However, this would bear consequences also for the question of the “deuteronomistic” character of the oldest coherent literary entity – or, in other words, whether the first written “history” in Sam could be called “deuteronomistic” at all.


Theology and the Book of Lamentations
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Miriam Bier, University of Otago

This paper introduces the current state of the discussion of the theology of Lamentations in the scholarly literature. It follows recent commentators (e.g. Boase, Linafelt, Berlin) who have recognised that there is no single theological influence on the book of Lamentations. Accordingly, this paper will argue that there is no single theological message that might be considered the theologically determinative perspective of the book. Rather, instead of presenting a ready made “theology,” Lamentations provides a blueprint for a process by which competing theological claims may be engaged in times of crisis. Much theological reflection on the book of Lamentations has centered upon the unidentifiable “man” of chapter 3 (eg. Westermann). The theological “heart” and “key” of the book is reckoned to be the posture of quiet submission and penitence demonstrated by this man. The central theological “message” is thus that one should wait quietly and endure suffering sent from the Lord. More recently, however, Tod Linafelt, Carleen Mandolfo, and others have rightly reacted against this centralizing and totalizing tendency. They have instead highlighted the protesting figure of daughter Zion in chapters 1 and 2. These alternative readings demonstrate that Zion's protests at her treatment resist and undermine any attempt to claim that “the” theological message of the book revolves around submissive penitence. And yet both perspectives – penitence and protest – are present and each in turn is persuasive. Consequently, neither the “man” of chapter three, who encourages quiet submission to God's punishment, nor the figure of Zion, who protests God's severity, can be taken as a figure to whom to adhere when seeking a “theology” of Lamentations. Thus this paper will argue that appealing to any single figure or perspective to provide a single dominant “theology” of Lamentations is contrary to the book's plurality. A more appropriate approach is to recognise the multiple competing theological perspectives and to explicate the interactions between them. The expression of multiple competing theological claims, in an attempt to understand and explain the unprecedented disaster of 587 BCE, is then taken as paradigmatic for a process by which a discussion of the theologies of Lamentations might proceed.


Love as That Which Binds Everything Together? The Unity of 2 Corinthians Revisited
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Reimund Bieringer, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

In the discussion on the literary unity of 2 Corinthians, scholars have identified either 1:1-2:13 + 7:5-16, an allegedly independent letter (the proponents of the Bornkamm-Hypothesis) or the whole letter (Vegge, 2008) as a “letter of reconciliation”. In all the parts of 2 Corinthians the relationship between Paul and his Corinthian addressees is the central topic of the text, and the way that the relationship is constructed in the letter differs from all the other undisputed letters (Bieringer, 1994e, “Paul’s Divine Jealousy”). Throughout all the parts of the letter, Paul expresses his love for the Corinthians in strong language (by the use of ajgap- terminology, but also by way of other expressions). In this paper I will investigate Paul’s language of love for the Corinthians as the motivation and vehicle of the intended reconciliation. In the course of this analysis I will raise the question whether Paul’s construction of the relationship between himself and the Corinthians as a love relationship differs in 2 Cor 1-7; 8-9 and 10-13 in ways that have implications for the coherence of the letter. I will pay particular attention to the appeals to reciprocity in 2 Cor 1-9 and to the more prevalent threats of unilateral action in 2 Cor 10-13. On the basis of these observations I will raise the question of the implications of this difference for the discussion of literary unity of 2 Corinthians.


Bargaining with Brigands: Socio-political Strategies in the Portraits of the Two Co-crucified
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Mark Glen Bilby, University of Virginia

Drawing on his dissertation at the University of Virginia on Luke 23.39-43, the presenter shows how each proto-canonical Gospel account of the two crucified with Jesus embodies a distinct socio-political strategy of imperial negotiation. As the earliest and pioneering Passion Narrative, Mark's Gospel (15.27-32) stages the two as zealots (lestai/brigands) who mimic the ridicule from the pro-Roman temple leadership, illustrating both imperial loyalty and imperial resistance as futile strategies for negotiation and survival for the followers of Jesus. Matthew (27.38-44) obviously copies much of Mark's account but uniquely includes language borrowed from the Q temptation narrative (“if you are the Son of God”), itself borrowed from Wisdom of Solomon 2.18. That Alexandrian text defends the idea of a personal afterlife against its objectors (perhaps Sadduccees). This subtle addition points to the Matthean affinity for Pharisaic Torah-devotion as the optimal strategy for imperial negotiation and survival, even while solidifying the Markan picture of indicting Temple leadership and zealots as part of the same futile effort to control through violence. John's Gospel (19.18, 31-36) turns the two into nondescript "others" who would not dare to ridicule the incarnate Logos and whose broken legs serve to illustrate Jesus' unique and prophetic status as the unbreakable Passover Lamb. This removal of zealotry from the crucifixion narrative limns a strategy of sidestepping conflict in place of engagement with Roman powers by means of an involved dialogue about the identity of Jesus and philosophical quest for truth. The final, Lucan (23.32-33, 39-43) proto-canonical depiction begins by toning down the language of zealotry (using "kakourgoi/evildoers" rather than "brigands"). More than that, it deploys the episode as a contrastive didactic illustration in which one evildoer reveals the gross impiety and futility of the zealot resistance to Rome, while the other shows the enormous piety and profitability of abandoning such resistance. Leaving zealotry behind brings beatitude in the afterlife; it also secures a place of peace and safety for Christians in the Roman empire in this world. Jesus’ own paradise saying outlines a tamer, more Hellenistic layering of the cosmos in which eschatological hopes for a radical displacement of imperial powers simply do not fit. In conclusion, the death of Jesus as a political criminal was perhaps the most profound social-political problem for Jesus’ early followers. In response to this issue, the proto-canonical Gospels draw on diverse strategies of imperial negotiation carried out by means of carefully revising the story of the two co-crucified zealots.


Reading Acts within the Visual Milieu of Roman Historical Reliefs
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Drew William Billings, McGill University

Research on the Book of Acts has matured over the years in an exemplary fashion, modeling with increasing sophistication the various ways in which early Christian discourse relates to its broader cultural milieu. Future endeavors will be inhibited, however, if attempts to tie Acts to its literary environment are privileged to such an extent so as to neglect the need also to situate Acts within its visual environment. Life in the urban centers of the ancient Mediterranean may be described as a constant encounter with the visual world of art and architecture. Texts and images served as complementary systems of communication, and, as such, must be considered in tandem. What would happen if we were to situate those perennial questions that have perplexed Acts research over the years within a disciplined comparative enterprise where visual material was taken seriously in our reading of Acts? This paper seeks to sketch such a program by focusing on Roman historical reliefs as a class of art that the patron(s), author(s), and audience(s) of Acts would have likely been familiar. It will be shown how these visual masterpieces relate to the literary aesthetics of Acts and its endless choices of representation. Focused attention will be given to comparing the combination of continuous narrative format and strategies of verisimilitude. Obversely, since this visual world would have indelibly shaped audience perception and reception of Acts, questions of how this shifts both ancient and modern hermeneutics will be addressed. In the end, I argue that by situating Acts within a definite field of vision, we shall better understand how it relates to broader modes of cultural production.


Reading Rome: Irenaeus and Eusebius on the Early Christian Urban Vision
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
D. Jeffrey Bingham, Dallas Theological Seminary

According to Eusebius, Rome, the imperial city, was under siege in the days of Claudius Caesar. The armies were “the enemy of humanity’s salvation” led by Simon Magus (Hist. Eccl. 2.12.1). This peculiar perception of Rome as the location of cosmic warfare in the time of Claudius, is already anticipated in an early Christian interpretation of the city during Nero’s reign. This ruler, we are told (Hist. Eccl. 2.23.1-3), “took up arms against the God of the universe.” This reading of mid-first-century Rome by the fourth-century historian, appears again as also characteristic of Rome under Commodus. An initial positive narrative is interrupted (Hist. Eccl. 5.21) by Apollonius’s martyrdom, interpreted as demonically orchestrated. The cosmological conflict portrayed by Eusebius in the fourth century predates him, for it was already with Irenaeus in the second. For Irenaeus, the city’s early, original simplicity in its doctrine had become more complicated, more diverse. For Irenaeus, the Roman church had remained pure, as its Episcopal history demonstrated, but not the city. Rome, as the arena of Christian life and history, became, particularly in the days of Anicetus, but even before him under Hyginus, an urban center of Christian communal conflict Easter (Adv. haer. 1.25.6; 1.27.1-2; 3.3.4; ; 3.4.3; cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 4.14). These years were filled with the arrival settlement, and growth of false teachers (Marcellina, Cerdo, Valentinus) mainly from the East, within Rome. The city became not the locus of well-being, but the locus of heresy’s productivity and of catholicism’s conflict with it (Polycarp of Smyrna, Adv. haer. 3.3.4). Once and originally it had been catholic, but no longer. No longer, for him, was the city of Rome as the Stoics had dreamed it. The ideal of the city as the incarnation of virtue and harmony is gone. Irenaeus and Eusebius both attest to an early Christian vision of the urban, and therefore also of a culture, conditioned upon the experience of Christian persecution and the prevalence of heresy.


Body Language Power: A Feminist (Re)Engagement of Paul
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Jennifer Bird, Greensboro College

This paper will be the Introduction to the book Body Language Power: A Feminist (Re)Engagement of Paul. The purpose of this volume is two-fold. The first goal is to outline my version of a feminist interpretation of any text, with Paul’s writings as the primary focus. The second goal of this volume is to respond to the voices of college, seminary, and university students who are asking for more critical engagement with Paul than exists in positivistic interpretations of his writings, as well as within much of the “feminist” scholarship. Thus the second purpose of this volume is to offer an entirely new paradigm for how we engage Paul academically, which in turn informs how we teach such content to students at any level. With these things in mind, this introductory paper will cover the method I employ for a feminist interpretation of Pauline texts and the reasoning for and framework of this project.


Sources and Strategies in the KJV Translations of the Psalms
Program Unit: Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars
Steven Bishop, Seminary of the Southwest

Sources and Strategies in the KJV Translations of the Psalms


Membership Has Its Privileges: Conflict, Confirmation, and Koinonia in 1 Cor. 1:4–9
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Mr. Bradley J. Bitner, Macquarie University

A century ago, J. Weiss marked the singular intentionality (die Absichtlichkeit) of the so-called ‘thanksgiving period’ of 1 Cor. 1:4-9. Yet it has been largely neglected in the study of early Christianity in the Roman colony of Corinth. As a genealogical survey of modern commentaries reveals, cursory engagement with this complex and compressed sentence has been simultaneously enriched and domesticated by the rhetorical analyses of Weiss (1910) and Conzelmann (1969), the formal analyses of Schubert (1937) and O’Brien (1977), and the lexical pronouncements of Deissmann (1903) and Schlier (1962). Nevertheless, disagreement persists over the meaning and function of the thanksgiving, particularly regarding the Pauline wordplay on bebaioo in 1:6, 8 and the translation of koinonia in 1:9. This paper brings the Pauline text into contact with recently discovered documentary evidence (e.g. P.Schøyen I 25; the lex Irnitana) and neglected literary evidence (Ps.-Julian, Letters 198; the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum) related to Graeco-Roman legal practice and ideology in contexts of civic anxiety and competition over status, rights, and privileges. A constellation of key terms and concepts found in common amongst these texts opens up a fresh interpretation of 1 Cor. 1:4-9, showing it to be both a window on the colonial consciousness of the early Roman Corinthians and a programmatic attempt to re-orient the Pauline assembly in its thinking about communal identity. Indeed, Paul’s eucharistic entrée centers on the confirmatory force of his apostolic-ambassadorial testimony (to marturion tou Christou, 1:6). He construes it as an announcement that generates a transformational grammar, one which engages colonial currents of anxiety, conflict, and competition and which sets the stage for his theological statecraft in the remainder of the letter.


“Not of an Age, But For All Time” King James, Master Will: Words With Thoughts
Program Unit:
C. Clifton Black, Princeton Theological Seminary

*


What's the View from Atlantis? Mythology, Tourism and (Biblical) Religion in the Caribbean
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Fiona C. Black, Mount Allison University

This paper brings aspects of the Genesis prehistory or mythology (paradise, expulsion and flood) into conversation with a contemporary and material Caribbean tale of paradise, in the form of Atlantis, a tourist mega-complex on Paradise Island, Bahamas. Atlantis trades on all the expected mythology of the mystical island after which it is named—except for the part about it falling into the sea, of course. It also mixes in a lot more mythological resources, some pertinent, others perplexing, from Babylonian to biblical, in order to frame the experience for tourists as one which is magical, impactful and historically resonant. In the paper, I undertake a study in comparative mythology in order to see how Atlantis (the myth) and the Genesis prehistory mutually impact each other in terms of several key themes: violence, conquest and utopia. Given these themes, I also ask how it is that these ancient mythologies appear successfully to feed the commercial enterprise of tourism. Finally, I explore the implications of these mythological tracings for the contemporary Caribbean context, a society that is caught between two colonies (British-historical and American-economic), and multiple histories. I seek to understand how the mechanisms of “paradise mythology” help to elucidate and trouble the complex picture of neo-colonialism, tourism and religion which profoundly impacts Caribbean identity today.


Is 1 Peter’s Attempt of Casting off the Mechanisms of Social Control in a Responsible Manner Successful?
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Steve D. Black, Toronto School of Theology

This paper enters into the debate between John Elliot and David Balch regarding 1 Peter’s attitude towards society at large. Elliot argued that 1 Peter “conforms to and yet transcends societal norms,” while Balch believes that it seeks to ease tension between the churches and society. This paper argues that all human societies, indeed, all human collectives small or great, use various methods to exercise control over their members. These forms of control can range from the employment of shame to the use of physical violence. By means of their exclusive allegiance to the God of Jesus, the communities addressed by 1 Peter moved outside of the empire's prescribed models of behavior - they moved into “deviant space.” In doing so, they become subject to official (and unofficial) methods of control exercised by imperialistic collectives. However, the “deviant space” inhabited by the church was also inhabited in the eyes of the empire by other “deviants” whom 1 Peter condemns - namely, murderers, thieves, and other criminals - disturbers of good order. 1 Peter is explicable as an exercise of defending “deviant ideology,” on the one hand, and differentiating its deviancy from other deviants who, in the eyes of the empire, inhabit the same deviant space as 1 Peter. The question from the point of view of 1 Peter is how to cast off the mechanisms of social control in a responsible manner. Hence 1 Peter “transcends” societal norms in its allegiance to a deviant ideology grounded in Jesus Christ. However, it also replicates and conforms to certain societal norms by not critically engaging assumptions regarding what constitutes “good order.” This it does largely because it is desperate to differentiate itself from "criminals" who also inhabit deviant space.


The Sins of the Fathers: Quodvultdeus of Carthage's Anti-Jewish Interpretation of the Slaughtered Innocents
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Lee Blackburn, Milligan College

Shortly before Quodvultdeus became bishop of Carthage c. 437, he delivered three creedal homilies, which until the twentieth century were attributed to Augustine. These homilies, which may have been delivered on successive years, were addressed to catechumens on the Sunday before Easter. In each of these homilies, when Quodvultdeus arrives at the lemma, "We believe in his Son Jesus Christ, born of the Holy Spirit from the virgin Mary," he launches into an excursus on the slaughtered infants described in Matt 2:16-18. In the course of these reflections Quodvultdeus develops several distinctive themes, all of which converge upon his construal of the slaughtered infants as the first Christian martyrs. The infants, though mute and ignorant, are martyrs of Christ in a positive sense; bearing witness to Christ's innocence, they die so that Christ might live, and hence receive the reward due to martyrs, namely, everlasting life. But the testimony of the infants is damning for their Jewish parents, whose wickedness is brought to light by their children's deaths, for which they themselves are responsible. Indeed, according to Quodvultdeus the premature death of the Jewish infants was actually their deliverance, since, if they had lived to adulthood, they might well have colluded with their parents in the killing of Christ. In addition to exploring the hermeneutical and rhetorical character of Quodvultdeus' treatment of the slaughtered innocents, this paper will place his creedal homilies against the backdrop of the prior Latin exegetical tradition in order to demonstrate the originality of his interpretation of Matt 2:16-18. Finally, this paper will also consider the extent to which the socio-religious context of fifth-century Carthage animated his polemical treatment of this text.


Paul and Empire in Light of the Acts of Paul
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Ben C. Blackwell, University of Durham

In the current debate concerning Paul and Empire, much of the discussion situates Paul’s language in contrast to the imposition of Roman imperial ideology (especially through the emperor cult). Since Paul does not explicitly mention Caesar in his letters, the analysis of his anti-imperial rhetoric is shown primarily from implicit meanings of key terminology (e.g., euangelion, kyrios, pistis, dikaiosyne, eirene, etc.), often drawn out by recourse to post-colonial criticism and Scott’s hidden transcripts. However, there has been no sustained discussion of the earliest non-canonical biography of Paul which sets his martyrdom explicitly in an anti-imperial context. As a result, this paper will consider what light Paul’s interaction with Nero as expressed in The Acts of Paul (AP)—a second century account of Paul’s life, ministry, and death—sheds on the debate about Paul and Empire. In this account Nero’s anger is provoked as a result of the following central themes: Christ is the ‘king’ (basileus) who will destroy all other ‘kingdoms’ (basileiai), and believers as ‘soldiers’ (stratiotai) who serve in his army. This type of language appears infrequently in Paul’s undisputed letters, though it has some affinity with the Pastorals. Accordingly, I argue that although the church held in its memory that Paul’s message stood in contrast to imperial ideology, the AP did not find his undisputed letters particularly important for documenting his supposed anti-imperial rhetoric. As a result, the author may not have considered the anti-imperial language to be as transparent as many scholars argue today.


Using Technology to Meet the Needs of Biblical Language Scholars Who Are Blind
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Sarah J. Blake, Anderson University

When a student who is blind registers for a biblical language course, faculty are often challenged with questions about how the study of biblical languages can be accomplished and how to teach the student effectively. In this presentation, we will explain how the use of technology can enable the person who is blind to work with all the tools of biblical scholarship at various levels of the graduate curriculum. We will demonstrate and explain techniques for converting print material to electronic and braille format, display of text in braille, writing in biblical languages using the computer keyboard, and presentation of information to sighted students in a teaching setting. We will also provide tips for modifying visual presentations, promoting a positive learning experience, and encouraging cooperative learning among blind and sighted students. Handouts will be available providing information about grammars, lexicons, and other original language texts which are available in braille, recorded format, and electronic text.


Beyond Pilgrimage: Samothrace, GIS, and Safety at Sea
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Sandra Blakely, Emory University

The mysteries of the Great Gods of Samothrace promised initiates not bliss in the afterlife, but safety in travel at sea. The promise, abundantly attested in literary and archaeological evidence, is unique among mystery cults, but familiar in a range of other ritual evidence from the ancient world, including shipboard shrines, magical gems, and dedicated chapels in ports of call. A number of these rituals had practical corollaries which would help sailors negotiate unfamiliar waters and bring their ship safely into port. I propose in this paper that the promises of Samothrace were similarly real, and that this may be tested through an approach to the epigraphic record using GIS. Inscriptions affirm a Samothracian connection for nearly 100 sites, located from Rome to the Black Sea, but concentrated on the Asia Minor coast. These connections take the form of social institutions – theoria, proxenia, koinia, and local shrines and priesthoods – whose social dynamics created the trust which enabled long distance trade and travel, facilitated communication about conditions at sea, and smoothed the risks in port and at court which could bring down even the most successful long distance merchantmen. The sites, moreover, were linked not only to Samothrace, but in myriad other ways to each other. The GIS data base allows us to gauge the potential for Samothracian networks against the evidence for other culturally created networks – measured by traded goods, mythical genealogies, treaties and leagues - and so consider the potential for Samothrace to have functioned as a ‘super-node’, joining numerous smaller networks and thus multiplying their economic benefits. The Samothracian promises were thus of concern not simply for pilgrims to the site, but for the journeys which were as critical an element in the ancient economy as Demeter’s grain or Dionysos’ wine.


The Benefactor’s Account-Book: The Rhetoric of Gift Reciprocation in Seneca and Paul
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Thomas R. Blanton, IV, Luther College

(Proposal to be considered for second project) In his treatise on Roman gift-giving , De beneficiis, Seneca distinguishes between gifts and loans. Both demand repayment in some form. According to the Greco-Roman reciprocity system, gifts were to be reciprocated in the form of a counter-gift. While loans stipulate particular dates and terms of repayment, with gifts, the recipient determines both the value and the date on which the counter-gift will be offered. Seneca imposes an ethical constraint to be observed by the “good man”: when giving a gift, he must never “enter his benefactions in his account-book, or like a greedy tax collector call for repayment…” (Ben. 1.2.3). In his letter to Philemon, Paul of Tarsus violates the principles outlined by Seneca: he raises the specter of an account-book. Philemon’s balance is negative; he owes Paul his very “self,” or life. As repayment for his mediation of the “gospel,” construed as gift, Paul requests the use of Philemon’s slave as a counter-gift. When he invokes an “account-book” and asks for a counter-gift, Paul does not act like a “good man.” Why has he so blatantly violated the etiquette of reciprocity? Seneca, as a wealthy aristocrat, can literally afford to play the “good man” through a principled refusal to ask for gift “repayment.” Paul, a craftsman who marshaled scant economic resources, did not attempt to play the “good man”—in his rhetorical arm-twisting of Philemon, he marshals his own valuable asset, linguistic resources, in an effort to enlist the labor of Philemon’s slave. Seneca seeks honor as a “good man” through gift-giving; his means cushioned any losses incurred when gifts were not reciprocated. Conversely, Paul needed to exploit every opportunity that reciprocity presented. Both Seneca’s principled refusal to ask for the repayment of a gift, and Paul’s willingness to do so, are refractions of their differential economic locations.


Saved by Obedience: Matthew 1:21 and Jesus’ Teaching on the Torah
Program Unit: Matthew
Thomas R. Blanton, IV, Luther College

Recent studies by Warren Carter and Boris Repschinski have noted that Matt 1:21 exerts a literary “primacy effect” analogous to the prooimion of forensic speeches; it signals a major theme that is to be elaborated throughout the gospel’s narrative. The references to the forgiveness of sin in 26:28 and 9:2, 5, and 6, identified by the majority of commentators as the passages foreshadowed in 1:21, do not constitute material of either the length or elaboration that would be required to comprise an adequate response to the prooimion. Both Carter and Repschinski employ narrative-critical methods, combing the gospel for additional material that might be seen as elaborating the theme of 1:21. In their search, however, both commentators overlook the legal material that arguably constitutes the gospel’s most significant theme. Matthew’s Jesus is presented as the “New Moses” who preaches about the Torah on a mountaintop, advocating scrupulous observance even of the law’s “less weighty” injunctions (5:17–20; cf. 23:23b). Jesus advocates that the Torah be observed according to the halakhic rulings of the Pharisees (23:1–3). Jesus’ final statement to his disciples exhorts them to “make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (28:19–20). Through the narrative presentation of Jesus’ preaching about the Torah, the prooimion is answered by a major theme in the body of the text and recapitulated at the gospel’s end. Carter and Repschinski have advanced the discussion of 1:21 by identifying its literary function. Neither, however, has identified the most significant elaboration of 1:21: Jesus “saves his people from their sin” not primarily by forgiving sins, but by exhorting his audience to follow the Torah with perfect obedience. By following the Torah, they are enjoined to avoid sin altogether: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48).


Magic vs. Miracle in the Apocryphal Acts of Peter
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Seth A. Bledsoe, Florida State University

In the first few centuries of its existence Christianity was trying its best to carve out a conceptual space for itself among the myriad of religious options in the larger Roman Empire, a world subject to influence by both Greek philosophies and religions as well as some of the more mysterious Eastern religions such as those of the Persians and Egyptians. Within this multicultural context the there was the widespread practice of magic, and on a number of occasions Christians were subject to allegations of practicing magic. With this in mind we may turn to the Apocryphal Acts of Peter wherein the driving force of the narrative is a contest of miraculous and magical performances between the apostle Peter and Simon the magician. While there are a number of episodes of speeches, healings and conversions which permeate the text, it is Peter’s active opposition to Simon that propels the story forward. I suggest, therefore, that the narrative of the Acts of Peter represents an intentional effort to distance Christianity from the notorious form of cultic practice labeled magic. In other words, I maintain that the text functions on some level as a defense against accusations of magic from critics of Christianity. The author uses the contest between the apostle Peter and Simon Magus as a means to separate Christianity from any association with the culturally taboo label of “magic.” Furthermore, I argue that the late 3rd/early 4th c. author of the Acts of Peter is attempting to create two distinct, though-closely related, social categories— the miracle-worker and the magician—and by doing so the author is participating in a rhetorical move that was being made by some of his contemporaries. In particular, we may compare the text with Greek novel Aethiopica, whose author Heliodorus presents an argument for a distinction between good vs. bad magic. Like Heliodorus, the author of the Acts of Peter employs a sophisticated narrative technique as an artful and compelling means to demonstrate that while Christian miracle-working may appear to have a similarity to magic, the two really have nothing in common and are, in fact, in direct conflict with each other.


Theological Politics of Deutero-Isaiah
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Joseph Blenkinsopp, University of Notre Dame

This paper deals with the theological politics of Deutero-Isaiah, more specifically chapters 40-48. The author is attempting to persuade his fellow-Judeans to accept Cyrus as the agent of YHWH in replacing the native dynasty the expectation for the restoration of which is, exceptionally, nowhere in evidence in Deutero-Isaiah. The argument will entail consideration of royal titulary, Judean and Babylonian, applied to Cyrus; Achaemenid practice with respect to local dynasties including Babylon and Egypt; and the disastrous history of the last four Judean rulers, five including Gedaliah


Alexandria in Pharaonic Egypt: Projections in Vita Mosis
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Rene Bloch, Universität Bern - Université de Berne

Among the numerous works by Philo of Alexandria, Vita Mosis is perhaps the tractate which is most difficult to categorize. It cannot really be considered part of the “Exposition of the Law” and it certainly does not belong to the “Allegorical Commentary”. By some scholars Vita Mosis has been understood as an introductory tractate with an agenda of making Moses known to a larger audience (David Runia). In this paper I would like to argue that Vita Mosis can also be read as a tractate in which Philo ponders on his own life and especially what happened during the anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria. In fact, there are some striking parallels between the description of the Jews’ suffering in Legatio ad Gaium and Vita Mosis: In both cases the Jews are treated as prisoners of war (Mos. 1.36; Legat. 121) and the Egyptian overseers – in Roman as well as in Pharaonic Egypt – were of “beastly furor” (Legat. 121; Mos. 1.43). Philo describes the maltreatment of the Jews in both his own and in Biblical time in identical words: aikizomenoi pasais aikiais and pasas aikizomenos aikias (Legat. 128 and Mos. 1.44: “subjecting them to every kind of ill-treatment”). These parallels may suggest that Vita Mosis could be read in the context of the anti-Jewish riots in 38 CE and the following Jewish embassy to Rome. One may even speculate that Philo was aware of the parallels between Moses’ pleading with the Pharao on behalf of the Israelites in Egypt and his own efforts on behalf of the Jews in Egypt at the palace of the Roman Emperor. The intentions of Vita Mosis have been a matter of great dispute. Recent scholarship places Vita Mosis among the apologetic and historical works (J.R. Royse, “The Works of Philo”, in A. Kamesar (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Philo, 2009, p. 47) – more e negativo, though, because the tractate does not seem to be part of the “Exposition”. The parallels between Vita Mosis and Legatio ad Gaium could very well help us better understand the place and the role of Vita Mosis in Philo’s oeuvre.


The God Ezekiel Wants You to Meet
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Daniel I. Block, Wheaton College (Illinois)

For several decades Ezekiel scholars have been preoccupied with the troubling aspects of his book, especially the portrait of God the prophet paints. Some go so far as to claim that the book is entirely devoid of love and even in its vision of Israel’s restoration offers little in terms of comfort or forgiveness. We recognize that the prophet served in an extremely dark time in the nation’s history, but is the picture of God that he paints that consistently bleak? This essay will explore the rays of sunlight from heaven that break through the clouds in Ezekiel's response to the dismal day of Jerusalem's demise.


Once Again: Hosea and the “Pentateuchal” Traditions
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Erhard Blum, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Taking Hos 12 as the starting point, this paper will argue that several literary Hoseanic compositions make use of basic narrative traditions that later became part of the Pentateuch. Furthermore, the prophetical author presupposes at least a general knowledge of these traditions among his audience. The Hoseanic texts are demonstrably addressed to people living in the last decade of the Kingdom of Israel (732-722 BCE). As a consequence, one must postulate the existence of substantial narratives concerning the origin(s) of Israel. The tendency in parts of recent research to date such traditions to the 7th century BCE at the earliest remains unwarranted.


Some Unpublished Coptic New Testament Fragments at Brigham Young University
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Lincoln H. Blumell, Brigham Young University

In this paper we will examine the seven recently discovered Sahidic Coptic fragments of the New Testament in the BYU collection. These fragments are important for the transmission of the Sahidic Coptic New Testament since some of these fragments date to either the fifth or sixth century and represent some of the earliest attestations of the Coptic New Testament. Additionally, these fragments contain a few interesting textual variants that are of importance for considering the transmission of the New Testament in Coptic.


Performing the Words: Covenant in Chronicles
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
Mark Boda, McMaster Divinity College/McMaster University

Considerable attention has been given to the Davidic covenant within the books of Chronicles and so this paper focuses on the presentation of other covenants and covenantal activities in this corpus. After some orientation to the treatment of past covenants (ancestors, Sinai, David), the paper focuses on four key episodes in the post-Solomonic narratives of Chronicles in which covenant (????) is explicitly mentioned: the narratives associated with Asa (2 Chronicles 15), Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 23), Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29) and Josiah (2 Chronicles 34). The approach to covenant discerned within these episodes in Chronicles is then placed within the broader matrix of presentations of covenant in the first half of the Second Temple period, providing insight into the way the Chronicler uses covenant to shape the identity of Second Temple Jewish communities.


Priests in Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Mark Boda, McMaster Divinity College/McMaster University

While past scholarship has treated Haggai and Zechariah as hierocratic promoters, the present work reveals some distance between these Persian period prophets and the priestly caste. This perspective prompts a reconsideration of the relationship between these prophetic voices and the one found in Malachi, suggesting that the negative stance towards priests is not unique to Malachi. Nevertheless, one does not hear a mere echo of priestly critique throughout Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Instead, there is a discernible development in these books, from slight critique due to facilitation of inappropriate behavior of the people in Hag 2:10-14, to creatively allusive undermining and strongly worded warning to Joshua in Zechariah 3, to explicit confrontation of the priests alongside the people of the land in Zechariah 7-8 expressed with much hope for future renewal, to finally the biting negative attack on the priests with threat of rejection by YHWH in Mal 1:6-2:9. On the one side, this evidence shows that Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi share in common a concern over priestly practices of their time. On the other side, it reveals a slowly emerging response to the priests, most likely highlighting the development of these books over a period of time which saw increasing hostility between the priests and the prophetic group(s) represented by Haggai-Malachi.


The Inversion of Values in Ezekiel 16 and the Reminiscence of the Ištar Cult
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Daniel Bodi, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales

Ezek. 16 is an accusation of religious infidelity of the people of Jerusalem expressed through the metaphorical description of shameless acts of a brazen prostitute (v. 30 šalla?et “brazen”). Together with Ezek. 23, it represents one of the most difficult chapters in the Bible on account of the graphic and detailed description of the behavior of the two nymphomaniacal sisters Ohola and Oholiba, symbols of Jerusalem and Samaria. In Ezek. 16, however, the description of the willful abuse of a female body as a metaphor of Jerusalem’s straying from God has caused its censorship by both the rabbis in the Talmud and by the contemporary feminists. The 1st century CE rabbis forbade the official reading of the Hebrew text of Ezek. 16 in the synagogue (Mišnah Meg. 4:6; Toseftah Meg. 4:34; b. Meg. 25b; b. Sanh. 44b; 104b). In modern times, the feminist scholars have depicted this chapter as being a piece of pornography belonging to a special genre called “pornoprophetics” (A. Brenner and T. Setel). These negative judgments are excessive. It is well nigh impossible to understand the startling images contained in this chapter if we do not place them in the cultural and religious context of the prophet’s land of exile. More than any other chapter in this book, Ezek 16 is time, place, and culture bound, and, unless this is recognized, misunderstandings are bound to occur. It appears that the biblical writer has woven into his creation images, terms, and idioms taken from the contemporary religious, legal, social and political reality. In my paper I will identify the multiple contrasts in Ezek. 16 that serve to establish a radical overturning of values. These will be compared with various elements in Ishtar’s ambiguous character and the radical reversal of values in her festival which the prophet Ezekiel could have seen in the Babylonian exile.


The Shipping Forecast: Jehoshaphat’s Nautical Debacle in 2 Chronicles 20
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Keith Bodner, Crandall University

Commentators have noted that Jehoshaphat is the subject of a radically different performance in Chronicles both in terms of sheer amount of coverage and his essential characterization. Among the numerous examples one could choose with respect to the Chronicler’s profile of Jehoshaphat, the ruinous maritime venture at the end of Jehoshaphat’s reign in 2 Chr 20:35-37 is particularly intriguing. The same episode is reported in Kings, but the parallel text in 1 Kings 22:48-49 is terse: “Jehoshaphat built Tarshish ships in order to go to Ophir for gold. But he did not go, because the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Let my servants go with your servants in the ships,’ but Jehoshaphat did not consent.” As is immediately evident, there is no overt mention of causality. Perhaps a connection between the shipwreck and Jehoshaphat’s dialogue with the northern king can be inferred, but occasions no direct evaluation by the narrator. Bearing this in mind, it is a strikingly different story that is told in 2 Chr 20:35-37: After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel. He acted wickedly. He joined with him in building ships to go to Tarshish, and they built the ships in Ezion-geber. Eliezer son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD broke your work.” The ships were wrecked, and unable to go to Tarshish. The fate of Jehoshaphat’s attempted voyage is disastrous in both Kings and Chronicles, but otherwise the details of the presentation are antithetical, and in this presentation we will suggest several reasons why this might be the case, and compare the portrait of Jehoshaphat with other figures in this stretch of Chronicles.


Lenin, the Gospels, and What Is to Be Done?
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Roland Boer, University of Newcastle, Australia

This paper steps beyond my five-volume Criticism of Heaven and Earth (on Marxism and Theology) and its exhaustive treatment of the Western Marxist tradition’s engagement with theology and the Bible - including the first comprehensive treatment on the topic in Marx and Engels. In this case, I analyse the way the sayings and parables of Jesus lace one of Lenin’s key works from 1902, What Is To Be Done? Not only do we find constant allusions and references, such as the parables of the Tares and the Sower, along with a distinct liking for sayings of Jesus, but we also find Lenin developing his own parables, such as the parable of the door, or the forest. In the process, not only does Lenin deploy the Gospel sayings for his effort to re-organise the communist party, but those sayings themselves gain a radical edge through his interpretation.


Moses' Ascent to the Heavenly Realm in Ezekiel the Tragedian and Pseudo-Philo
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Dulcinea Boesenberg, University of Notre Dame

The Scriptural account of Moses’ interactions with God suggests that Moses enters the heavenly realm. Moses ascends Mount Sinai into the dark cloud which rests atop it; his face shines as a result of his encounter with the Deity; and he is distinguished as the only prophet with whom God speaks face to face. Nonetheless, it would be possible to claim, from the Scriptural narrative, that it is God who descends to the earthly realm and not Moses who ascends. This paper explores how Ezekiel the Tragedian and Pseudo-Philo utilize and expand upon these and other Scriptural traditions in an effort to ensure that Moses’ ascent of Sinai is understood as an ascent into the heavenly realm. In his Exagoge, Ezekiel introduces a dream vision in which Moses finds himself seated upon the divine throne, looking out over the whole earth and above the sky, with stars bowing down before him. Pseudo-Philo, in the Biblical Antiquities, restricts the ascent of Mount Sinai to Moses alone, three times recounts that God shows paradise to Moses, and intensifies the appearance of Moses’ face after encountering the Deity. In each work, the author’s emphasis on Moses’ entrance into the divine realm and related enhanced relationship with the Lord serves to exalt the character of Moses, perhaps in an apologetic fashion. While Ezekiel confines Moses’ heavenly ascent to a dream vision, which tempers the boldness of his claims, Pseudo-Philo integrates his evidence for Moses’ time beyond the earthly sphere into his larger narrative and places the other characters in the narrative as witnesses of Moses’ splendid appearance, though clearly no one can observe Moses’ visions of paradise.


A Problematic of Rape: Shechem and Amnon "Become Men"
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Karla G. Bohmbach, Susquehanna University

Does rape exist in the Hebrew Bible or not? In the last several decades a rather lively debate has occurred pursuant to this question. On the one hand, a number of scholars have argued against seeing rape in the Hebrew Bible. For instance, Lyn Bechtel points to the Bible’s cultural world in which group dynamics would scarcely have legitimated an individual woman’s consent, the cornerstone for many understandings of rape. And Ellen van Wolde, among others, highlights the linguistic element wherein biblical Hebrew lacks a word that simply, precisely, and straightforwardly means “rape.” On the other hand, other scholars, including Danna Nolan Fewell and David Gunn, Sandie Gravett, Hilary Lipka, and Susanne Scholz, insist contrariwise that rape does exist in the Hebrew Bible – a position for which they argue by foregrounding the claims of the reader over the text or its originating context. In addressing this question I propose a different tactic, one that focuses on constructions of gender in the biblical text. Specifically, I want to examine how Genesis 34 and 2 Samuel 13 constructs the masculinity of its two featured male characters: Shechem and Amnon. Both of these texts feature frequently in the debates surrounding rape’s existence in the Hebrew Bible, and both turn on the actions of at least relatively young men, who are simultaneously privileged while also still somewhat junior and dependent on others. One can read the narratives involving Shechem and Amnon as depictions of these two characters’ striving toward appropriating for themselves the features of a full, adult masculinity. (In the Hebrew Bible, the markers of such a masculinity – according to David Clines and Gravett et al. – center on strength, independence, and control.) For these two characters, though, their attempt to adopt the trappings of a full, adult masculinity leads to trouble: they clash with other men, and, most notably for my argument, they each rape a woman. But even though a feminist reading of the biblical text would name what happens to Dinah and Tamar as rape, would that be equally true for Shechem and Amnon and others reading the text from a masculine standpoint? Perhaps not, since what Shechem and Amnon do can be interpreted as simply a particular demonstration of the masculinity project expected, even required, of all boys as they move into manhood.


What the Israeli Hebrew e Tells Us about the shewa in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Shmuel Bolozky, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Biblical Hebrew shewa is used in two distinct senses. For phoneticians it refers to a very short, centralized vowel; for the Masoretes it was an orthographic symbol standing for two phonetic manifestations: a zero vowel in the syllable coda (shewa quiescent), and a centralized short vowel elsewhere (shewa mobile). How come the same symbol stood for two separate, distinct realities? Bolozky (2005) argues that the reason is that the shewa symbol in the Masoretic text is basically a zero vowel, which is realized as a minimal, very short vowel [usually ?] when a difficult-to-pronounce sequence needs to be broken, or to be avoided (which would have occurred had full deletion applied.) Bolozky shows that although in Israeli Hebrew the shewa and /e/ (cere) (except for items like [teyvá] ‘ark, box,’ where an orthographic yod helps maintain a separate cere) have merged with /e/ (seghol), this seghol/shewa is still required for similar phonetic reasons, to break or avoid impermissible clusters: (a) to prevent violation of the sonority hierarchy, as in yla-dim ‘children’ ye-la-dim (cf. klavim ‘dogs’); (b) to split, or prevent the formation of, identical or closely-similar homorganic consonant clusters, as in avád+ti ‘I worked’ avádeti, xagag ‘he celebrated’ ~ xagega ‘she celebrated’ (cf. katav ‘he wrote’ ~ katva ‘she wrote’); (c) to prevent the formation of other sequences in which the transition from one segment to another involves two simultaneous changes that are too close/ The parallel role of the seghol/shewa of Israeli Hebrew supports the claim that its function in Biblical Hebrew was indeed to mark a non-vowel that could become a shewa mobile when required to break or avoid an impermissible sequence. It also supports the claim by W. Chomsky (1971) that there is little evidence in the tradition of any of the Jewish communities that supports an actual shewa vowel medially, and throws out unnecessary inventions such as a “hovering” shewa, whose sole purpose was to account for “over-application” of the spirantization rule, since the Masoretes refused to accept the simple fact that the process had ceased to be productive.


Choosing Sides in Judges 4–5
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Ryan Bonfiglio, Emory University

In her 2007 presidential address to the Society of Biblical Literature, Katherine Doob Sakenfeld examined the representation of Jael in Judges 4 and 5 as a way of challenging scholars to open biblical texts to a diverse array of contextual perspectives. Noting that Jael is neither Israelite nor Canaanite, Sakenfeld suggested that this character might function as a relevant point of interest for contemporary postcolonial readers who likewise find themselves in the in-between space of cultural and political identities. The purpose of my paper is take up the invitation Sakenfeld offered in her SBL address to continue to reflect on the implications of Judges 4-5 for contextual biblical interpretation. Specifically, although the presence of a non-Israelite heroine in a book about Israelite heroes might at first glance seem to subvert certain identity constructions regarding women and Canaanites, the varying depictions of Jael in Judges 4 and 5 have different implications for postcolonial readers. Through a use of literary analysis, this paper demonstrates that while Jael is caught between Israelite and Canaanite loyalties in both accounts, Judges 4 more explicitly underscores Jael's decision to side with the Israelites. In contrast, Judges 5 subtly obscures Jael's desire to choose sides and instead highlights her struggle for self-preservation. This paper concludes by engaging contemporary postcolonial theory on the "model minority myth" as a lens through which Judges 4-5 might be assessed for contextual biblical interpretation.


Translating and Annotating the Septuagint Psalter
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Eberhard Bons, Université de Strasbourg

The topic of this paper is the translation and annotation of the LXX Psalter in Septuaginta Deutsch. Its first part deals with the principles of translation adopted in the project “Septuaginta Deutsch.” Some of the major options underlying the translation will be singled out and illustrated by a few examples.The second part is dedicated to the commentary (“Erlaeuterungen”), to its underlying principles as well as to the different problems to be tackled. Furthermore, some of the most important results of the commentary will be presented, especially philological and theological issues which allow for a more precise characterization of the translation technique as well as the translator’s cultural and theological background.


The KJV and its Performance Tradition
Program Unit:
Thomas Boomershine, United Theological Seminary

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Scripturalization as a Political Act
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Francis Borchardt, Helsingin Yliopisto - Helsingfors Universitet

This paper builds on previous work in the fields of biblical studies and the study of identities, which proposes that bodies of "sacred" literature often play large parts in shaping the goals and ideals towards which a community strives. It further supports the idea that by accepting a specific book or collection as "scripture" a group intends to instruct its members how to fulfill their destiny through the construction of a golden age, whether that is in the past or in some future point. With these premises in mind, this paper looks at several different texts that appear to accept specific books or collections from the Hebrew Bible as scripture and examines what these texts say about the communities that have accepted them (different than the communities for which they may have been composed). By pursing this study we hope to underline two points that are often overlooked in this process. 1) The reception and authorization of literature is largely emergent, coming from different groups in different places often for different reasons, often changing even within communities. 2) The texts that are accepted by these communities are only one part of the construction of identities. Whether we speak of nations, political bodies, or religious groups, the texts they accept as scripture should not be interpreted as reality, or even the ideal situation for these people. Many other institutions are just as, or even more important for the identity of any group.


Some Cuneiform Alphabetic Tablets from Recent Excavations in Ras Shamra-Ugarit
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Pierre Bordreuil, Centre national de la recherche scientifique

Cuneiform alphabetic tablets from recent excavations at Ras Shamra-Ugarit are in preparation for publication. This illustrated report makes them known to scholars in the field for the first time.


Back to the Future? The Transitional Role of the Temple in Hag-Zech 1–8
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Dustin Boreland, McMaster Divinity College

The restoration of the Jerusalem temple is a central concern of the Persian period Jewish community. Within the prophetic texts of Haggai and Zechariah 1-8, the eschatological hopes of the postexilic community are fulfilled primarily by the temple. As such, the temple functions as a symbol of Yahweh’s presence with and unwavering covenant faithfulness to Israel. For Haggai and Zechariah, the temple functions as the link between the past, the present, and the future. Both prophets employ Deuteronomistic and Priestly traditions to motivate the present reconstruction of the temple. The Zion tradition, on the other hand, provides future hope as it pre-constructs and prefigures the future eschatological hopes centered on Jerusalem. Functionally, the present is characterized by the fusion of the past and the anticipation of the future; it is through such a view that the temple provides continuity with the past and invokes a movement into the future. Thus, it is through Haggai and Zechariah’s appropriation of these theological motifs and the theological and temporal tensions expressed therein that the reader acquire a deeper understanding of their view of the future, the temple, and most significantly, the temple’s role in the future.


Theology and Translation: Navigating the Intersection
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Freddy Boswell, SIL International

Theology and translation constantly intersect, just as the streets of a city are filled with intersections. While this intersection is sometimes peacefully navigated, it is often the scene of a collision of varying degrees, just as the frequency of crashes has been attributed to the intersection as a point of decision. We will examine these points of decision in terms of lexical and grammatical choices, the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and the acceptability of the finished product. We will also discuss issues related to the theological concepts surrounding the choice of base text for translation and subsequent adaptation of this text into other languages (including computer adaptation). The paper closes by proposing some ways forward in dealing with this ever-present intersection phenomenon in the areas of consulting, training, and publishing. This paper is a reminder that the translator must recognize theological biases, and yet minimize their impact.


Complications of Catholic Participation in Ecumenical Bible Translation: The Possible NRSV Revision
Program Unit: Bible Translation
David A. Bosworth, Catholic University of America

When the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCCC) Bible Translation and Utilization (BTU) committee was reconvened in January 2011, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was invited to send a representative. I am the first Catholic to be represented on the BTU committee, which is now charged with making a recommendation on whether the NRSV should be revised, a new translation undertaken, or neither. The involvement of Catholics in ecumenical Bible translation is complicated by a recent Catholic document concerning norms for Bible translation (Liturgiam Authenticam) and the old problem of the deuterocanonical books. These issues are significant given the widespread use of the NRSV (and RSV) among Catholics around the world. This presentation will unfold the major background issues concerning Catholic involvement in ecumenical translations and report on the progress of the committee.


The Spelling Eye versus the Listening Ear: Oral Poetics and New Testament Writings
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Pieter J.J. Botha, University of South Africa

Concepts such as media criticism, orality, manuscript culture, oral reading and rhetoric were introduced to NT scholarship in the 1980s, but with little effect on mainstream research. However, a resurgent interest in these socio-cultural notions is again raising fundamental questions about approaches to and conclusions about early Christian texts. Though highly significant developments, the complexities of these concepts must be acknowledged. Some of the possibilities and implications of such oral features for understanding aspects of early Christian texts are reviewed. The fundamental limitations of any such investigation should, however, be acknowledged and incorporated when the illuminative contribution of such comparative and historical oral poetics are invoked.


The Bible of the Oppressed
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Alejandro Botta, Boston University

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Walking in the Shadows of the Past: The Jewish Experience of Rome in the Twelfth Century
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Ra'anan Boustan, University of California-Los Angeles

The Jewish and Christian inhabitants of twelfth-century Rome viewed the urban landscape of their city through the lens of its ancient past. Their perception of Rome was shaped by a highly localized topography of cultural memory that was shared by Jews and Christians alike. Our reconstruction of this distinctively Roman perspective emerges from a careful juxtaposition of the report of Benjamin of Tudela’s visit to Rome preserved in his Itinerary and various Christian liturgical texts and travel guides, especially those produced by the canons of the Lateran Basilica. These sources demonstrate that long-standing traditions regarding the presence in Rome of ancient artifacts from the Jerusalem Temple and their subsequent conservation in the Lateran persisted into the twelfth century and had a potent impact on the local culture of the City. During that pivotal century and within the special microcosm of Rome, Jews and Christians experienced unusually robust cultural interactions, especially as the Jews increasingly aligned themselves with the protective power of the papacy.


The Stammbaum of MalkiZedek: The Christology of Hebrew in Jewish Context
Program Unit: Hebrews
Daniel Boyarin, University of California-Berkeley

Analysis of the MalkiZedek traditions in their hermeneutic context helps to illumine aspects of the Christology of the Book of Hebrews.


Earth Community's Lament for Liberation in Romans 8
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Laurie J. Braaten, Judson University (Elgin, Illinois)

In Romans 8:18-27 Paul presents the groaning creation as one member of a partnership consisting of the (nonhuman) creation, humans, and God. All members of this community groan together under cosmic stress. Paul assumes his readers are familiar with creation’s continual turmoil (“we know...,” v. 22). This Pauline use of “we know” usually points back to Scripture, or authoritative Jewish or Apostolic tradition. Here Paul is invoking the tradition of creation’s groaning, or the Earth’s lament to God due to past and present effects of human sin. The mourning or cry of Earth is articulated often in the tradition of the Hebrew Prophets (e.g. Hos 4:1-3; Joel 1:10) and elsewhere (Job 31:38). Creation’s agony due to human sin is expressed as “labor pangs,” which in the Hebrew tradition connotes overwhelming suffering and turmoil. The subjection of creation to futility (v. 21) is due to ongoing human sin and a concomitant divine judgment, as in the “mourning Earth” passages (e.g., Jer 12:4 and 12:8-13). Creation’s hope, however, is that through the Spirit, God’s children will embrace a righteousness which rejects an unjust lifestyle and which leads to healing in the entire Earth Community. For those living with a renewed mind (Rom 12:1-2), the guiding principle in all things is to love (Rom 12-13). An extension of the ethic of love includes loving actions toward the creation, as participants in God’s ultimate liberation of Creation. This study places Romans 8 in its larger context in the letter. It builds on recent research, including the recently published Greening Paul (Baylor Press, 2010). It will also challenge several widely held interpretations of this passage. For example, it will argue the following. First, Paul is not locating creation’s subjection to futility (v. 20) in a so-called fall of nature nor in a primeval curse in the Genesis story (Gen 3:17-19). Furthermore, it is doubtful that scripture teaches such a fall, and there is no clear evidence that any Jewish traditions taught this before Paul’s time. Likewise, since the “birth-pang” imagery current in Paul’s religious tradition connoted primarily suffering (often of males!), without reference to a happy outcome (i.e., the joy at the birth of a baby), it is doubtful that Paul is referring to a “Mother Earth” notion with a resulting rebirth of nature. Although Earth is occasionally depicted as a mother in scripture, and was current in Graeco-Roman literature, it doesn’t appear to be Paul’s point here. Similarly, the later rabbinic tradition of the “messianic woes” as birth-pangs of the new age does not appear to be current in Paul’s day, or before. Paul’s use of “until now” (v 22), rather, suggests a continuous suffering characteristic of the current age, and not cataclysmic harbingers of the new age. The present age is the time for humans to become partners with creation and begin participating in the liberation of creation from undeserved suffering and judgment.


On the Internet No One Knows You're a Grad Student, Or How Social Media Can Help You, Build You Up, and Tear You Down
Program Unit:
Christian Brady, Pennsylvania State University

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Demonic Sin in Jubilees and Qumran Prayer
Program Unit: Qumran
Miryam T. Brand, New York University

The central demonic instigator of sin in the book of Jubilees is the angel Mastema. One theological function of Mastema is the subordination of demonic forces, descendants of the watchers, to the divine court. When Mastema, a member of the divine court, is given command of these previously anarchic forces in Jubilees 10, they cease to function independently of the divine system. The author/redactor of the book of Jubilees also assures his audience through a series of blessings and prayers in the course of the book (featuring Noah, Abraham, and Moses) that demonic forces are limited in their influence regarding the righteous. A careful reading of apotropaic prayers found at Qumran (both sectarian and nonsectarian) reveals that this subordination of random demonic forces to the divine court was not universally accepted, despite the status of the book of Jubilees at Qumran. These prayers present demonic forces as both anarchic and threatening to the righteous. The attempt to include demonic and chaotic forces in a divine system, and the refusal to accept such an inclusion, mirrors earlier developments seen in ancient Near Eastern epic and prayer, as shown by Karel van der Toorn. The prayers found at Qumran, by their nature, also present a side of the anarchic demonic forces not seen in the narrative material of Jubilees: an internal experience of the demonic influence to sin. This experience is reflected in both the terminology used to denote demonic rule and the description of the encounter with this "foreign" influence. This paper will focus on four prayers (4Q444, Songs of the Sage [4Q510-511], Levi’s prayer in the Aramaic Levi Document, and the "Plea for Deliverance") in exploring these different views of demonic influence and their theological implications.


The Psychology of the Sethian Platonizing Writings of Nag Hammadi
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Johanna Brankaer, WWU Münster

The soul represents in the platonizing sethian writings of Nag Hammadi the seat of the self. At the same time, there is a pleromatic instance that can be compared to the world-soul, which might be the level of the Autogenes, where the immortal souls are "at home". Different classes of humans can be distinguished by the behaviour of the individual soul. It needs to be transformed to achieve its ascent to the divine. In Zostrianos, the soul appears as the subject of ascent. In order to meet the conditions for that ascent, it needs to be without evil. Only in that condition the soul can empower the intelligible element, which allows it to ascend to higher levels of being. This seems to imply that the Gnostics adopted a Platonic view of the soul, which has the noetic element in itself. This is in contrast with the theurgic process, where the soul initially does not stand in any contact with the intelligible, but needs to be “brought” there by higher instances it invokes. This process is clearly present in Marsanes, especially in the section dealing with sounds and letters. Whether it is with external aid or not, the soul is transformed on its way to the union with the divine. This can be seen as an internal potency of the soul (Zostrianos) or as something that fills the space the soul has vacated (theurgy). When the soul is preoccupied with the dead, it associates with demons. The sojourn, the repentance and salvation represent different stages of the ascent of the soul, but taken in a fixed way, they might also represent different types of souls. The true realm of the immortal soul is that of the Autogene(i)s. This realm is marked by individual immortality and knowledge. In the next stage, that of Protophanes, the immortal souls get knowledge. This is a perfection of the knowledge the soul already got from Seth. The transformation of the soul is also linked with the four lights and their aeons. From a thought that contemplates the divine in Eleleth, it becomes an angel of the intelligible word in Harmozel. Even if the soul is transformed in different entities, such as angels, it remains psychic insofar as it continues to represent the individual person, which is the substrate of the transformations. The paper deals with the following questions: 1) theurgy (Marsanes) vs. active ascent (Zostrianos), what about the other sethian platonizing texts that do not explicitly deal with the soul? 2)how can the path to the divine union be mapped in terms of cognitive psychology? 3)does the soul cease to be a soul once it reaches the summit of the union with the divine or does it continue to be an individual and personal entity in that union?


Enhancing Critical Thinking: Theories from Art and Theological Reflection
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Kathlyn A. Breazeale, Pacific Lutheran University

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An Immanent Resurrection: The Survival of Job 19:25–27
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Brennan W Breed, Emory University

Theological notions of the resurrection tend to hold two very different desires in tension: namely, (1) a desire for a spiritual ascent to a new world, and (2) a desire for a transformation and renewal of the material conditions of this world. Throughout history, different biblical texts have played particular roles in the production and maintenance of this tension. One particular text from the Hebrew Bible, Job 19:25-27, has played the part as a materialist counterweight to the metaphysical tendencies of Christian thought. The fleshly focus of Job 19:25-27 has led many biblical interpreters to assert that the resurrection is a radical transformation and yet preservation of the immanent world. In this paper, I will trace the diachronic emergence and development of Job 19:25-27 as a proof-text for the immanent resurrection. I will begin with the Old Greek translation and continue to sketch its actualization through its early Christian readings as well as its performance in liturgy, monumental inscription, and artistic illumination.


The Early History of Midrashic Texts
Program Unit: Midrash
Marc Bregman, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

This paper will present a specialized consideration of the early history of the Hebrew book, with a particular focus on three midrashic manuscripts: a scroll fragment of Avot De-Rabbi Natan; an as yet unpublished palimpsest containing an unknown midrash on Bereshit; and, a scroll fragment that preserves an aggadic, midrashic tradition about Tzedakah.


Women Frame the Book of Judges: How and Why?
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Athalya Brenner, Tel Aviv University

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George Lakoff's Contributions to Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Marc Zvi Brettler, Brandeis University

George Lakoff's Contributions to Biblical Studies


Investigating Children’s Readings of Biblical Narrative
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Melody Briggs, University of Sheffield

In this paper I will discuss my on-going research into children’s readings of biblical narrative. To make the project manageable, this research focuses on the Gospel of Luke as a text which provides children with a clear entry point into the biblical world. I will give an outline of my empirical methodology. This involves a qualitative study with a purposive sample of readers aged 11-14 years. Each participant is given a copy of the Gospel of Luke to read. Afterwards, I conduct semi-structured interviews with each participant in order to explore her or his reading strategies and interpretations. I will describe some of the issues raised by this research as well as some of the initial findings. This includes a discussion of the significance of the imagination, character empathy and puzzle solving as means of navigating the Gospel of Luke. In conclusion, I will look at the way these child readers’ experience of reading children’s bibles has shaped their approach to biblical narrative. For example, some children use the images found in children’s bibles to enable their own visualisations of the biblical text, while others draw on the ethical and socio-cultural frameworks of children’s bibles to generate the questions they bring to the biblical text.


The Use and Abuse of Traditions: Allusions to Deutero Isaiah in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
C. L. Brinks, University of Notre Dame

The similarities between the book of Job and Deutero Isaiah are well known and have been used to argue for the dependence of Job on Deutero Isaiah, or vice versa. These kinds of arguments for chronological priority are problematic; nevertheless, noting quotations and allusions when they do occur is of great value in interpreting the text that quotes and alludes. For example, Fishbane’s explication of the allusion to Psalm 8:4-6 in Job 7:17-18 sheds light on Job’s attitude toward the psalmist’s view of the status of the human person in the created order. Literary theorists have noted similar kinds of allusions elsewhere, called ‘reflexive’ or ‘dialectic’ allusions, in which one text alludes to another with the result that the alluding text “smears” the source text and the value systems of the two texts compete with one another in the estimation of the audience. Allusions fitting this description have been noted with regard to Job, both in individual texts (Fishbane, Clines) and in the genre of the book as a whole (Dell). I argue for two further allusions of this kind to Deutero Isaiah (Job 9:4, 8 and 12:9). These texts share phrases with Deutero Isaiah (40:26, 44:24 and 41:20) that are found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, in addition to having other similarities in context. In the case of both passages, the author of Job uses words to describe God that are the same or similar to those used by Deutero Isaiah, but with a profoundly different effect on the reader. He effectively sets up a competing way to interpret the same picture that Deutero Isaiah paints of God and God’s action in the created world. Henceforth, readers who note the similarities experience the Deutero Isaiah texts as “smeared” by the texts in Job. Recognizing the allusions fills out our picture of the elusive author (or, one of the authors) of Job and his attitudes toward traditions and texts with which he was familiar.


Did the Corinthians Attempt to Become Paul’s Patron? Reassessing Pauline Scholarship on the Apostle’s Financial Policy
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
David Briones, Durham University

Ever since E.A. Judge, Peter Marshall, and Ronald Hock promoted the hypothesis that the Corinthians, by offering a gift to Paul, attempted to become his patron, Pauline scholarship has affirmed this theory as commonplace, since it clarifies the mysterious nature of Paul’s refusal. In this paper, however, I will challenge this widespread assumption by closely analysing the ancient norms of gift exchange in relation to some key texts and theological threads often overlooked by proponents of this view. Firstly, it will be argued that the starting point for scholars investigating Paul’s financial dealings, in every case, is the gift offered by the Corinthians to Paul. But, in so doing, they neglect the initial gift of ????? in the gospel from God through Paul to the Corinthians, which is the first half of their gift-exchange relationship (1 Cor. 1:4-9; 2:12; 3:5; 4:7; 9:17). Once that has been established, then, secondly, I will show that, in ancient gift exchange, especially within the patron-client bond, the party that furnishes a return for the initial gift never becomes the patron in the relationship. Lastly, I will suggest that, rather than attempting to become Paul’s patron, the Corinthians actually desired to become his clients, acknowledging him as the source of the initial gift of ????? and thereby revealing a faulty perspective on their relationship. They are working within two-way relational frameworks (like everyone else in ancient society), not three-way. Paul therefore corrects this culturally-conditioned mindset by highlighting his role as the mediator of God’s ?????, so as not to be mistaken as the origin of the gift – God, the vital third party of their gift-giving relationship. Thus, an alternative reason for Paul’s refusal can be propounded.


Jewish Ways of Following Jesus
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Edwin Broadhead, Berea College

A book review of Edwin Broadhead, Jewish Ways of Following Jesus, Mohr Siebeck, 2010.


Introduction to the Seminar: The Pentateuch as One of the Literary Frameworks for 1 Corinthians
Program Unit: Scripture and Paul
Thomas L. Brodie, Dominican Biblical Institute, Limerick, Ireland

Before asking about the use of scripture in 1 Corinthians it is necessary to review the epistle’s contents and structure. Accordingly, the paper deals with two issues: (1) how to divide 1 Corinthians; (2) how to set about the task of clarifying the epistle’s use of sources, especially of scripture. The paper takes account of the emphasis placed by others, particularly Francis Watson, on the role of the Pentateuch in the shaping of the Pauline epistles, but it suggests that the use of the Pentateuch can be pinned down with greater precision, especially in the case of 1 Corinthians. Once the role of the Pentateuch begins to become clear, as a form of foundation, the way is more open towards identifying the use of other scriptural texts.


From Disagreement to Talmudic Discourse: Progymnasmata and the Evolution of the Talmudic Sugya
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
David Brodsky, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

While the Babylonian Talmud developed in the Persian Empire, it owes a great debt to its tannaitic and amoraic Palestinian forbears. The quintessential genre of the talmud is the sugya, which at its most basic form is a statement with a support (usually a scriptural or tannaitic proof-text), followed by a challenge (kushya), a resolution (teirutz) of the challenge, another challenge, another resolution, and so forth. From where this rhetorical structure developed has long been an enigma. Yet, it can be identified in late tannaitic and early amoraic Palestinian rabbinic literature, making that time and place its likely origin. When we turn to Greco-Roman school primers for written composition (Progymnasmata) from that same time and place, we find a direct parallel, suggesting these primers as the origin, or, at least, as concrete evidence for the existence of the genre in the larger cultural context in which the rabbinic style developed. The style is taught in the last exercise, the exercise “On How to Introduce a Law,” precisely the activity in which the rabbinic authors were engaging. In fact, the correlation between Greco-Roman legal education and talmudic literature does not end there. Talmudic literature situates these sugyot as Aramaic commentaries on a Hebrew legal text (the Mishnah). Scholia probably designed for Greek speaking law students in the Eastern Empire developed a similar genre of Greek commentaries on Latin legal texts. In both, the language of the commentary was one language, though it shifted in and out of the language of the text on which it commented for technical legal terminology. These two components—the style of the last progymnasma and the format of the scholia with their multi-lingual legal commentary—when put together effectively account for the genre of Talmud. While no known Greco-Roman legal texts with these two genres combined are extant or may ever have existed, the very fact that the two main aspects of Talmud existed in the very time and place that the genre was developing in rabbinic literature suggests that the genre should be understood as part and parcel of its cultural context.


The Nature of Speech in Intercession against Foretold Doom: Oral Rite or Persuasive Language?
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Marian Broida, Emory University

From Mesopotamia and Anatolia, ritual texts survive whose intent was to defend the royal family or others from evil omens. These texts—including Mesopotamian namburbis and Anatolian rituals of the bird augurs—typically combine manual rites with verbal formulae addressed to the gods and other supernatural entities. The existence of such texts implies the belief that an authorized individual could avert divinely-prescribed punishment through correct application of words and deeds. Such a belief was not alien to the Hebrew Bible, as narratives and vision reports attest (e.g., Moses’s intercession following the sin of the Golden Calf in Ex 32, or Amos’s response to threatening visions in Amos 7:2, 5). Interestingly, in contrast to ritual texts from cognate cultures, biblical accounts of intercession against divinely-threatened punishment rarely combine speech with manual rites. The separation of human speech from ritual action is particularly clear in the accounts of David and the census in 2 Sam 24 and 1 Chron 21. In these texts, David sees an angel threatening Jerusalem, intercedes verbally, and only afterward is given instructions for sacrifice. Yet in several other regards, practices portrayed in these accounts resemble Mesopotamian divinatory and apotropaic rituals. In this paper I argue that the biblical separation of intercessory speech from manual rites is no accident, but reflects a desire to portray such speech as persuasive in the ordinary sense, rather than infused with ritual power.


Gymnasium Education and the Corinthian “Elite”: A Proposal Regarding the Source of Their Philosophical Wisdom
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Timothy A Brookins, Baylor University

Recent social-scientific studies have sought to devise a more refined ancient economy scale for use in profiling the socio-economic level of Pauline church members (Friesen 2004; Friesen and Scheidel 2009; Longenecker 2010). Insights from these studies allow us to identify several individuals in the Corinthian church who fell somewhere between the economic “middle” and liminal elite status. Building from these insights, it is asked whether such a status would have qualified these individuals for an education in the “elite” gymnasium institution, where, in addition to practicing athletics, students attended lectures in rhetoric and philosophy. By comparing gymnasium “ephebate” class sizes in first-century Athens with the overall city population, it is determined that upwards of 12-15% of the city’s male population would have been gymnasium-educated. Consequently, a sizeable contingent of the middling group/liminal elites within the larger population must have received such an education. If those of this socio-economic level in the Corinthian church received a gymnasium education—whether in Corinth or in one of the gymnasia nearby—they would have had some (admittedly crude) training, not only in rhetoric, but also in philosophy. As such, the gymnasium is proposed as a plausible context where certain Corinthian church members might have received a formal, if relatively superficial, philosophical education, accounting not only for much of Paul’s discussion about “wisdom” and the “wise man” in chapters 1-4, but also for many of the problems evident in the chapters that follow. Moreover, the gymnasium offers a solution for how some individuals within this Pauline church community may indeed have received some sort of formal philosophical education, despite philosophy’s relative insignificance in comparison with rhetoric in the educational system and in the broader culture.


Interfaith Jousting over Psalm 2: Jewish Interpretations in Light of the Polemics with Christians (11th–16th c.)
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Buzz Brookman, North Central University

Psalm 2 has a long, complicated, and storied history of interpretation. Christians, who at every turn along the way, strove to appropriate the Messianic nuances of the psalm, presented a fairly unified front in proclaiming the horse sense of the text as they understood it. The history of Jewish interpretation, especially from the time of Rashi in the late 11th century, exhibits a variety of scholars whose commentaries attempt, at various points, to defuse the Christian interpretations of the psalm. This paper will first survey how such stellar Jewish commentators as Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Rambam, and Radak interpreted Psalm 2 within a historical context of polemical banter from the 11th to 13th century. Secondly, specific examples will be cited of how particular passages were nuanced with an eye toward refuting Christian interpretations drawn from the psalm. Next, the Yalkut Shimoni on Psalm 2 which adds to the picture and contributes some interesting aspects will be considered. Finally, the crescendo of the interfaith jousting over the psalm might well be the work of the Karaite scholar, Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, who, in the 16th century, gallantly weighed in on what he saw as the Christian misappropriation of the psalm in his monumental polemic, Hizzuk Emunah. In particular, Isaac had a bone to pick with Paul’s use of Psalm 2, and his repartee on the point is appraised.


The Didache in Primitive Christian Context
Program Unit: Didache in Context
E Bruce Brooks, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Much study of the Didache has failed to produce complete consensus as to whether it (and especially its Two Ways section) is a Jewish or a Christian document. I suggest that this and several other texts - among them the Epistle of James and the hymn in Philippians 2, where a similar uncertainty exists - belong to what I have called Alpha Christianity, which had its roots in the teachings of Jesus during his lifetime (as directly reported in the early layers of Mark) and not in later theories based on Jesus's death (which appear in the late layers of Mark and in all later Gospels). All Alpha documents feature a reliance on works and repentance as leading to salvation and do not mention the Resurrection or the Atonement doctrine; some have a distinctively Jesuine conception of the Law. I will briefly outline what I see as the rise and development of Alpha, coming to a head with the faith/works dispute between James and Paul in Romans, and followed, after Paul's death, by an irenic reaction in which Alpha mitigations were added to Paul's own letters, including one interpolation in Romans (noticed as Two Ways-connected by Harris 1887, proposed as interpolated by O'Neill 1975, confirmed by Walker 1999) and another in Galatians (O'Neill 1972).


Scribal Intervention in Ethiopic Manuscripts
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Jeremy R. Brown, George Fox University

The quantity of newly digitized Ethiopic manuscripts makes it possible to explore Ethiopic scribal practice in new ways. In this paper we will analyze two aspects of Ethiopic scribal intervention. First, we will set forth a typology of form and function. Second, we will explore the historical developments of scribal intervention generally, and, more precisely, document the rise of a specific set of intervention techniques around the 18th century. Scribal intervention can be grouped into two major classes of form: insertion of text and removal of text. Several techniques make up the class of insertion of text, such as words inserted interlinearly, lines of text inserted interlinearly, and marginal additions accompanied by insertion symbols. These techniques express a variety of purposes. They can serve to correct spelling and grammatical errors, to insert overlooked text, and to remedy text that had been skipped due to scribal errors such as homeoteleuton and homeoarchy. Also, the insertion of text can function to clarify, to remove ambiguity, and to amplify and explain. The second class of scribal intervention is the removal of text, which is accomplished several different ways. One technique is erasure markings such as lines, dots, or the circling of text to signal it for erasure. A second example is text that had been removed or made illegible by scrapping off, washing off, or the crossing out of text. The primary function of removing text is to alleviate errors, from erasing a single letter to correct spelling, or to remove several words or lines in order to remedy scribal errors of dittography, homeoteleuton, homeoarchy, or contamination. This analysis of the typologies of form and function enable us to consider historical developments. In light of these typologies of form and function, we will explore scribal intervention in a sampling of manuscripts from the 15th to the 20th century in order to analyze any historical trends among the various techniques of scribal intervention. Paleography will be employed to consider when the interventions in a manuscript were written. This analysis will suggest that several techniques rose in prominence over time and later scribes return to older manuscripts and employ these more recent techniques to intervene. Using a wide sampling of digitized manuscripts we will explore these historical developments within the typologies of form and function. This will allow us to analyze how Ethiopian book culture viewed interacting with its manuscripts and how this culture changed and developed over the centuries.


Families Hidden in Luke's Gospel
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
S. Kent Brown, Brigham Young University

Few passages disclose the presence of family members in the gospels: for example, Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29–31 and pars.), Jesus’ raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11–17), his response to his mother and brothers (Mark 3:31–35 and pars.), his restoration to life of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:22–24, 35–43, and pars.), and his blessing of little children (Mark 10:13–16 and pars.). But in a number of stories, family members are present, just off stage and out of sight, particularly in miracle accounts. For Jesus’ actions not only affect the afflicted but also impact families who have borne the burden of caring for an ailing family member, such as the paralyzed man brought to Jesus on a stretcher by friends and family for healing (Mark 2:1–12 and pars.). In other reports, family members are completely hidden, but they are present. A person who looks for them will find them, as in the story of the miraculous catch of fish when Jesus calls the first disciples (Luke 5:1–11), in his banter about casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub (Luke 11:14–26), and in the narrative of Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus the chief tax collector in Jericho (Luke 19:1–10).


Wisdom's Wonder: A New Heuristic Framework for the Sapiential Literature of the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
William P. Brown, Columbia Theological Seminary

Determining the coherence of the biblical wisdom corpus is a daunting task in light of its literary and theological diversity. Given the ancient rhetorical conventions that shaped the literature, discerning its relevance is equally challenging. An interpretive lens that can bring the corpus as a whole into sharp relief yet preserve its varied insights remains to be found. For the biblical sages, the world was their classroom and moral formation was their goal. The sapiential link between world and will, between creation and character, thus, is key to discerning biblical wisdom’s coherence, perhaps also its relevance. That link is found in the notion of wonder. Wonder, to borrow from philosopher Jerome Miller, instils a reverent, if not fearful, receptivity toward God and the world even as it quickens the eros or desire for knowing God and the world. Such is its paradox. Wonder, moreover, is fundamental to moral formation. Such is its power: wonder engenders wondering, which can lead to wisdom. Wonder, I argue, provides an effective organizing framework for discerning the integrity of the wisdom corpus within its literary and theological diversity while offering a compelling way to explore wisdom’s significance for contemporary audiences. Through the lens of wonder, generative connections, for example, come to light among seemingly disparate sapiential themes such as fear, joy, mystery, knowledge, reason, emotion, beauty, otherness, creation, and ethics. This paper will trace some of those connections among the three books of wisdom.


Thoroughgoing Monotheism in the Quran and the Letter of James
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Bart B. Bruehler, Indiana Wesleyan University

The letter of James in the presents perhaps the most thoroughgoing monotheistic perspective in the New Testament canon. This perspective stands out when set against the much more Trinitarian perspectives of other dominant New Testament voices (eg. Luke-Acts, the Johannine tradition, and the letters of Paul). Thus, the student of the second testament of the Christian canon and of early Christianity in General lacks good comparative resources for understanding the monotheistic perspective of James and its ethical implications which saturate this short letter. The recurring emphasis on the doctrine of divine “tawhid” or oneness in the Quran offers interesting parallels that illuminate the monotheism of James and the way that this Christian monotheistic perspective is expressed in wisdom and ethical exhortation. This paper will survey several passages in James that express this monotheistic emphasis (1:13, 17-18; 2:11, 19; 3:17; 4:4-5, 12). Then, the paper will compare several topics found in James and the Quran to show how the fuller and thoroughly monotheistic message of the Quran might illuminate the message of the short letter of James. Topics for comparison include the oneness of God (see passages above from James and Quran 6:33; 112:1-4) wisdom (James 1:5; 3:17 and Quran 2:269; 57:17), purity (James 1:27; 3:17 and Quran 5:6; 8:11), the evils of partiality (James 2:1-7 and Quran 52:25; 55:9), the unity of faith and works (James 2:14-26 and Quran 10:9; 19:96), and unity in human community (James 4:1-6 and Quran 2:213; 11:118).


Patterns of Ecphrasis in Luke-Acts
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Bart B. Bruehler, Indiana Wesleyan University

The style and refinement of the writing in Luke and Acts has prompted many scholars to explore how the techniques of Greco-Roman rhetoric and the exercises of the Progymnasmata might illuminate the formation, function, and impact of material throughout these two volumes. However, Luke’s use of Ecphrasis has received very little attention. While Luke does not engage in long ecphrastic passages (such as the description of Achilles’ shield in the Iliad or the shield of Aeneas in Aeneid), he does engage in several shorter instances of ecphrasis throughout Luke-Acts, and these instances fall into a recognizable pattern of usage. The Exercises of Aelius Theon states that ecphrasis should be clear and vivid, creating a mental image of what is being described (paragraph 119) and that the style should reflect the subject (i.e. noble descriptions for noble persons; paragraphs 119-120). This study will focus on the ecphrasis of persons and events in Luke-Acts and will identify instances of ecphrasis in Luke-Acts by the presence of at least two descriptions of that person or event. These descriptions are often visual, sometimes, aural, and serve to further the message of the narrative. An analysis of the forty-four instances of person or event ecphrasis in Luke-Acts shows that Luke tends to use ecphrasis for four reasons: to intensify positively divine action (e.g. Luke 3:21-23 and Acts 1:9-10), to intensify negatively the presence of evil (e.g. Luke 8:27 and Acts 1:18), to portray the nature of crowds (e.g. Luke 12:1 and Acts 17:15), and to support characterization in healings or reversals (e.g. Luke 16:19-21 and Acts 14:8).


The Sublime Art of Prophetic Seeing: Aesthetics and the Word in the Book of Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Mark Brummitt, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

In what is effectively a prophetic synesthesia, Jeremiah encounters objects and events as ciphers for the Word of the Lord. This is apparently something he has been trained to do from the start (1:11). In terms of aesthetics, the ensuing sensory overload—a kind of cognitive terror all around—shifts his prophetic vision from the category of beauty to that of the sublime, which is characterized by Weiskel after Kant as an excess of signifiers threatening to dissolve everything into chaos. In effect, it is a sensory enactment of the destruction to come, in which land, cities, and bodies will all be affected. This paper seeks analogies for this mode of prophetic representation in the writings of Georges Bataille and the paintings of Francis Bacon, both of whom have emerged as unlikely artists of the sacred. Their depictions of bodies in distress both seduce and repulse, much as prophetic imagery does today. Can we learn from critical appreciation of their work some of the affective and fetishistic functions of body imagery in Jeremiah? Might their articulations of the mundane and its other suggest new ways of identifying the sacred, too? To proceed, our primary guides will be Freud, Derrida, and Deleuze and their suggestive work on the categories already mentioned—the sublime and the sacred—adding, too, the profoundly dialectical concept of the uncanny. Texts to be treated in Jeremiah in particular include chs 1, 4, 6, and sundry as yet unidentified others.


Suffering with Joy: The Sermon on the Mount and Philippians
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Christopher Bruno, Wheaton College (Illinois)

All too often, Pauline and Synoptic scholars seem to live in different worlds, all the while forgetting that their subjects of study did not. Moreover, because of the lack of verbal agreements between Paul and the Synoptics, many dismiss a direct relationship between the two. However, many students of Paul, myself included, comb his letters looking for allusions to the OT based not only on shared language, but also on shared themes and the availability of texts, among other criteria. Since it is unlikely that Paul knew the Synoptics in their final form, a fundamental difference lies between identifying allusions to the OT and identifying allusions to the Jesus tradition in the Pauline epistles. However, nearly all Gospel scholars would argue for the active transmission of the Jesus tradition during the lifetime of Paul. Some scholars, such as Michael Thompson, have suggested methods for finding this tradition in Paul (Clothed with Christ: The Example and Teaching of Jesus in Romans 12:1-15:3 [JSNTSup 59; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991]). However, Thompson and other do not fully reckon with the possible influence of eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry. Whether or not one accepts all of the arguments recently offered by Richard Bauckham, it is likely that eyewitnesses to the historical Jesus were members of the Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean during Paul’s life. Moreover, it is also likely that Paul would’ve heard and interacted with such eyewitnesses. In this paper therefore, using a modified version Richard Hays’ method introduced in Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, combined with Bauckham’s recent work on eyewitness testimony, I will introduce a new method for finding possible allusions to the Jesus tradition in the Pauline epistles. I will test this method by examining the possible relationship between Philippians and Matt 5, based on the shared themes of joy, suffering, and Christian maturity. Using the criteria of recurrence, thematic coherence, and historical plausibility from Hays, along with the added criterion of eyewitness availability, I will argue that it is possible that the Sermon on the Mount lies in the near background of Philippians.


Von Trier’s Melancholia—Between the Biblical Apocalypticism and Walter Benjamin’s Trauerspiel
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Gitte Buch-Hansen, University of Copenhagen

“It is a beautiful film about the end of the world” … “I start with the end. Because what is interesting is not what happens, but how it happens! So we begin by seeing the world being crushed, then we can tell the story afterwards.” So von Trier introduces his new film Melancholia. Trier is known for his play with cinematic genres; but how to characterize Melancholia? Among biblical scholars Apocalypticism is seen as a response to the cognitive dissonance between expectations and the historical present. The apocalyptic writings bridge the caesura by transforming the threatening loss into a sign of future restoration. Consequently, apocalypticism may be seen as the work of a - in the Freudian sense - healthy mourning mind as opposed to the state of melancholia in which the loss is internalized and maintained. However, in Walter Benjamin’s The Origin of German Tragic Drama (1928), it is the state of melancholia that - as the beginning of artistic productivity - is evaluated positively and the splitting of the lost object from the subject through the process of mourning that is judged negatively. In his book, Benjamin analyzes German baroque drama of the 16-17. centuries. He sees das Trauerspiel as a meta-genre that perfectly catches his Idea of Art and illustrates his aesthetic theory. Every genre is the product of historical circumstances; it articulates das Ausdruckslose of a particular epoch. As such, genre is a kind of allegory that embodies the historical spirit. According to Benjamin, the German Trauerspiel captures the melancholic spirit of Protestantism in the era of the Counter-Reformation: “its renunciation of ‘good work’ … [deprived] human actions … of all value … [and] … something new arose: an empty world” (138). Benjamin continues: “For those who looked deeper saw the scene of their existence as a rubbish heap of partial inauthentic actions. Life itself protested against this. It feels deeply that it is not there merely to be devalued by faith” (139). The German Trauerspiel simultaneously expresses and protests against the mood of the historical epoch. Benjamin understands criticism as the continuation and ongoing completion of a particular art-work. Consequently, it is a philological error to situate the art-work in relation to its author’s biographical life instead of the medium of historical reception through which it has passed down. As indicated by the name, Trier’s film is the work of melancholic consciousness. Being itself a Trauerspiel, Trier’s Melancholia may be seen as his confirmation of and protest against his Protestant heritage. As such his criticism is part of the ongoing completion of the Bible.


The Johannine Jesus’ Speeches--Between Semantics and Sacraments
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Gitte Buch-Hansen, University of Copenhagen

Throughout the previous century, John’s Gospel was favored among Protestant exegetes as the anti-sacramental gospel. The history of the logos in the Prologue, Jesus’ long self-referential speeches, and the fact that none of the Synoptics’ sacramental events were retold all resonated with the kerygma of the Lutheran renaissance. However, new readings of the Fourth Gospel informed by Stoic physics simultaneously confirm and contradict the dialectical theologians’ judgment. On the one hand, Jesus’ speeches do not refer to the Baptism and the Eucharist per se; on the other hand, the spoken word is in itself sacramental. As physical signs (phonê), Jesus’ words convey a spiritual reality on his listeners. When the Johannine pneuma is given its Stoic due, the kerygma-sacrament dichotomy can no longer be upheld. Apart from being a cognitive phenomenon, speech was also seen as a physical event that took place in the universal pneuma. The Stoic soul had seven faculties; in addition to the five senses, it also possessed two expressive faculties, speech and procreation. Following the pattern of the Aristotelian epigenesis, speech and procreation were molded on one another. Like the sperm in the womb, words were capable of reorganizing the corpus of beliefs in the listener’s mind and engendering new ideas. Apparently, the Johannine regeneration took place in the performance of the text. In the act of listening, believers were baptized in the Spirit, fed by it – and transformed. Scholars are aware of the special quality of the Johannine Jesus’ language; it is repetitive, metaphorical and paradigmatically organized. Exegetes struggle to come to terms with the (absent) argument. Seemingly, more is at stake in Jesus’ speeches than the rhetorical logos; aesthetics also play an important role in the impact of the words on listeners. In order to understand Jesus’ speeches as sacramental events, two approaches are employed – an ancient: Stoic theories of speech; and a modern: the theories of cognition used in theatre research to capture the impact of the performance on the audience (the study of performativity).


Differing Ideologies in Translating Mandaean Prayers
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Jorunn J. Buckley, Bowdoin College

In 1961, the well-known Swedish specialist in Iranian studies, Geo Widengren, published a negative review of Lady E. S. Drower’s The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (=CP), Leiden: Brill, 1959, in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. Drower reacted immediately. For the last five years or so, I have been editing the scholarly letters of Drower, one of the foremost specialists in Mandaean studies. Among her letters, I have the 1961 correspondence between her and Widengren on his review. As someone who has published my own translated Mandaean texts, I am keenly interested in the issues that arise: how to translate somebody else’s religious texts, in this case: liturgies? The letters between Widengren and Drower show a stark difference between the literalist (Widengren) vs. the “interpretive symbolist” (Drower). I will examine the two attitudes, and raise the issue: does the linguist’s literalism imply little or no interest in internal Mandaean literary context? For instance, it is striking that Widengren’s review has nothing on the contents of the nearly four hundred Mandaean prayers (CP is a big book). In contrast, Drower–a person experienced in fieldwork with Mandaeans for decades¬¬–tries to get into the Mandaean mindset. I end with some concerns of my own as a translator of Mandaean texts, examining the possibility of a balance between a translator’s ideological stance and the work at hand. I will deal with stereotypes about Gnosticism (to which Mandaeism belongs), nostalgia/admiration, and scientific appeals to philology. “Dynamic equivalence” begs the question: whose “dynamic equivalence” in a field in which only a handful of people are working, a field that lacks any established orthodoxy among those scholars?


Luke 24 on Genesis 3
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Bogdan G. Bucur, Duquesne University

The story of the two disciples’ encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus has always been a puzzling one. Why do the disciples not recognize him during their extensive conversation on the road? Why do they then suddenly recognize him at the breaking of the bread? And, once they have recognized him, why does he vanish? Ancient Christian readers were probably better equipped than we are to grasp some of the meanings of Luke 24 because they were much more aware of the Greek text of the Hebrew Bible, as well as of various Jewish apocalyptic traditions that would have mediated a first-century reader’s understanding of sacred texts. I propose a reading the Lukan pericope as a Christian midrash on Genesis, paying special attention to the intertextuality between Luke 24, the longer Markan ending, Genesis 3, and the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. This tradition-critical approach yields conclusions that also illumine certain aspects of the early Christian reception history of the Lukan passage.


Eavesdropping on Hearts: Jesus’ Knowledge of Thoughts and Intentions in the Synoptic Gospels
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Collin Bullard, University of Cambridge

All four gospels include depictions of Jesus as one who has extraordinary knowledge. One aspect of Jesus’ extraordinary knowledge, the ability to know a person’s thoughts and intentions, is adopted in slightly different ways in each of the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus’ knowledge of thoughts and intentions rarely garners more than a few lines in commentaries, and no prolonged study has been done on the issue (cursory discussions, however, can be found, e.g., in works on the *theios aner* or more general discussions on Christology). In spite of this, the proposed interpretations are numerous, ranging from Jesus’ keen awareness of human behavior to prophetic ability, supernatural power, or divine insight. This paper will compare the way in which each Synoptic Gospel treats the phenomenon, paying attention to any patterns or themes that may arise and hoping to spark discussion on an issue which has received very little scholarly attention. First of all, the healing of the paralytic (Mk 2:1-12 and par.) provides a good initial example of how Jesus’ knowledge of thoughts is particularly tied to controversy and conflict in each of the Synoptics (cf. Mk 12:13-17 and par.). Subsequently, however, we see that Mark tends to present Jesus’ knowledge implicitly, as in 3:1-6, 9:33-37, and 14:3-9, where Jesus responds, not to direct questions, but to hidden intentions and secret conversations. On the level of discourse (using distinctions of narrative criticism), then, the reader is presented with a Jesus who possesses the same knowledge as the narrator. We will conclude that in Mark, Jesus’ implicit knowledge allows the narrator to increase the reliability and authority of Jesus in the eyes of the reader, while leaving the characters within the story sufficiently ignorant of Jesus’ real power and identity. On the other hand, Matthew edits each of these episodes in Mark (Mk 3:1-6; 9:33-37; 14:3-9//Mt 12:9-14; 18:1-5; 26:6-13) so that there is more coherence at the level of story; that is, Jesus responds in each instance to a question or statement that is spoken aloud, so that the awkwardness of Jesus responding without being asked a question is removed. Nonetheless, in each of these cases, Matthew still depicts Jesus as one who can see through the false sincerity that lies behind his opponents’ questions. Thus, we will conclude that Matthew is more concerned to portray Jesus as one who can discern hearts rather than one who can read minds. Finally, Luke is the most explicit in showcasing Jesus’ ability to read thoughts and perceive motives. Whereas Matthew tends to remove the awkwardness from Mark’s implicit portrayals of Jesus’ knowledge, Luke does the opposite, tending to make Jesus’ knowledge more explicit (e.g., in Lk 6:8 and 9:47). Moreover, Luke combines the motif of knowledge with that of division and conflict in a unique way by portraying each instance of Jesus’ knowledge as a fulfillment of Simeon’s oracle in 2:34-35.


A Different Kind of Mimesis: Intertextuality and Discursive Style in Genesis 18:1–15 and Mark 2:1–12
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Collin Bullard, University of Cambridge

An enduring difficulty in bringing intertextual theory to bear on the NT is the various levels on which the NT writers engaged with precursor texts. This paper is a preliminary exploration into intertextual relationships at the level of discursive style in the Gospel narratives. Can one assess the way in which the symbolic world created by the style of discourse in OT narrative has influenced the narrative technique of the Evangelists? By framing our questions along the lines of discourse rather than story, we concern ourselves less with the *content* of the precursor text, and more with the *way* in which the precursor text is narrated, and whether a NT text might be seen as imitating that style. As a test case, two episodes in Mark and Genesis will be discussed. Throughout the Genesis narrative, the discursive style creates a symbolic world whereby omniscience separates the human and the divine (see Sternberg, 1985). In Mark 2:1-12, we have what may be the record of Mark’s Christological interpretation of and interaction with the symbolic world depicted in Genesis, and exemplified in Gen 18:1-15. Mark narrates the Gospel in such a way as to create his own symbolic world, within which Jesus’ role in Mark 2:1-12 mirrors that of Yahweh in Gen 18:1-15. The particular combination of two narrative techniques will be highlighted: (1) the presentation of inner thoughts as “speaking to one’s heart,” and (2) the presence of a character within the narrative who possesses the same knowledge as the narrator. Using narrative criticism to juxtapose these two texts, we hope to elucidate some broader levels of intertextuality between the OT and NT. If the primordial narrative of Genesis and the patriarchal narrative of Abraham saturate the shared cultural space of 1st century Jewish culture, to what extent is Mark’s attempt to write an authoritative narrative influenced by the discursive style of those authoritative precursor texts? This paper represents a preliminary (and, admittedly, imaginative) attempt to grapple with this question.


A School of the Solitary Ones: The Desert Fathers in the Homilies of St. Isaac of Nineveh
Program Unit:
Dmitrij Bumazhnov, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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Dying between the Sun and the Moon: An Adamic Tradition in Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Silviu Bunta, University of Dayton

According to the Testament of Adam 3:6 and several Greek, Georgian, Latin, and Slavonic variants of the Life of Adam and Eve, the sun and the moon joined the mourners at Adam’s burial and darkened for the sorrowful event. The motif of the darkening of the sun and the moon occurs primarily in the prominent tradition (developed exegetically in both ancient Jewish and Christian circles out of Isa 24:23, 60:20, Joel 2:10, and Hab 3:11) that only the divine light will shine in the eschaton and/or the Messianic era and that the sun and the moon will darken in front of it (cf. Rev 21:23; 4 Ezra 7:39-42; Sib. Orac. 5:476-483). While according to the Life of Adam and Eve recensions the eclipse of the two luminaries at Adam’s burial is due to the fact that they cannot shine in front of God, in line with the eschatological tradition mentioned above, the Testament of Adam version of the story attributes the behavior of the two luminaries to the fact that the protoplast was the image of God. This paper argues that there isn’t an insurmountable difference between these two versions of the Adamic story and that their conjunction reflects a “divine image” ideology, in which conduct due or shown to God is transferred to God’s image (and vice-versa). It is finally argued here that the association of the darkness in Mark 13:24, Mt 27:45, and Luke 23:45 (the only passage that mentions the sun—yet not the moon) with a darkening of the sun and the moon (association first attested in iconography and texts of the fourth century) is a further development of this Adamic ideology, most probably on the propitious background of the crystallization of a theanthropic Christology and of the ever increasing use of solar and lunar symbols in pagan, Jewish, and Christian funerary artifacts.


Ephrem the Syrian’s Hymns on Paradise 1 and 11: Textual Theophanies and Exegetical Deification
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Silviu Bunta, University of Dayton

This paper focuses on one ancient depiction of exegesis as a visionary and mystical experience, namely that of Ephrem the Syrian’s Hymns on Paradise 1 and 11. This paper analyzes particularly three aspects of Ephrem’s understanding of exegesis that seem relevant to the current inquiry about ancient religious experiences. First, to answer the principal question whether Ephrem’s view of exegesis can be actually defined as visionary, this paper points out that for Ephrem authentic exegesis is by nature mystical and transformational, simply because the biblical text is, under the cover of visible words, theophanic and transformative. More precisely, proper exegesis leads both to an actual first-hand vision of the realities described and hidden in the text and to a transformative organic union with the intra-textual divine presence. The Syrian author strongly opposes purely intellectual investigations into the scriptural text for the simple reason that such quests would inevitably miss the Bible for what it actually is. Second, although Ephrem initially identifies the mind as the subject of the mystical experience, an increasingly diverse and complex vocabulary employed later on in the text suggests that Ephrem does not understand this experience to be merely intellectual and/or imagined. Moreover, the fourth century thinker seems not to place any demarcations between the mental and imaginary, on the one hand, and the physical and real, on the other. Third, although for Ephrem proper exegesis goes beyond the literal dimensions of Scripture (which obscure the presence of God in the text) and it constitutes a transformative first-hand experience of the divine realities hidden in the text, it cannot attain God entirely. Like all theophanies (and Ephrem at this point draws a clear parallelism between Scripture and the Incarnation), Scripture cannot relate the divine mystery in its entirety.


Cities of Pride: Greatness and Excesses in Isaiah 24–27
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Micael Burki, Collège de France

Chapters 24-27 announce insistently the destruction of an anonymous city. This town is a foreign one and commentators have recognized it to be in turn Nineveh, Babylon, Carthage, Tyre… Moab is the only entity mentioned in the text (Es.25.10). In chap.15-16 Moab is also presented as a heap of ruins. The oracle charges this nation with hybris, embodied by the security it finds in its numerous fortified cities dispatched on the hillside. In chapters 24-27 the anonymous city is an impregnable citadel, its walls are high and its description reminds that of the tyrants charged with hybris in the OAN. Rather than a historical character, the anonymous city is a metaphor of hybris in the same way as Babel in Genesis. By this way it offers a counterpart to the other city mentioned in those chapters: the city of YHWH, the real fortress which walls bring salvation. (Es.26.1). This city is elevated instead of being put down. The opposition between the elevation of the city of YHWH and the lowering into dust of the overproud fortress reproduce the structure of Isaiah chapter 2. Some commentators already mentioned verses occurring in both passages. They present other similarities: their use of older prophetic material, the theme of the ascent of the nations, but also the quite rare description of YHWH with the vocabulary used for tyrants in the OAN. The theme, the vocabulary, and the metaphor’s filiation of chapters 24-27 and chapter 2 testify to their proximity. Both texts are probably issued from the same hand. Together they create a framework to the other chapters also structured around the hybris theme, of the daughter of Sion (Es.3), of the leaders of Juda (Es.5 and 22), of Samaria (Es.9) and of the nations (Es.10, 13-14, 15-16, 23).


Propaganda, Religion, and the Films of Sergei Eisenstein
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch, Greensboro College

Soviet film director and theorist Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) is widely recognized as a pioneer in the art of filmmaking and the propagandistic use of motion pictures. Although born to the bourgeoisie that his films would later demonize, Eisenstein supported the Russian Revolution and later became a set and costume designer for the First Workers’ Theater of Stalin’s Prolecult. In the 1920s he embraced another 'democratic art,' the new film medium, as a more efficient tool for teaching communist principles to the largely illiterate masses. As a film theorist, he is best known for his experimentation in montage – the editing together of independent shots as an invitation for audiences to draw connections between apparently unrelated objects or events. In one of his later publications, Eisenstein delineates five methods of montage that could be used to manipulate the emotions of his audience and create cinematic metaphors as new ideas emerge from the 'collision' of images. While he is ostensibly a harsh critic of religion as a devoted Marxist, Eisenstein’s work is nonetheless permeated by biblical references and subtexts to the extent that he was at times accused of excessive religious zeal by Soviet censors. Although he formally denounced the dogma of his Russian Orthodox upbringing, his work reveals an enduring fascination with religious imagery and biblical traditions. My presentation would explore the fundamental tension in Eisenstein’s films between an overt rejection of religion and a subversive (and perhaps unconscious) reclaiming of biblical traditions in the creation of a new Soviet spirituality.


Four Myths about Gnostic Apocalypses
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Dylan Michael Burns, Yale University

Despite a recent resurgence of interest into Gnostic literature, research into Gnostic texts that employ the genre of “apocalypse” remains in its infancy. In hopes of generating friendly debate, this paper will survey and “debunk” common scholarly “myths” about Gnostic apocalypses: 1) Gnosticism and Apocalypticism are both grounded upon cosmological dualism and pessimism; 2) Gnosticism is the supreme form of realized eschatology; 3) Gnostic apocalypses are products of the Jewish apocalyptic thinking out of which Gnosticism arose; 4) Gnostics inclined towards Greek philosophy lost interest in the apocalyptic genre. Yet scholars of Gnosticism generally no longer define Gnosticism by “dualism” or “pessimism.” Most “Gnostic” texts affirm that the world will end, in ways virtually indistinguishable from contemporary Christians; “realized” eschatology did not always come at the expense of cosmic eschatology. It is by no means clear that Gnosticism was originally a Jewish, not Christian, phenomenon, much less originating in disappointed apocalyptic conventicles. Finally, we possess “Platonizing” Sethian apocalypses that combine Jewish (Enochic) and Neoplatonic themes; there are no “Pagan” Gnostic apocalypses. The picture that emerges from this review is that research into Gnostic apocalypses should focus more on specific intertextual themes and motifs rather than modern theological constructions (“dualism”). Particular focus should be on the Enochic tradition—not just the Book of the Watchers but also Enoch’s heavenly journey and angelification—as well as speculation on the celestial liturgy. At the same time, we can still address philosophical issues, such as the relationship between the idea of Gnosis qua absolute knowledge and the affirmations of total authority common to apocalyptic texts. The distinction between “Jewish apocalyptic” and “Greek philosophical” Gnostic texts is misleading. Rather, Gnostic literature adopted pre-existing Jewish apocalyptic traditions to suit diverse environments, ranging from the Greek philosophical circle to Syro-Palestinian baptist cults.


Reassessing the Genre of Acts: A Biography of the Church
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Richard A. Burridge, King's College - London

This paper begins by assessing the recent and current state of play in scholarly debate about the genre of Acts, looking at the various genres proposed of historiography, novel, epic and biography and notes that most treatments have lacked a proper understanding of genre theory. I then draw upon the analysis which I previously undertook for each of the canonical gospels in my original doctoral research, published as What are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (Cambridge University Press, 1992; second revised edition, Eerdmans, 2004). This approach is applied to the text of the Acts of the Apostles, beginning with the opening generic features of title and prologue; this is followed by an analysis of all the subjects of its verbs, following the method I previously used on the gospels, illustrated by tables and pie-charts. The comparison with Luke’s gospel is particularly illuminating, noting close parallels between the totals for Jesus’ deeds and words in the gospel compared with those of his followers in Acts. The analysis is completed with a study of the other generic features, both external (such as length, structure, scale, units and sources) and internal (setting, topics, style, atmosphere, characterization). From all this data, it is noted that Acts shares the generic profile as the four gospels, leading to the conclusion that it is best understood as a biography of the early church.


Laboring Until Now: Theological and Ecological Implications of Paul's Apocalyptic Language in Rom 8:19–22
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Presian Renee Burroughs, Duke University

Apocalypse, groaning and laboring, until now, glory--all these terms point to Paul's apocalyptic outlook in Romans 8:19-22. But rarely studied are the theological and ecological implications of the awkward wording in v 22 which states, "all creation is groaning together and laboring together until now." Attempting to smooth out the strange coordination of present tense verbs (groans and labors) with the phrase "until now," the NRSV translates this passage as follows: "the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now." This paper, however, argues that Paul's coordination of the present tense verbs with the time indicator "until now" is theologically significant. Here and elsewhere in Romans 8, Paul hints at the resurrection of Christ as the inaugural moment of the eschatological age that is to be followed by the resurrection of all those in Christ, the apocalypse of the sons of God. The paper argues that creation's groaning and laboring lead to the birthing forth of resurrected humanity. Such a reading recognizes the nonhuman creation as an agent who works alongside God for salvation. The reading also suggests that something important changed at Jesus' resurrection, a change that has begun the unstoppable, Spirit-filled process of liberation and glorification of all God's creation. With such a theological and eschatological vision in place, it only makes sense for humans to align their lives with this liberative vision.


Gender, Genre, and Hagiography: The Life of St. Helia
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Virginia Burrus, Drew University

Like most forms of ancient prose narrative, hagiography is a hybrid genre. Female hagiography in particular emerges as a fusion of novelistic, biographical, and martyrological traditions, among others. This paper will consider the intriguing generic peculiarities of a little-known text, The Life of St. Helia, a work preserved in a single ninth-century manuscript and a tenth-century copy and placed, somewhat speculatively, in late fourth- or early fifth-century Spain. The Life’s prologue compares the composition of the work to the exercises in fictional narration by which boys trained for forensic oratory. The text is itself framed as a kind of performative forensic oratory, consisting in a debate between the virgin Helia and her mother in three parts, the first a private exchange between the two, the second (by appeal of the daughter) taking place in the presence of a bishop, and the third (by appeal of the mother) taking place before a judge. The topic of the debate is the relative merits of virginity and marriage, evoking Methodius’s Symposium in praise of virginity (particularly given the feminine voices) but also the literary debates about the relative merits of boys and wives frequently embedded in novelistic texts of the Second Sophistic. While the bulk of the lengthy work is in dialogue format, and densely exegetical, there are narrative elements as well--including the mother’s sadistic punishments, the daughter’s escape in male dress, armies raised by an aunt, and so on—that call to mind mother-daughter strife in the Acts of Thecla or Leucippe and Kleitophon, for example. All of these generic features allow for reflection on the limits and possibilities of representing female speech in ancient narrative literature.


The Passive Parturient in Romans 8
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Austin Busch, College at Brockport (SUNY)

In an article I published a few years ago, I argued that in Romans 7 Paul adopts the persona of Eve from the story of the Primeval Transgression (“The Figure of Eve in Romans 7:5-25,” *Biblical Interpretation* 12 [2004] 1-36). He manipulates a traditional interpretation of Eve as a radically passive transgressor of God’s law—deceived, seduced, etc.—to make a somewhat paradoxical suggestion: the self under sin acts in such a way as to deny itself autonomy. Paul re-imagines the story of Eve’s transgression to show that sin splits the self in half, constituting it as paradoxically passive with respect to itself, and he proceeds to map that divided self onto a traditional Greco-Roman body-soul/body-intellect dichotomy. Here I will follow up that article by examining Romans 8, where Paul once again employs imagery associated with femininity (namely, childbirth)—this time to imagine the eschatological redemption of believers’ bodies. Romans 8’s language of childbirth may have been suggested by Genesis 3:15-16, in which Eve’s labor pains and offspring are presented as both humanity’s punishment and the means of its redemption (the latter, according to a traditional interpretation of v. 15). It is also indebted to imagery employed by biblical prophets. But the Hellenistic background is likewise important, though it has really never been examined, for Romans 8 employs some of the same language as ancient Greek obstetrical handbooks, especially Soranus’ *Gynaecia.* Reading Paul in light of this fascinating literature sharpens our view of the metaphorical childbirth he depicts and clarifies the logic of the metaphor’s development. In particular, Soranus and other Greek gynecological writers figure the parturient as radically passive during her travail (a surprising figuration for English speakers accustomed to a woman’s “labor,” “pushing,” and the like), in terms both of midwives’ manipulation of her body and of the posture of passive suffering she is urged to adopt in the face of her contractions’ violence. Paul’s childbirth metaphor in Romans 8 adopts and expands the parturient’s passivity. She is so passive as to be not simply aided by the God's spirit (Gk. *pneuma*, the same word Soranus uses for a birthing woman’s holding in of her breath—a vital feature of a successful childbirth, according to his account) in the midst of her groaning (Gk. *stenagma*, which Soranus also discusses in great detail), but actually possessed by this spirit (vv. 26-27), who groans on her behalf. Her labor issues not in a birth but in an adoption (vv. 22-23); etc. In antiquity, femininity was conventionally linked with passivity, and Paul’s employment of two feminine images in Romans 7-8—Eve and travail—manipulate this convention in order to figure the self under sin and the self redeemed from sin as both radically passive, in the former case as a self split in two and paradoxically enslaved to itself; in the later case as a self integrated and free, but—again paradoxically—enjoying a freedom that amounts to possession by God’s Spirit.


The Evangelical Myth of Simon of Cyrene
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Austin Busch, College at Brockport (SUNY)

Contemporary scholarship often emphasizes the general historical reliability of the Synoptic Gospels’ Passion Narratives. One detail in particular that has almost always been viewed as historical is Simon of Cyrene’s carrying of Jesus’ cross (Mark 15:21 and parallels). There is no obvious reason to doubt the episode’s historicity: it is not supernatural, nor even unexpected. (The crucified were supposed to carry their cross beam; Jesus, weakened by scourging, required assistance, so a passer-by was conscripted). Mark’s gratuitous mention of Simon’s sons suggests that his family was known to his audience, underscoring the episode’s historicity. Richard Bauckham has therefore made Simon into the crucifixion narrative’s historical foundation, arguing that Mark’s reference to him signals reliance on Simon’s eye-witness testimony. In the 19th century David Friedrich Strauss offered a definition of myth allowing for an alternative assessment of Simon’s historicity, as well as a darker interpretation of Jesus’ death than normally proposed. Strauss defines “evangelical mythus” as “a narrative relating…to Jesus… considered not as the expression of a fact, but as the product of an idea of his earliest followers.” Reading Mark 15:21 (which Strauss himself accepted as historical) in light of this conception invites the conclusion that the Simon episode is a fictional production embodying a Markan idea, namely Jesus’ followers’ disastrous failure to comprehend and obey their master—by all accounts a leading theme in the Second Gospel. The carrying of Jesus’ cross by a random passer-by happening to be named Simon emphasizes the disciples’ (and especially Simon Peter’s) failure to obey Jesus’ command to “take up [their] cross and follow” him (8:34). Moreover, Simon’s status as a foreigner represents a final reversal of insiders and outsiders (another leading theme in Mark), and underscores Jesus’ death in isolation from his intimates, including friends, family (his mother keeps her distance; 15:40), and God (15:33)—a tragedy Mark refuses to obviate with resurrection appearances. Simon’s presence so clearly correlates with key Markan themes that his episode looks to be less an “expression of a fact” than a fictional product embodying the evangelist’s ideas. Strauss applied his conception of myth to the gospels primarily to explain away Jesus’ miracles, and his analysis has therefore been viewed as tendentious and reductive. But the explanatory potential his conception demonstrates when applied to an episode that is not historically suspicious, but prima facie historical, may suggest that Strauss’s particular approach to the gospels as myth deserves rehabilitation.


Living Koine Pronunciation
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Randall Buth, Biblical Language Center, Israel

The sound system of a language is an important part of the matrix of communication. Even in prose it can affect word choice and syntax. Several criteria affect the choice of a pronunciation system and this choice becomes more important if we intend to take advantage of audio approaches in learning. Historical accuracy is a criterion. We are fortunate to have significant data from Judea itself, not to mention the Jewish catacombs of Rome. It is important to know the parameters that were governing communication between NT writers and their audiences. Being able to communicate with other pronunciation systems is also desirable. The system that best bridges all of these goals should be highly valued and preferred. Some of the relevant data and considerations can be previewed at http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Greek_Pronunciation_2008.pdf A brief Koine reading will be demonstrated.


Exegesis of a Passage Conducted in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Randall Buth, Biblical Language Center, Israel

How far can immersion approaches to language teaching be used? What happens after we leave the elementary stages of language learning and proceed into later first and second year Hebrew material? We will discuss and interpret a passage with a Panel of participants in Biblical Hebrew. In order to similate a classroom experience, the panel members will not know the Hebrew passage ahead of time. Through this exercise it is hoped that the viability of teaching higher level language skills in Biblical Hebrew will be demonstrated. In addition, attention will be given to the kind of preparation that is expected in order to run such teaching sessions in the language itself.


The Influence of Syriac Christianity on Ethiopic Christianity: Shifting the Discussion
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Aaron Michael Butts, Yale University

In the scholarly literature, a good deal of attention has been focused on possible Syriac influences on Ethiopic Christianity in the Aksumite period (4th cent.-ca. 900). I. Guidi (1888, 33-34 with n. 1; 1932, 13-15) and C. Conti Rossini (1928, esp. 155-65), for instance, contended that a group of missionaries from Syriac-speaking areas played a key role in the spread of Christianity throughout Ethiopia in the late 5th to early 6th century. Based on this, they attributed substantial Syriac influence to the development of Ethiopic Christianity, including the introduction of monasticism as well as the translation of the Bible into Classical Ethiopic. More recent studies (Marrassini 1990, 1999; Polotsky 1964; Witakowski 1989-1990) have, however, seriously challenged the evidence for this theory. In this paper, I would like to shift the discussion by looking at Syriac influences on Classical Ethiopic literature from the Solomonic period (1270-1770). More specifically, I survey a number of Ethiopic texts that are attributed to Syriac-speaking authors or that passed through Syriac on their way to Ethiopic. In these cases, Syriac influence was almost always mediated by Arabic Christianity, which inherited a great deal from the Syriac heritage. Notwithstanding the Arabic intermediary, these cases provide clear evidence for Syriac influence on Ethiopic Christianity in the Solomonic period. Bibliography: C. Conti Rossini, Storia d’Etiopia (1928). I. Guidi, Le traduzioni degli Evangeli in arabo e in etiopico (1888). idem, Storia della letteratura etiopica (1932). P. Marrassini, “Some considerations on the problem of the ‘Syriac influences’ on Aksumite Ethiopia,” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 23 (1990), 35-46. idem, “Ancora sul problema degli influssi siriaci in età aksumita,” in Biblica et semitica. Studi in memoria di Francesco Vattioni, ed. L. Cagni (1999), 325-37. H. J. Polotsky, “Aramaic, Syriac, and Ge‘ez,” Journal of Semitic Studies 9 (1964), 1-10. W. Witakowski, “Syrian influences in Ethiopian culture,” Orientalia Suecana 38-39 (1989-90), 191-202.


Cataloguing Ethiopian Prayer Scrolls
Program Unit: Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
Aaron Butts, Yale University

Ethiopian prayer scrolls are well-represented in collections of Ethiopic manuscripts in western libraries and still continue to be produced in Ethiopia today. These scrolls contain an assortment of prayers intended to protect the patron against illnesses and misfortunes as well as the evil spirits responsible for them. These ailments include hemorrhage, barrenness, chest pain, and rheumatism, to name only a few. The scrolls have a relatively uniform layout, with most containing three talismanic images: one at the top, a second in the middle, and a third toward the end. In between these images, the text portion of the scrolls is found. This consists of a basic repertoire of literary passages, including Biblical pericopes as well as other texts such as ‘The Legend of Susenyos’ and ‘The Net of Solomon’, which are interwoven with a variety of prayers invoking various asmat ‘names’. There is a substantial amount of variation not only in the combination of the texts, but also in their individual content. This variation presents a serious challenge to the cataloguer who is faced with providing a relatively concise précis of a given scroll while at the same time capturing at least some of the variation. This paper reflects on this methodological challenge, drawing most of its examples from scrolls found in the Ethiopic holdings of the Special Collections Library at Duke University (Durham, NC).


The Gospels of Matthew and John in the Second Letter of Peter
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Terrance Callan, Athenaeum of Ohio - Mount St. Mary's Seminary

This essay will investigate the ways 2 Peter makes use of Jesus tradition derived from the gospels of Matthew and John. It will begin by discussing some relatively clear instances in which 2 Peter seems to make use of material from these two gospels. Having established that an intertextual relationship probably exists between 2 Peter and these two gospels, the essay will proceed to consider some less certain instances of such use. These are cases where 2 Peter seems to echo Jesus tradition found in the two gospels much as Richard B. Hays argues that the letters of Paul echo scriptural texts in Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale, 1989).


Poetic Violence: On Language that Repels and Compels in Homer and Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Mary Chilton Callaway, Fordham University

Contemporary taxonomy of the Bible includes the characteristically modern category ‘textual representations of violence.’ These representations present emotional and intellectual obstacles for us, but often did not disturb readers in the past. What could have been the function of exquisitely composed graphic descriptions that make one want to look away? One fruitful approach to this question is to look at comparable texts from other parts of the ancient Mediterranean world. The purpose is to render biblical texts in an unfamiliar light, to recognize the modern perspective that can limit our vision, and to complicate our reading in order to deepen our understanding of Jeremiah’s words. The first part of the paper presents a short text of graphic violence from the Odyssey, and suggests some specific norms by which Homer’s audiences in mid-eighth century would likely have appreciated the scene. In Greece the poet was understood as intermediary between humanity and the divine muse; his ability to create reality with words was in Marcel Detienne’s term ‘magicoreligious.’ Audiences understood the complex interplay between the poet’s twin roles as creator of heroes from the past and revealer of the gods in the present. The analysis will conclude with some suggestions for an aesthetics of violence in Homer. The paper then turns to the two images of Jerusalem as a violated woman in Jeremiah 13:22,26. Allowing for the significant differences in genre, we can understand how the prophet’s words, like Homer’s, create a reality that impinges on its listeners. However, in contrast with Homer’s precise anatomical description of a brutal death, Jeremiah’s language is allusive, relying on euphemisms to signal the depth of horror. Further, Jeremiah’s is second-order speech, rooted in metaphor. The paper will conclude by suggesting how these differences make Jeremiah’s poetic violence less graphic, but also more dangerous, than Homer’s.


Magic, Miracle, and a Strategy of Demarcation in the Acts of Peter
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Callie Callon, University of Toronto

While it has frequently been noted that accusations of magic are common to all of the apocryphal acts, less attention has been paid to the central role that the deliberate contrast between magic and miracle plays in the Acts of Peter in particular. While the text's juxtaposition of the magician Simon with the apostle Peter has been discussed somewhat, the concomitant juxtaposition between magic and miracle - and the significance that such would have had for an audience in antiquity - has not received as much attention as it warrants. That (notoriously subjective) accusations of magic not only functioned as polemic against rivalling religious communities but were also taken very seriously is evidenced by early Christian apologists, contemporaries of the Acts of Peter. In these works a strategy to negotiate this blurry terrain is articulated in prose form, and is one that seems to have held some degree of traction in broader (non-Christian) circles: namely the contrast between characteristics commonly ascribed to magic and magicians, and claims regarding how these differ from their own respective authoritative figures who were held to have (miraculous) wonderworking abilities. My paper will argue that the Acts of Peter is also participating in this seemingly widespread apologetic discourse, yet articulating this strategy of demarcation in narrative form. My paper will further argue that this same tactic can be identified in other contemporaneous narratives, which likewise sought to deflect accusations of magic from their own authoritative figures who were held to have worked wonders: Philo and Josephus on Moses, and Philostratus on Apollonius of Tyana. As such, I argue that rather than solely an entertaining showcase to demonstrate Peter's miraculous abilities, the Acts of Peter is also, like it's contemporaries, engaging in the rather earnest enterprise of deflecting accusations of magic against an authoritative figure, and in turn for the community that reveres him as such.


Elizabeth (Foster) Baxter’s "Last Word"
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Nancy Calvert-Koyzis, McMaster University

Elizabeth (Foster) Baxter (1837-1926), an English evangelical Anglican known for her preaching ministry throughout Britain and parts of Europe, was also the author of at least forty books of biblical interpretation as well as numerous other smaller publications. Along with her husband Michael Paget Baxter (1834-1910), Elizabeth was very interested in Christ’s second coming, as evidenced by her book His Last Word: Bible Readings in Revelation (1896). In this book, Elizabeth Baxter argued that the prophesied second coming of Christ had been detained because the Church had not understood and had failed to come up to its high vocation. In this paper, I will show how Elizabeth reads Revelation through Victorian eyes, from her anti-Jewish statements to her surprising support of woman as true “helpmeet,” to her evangelical Christian commitments to post-millennialism and experiential conversion. In this way she endeavors to transform the church into the body of the truly converted, to whom the prophecy of Christ’s return might finally come.


The Politics of Death and the Politics of Life
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Douglas Campbell, Duke University

invited paper


"I Am under Obligation to Both Greeks and Barbarians…." (Rom 1:14): Intercultural Nuances in Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
William S. Campbell, Prifysgol Cymru, Y Drindod Dewi Sant - University of Wales, Trinity Saint David

When Paul's Letter to the Romans is viewed as addressed to gentiles who still are in contact with Jews and Jewish Christ-followers, the cultural differences and resulting nuances become more accentuated. Paul also demonstrates his awareness of differences amongst gentiles whether Greeks or barbarians. Thus the Roman imperial context pervades the letter and is most significant in chapters 9-11 which demonstrate that ethnicity is a significant factor in Paul's rhetoric and theologizing.


The Allusive Hapax Legomenon
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Kenneth Cardwell, Saint Mary's College of California

Criteria for establishing literary dependence can put the bar too high. It matters who is doing the persuading and who it is he or she is trying to persuade. If Mark’s earliest audience were schooled on Homeric glosses or raised in a tradition familiar with lists of hapax legomena (Homeric or Biblical), then a single salient word might suffice to link a Markan story to a literary forebear. Additionally, if Mark’s readers assembled around authorized interpreters, the interpreters would not need to work nearly so hard as a Biblical scholar addressing professionally skeptical colleagues. Three instances are proposed: (1) the “digging down” in Mk 2:4; (2) the sending out of the Twelve “two-by-two” of Mk 6:7; (3) the Hellene who is a “Syrophoenician” at Mk 7:26. The first example is lodged in the bizarre account of four stretcher-bearers hoisting a quadriplegic up onto a roof so that they can then dig through the roof and lower him down into a crowded underworld. A telltale word directs the alert (or alerted) reader to Odysseus digging a pit at the edge of the known world and the shades below crowding around to see him. In this case the single word belongs to a constellation of details together signifying the incident of Elpenor’s fall. The second example is of a more familiar type. A memory saturated with Biblical phraseology will want to hear the Twelve being sent “two-by-two” as somehow evoking the paired animals of Noah’s menagerie, but the account gives no further verbal or thematic grounds for the association. Without prior conviction that Mark expects a single word to summon a source, the reader will remain perplexed by what must appear to be a pointless resonance. The third example, an unknown and puzzling name, is as thorny a problem for the modern interpreter as it was a textual crisis for the ancient copyist. Can we find reasons for thinking that we have in the surplus designation “Syrophoenician” for the Hellene woman a contrastive allusion to the Greek epic in which a Phoenician woman from Syriê takes from the top of a table things that do not belong to her? The possibility might make us look more closely at the dogs under the table. The three examples begin to build the inductive case that by means of a rare word or singular phrase Mark intentionally evokes a bit from a well-known source scene when that scene was itself the well-known locus of the “one-off” expression. Meeting a rare word or expression in Mark that is (or is like) a rare word or expression in the Greeks’ Homer or the Hebrews’ Bible should set us to wondering whether something is happening here and we don’t know what it is. Or do we, Mr. Jones?


Moving Things Ahead: A Lukan Redactional Technique and Its Implications for Gospel Origins
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary

Recent and influential proposals (Richard Bauckham; James Dunn) have emphasized the role of memory in the composition of the Gospels. Despite the diversity and sophistication of these proposals, they have led to a functional neglect, sometimes repudiation, of source and redaction analysis in some circles. On the contrary, attention to Lukan redaction of Mark, particularly with respect to the sequence of pericopae, reveals both the value of source and redaction analysis and the limitations of memory-oriented accounts of Gospel origins. Lukan transposition manifests itself most clearly in four pericopae: Jesus in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30), the woman who anoints Jesus (7:36-50), the question of eternal life (10:25-37), and the tradition of the fig tree (13:6-9). Looking at these pericopae one by one, many interpreters debate whether Luke relies on independent traditions; taken as a group, they reveal Luke’s redactional and literary activity. In each instance (a) Luke neatly excises the pericope from its location in Mark’s sequence, (b) Luke changes fundamental dynamics of the pericope, and (c) Luke’s redactional activity favors widely acknowledged Lukan emphases. Memory-oriented (and for that matter, narrative) interpretations will undervalue Luke’s emphases in these instances.


Welcome and Introduction
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Robert R. Cargill, University of Iowa

Robert Cargill recaps the year in blogging and introduces the session.


The Spirit in the Body: Pneumatology of Creation in John 20:19–23
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Reed Anthony Carlson, Luther Seminary

Moltmann has criticized western conceptions of the Holy Spirit as providing “an assurance of eternal blessedness” that “makes people turn away from ‘this world’ and hope for a better world beyond” (Spirit of Life, 8). In contrast, Pentecostals are conventionally more attentive to the Spirit’s connection to the body and nature and root this self-understanding in a normative interpretation of Luke-Acts (K. Archer, A Pentecostal Hermeneutic). However, the Fourth Gospel is often marginalized in this discussion out of a perceived dualistic worldview in John or concern for protecting the Pentecost timeline. This essay explores the Spirit in body and nature in John using 20:19-23 as a map. John envisions the Spirit not as an otherworldly sensation, but as a dynamic person who equips for mission and enables Christ’s presence. Like Christ’s resurrected body, the Paraclete transforms the Church’s Body in a way that is continuous with God’s initial creation. Part I of this essay traces Pneumatological streams in John that are consummated in 20:19-23. They include the “abiding” (1:32, meno) Spirit who does not bestow God’s presence, but reveals what is already there (Koester, Word of Life). To be born “again/from above” (3:7, anothen) is not to undo the first birth but to empower it for "witness" (1:32; 4:39 martureo). Part II of this essay is a close reading of the Greek of 20:19-23. The disciples huddled behind locked doors are without the Spirit of “peace” (14:27) and “joy” (16:22). Christ’s sudden bodily presence (N. Wright, TRSG) commissions the disciples “into the world” (17:18). Christ “breathes” (emphusao) into the disciples “the breath of life” (LXX: Gen. 2:7; 1 Kgs. 17:21; Ezek. 37:9). Thus, what was breathed into Adam is the prototype for the Spirit that is at work in the disciples—not as an outside force upon creation, but an animating presence within.


“For Sinai Is a Mountain in Arabia”: A Note on the Text of Galatians 4:25
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Stephen C. Carlson, Duke University

Ever since Richard Bentley, textual critics and exegetes have been perplexed by the note in Gal 4:25a that Sinai was a mountain in Arabia. Early and important witnesses are divided as to its reading, and this clause, in its four main variations, is problematic not only in terms of its grammar but also in its relation to Paul’s argumentative discourse. This paper revisits this textual problem and comes to the following conclusions. The external, transcriptional, and intrinsic considerations all suggest that v.25a should read t? ??? S??? ???? ?st?? ?? t? ??aß?? (“for Sinai is a mountain in Arabia”), so this reading ought to be adopted in the critical text. Moreover, other evidence suggests that v.25a was originally a marginal note in the archetype of Galatians, so this clause ought to be enclosed in double brackets to indicate that it was not originally part of the autograph of Paul’s letter.


General Trends of Scribal Revision Illustrated in the Gilgamesh Epic
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
David M. Carr, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Thanks to work on the growth of the Gilgamesh tradition by (among others) Jerrold Cooper, Jeffrey Tigay, Andrew George and (more recently) Fleming and Milstein, we have a better sense of different sorts of growth that the Gilgamesh epic underwent in its various editions. This presentation correlates some of that work with study of documented growth in other written traditions (e.g. Temple Scroll, various editions of biblical texts) to propose some broader trends in scribal revision that are illustrated by the Gilgamesh epic, but not limited to it. In terms of models for growth: the growth of the Gilgamesh epic shows the multi-linear quality of the growth of particularly central traditions, with some lines taken up in later tradition and other lines dying out in a given context and/or scribal generation. In terms of the phenomenology of revision, we see dynamics such as scribal coordination of parallel scenes, memory variants, expansion (particularly at the beginning and end edges of the composition) and even some deletion. These and other broader dynamics will be discussed in this paper.


Issues in Teaching Old Testament/Hebrew Bible/Tanach
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
David Carr, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

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Reading the Bible through Other Lenses: New Perspectives and Challenging Vistas
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
M. Daniel Carroll R., Denver Seminary

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Welcoming the Stranger? The Role of Deuteronomy 23 in a Theology of Immigration
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
M. Danny Carroll R., Denver Seminary

Approaches to Deuteronomy 23, with reference to immigration issues.


Teaching Empire: Gospel of Matthew
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Warren Carter, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper will explore teaching matters concerning negotiating empire in the Gospel of Matthew


Matthew’s Others: Scholarly Identity-Construction and the Absentee Great Men of the Gentiles (Matt 20:24–27)
Program Unit: Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
Warren Carter, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

Scholars of Matthew’s Gospel commonly construct the Gospel's "other" in negative terms by means of an ingroup-outgroup dyadic which runs along exclusively "religious" and "Jewish/synagogal" lines. I suggest that such discussions of Matthean identity-formation reflect the dominant commitments of the guild that views the Gospel as religious and Jewish. A consideration of other entities in the Gospel such as "enemies" and "Gentiles" highlights the conditionedness and limits of such constructions. My discussion of 20:24-27 highlights the Matthean “othering” of politically powerful Gentiles and reflects understandings that the gospel is not an exclusively religious text but undertakes social-political (imperial) negotiation.


The God That Gog Creates: Divine Characterization in the Tale of Gog
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Corrine Carvalho, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)

In the Masoretic text, the vision of God’s defeat of a mythic Gog is nestled between oracles envisioning a restored Davidic monarchy and the final temple vision. Unlike the surrounding texts in which God primarily speaks, in chapters 38-39, God is the main actor in this bloody vision of protection. This paper will examine how the text characterizes Ezekiel’s warrior deity within the larger context of the salvation oracles.


“Graia migrabit ab urbe”: A Textual and Historical Note on Petronius’ Frg. 37
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Silvia Castelli, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

According to the text of a Petronian fragment as reported by Stern (GLAJJ I, Jerusalem 1976, nr. 195), the "Iudaeus" unwilling to circumcide had to emigrate “to the Greek cities”. Several proposals have been made to emend the text, and more or less popular conjectures have been advanced for the unclear "graia", such as "patria" (Courtney). This note defends the reading "graia" of codex Bellovacensis, and on literary grounds suggests that "graia urbs" might possibly indicate Rome.


Playing by the Rules: J.J. Wettstein on New Testament Textual Criticism
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Silvia Castelli, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

If in textual criticism “an ounce of practice is worth a ton of precept” (E.J. Kenney, The Classical Text, 1974), J.J. Wettstein was able to engage both. While preparing his edition of the Greek New Testament, tracing the 17th century Observationes literature and especially the humanistic tradition down to Erasmus, Wettstein provides 19 guidelines for choosing variant readings. This paper will consider some of the most remarkable, highlighting Wettstein’s modernity for his time, the divergences from van Mastricht’s 1711 canones critici, and Wettstein’s role in the history of textual criticism of the New Testament.


The Bible Restarted: Midrash in a Catholic College Classroom
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Michael T. T. Castori, S.J., Santa Clara University

I teach biblical studies at Santa Clara, a Jesuit (Catholic) university in Silicon Valley. As all undergraduates at Santa Clara must take three sections of religion over the course of their studies, most who enroll in my introductory Bible course are doing just that: fulfilling their Core Curriculum requirement. One of the challenges that I face in igniting an interest in the Bible with many of our students is that, with years of religious instruction at Sunday and/or Catholic high school behind them, they are not always keen to continue "doing" religion, albeit at the college level. I learned early on that citing ecclesial pronouncements on the value of contemporary methods of biblical criticism generated little enthusiasm in the classroom for further, academic pursuit of the Bible. Thus, it has been exciting to discover the effectiveness of rabbinic Midrash, a genre largely unknown to students at Santa Clara, in moving them to critical thinking and prompting them to entertain new perspectives on biblical narratives that otherwise seem too familiar. This paper presents the experience of using classic Midrash in a predominantly Christian learning environment to lecture on the complexity and polyphony of the Primeval and Ancestral Narratives, to model the close reading of text, and to facilitate small group discussions focused on the evolving reception and relevance of Scripture to the present. Observations will follow on how familiarity with Midrash effects a transformation in how students engage Hebrew Bible and New Testament alike.


Defining Identity through Power and Conflict
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Jeremiah W. Cataldo, Grand Valley State University

Reading the biblical narrative of Esther--a narrative giving way to the ritualized Feast of Purim--against more recent testimonies and accounts of anti-Semitism demonstrates common patterns in social, political, and religious responses to conflict. When studied carefully, these patterns support a common model capable of cross-cultural application. This model supports the fundamental thesis that anti-Semitism is not simply a belief but a conflict over identity that produces beliefs and behavioral patterns consistent with deep-rooted prejudices. More specifically, this conflict is typically an “absolute conflict” disguised as an “institutional conflict”--terms that will be defined--and is usually triggered by perceived interruptions to power systems. Using the Hebrew Bible as its starting point, this paper argues that studies of anti-Semitism are best performed when they include detailed understandings of both the identity of the perpetrator and the identity of the victim.


The Sociology of Disaster, Trauma, and Risk and the Loss of the Ark Narrative (I Sam 4:1–7:1)
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
David J Chalcraft, University of Derby

The paper introduces ideas from Ulrich Beck on the sociology of risk, and from Jeffrey Alexander on the sociology of trauma, and then proceeds to consider the account of the loss of the ark as narrated in I Sam 4.1-7.1. Alexander’s work is useful to us for raising questions about how the traumatic event of the loss of Ark might have been dealt with by the community and also to help interpret how the loss of the Ark becomes overlain in the tradition by other themes such that the original narration of the event, and the traumatic experience of it, is reduced or even forgotten. In this way, Alexander helps us to theorise the reasons why the Ark Narrative, in the long run, could not function in the social and cultural memory as an account around which shared identity could be built- hence, major elements of the event and its importance are forgotten for social reasons. Beck’s work enables us to lever open analytically important differences between societies across time and to consider dimensions of risk and the toxicity of sacred objects in the description of the Ark in the Hebrew Bible and how social groups sought to deal with these threats to the social and natural order. At the same time, the biblical data is utilised to talk back to the sociological theories of Beck and Alexander and recommendations are made as to how Beck’s periodisation of various risk societies is in need of revision in the light of the case study. Alexander’s work helps us to be clear about what a sociological approach to trauma and collective memory might look like and helps us distinguish a sociological approach from other social scientific approaches, like social psychology, that also investigate trauma and memory. However, Alexander’s commitment to a social constructionist perspective within sociology means that the ‘event’ narrated has no independent reality apart from the narration: a perspective with which other sociologists and historians might have problems.


A Sociological and Art Therapeutic Problematising of Notions of Biblical Counselling in Late Modernity
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
David J. Chalcraft, University of Derby

Working with ideas from ‘art therapies’ I wish to consider,theoretically, from a sociological point of view, whether dealing with traumatic issues and events, such as bereavement, disasters or the experience of domestic violence and the like, is less successful when subjects interpret and externalise their experience through ‘ready-made narratives’, such as biblical texts, and more successful when subjects are given the freedom to express themselves creatively through creative writing, art-work or drama. With regard to the former the problems can be compounded if the situation of abuse is structurally connected, or at least perceived to be connected, with patriarchal or oppressive elements in the biblical traditions themselves (and as perpetuated by contemporary carriers in particular traditions and religious movements) that then might be felt to have played a part in creating the problems in the first place. The question would then become whether such creative art therapeutic work, in settings where the counselling has a faith context, and where counselling takes place in a non-faith ‘professional setting’, can benefit from working with biblical themes and symbols. Within all this of course concepts of ‘success’ and faith and non-faith contexts are contested and not easy to define or measure. Overall I wish to problematise, from a contemporary biblical studies perspective working with social scientific sensibility, the conception of ‘biblical counselling’ but also critically consider how biblical materials might be used for creative explorations for all subjects whether confessional or secular in orientation. I am approaching these issues, it needs to be said, as someone who is not trained in pastoral theology, counselling or art therapies, but as someone who works at the interface of the social sciences and biblical studies, and who sees some important issues, concerned with interpretation, the legacy of the Bible in contemporary culture and its reception, and the pursuit of well-being in everyday life (and the avoidance of all forms of oppression and abuse, including ‘spiritual abuse’) in this sphere. Hence I will benefit from presenting these concerns in the session and working with colleagues on moving ideas forward and arriving at suggestions as to how best to carry out ethnographic work to further address these issues.


John’s Apocalypse in Light of Structural Exegesis and Cognitive Science of Religion
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Lung Pun Common CHAN, Chinese University of Hong Kong

The paper is in dialogue with structural exegesis from the perspective of Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR hereafter) for biblical studies. It focuses on the Apocalypse of John. Lamb metaphor as “meaning effect” of John’s creativity and his stylistic syntagm, which is similar to Mise en abyme (I term it as Mise en apocalypse or "Story within a story"), are found in the Apocalypse as structures of manifestation. Apart from social semiotics (the study of Sitz im Leben and cultural codes as they manifest in John’s lamb metaphor and mise en apocalypse), structural exegesis, which was originated from Daniel Patte’s interdisciplinary project “Semiology and Exegesis” at Vanderbilt University, can still shed light on the deep, narrative and mythical structures of the text under consideration. The structuralist approach to the Apocalypse is illustrated in the first part of the paper. The second part explores further the potential contribution of structural methodological approach. To certain extent, deep, narrative or mythical structures can be viewed not only “as making a partial selection of the semantic features which participate in the meaning effect of the text” (Patte 85). They also actualizes cognitive capacities of the human mind. Cognitive aspect of the text can be studied through structures. Thus, there is a shift from text to mind, from linguistic to cognitive paradigm. The paradigm shift calls for cognitive semiotics. Methodologically, models of the CSR can now be operational by biblical scholars on religious texts of antiquity. The traditional structural exegesis can then be combined with the new trend of research, namely the CSR for biblical studies. Last but not least, metaphor or ritual theories of the CSR are applied to the structural analysis of John’s “ritualistic” mise en apocalypse.


2012 and Avatar beyond America: The Apocalypse of John Reincarnated
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Lung Pun Common Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong

This paper researches the sociology of religiosity in contemporary apocalyptic films. Cognitive semiotics, social semiotics and religious theories are applied to analyze our objects of research. Two representative American “texts” are deliberately selected for the analysis, in order to differentiate between them two opposing apocalyptic paradigms side by side in modern culture industry. Special attention is paid to their reception beyond America. Selected films are 2012 (a 2009 disaster movie directed by Roland Emmerich) and Avatar (a 2009 science-fiction epic written and produced by James Cameron). Four dimensions of comparison include myth, experience, ethics and ritual. Both films incorporate numerous religious symbols. Though 2012 popularizes the Mayan prophecy, it in fact commodifies many Christian apocalypses, particularly the Apocalypse of John, in a new way. Suffice to say, the connection between “2009” and “2012” hide a key myth of Christian divine apocalypse. On the contrary, Cameron adopts many non-Christian myths in Avatar. Just like the title of the film, it originates in Hindu myth. In this sense, it serves as an Anti-Apocalypse in the film market. Besides, both 2012 and Avatar belong to technological apocalypse, in which audience could experience technological salvation and technological devastation respectively. Thus Avatar is still an apocalypse. Regarding ethics, the former demonstrates the principle of capitalism, i.e. the survival of the “fittest” while the latter advocates chiefly environmentalism. Last but not least, when film is perceived as ritual, 2012 consolidates the existing social structure, but Avatar functions as anti-structure by means of its 3D effect of liminality. In ritual, Avatar reincarnates not only Hindu mythology but the Apocalypse of John and its social function. In short, 2012 represents “formalistic” apocalypticism or mainstream apocalyptic paradigm and Avatar draws our attention to an alternative future or I would call “functionalistic” apocalypticism.


The Death and Burial of Moses in Light of ANE Honorific Burial Practices
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Michael J. Chan, Emory University

Interpreters of the death of Moses in Deut 34:1-8 have yet to consider this text in light of ANE honorific burial practices. A number of court documents and royal inscriptions from Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia attest to a practice in which kings provided honorific burials to royal servants who had demonstrated exemplary faithfulness. The gift of a state burial secured the prestige of the servant’s name and ensured post mortem care for his grave site. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is the ideal royal servant (?ebed yhwh, v. 5): he not only mediates the covenant but also obeys Yhwh with his last breath (v. 5). Because of his exemplary and incomparable faithfulness, Moses, like other honored royal servants, not only receives a protected burial place to which no human has access (v. 6), but Yhwh himself also takes on the task of burying Moses (v. 6). Moses’s burial confirms his status as a faithful servant of Yhwh. From a literary perspective, then, Yhwh’s honorific burial of Moses functions in the same way that honorific burials functioned socially, namely, to exalt the recipient of the honored burial.


Generic Reading Practices and Early Canonical Interpretation
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Stephen Chapman, Duke University

An investigation into the role of genre designations as hermeneutical strategies for negotiating the differences found within the biblical corpus and articulating its collective unity. Rather than atomistic, idiosyncratic and opportunistic, early Jewish and Christian interpretation treated biblical books (and portions of books) as parts of larger scriptural wholes.


Spirit, Glory, and Sonship in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Blaine Charette, Northwest University (Washington)

Spirit, Glory and Sonship in the Gospel of John


Jewish Purity Laws in the Gospel of John: Shabbat, Tombs, Stone Vessels, Mikvaot, and Archaeological Advances
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary

The presentation is a summary of a vast amount of new data that challenges the customary theological exegesis of the Gospel of John. One aspect gets major attention: While it is sometimes acknowledged that the Fourth Evangelist knows an impressive amount about the Jewish purity laws and the topography and architecture of Jerusalem before 70, it is not well known that he refers to the two main mikvaot near the Temple. The result grounds the new perspective that history is embedded in John and that the masterpiece should be read "within Judaism."


Reading Psalm 4 as Poetic Public Argument
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Davida Charney, University of Texas at Austin

A large number of the individual psalms, whether laments or thanksgivings, can be productively viewed as persuasive arguments from Israelites to God over the continuation of the covenant. In times of personal crisis, speakers in the psalms urge God directly to intervene in order to preserve the reciprocal values underlying their relationship, particularly justice in exchange for faithful observance. In four psalms, however, speakers also directly address others, who may include enemies, apostates, or strayers from the path. In Ps 52 and Ps 58, the speaker warns and even threatens these hearers with divine retribution. In Ps 4 and Ps 62, however, the speaker employs the rhetoric of identification, modeling the appropriate behavior for the hearers by describing personal experiences. Psalm 4 in particular displays persuasive strategies, including consideration of the potential objections of the hearers. In this talk, I focus on how the poetic language of Psalm 4 constitutes and intensifies the persuasive appeals. In the first part of the talk, I will review the resistence to the notion that public argument can take poetic form—a division of genre that dates to Aristotle. Second, I will review the issues raised by previous commentators on Psalm 4, laying out the contrasting views of Goldingay and Alter on one hand and Kselman, Barré, Lussier, Levine, and Raabe on the other. Next, I will show how Goldingay's and Alter's readings are supported and extended with a rhetorical reading that assumes a public setting. Finally, I will discuss the implications of viewing the psalms as public argument.


Shabbat Shalom
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Michael Chernick, Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion

"Shabbat Shalom" is the way Jews greet each other on Shabbat. One need not be particularly observant to use this greeting. For example, secular Israelis are just as likely to greet their fellows in this way as those who are religious since there is no way of saying "Saturday" in Hebrew other than Shabbat. The connection between Shabbat and Shalom, usually translated as peace, appears in a wide variety of contexts such as Jewish Sabbath law and lore, the Shabbat liturgy, and Jewish mystical literature. My paper explores this connection and the different semantic meanings of "shalom" that emerge from the various literatures that bring Shabbat and Shalom together. The paper will be based on talmudic and post-talmudic legal and non-legal sources, the Jewish prayerbook, and the Zohar (the central work of Jewish mysticism).


Mapping the Syriac Chrysostom: The Topography of His Exegetical Legacy in the Syriac Tradition
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jeff Childers, Abilene Christian University

Focusing especially on John Chrysostom's Exegetical Homilies on the Gospel of John, this paper traces and interprets important ways in which Syriac versions of his texts were being used within the Syriac tradition. It follows some of the lines of reception from the original versions to their adaptation into such applications as homiliaries, polemical florilegia, doctrinal anthologies, and so forth. For this work, the paper draws on West Syrian, Melkite, and Eastern sources.


Hermeneutics and Magic: Syriac Biblical Manuscripts as Oracles of Interpretation
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Jeff Childers, Abilene Christian University

Word as Object: The centrality of scripture in early Syriac Christian tradition is obvious. Commentaries, homilies, treatises, and liturgies provide the sanctioned literary and dramatic contexts in which biblical interpretation is richly practiced according to the norms and methods of learned clergy. Less well-understood are the methods by which the power of scripture was brought to bear on the ordinary lives of common Christian folk, outside the official contexts of liturgical practice. A unique early Syriac manuscript of John’s Gospel supplies a glimpse into the practices of specialized interpreters who sought mystical guidance in the Bible according to methods that were often considered illicit. The manuscript includes an apparatus unlike that of any known collection of sortes, incorporated directly into the biblical text. In response to specific questions, the volume offers inspired words of guidance to the inquirer in a process superintended by clergy who were considered unconventional. Although its true function was effectively disguised by means of a spurious scribal association with Chrysostom’s Commentary on John, this paper makes evident the true nature of the volume as a biblical text interspersed throughout a magical framework. That the practice of consulting Bibles in such a manner was fairly widespread and long-lived is evident both from the repeated canonical attempts to suppress the practice and from the fragmentary, often vestigial testimony in the Greek, Latin, Armenian, Georgian, and Syriac biblical traditions. The proposed paper will present a summary of the unique evidence of the Syriac manuscript and compare it to other pertinent evidence. The study focuses interest on the text as an expression of popular faith in scripture’s authority and as evidence for a particular mode of Christian interpretation, one that seeks to establish dynamic connections between the biblical text and the daily lives of common folk within a sophisticated context of clerical practice, institutional prohibition, and widespread popular use.


The Greek Sacrificial Idea of the Lamb of God in John 1:29
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Jae Hyung Cho, Claremont Graduate University

This paper proposes to investigate the Lamb of God in John 1:29 in the perspective of the Greek sacrificial idea. Although unlike the Old Testament, the New Testament never includes any actual sacrifice, the connotation of sacrifice is dominant. One of the famous examples is Jesus’ title “Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36), which is John’s unique description throughout the Bible. Scholars have struggled to define the meaning of “lamb,” but most of them have preferred the Paschal lamb. However, unlike the Lamb of God in John, the Paschal lamb does not remove sin. In addition, the scapegoat model cannot apply to the Lamb of God because the scapegoat is not killed, but just let go into the wilderness. Instead, Bultmann and Cullmann state that the Lamb of God is the sacrificial lamb which may include the symbol of the Paschal lamb and the Greek thysia sacrifice. The sacrificial idea of the Lamb of God in John 1:29 functions to link humans and God by dismissing sin of the world, rather than forgiving sin, which implies that John’s notion of sin was affinity to Greek miasma from which the concept of sin arises. Although the Jewish sacrifice and the Greek thysia sacrifice share some commonalities, their functions are different: While the Greek sacrifice emphasizes communion with the god, the Jewish one indicates that humans cannot be united with God, but just passively receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. The Jewish people might have known both the Jewish and Greek sacrifice at John’s time, but historical events pushed them closer to the Greek sacrifice: While the official Jewish sacrifice ended when the Jerusalem temple was totally destroyed by Roman army in 70 C.E., the thysia sacrifice continued until the fourth century, which might have influenced Hellenized Jews. Therefore, in the light of the Greek sacrifice, John 1:29 presents John’s understanding of sin and its role in promoting union with God.


The Social Function of Sabbath Law in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 11:28–12:10 and 24:20)
Program Unit: Matthew
Jaehyung Cho, Sallims Christian Church

This paper studies the view of the law in Matthew's community reflected in the passages containing the Sabbath laws (Matt 11:28-12:10 and 24:20). Although the Sabbath law is important for understanding of the Matthew' community, the law has received less attention than the laws in the sermon on the mountain (5:17-18). In the Sabbath law, Matthew describes Jesus as an ideal interpreter and observer of the law who can understand its original meanings. There are several reasons that Matthew’s Jesus observes the Sabbath law in this way: First, the main audience of Matthew was Jews who had strong affinity to Torah. Second, Matthew needs to control the extreme anti-law observers effectively. Third, Matthew's community puts emphasis on love in Torah tradition compared to the law of Pharisaic Judaism. Fourth, the community was scholarship community. Thus, they would like to show their scribes' superior authority in interpreting the law to Pharisaic scribes.' Matthew construes that the Sabbath day is 'the rest day' and claims that Pharisees distort the true meanings of the Sabbath day to be another heavy laden day (cf. Mat11:28-30). Matthew, unlike Luke, also interprets that grain-eating-act and healing a hand-clipped man on the Sabbath day are not the transgressions from the view of charity as written in Hosea 6:6. The writer of Matthew insists that healing on Sabbath is rather the essential of the law because it is the act of love. Futher evidence that Matthew's community observes the Sabbath day is reflected in Mat. 24:20, which says "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath." In Matthew, what Jesus opposes is not the law of Moses and the tradition of the elders but 'Halaka,' the rule of Pharisees. Jesus refers to the tradition of Moses and the elders with positive, or at least neutral terms, but he calls the tradition of Pharisees 'your tradition' implying his hostile attitude. This shows the conflict between Matthew's community and Pharisaic Judaism. The conflict might begin with the inner-group conflict and then it might change into inter-group conflicts. After all, the two communities also made certain the groups' boundaries and clearly defined their identities by using the interpretation of Torah. In Matthew’s Gospel, therefore, the function of observance of the Sabbath law is to control the anti-law observers effectively, to reinforce the group identity, to assert that they had the true authorities to interpret Torah, and to claim that they are the "real Israel."


Islanders of Malta as Barbarians: A Postcolonial Reading on Acts 28:1–10
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Kyounghee Cho, Charles Sturt University

The Greek word for the islanders of Malta in verse 2 of the passage is “hoi barbaroi (the barbarians)”. According to Luke Timothy Johnson, “The barbaroi were those who did not speak the Greek language, or Greek cultural customs. It is a designation with many uses, including simple alien status or cultural inferiority.” From the perspective of the Roman/Greek people, the Maltese are the barbarians because they were of Phoenician descent and spoke a Punic dialect. This is not just a story of olden days. Because of inability to speak English well or their indigenous life style, Islanders are still likely to be regarded as ‘barbaric’. Many Asians, Africans, or Latin Americans are in the same line with islanders in this point. Acts 28: 1-10 shows a primary division of social network of the first century which many Christians take it for granted. That is, Paul escorted by Roman soldiers is a benefactor or patron and the barbarians of Malta are clients even though they provide hospitality in a place of host. The former is a political, economic and cultural center and the latter is any number of margins politically, economically and culturally subordinated to the center. This binomial subsequently entails secondary binomials: civilized/uncivilized; advanced/primitive; cultured/barbarian; progressive/backward; developed/underdeveloped. My presentation will study this binomial, focusing on the Greek word of “hoi barbaroi”. It also criticizes Paul’s imagery as a Christian hero like Aeneas in Aeneid and as a god like Mr Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, one of classic colonial texts. Acts 28: 1-10 should be decolonized with the standpoint of the islanders who were supposed to serve the 276 shipwrecked people with warm hospitality. What if some of the islanders in the passage express their discomfort occurred after Paul and Roman soldiers entered their land? What if the islanders were forced to convert to Christianity in compensation for Paul’s healing? A stereotypical image of a native (islander) as mute, uneducated and hapless person should be broken up.


Job, Repetition, and the Human Interiority
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Paul Kang-Kul Cho, Harvard University

Repetition in the prose frame of the Book of Job (Job 1–2; 42:7–17) is often characterized as a formal or stylistic device and subsequently dismissed. I propose that repetition, as a figure of speech, plays an important significative role in the prose introduction to direct our attention to what cannot be signified directly and to what is of central interest in the Book of Job: the human interiority, that is, the hiddenness of the human heart (1:5aß) as opposed to what is expressed by human lips (2:10b). Important here are the repetition of scenes (e.g., divine council), phrases (e.g., the Joban epithet), and key words (e.g., “for naught” [?innam]) that establishes patterns and, through turns in what and how things are repeated, challenges the authority of patterns. It will be argued that repetition, as a type of (anti-)metaphor, differentiates the equal. On offer will be a reading of the prose prologue as an apt introduction to the attempt to externalize human interiority through words in the poetic dialogues and its failure.


The Leviathan and the Isaiah Apocalypse (Isaiah 27:1)
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Paul Kang-Kul Cho, Harvard University

Bound up in the figure of the Leviathan are images of God as creator and God as king. It matters, therefore, what kind of a Leviathan God punishes in Isaiah 27:1, whether the Leviathan (and the Dragon) are enemies to God’s creative powers or royal authority. I propose to review primary and secondary literature on this issue and, while allowing for Leviathan’s double participation in both chaos-creation and chaos-kingship complexes, argue that the Leviathan in Isaiah 27:1 is primarily an enemy to God’s royal authority. I will thereby give support to understanding apocalyptic thought, in part, as a strong statement of God’s kingship.


The City in Roman Egypt: The Evidence of the Papyri
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Malcolm Choat, Macquarie University

The City in Roman Egypt: The Evidence of the Papyri


Oh, the Places You’ll Go: Mobility and Land Transport in the Roman Economy
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Agnes Choi, Pacific Lutheran University

In the study of trade in the Roman Empire, much attention has been given to long-distance, interregional trade. As the primary mode of transportation for this level of trade, water transport has been studied extensively. Somewhat less attention has been given to intraregional and short-haul trade; thus, its primary mode of transportation, land transport, has often been overlooked. The perceived difficulties and prohibitive costs of land transport have also contributed to this inattention. This paper seeks to establish the importance and frequency of land transport in the economy of the Roman Empire using the papyrological evidence of Egypt, including customs-house registers and various archives, as well as demographic data. This paper will also explore the implications of these findings for understanding the itinerant nature of the ministries of Jesus and the early Jesus movement. (For consideration for the first project, focusing on the major aspects of the economy in the ancient world.)


Tamez and Mark
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Jin Young Choi, Vanderbilt University

N/A


Abnormal Speech Acts and Linguistic Others in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Jin Young Choi, Vanderbilt University

Is he making the mute speak? This paper brings the question to the fore, exploring how abnormal speech acts are presented in the Gospel of Mark and how othering of certain speaking subjects occurs. The paper examines such discourse at three levels. First, in Mark’s story, Jesus appears to interact with those linguistic others whose speech acts are described as cry, dumbness (alalos), impaired speech (mogilalos, or hollow speaking, moggilalos), speaking with foreign language, and even inner speech. I will explore how Jesus makes them speak or not speak. Second, the paper moves on to historicizing the Gospel writing by investigating language practices of ordinary people, particularly individuals marginalized because of their abnormal language practices under Roman imperial rule. Those who speak in these ways are labeled as “unclean,” strange, shameful, or irrational in both the biblical world and our contemporary society, where speaking “normally” is enforced and speaking “eloquently” acclaimed. Third, this paper attempts to unveil the assumption that New Testament texts should be unfailingly studied through the vantage point of Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition. Public persuasion as a conscious part of the Western elite male’s legacy from ancient Greece to the present is not the universal form of speech. For instance, such a model of human interaction omits women’s experiences of communication in their daily lives. Moreover, such formal speeches do not embrace the slave culture’s interpersonal communicative in which forbidden information is transmitted. Although some scholars stress the oral and aural dimensions of Gospel transmission, such orality is still focused on the role of preserving the tradition or the dominant patterns of message (e.g., preaching about who Jesus is) and does not consider the audience an active party in the exchange of communication. Along these lines, this paper not only illuminates an unexamined dimension of speech practices in the ancient Mediterranean world but also assesses the impact of Western rhetorical theories and traditions in muting these voices.


Luxury and 'New Men' in Three Early Christian Parables (Mt. 13:44–48/GThom 8, 76, 109)
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Michelle Christian, University of Toronto

This paper explores wealth and status in the parables of the hidden treasure, the merchant and the pearl, and the fishermen/man. Drawing on Latin literature, as well as so-called "popular" texts (e.g. the Aesopica or fabulist tradition), and the Greek papyri (e.g. P.Holmiensis, a collection of recipes for making "imitation" goods), I argue that the parables engage in a moral and social discourse similar to contemporary commentators on luxury, who were at once perceiving and critiquing changing social patterns in the early Roman empire.


“Born from Above?” Re-reading John 3:1–21 from Korean Cultural and Immigrant Perspectives
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Sejong Chun, Vanderbilt University

The term, “born again” has been popular concept among many evangelical Christians and the story of Nicodemus has been loved by them. For biblical scholars, however, Nicodemus is not an easy character to like because of his ambiguity in the Gospel of Luke and the expression “born anothen” often gives them a headache because of its double/multiple meanings. The uncertainty of Nicodemus in the text formulates “a cognitive gap” that readers should fill up. Following Kwok Pui-lan’s recommendation that Asian Christians should use their own cultural inheritance to create a dialogue with biblical texts, I want to employ an image of a yangban, an elite group of the traditional Korean society, to understand the enigmatic figure, Nicodemus. I hope to compare Nicodemus with a typical Confucian ruling elite, Hong Pan-Seo, from a famous Korean folk tale, Hong Kil-tong Jeon, focusing on the socio-cultural environments that have shaped their viewpoints and behaviors. I also want to find out a literally meaning of “born anothen” in the passage and its socio-economic and geo-political function for the Johannine community by taking the Korean immigrants’ life context as a constructive dialogue partner. I will investigate the situations of the up-rooted people who are eager to recover their sense of belonging by building their own society in a marginal place where they often use “anti-language.” I hope to show that the idea of “born anothen” played an important role for the Johannine society in terms of formulating their communal identity and envisioning a new world they are looking forward to seeing and living in it.


An Issue of Blood: Purity Concerns in the House Church
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Jenn Cianca, University of Toronto

The meeting places of the earliest Christians were inhabited houses. Daily life and religious life were juxtaposed, creating a need for a space that could accommodate multiple functions. At times, however, it would seem that some of the demands placed on this space may have been in opposition to each other. This possibility seems all the more likely if the space used by the house church Christians were considered to be sacred. The development of Christian architecture in the post-Constantinian era (and indeed, in the late third century, as at Dura Europos) demonstrated a demand for a demarcation of space in the ritual practice of Christianity. With this formalization of architecture would come also the demand for purity and sanctity, both of spaces and of the bodies that entered them. In house churches, on the other hand, there was little demarcation of space, making boundaries between the sacred and the quotidian difficult to define. In order to navigate these blurry boundaries, this paper will engage the issue of menstrual purity as a kind of “test case” for sacred space in the house church. If the space of the house church were considered sacred, one might expect to find restrictions on the presence of menstruants, as indeed there were in the Jerusalem Temple and in pagan temples. In a sacred space necessarily populated by many women, however, as indeed house churches were, menstruation would have been a constant worry. The seeming impossibility of maintaining sacred space in the messy setting of domestic space will be negotiated here through a discussion of the evidence for menstrual purity concerns in the house church. The lived space of the houses used by Christians, as well as Jewish, Christian, and pagan texts concerning menstrual purity, will be discussed in order to present a more complete picture of the sacred space of the house church.


Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Teaching Gender, Leviticus, and Other Difficult Topics
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Juliana Claassens, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

This paper explores how the widely popular Millenium book series by Stieg Larsson can be used in a classroom setting in raising awareness about the multi-faceted phenomenon regarding violence against women. An intriguing plotline in the first novel concerns a murder mystery according to which a number of texts from the book of Leviticus are used as the foundation of a series of bizarre murders of women. This paper will show how particularly the first book, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its Swedish film version, can be used to cultivate sensitivity regarding the way women are portrayed in the book Leviticus which intersects with the gender representations and stereotypes regarding women in contemporary society. A class, though, that utilizes the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book/movie as point of departure will also need to attend to critical questions of whether the portrayal of violence against women in the book/movie version does not contribute to the very culture of violence in society it seeks to address; inadvertently transmitting the assumptions and contractions regarding rape common in the public mindset.


Is the Love of Misogyny the Root of All Evil?
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Ron Clark, George Fox Evangelical Seminary

Human trafficking is a major issue world-wide. The exploitation of human beings has now become the second largest source of income for traffickers, ranking below drugs but surpassing weapons. In the United States the problem drives the sex industry through pornography, underaged prostitution, pimping, and soliciting sex for money. Faith based institutions have begun to address this issue yet are providing crisis care and rescue work. The academy has consistently maintained that sex trafficking is a symptom of a larger issue—misogyny, oppression, and sexism. However, as a culture we glorify the pimp, show sympathy for the “john,” and blame the prostitutes. As a minister and abuse advocate working with prostitution, trafficking agencies, and recovery from sexual addiction groups I see a need for the academy, faith community, and community organizations to partner to address the broader issue of misogyny. Even more, I have found that our communities (and many times the academy) have lost faith in The Church’s ability to be a resource, rather than another culture of oppression. Can the Biblical texts also provide help to reorient a culture steeped in misogyny and help therapists, social workers, and ministers work together to challenge cultural masculinity and the oppression of women and vulnerable others?


Submit or Else: Confronting Misogyny in the Sacred Community
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Ron Clark, George Fox Evangelical Seminary

Intimate Partner Violence is a major problem world-wide. One in four women in the US experiences physical abuse in their life. World-wide the statistics reflect that one in three women experience IPV. This does not include sexual assault, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse. The statistics are staggering. However, clergy are listed as first respondents in this issue. Unfortunately, most seminaries have little or no training for students to prepare them to engage this issue in their communities. The Biblical texts have also been used by abusers and clergy to further oppress women and require that they stay in these oppressive relationships. Even more, our culture presents images that encourage females to “submit” to males without question. This “misogyny” also teachers men that oppressing women is acceptable. In my work as a minister and abuse trainer to those in abuse, prostitution, and sex trafficking; I have found that pastoral theology provides a powerful opportunity to provide care for these victims (as well as the oppressors), engage the community advocates, and help others reorient their views of themselves, God/Jesus, and the church. The Biblical texts also provide powerful opportunities for healing, when applied correctly to the lives of those in oppression and those abusing power.


Landed Agency: An Environmental Ethicists Reads Leviticus
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Kristel Clayville, University of Chicago

I propose to present a paper on the relationship between humans and nature in the P and H sources of Leviticus. More specifically, this paper will examine the passages in H, in which the land is personified. Passages like these confront the reader with the radical agency of nature, but also with the interdependence of humans and nature within the cultic worldview. As an environmental ethicist, these passages lead me to ask about the contours and limits of the land's agency within this worldview. In order to pursue those questions, I intend to compare the passages on land with those on daughters, with the hope of gaining a greater understanding of the kinds of agency available to nature and humans in Leviticus. I will conclude with reflections on the potential value of this contextual reading of Leviticus for Environmental Ethics and for discussions about the use of the Bible in Ethics. While the questions for this study come from my own scholarly context, I have a background in Hebrew Bible and will be doing all readings in Hebrew.


Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as Biblical Commentary
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Kristel Clayville, University of Chicago

Rachel Carson was not a biblical scholar, nor was biblical interpretation at the forefront of her work, but I contend that her response to traditional interpretations of the biblical creation story (human dominion over nature) with apocalyptic imagery was a cultural moment of biblical interpretation. Furthermore, Carson moved the discussion away from the traditional Imago Dei text to apocalyptic and prophetic tropes elsewhere in the biblical canon. While she did not cite the bible extensively in her work, she draws broadly on biblical themes, and ultimately I contend that she pushes us to reconsider the genre of the biblical creation story. Within her apocalyptic corrective of our vision of the world, Genesis 1 becomes a potentially prophetic text rather than a descriptive or normative one. Future engagements of environmentalists with the Bible could benefit greatly by giving greater attention to Carson and to her subtle biblical commentary.


"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot": The Low Chronology and Its Impact upon Our Understanding of "Solomon's Stables" at Megiddo and Other Related Topics in the History and Archaeology of Ancient Israel
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Eric H. Cline, George Washington University

“I looked over Jordan, and what did I see?” Not a band full of angels, but rather Israel Finkelstein, who has been arguing for a lowering of the chronology for ancient Israel since the 1990s. His arguments are many and varied, based in part on traditional ceramic chronology and in part on cutting-edge scientific research including radio-carbon dating and Baysian analysis. His suggested redating has a potentially large impact on our understanding of the history and archaeology of ancient Israel, including the supposed Solomonic building program at sites such as Megiddo, Hazor, and Gezer, which Finkelstein would date to the 9th century BCE and attribute to rulers other than Solomon. In this paper I will present a brief outline of the basis for the suggested Low Chronology before focusing on its potential implications and impact on other scholars studying these periods in Israel, Jordan, and other related areas.


The Magnificat: A Disenchantment
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
David J. A. Clines, University of Sheffield

Mary’s Magnificat is an enchanting text that has inspired composers, liberation theologians and countless of the faithful—and feminist writers also. But from the perspective of a gender analysis, it is also a shocking text for its incorporation into the words of a female character so much masculine ideology. Hardly a word of it fails to reflect male language, and it is ripe for disenchantment, which is, an exposure of its ideological bias. A gender analysis disenchants (1) its construction of the deity, as mighty, violent, holy, paternalistic and totalizing; (2) its construction of the speaker, as lowly, a servant, empty, fearful; and (3) its construction of others as proud, rich and powerful. Mary, though a sympathetic character in the narrative, is in the poem denied subjectivity; though she imagines herself being called ‘blessed’, she will be praised by future generations for no quality in herself but solely because she has become, unknowingly and without her own volition, a mother. She has succumbed to male ideology in seeing the only solution to oppression as the reversal of roles, putting the poor on thrones and perpetuating the structure of domination. A disenchantment is the proper task of critical scholarship—not so as to drive magic (enchantment) from the world or from our texts, but to know it for what it is.


How My (Lexicographical) Mind Has Changed, Or Remained the Same
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
David J. A. Clines, University of Sheffield

Merely weeks after completing the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993-2011), I am reflecting, at the invitation of the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), on how I would do things differently if I were starting again now, and on what I would want to preserve, even in the light of experience (although not all these issues are relevant to a dictionary of the much larger corpus of Syriac literature). Among the differences would be a more rigorous initial survey of user needs and expectations, a more realistic evaluation of the costs, logistics and time frame of the project, a systematic incorporation of data about semantic domains, more regard for definitions, possible reference to historical periods, re-evaluation of the inclusion of material on the use of words with prepositions, reconsideration of how comparative Semitic data could be incorporated without skewing the presentation of the Hebrew language material. Among the features that I would want to preserve are the scope of the dictionary as Classical Hebrew, defined as all Hebrew prior to the second century CE, notation of all morphological forms that occur, statistical information about occurrences, a fresh analysis of the data in structuring articles rather than following the lead of prior dictionaries, prioritizing frequency of occurrence over against 'logical' structure in articles, eschewing the use of 'metaphorical', incorporation of secondary literature from the last 100 years, and an English-Hebrew index.


“Dead Thanks to God” / “Apart from God”: New Elements on the Variant of He 2.9
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Claire Clivaz, Université de Lausanne

Among the New Testament variants, He 2.9 represents a special case. The evidence choris theou is attested in so few manuscripts, that scholars often do not even mention it. Nevertheless, chariti theou and choris theou mean a so clear opposition of signification, that the variant remains intriguing; moreover, the minor reading is attested in patristic evidence. Barth Ehrman – after scholars such Harnack, Zuntz or Elliott – defended recently the authenticity of choris theou. This paper will argue that the file has to be largely reopen by using the methodology presented in my 2010 book (L’ange et la sueur de sang). I labelled this methodology «through the ancient readership». One can underline that Origen’s evidence on He 2.9 has never been fully considered. Indeed, Origen attests not least as ten times He 2.9, with both readings. Moreover, the work of the regretted Caroline P. Bammel on Vat. Pal. Gr. 204 and Athos Laura 184 B 64 allows one to get Origen’s scholia on He 2.9. New external testimonies have also to be considered in this file, such as P114 and P116. In conclusion, the paper will indicate as next tasks in this quite huge file the study of the Armenian or Syriac versions of the variant.


Madly in Love: The Literary Motif of Lovesickness in the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Christy Cobb, Drew University

As has often been noted, lovesick characters fill the pages of the ancient Greek novels. Drawing on a range of classical literature, including medical texts, the classicist Peter Toohey has identified two types of lovesickness in ancient literature, depressed and manic. This paper furthers Toohey’s conclusions by applying his work on the manic type of lovesickness to the eroticized relationship between Stratocles and Andrew in the Acts of Andrew. Juxtaposing the behavior of the character of Stratocles to lovesick characters in the ancient novels, I will note that the physical manifestations of manic lovesickness occur after a partner has lost his/her love, or is removed from his/her love. The character of Stratocles embodies the symptoms of manic lovesickness first when faced with the death of his lover and then as he anticipates the death of his beloved apostle, Andrew. The loss experienced by Stratocles, as well as the anticipation of separation, therefore, amplifies the erotic relationship. Through the recognition of the literary motif of lovesickness in this text, the homoerotic relationship between Stratocles and Andrew is further identified as a uni-directional relationship, as the symptoms of the illness are only experienced by Stratocles and not by Andrew, who is in the position of power as a result of his role as apostle. Ultimately, I will argue that lovesickness is a narrative strategy in the Acts of Andrew that eroticizes the follower/apostle relationship and thereby magnifies the overt power of the apostle in relation to the other characters in the narrative.


"In the Spirit and in Ecstasy": Faith and the Body in the Passion of Perpetua
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Stephanie Cobb, University of Richmond

This paper will explore the representations of emotional and bodily pain in the Passion of Perpetua. In particular, it will focus on theological and sociological themes that are at stake in these representations of pain.


Videoconferencing in the Classroom: Broadening the Horizons of Students through Interactive Scholarly Exchange
Program Unit:
Kelley Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward's University

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Review of 1 Enoch 2
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Kelley Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward's University

A review of the Hermeneia commentary on 1 Enoch, vol. 2, focusing on the Parables.


Shasu Land YHW and the Tribe of Judah
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
David Ben-Gad HaCohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Entries 92-97 of the lengthy list of toponyms found on the walls of the hypostyle hall of Raamses II are of 'Shasu Lads'. Upon its discovery it was obvious that the list of 6 Shasu Lands had been copied from a topographic list of Amenhotep III. Toponym 96 ' Shasu land YHW' atracted imediat attantion as it was widely agreed that YHW stands for YHWH. Who were YHW's worshipers in the fourteenth century BCE? Where did they dwell? And how their cult ultimately became that of the Israelites? For four of the Shasu lands good identifications can be proposed in Edom and none of the other lands have identification outside Edom. Accordingly, toponym (96): "the land of the Shasu YHW" should be identified in Edom as well. According to our findings, Petra and its immediate surroundings occupy a central place in the patriarchal narratives in J, and Petra is also to be linked with events occurring at unnamed locations. We examine the ancient poetic passages describing YHWH leaving His place, the first of which belongs to Moses' blessing (Deut. 33:2) quoted in J. These descriptions use two parallel toponym groups. One includes (Mount) Sinai and its substitute, Mount Paran, in the Sinai Peninsula, while the other contains Seir, "Ribeboth-kadesh" (according to the reading of LXX), Edom, and Teman. This group of sites describes YHWH’s dwelling place as situated in the southern Transjordanian Heights, centering on Petra. A large memorial scarab from the tenth year of Amenhotep III (1382 BCE) was discovered close to Petra. It seems that an Egyptian ruler to whom the scarab was sent governed from Petra. The Biblical tradition of the worship of YHWH at Petra is congruous with the Egyptian data attesting that this site was one of the Shasu lands conquered by Amenhotep III. We thus surmise that this was the "land of the Shasu YHW" in the list of Amenhotep III/Raamses II. The literary tradition that produced J, in which it is claimed that the name YHWH was known from the dawn of history, originated from the tribe of Judah. This tribe had close contact with the inhabitants of Edom, and elements originally belonging to Esau are named among his descendents. It may therefore be suggested that Judah had its beginnings in the land of Edom. The Genesis narratives of J, mainly those related to Isaac, are connected with Petra and its surroundings; Judah is the only tribe whose name (in Hebrew) bears the theophoric component YHW. Therefore we suggest identifying the tribe of Judah as the Shasu tribe that settled in Petra, the "land of the Shasu YHW". The hilltops above Petra, "Ribeboth-kadesh" (Deut. 33:2), were the abode of YHWH, and the spring located there, "En-Mishpat" (Gen. 14:7), was the site at which the tribe assembled for judgment. It was there that the belief in YHW was formulated, later to be imparted to the rest of the Israelite tribes.


Should Joab Take the Blame? A Lexical Investigation of the Root TQ'
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Margaret Cohen, The Pennsylvania State University

The description of Absalom’s death in 2 Samuel 18 has elicited much discussion regarding what precisely transpired in the tree and to whom the blame for this death should be assigned. Typically, the unusual details in 2 Sam 18:14--the three darts which Joab drives into Absalom’s chest, but which do not cause his immediate death--are understood as part of an elaborately detailed account which excuses not only David of any responsibility in Absalom’s death, but also exonerates Joab of wrongdoing on the king’s behalf. G.R. Driver, followed more recently by P.K. McCarter, argued that the three staffs or sticks were not something which impaled Absalom like a dart, but rather were large implements used to dislodge him from the tree. Examination of a) the semantic fields of the root TQ', the verb associated with these implements, and b) the specific syntactic sequences which correlate to each field, demonstrates that this interpretation cannot be correct. This paper will review the lexical and syntactic investigation of TQ? and will show that the three darts or sticks of 2 Sam 18:14 must violently enter the chest of Absalom. That they do not kill him is a remarkable—and perhaps unbelievable—thing, from the point of view of the lexical and syntactic parallels. Implications for the understanding of the greater David story will be explored.


Wisdom Two Ways: Identifying the Imperial Presence in James 3:13–18
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Jason Coker, Albertus Magnus College

James 3:13-18 contrasts two types of wisdom. Wisdom from above is “pure” (v. 17) while wisdom from below is “earthly, unspiritual, and devilish” (v. 15). This contrast between purity and worldliness is a constant theme throughout the Letter of James. In this passage, the ultimate antithesis between heavenly wisdom and worldly wisdom acts as the pivot around which the entire letter rotates. Grouped with James’ refutation of the patronage system (2:1-13) and his condemnation of the wealthy (5:1-6), James 3:13-18 concludes that these cultural and economic systems are legitimized and valorized by the “wisdom of the world.” By placing these three passages together and analyzing the invective that James uses, it is clear that his imperatives call for his readership to reject the “world” (4:4). The “world,” however, is not a spiritualized or personalized concept in the Letter of James. The real referent is none other than the Roman Empire. James’ condemnation of the cultural system of patronage and the economic system that oppressed laborers reflects a nativist reaction to empire. By reifying the boundary between native and colonizer, James seeks to invert the colonizer/colonized binary and to provide liberation for those being oppressed. Wisdom from above calls James’ readers/hearers away from the pollution of the world, i.e. Roman Empire, into the purity of the kingdom (2:8). This reading places James firmly in the anti-imperial sectarian movements in the first century.


Rewritten Prophets: The Use of Older Scripture in Revelation
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Adela Yarbro Collins, Yale University

In this paper I investigate the way in which John of Patmos reads, interprets, and rewrites older Scripture, especially the prophets. He does not use citation formulas, and the allusions are usually not marked. Like some other readers of the Jewish scriptures in his time and cultural contexts, he takes the classic prophets of Israel as addressing his own situation and hopes for the future. With powerful literary art, he adapts older images and stories in his composition of a revelatory narrative addressed to a new, challenging time.


From Text to Ground and Back: The Dialogical Integration of Archaeology and Biblical Studies in the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project
Program Unit:
Steven Collins, Trinity Southwest University

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Tall el-Hammam and the Eastern Kikkar Sites: Geographical Foundation of the Biblical “Cities of the Plain” Formula
Program Unit:
Steven Collins, Trinity Southwest University

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“Jesus Is Jealous”: The Use of Dinah in the Instruction of Virgins in Early Christian Literature
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Jennifer Collins-Elliott, Florida State University

The story of Dinah in Genesis 34, commonly referred to as “the rape of Dinah,” is invoked by a number of early Christian writers such as Jerome, Gregory the Great, and Cyril of Alexandria, as a cautionary tale for female Christian virgins. Dinah’s story is used to instruct women on how to protect their virginity from the world as they invite it to themselves through their actions and temptations. In this body of literature, Dinah comes to represent a woman seduced, not raped; a woman who has become corrupted through her own mistakes and failures. Through Dinah, these Church Fathers teach Christian women how to properly seek and satisfy their jealous bridegroom while still maintaining their virginity in both body and mind. In this paper, I will explore the significance of the changed image of Dinah, from a raped to a seduced woman, as well as the larger instructive context in which her story is used. The idea of Dinah as a seduced woman, as opposed to a rape victim, invites exploration of the ideas of consent and temptation for Christian women, as well as what they invite to their bodies by being out in the world as Dinah was. Dinah’s story also brings to the fore how precarious and eternally endangered, from both external and internal influences, a woman’s virginity is, and what these Church Fathers, these remote men, teach women about how to protect the bodies and minds as the Brides of Christ. *I also plan on submitting a similar proposal to AAR, most likely to the Religion and Sexuality Consultation and/or the Body and Religion section.


Re-contextualizing the Walking, Talking Cross: Dualistic Christology in the Gospel of Peter
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Jason Robert Combs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

When the Akhmim fragment of the Gospel of Peter was discovered in the winter of 1887, it was immediately considered to represent a docetic christology. This was, of course, due to the testimony of Serapion as reported by Eusebius (HE VI 12.3-6). Although these early assumptions about the Gospel of Peter’s christology have since been called into question, aspects of the narrative which are key to understanding that christology have been ignored. Perhaps the most neglected feature in studies of the Gospel of Peter is the walking, talking cross. Confronted with this crux interpretum, scholars typically provide a list of parallels to animated crosses from later Christian texts (e.g., Epistula Apostolorum 16; Apocalypse of Peter [Ethiopic] 1; Apocalypse of Elijah 3.2-4; etc.). Re-examining these parallels, I argue that their united dependence on a particular interpretation of Matthew 24:27-31 – an exegetical move that is absent in the Gospel of Peter – precludes their use as an interpretive key for the Gospel of Peter. Next, I consider the walking, talking cross within the context of Greco-Roman, then Jewish and Christian traditions about inanimate objects with the power of speech; in particular, talking trees (e.g., Odyssey 14.327; Apollonius, Argonautica 4.579ff; Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.771-773; etc.). From this study I conclude that the Gospel of Peter presents this cross as Christ. By so doing, it represents a dualistic Christology in which the Lord can be “taken up” and left hanging on the cross, or in which he can both “surpass the heavens” and speak from the cross (Gos. Pet. 19, 21; 40-42).


Northwest Semitic Poetics and the Eshmunazar Sarcophagus Inscription (KAI 14)
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Ralph A. Compton, University of California-Los Angeles

The Eshmunazar sarcophagus inscription (KAI 14), a 5th century BCE funerary inscription from Sidon, has long interested scholars due to its linguistic idioms shared with the Hebrew Bible, its literary organization, and its engraving technique. Though the subject of much philological, epigraphic and historical inquiry since its discovery in 1855 CE, one aspect of the inscription has to date remained relatively unexplored: its poetic features. This paper subjects lines 2-13a of the KAI 14 to a sustained poetic analysis, noting troping features at the word, line and supra-linear levels. By identifying hallmark features of northwest Semitic poetry, this paper contributes to discussion of the inscription’s compositional sources by describing concrete textual features that distinguish the epitaph (lines 2-13a) from the monumental building inscription that follows (lines 13b-20a). Thus studies that have posited a juxtaposition of genres in KAI 14 are given additional credibility by the prosodic observations and conclusions of this paper. One additional contribution stems from this analysis; whereas scholars who have spoken of poetic qualities in the epitaph have hesitated to label it as poetry, this paper argues that the quantity and quality of the poetic features do indeed warrant the label “poetry.” As such, the Eshmunazar epitaph should be analyzed alongside other poetic texts by scholars seeking a more refined descriptive approach to northwest Semitic verse structure.


Representing the Stadium and the Arena: Rethinking the Lines between Athletes and Gladiators in Roman Greece
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Cavan Concannon, Macquarie University

This paper examines the discourse and practice of Roman forms of spectacle in provincial Greece, particularly focusing on representations of Greek gladiators. Elite Greek writers under the Roman Empire often wrote disparagingly of Roman forms of spectacle entertainment, expressing a vehement distaste for the bloodshed it entailed and the bloodlust it occasioned in the crowd. But this discomfort belied the popularity of gladiatorial competitions in many Greek cities. Despite ancient and modern rhetorical attempts to distinguish Greek athletics from Roman spectacle, recent studies of tombstones in Greece show that many Greek gladiators presented themselves as athletes. Drawing on technical athletic terms and using similar modes of self-presentation, these tombstones help to challenge older assumptions about Romanization, showing how Roman practices were transformed by contact with Greek institutions through the agency of Greeks themselves. They thus show us how provincial Greeks found ways to become Roman while staying Greek, to borrow from Greg Woolf. Attending to this blurring of the rhetoric of Greek athletics and Roman spectacle allows us to examine afresh the language of athletics and spectacle in Paul's letters, looking for how Paul himself may have participated in the same processes by which the stadium and the arena were negotiated in provincial Greece. The paper will look specifically at Paul's self-presentation in the Corinthian correspondence.


Letters from Corinth: Mediterranean Trade Routes and the Correspondence of Dionysios of Corinth
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Cavan Concannon, Macquarie University

In the latter half of the second century CE, Bishop Dionysios of Corinth began writing letters to Christian communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from Rome to Crete to Paphlagonia. His collection of letters, summaries and fragments of which are found in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, traveled along the trade routes that connected Corinth to other regions and cities in the East. In this paper I look at the evidence from pottery and inscriptions in Corinth to reconstruct the trade routes that connected Corinth and its early Christian community to other cities and churches. These trade routes, which were largely the production of elite consumption of luxury goods and building materials, created opportunities for the production of non-elite social networks through which goods, people, and communication could travel across large geographic expanses. They thus afford us access to something like a non-elite geography of the Roman Empire. These lines of communication and trade allowed Dionysios to intervene in political and theological disputes beyond Corinth. These disputes ranged from the authority of local bishops to concerns about Marcion's theology, celibacy, asceticism, and the interpretation of Paul's letters. By attending to the interrelationships between early Christian theological debates and the non-elite geography created by material conditions of trade and communication, this paper shows how Dionysios' letters functioned as political instruments deployed to create and reinforce unity of theological and ecclesial structures in the nascent Christian communities around the Mediterranean. This paper is intended for the panel on Christianity from the 2nd to the 5th centuries.


“Lift up Ye Heads, O Gates!” The Multifaceted Interpretation of Ps. 24:7–10 and the Entrance of the King of Glory in Early Christianity
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, University of San Diego

The descriptive character of Ps. 24:7-10 fueled the imagination of early Christians who raised the passage in a wide variety of contexts. Justin Martyr had cited it in debates with Jewish interlocutors as proof of Jesus’ identity as Messiah, against the Jewish view that it referred to an earthly king such as Solomon or Hezekiah. The periscope easily lent itself to messianic interpretation, particularly in conjunction with other key texts, especially Ps. 110, “The Lord said to my Lord.” But its citation as messianic prophecy also posed problems for early Christians. How could Jesus be described as “mighty in battle” when he was never a warrior? If it is about Christ’s return to heaven, why was the question asked, not to mention that it was repeated, “Who is this King of Glory?” From Justin to Jerome, the question required a response. Tertullian oddly used it to encourage martyrdom. But the passage was employed primarily theologically, especially when linked by common words and concepts to numerous psalms which reference exaltation, glorification and ascent, as well as NT verses of glorification in John, Philippians and 2 Corinthians. Initially interpreted as proof of the Ascension and Resurrection, soon the enthronement at the right hand of the Father and Christ’s bestowal of the Spirit were also construed from the passage. In an early hint of what was to come, Irenaeus pointed to it as proof of the equality of the Son with the Father. It would subsequently be employed by Hippolytus against Gnosticism and by Tertullian, Athanasius, and Basil against Marcion, Arius and Eunomius. As the focus of early Christians shifted, from defending their interpretation of Hebrew Bible texts against Jewish objections to the defense of orthodoxy against heresy, the interpretation of this passage evolved to reveal a tremendously rich and surprisingly flexible text.


Applications and Possibilities of a Polyglot Database of 1–2 Kings
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Alba Contreras Corrochano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This paper will summarize the work conducted during the present year in the development of a database which covers a multilingual set of versions of Kings, including both the Septuagint with its secondary versions and the Masoretic Text and related translations. Within the framework of the Polyglot Bible, and with the aim of producing an adequate tool for the research of the biblical text, I will try to show some possible lines of development, some of them in a more advanced stage of completion than others. Two areas are involved: textual criticism in the context of a plurality of text-types (both in Hebrew and in Greek), and historical linguistics, where a good database will be essential for the implementation of computational linguistics, a relevant approach to the Hebrew text of Kings, especially from the point of view of textual parallels with Chronicles and of the relationship of both texts with the Greek witnesses. Therefore, among many other possibilities, I will try to underscore the importance of our electronic Polyglot project for a study of the dynamics of relationship between the history of the language and the history of the text.


On Teaching "The Bible" in One Semester
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Colleen Conway, Seton Hall University

The discussion will focus on the challenges of introducing students to the entire biblical canon in just one semester. We will explore the benefits, strategies and problems of taking a historically chronological vs. a canonical approach to the material. We will also discuss options for weaving a particular narrative thread through the course to help students organize and process the material and to help the instructor determine what to include and what to leave out (however painful to do so!)


Teaching Empire: Gospel of John
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Colleen Conway, Seton Hall University

This paper will explore teaching matters of imperial negotiation in John's Gospel.


The Semantics of the Verb ml' "Fill/Be Full"
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Edward M. Cook, Catholic University of America

Semantically, the notion of "fill, be full" includes a minimum of two participants or roles, "container" and "contents." In Biblical Hebrew, the Qal of the verb ml' that expresses this notion encodes either of the participants as subject or object (although "container" is more commonly the subject). Despite the fact that the grammars and lexica describe this as an alternation between transitive and intransitive, syntactically both options appear to be transitive. This odd state of affairs is best explained by means of the "Proto-Role entailments" described by D. R. Dowty (1991). This explanation also enables the solution of instances in which the assignment of subject/object is ambiguous, e.g., Hab 3:3.


The Old Greek of Job and Life after Death and Resurrection
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Johann Cook, Universiteit van Stellenbosch

Scholars have different views on the question of whether the OG of Job in fact refers to life after death and resurrection. Gzella, Rösel, Schnocks and Gerleman think there is reference to resurrection and life after death in this book. Schnocks (The Hope for Resurrection, 295) formulates his view as follows: “This text (Job 14:14 JC) obviously is presupposing that there is a life after death”. Van der Kooij (Ideas about Afterlife) is of the opinion that OG Job makes no reference to these issues. This contribution argues that there is no direct reference to resurrection and life after death in OG Job. The only explicit mention of resurrection occurs in Job 42:17a. But this should not be taken as the OG, but is the result of a later hand. This contribution also takes a closer look at other passages such as Job 14:10-14 and 19:25-26 and concludes that none of them refer to these two issues. Johann Cook, Dept of Ancient Studies, University of Stellenbosch


Verbal Sequences in Biblical Hebrew: A New Approach Based on Discourse Representation Theory
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
John A. Cook, Asbury Theological Seminary

The centuries-old view that the Biblical Hebrew verbal forms appear with two distinct vav conjunctions that not only signal relationships between clauses but affect the semantics of the verb forms themselves is quickly disappearing from grammars. However, this slow demise has created a pedagogical gap where previously the notion of “verbal sequences” served in tandem with the idea of two vav conjugations to describe the various inter-clausal relationships exhibited in Biblical Hebrew (e.g., conjunctive, conjunctive–sequential, disjunctive, epexegetical; see Waltke and O’Connor 1990: 650, who in turn cite Lambdin 1971: 162). In this paper I propose a new approach to the description of inter-clausal relationships and the temporal structure of discourse based on discourse representation theory and particularly Smith’s (2003) discourse modes. According to this approach, stretches of discourse in Biblical Hebrew can be classified according to the type of temporal interpretation they receive (atemporal expressions aside): succession, deixis, or anaphor. The syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors that determine these types of temporal interpretation are explained and illustrated with both realis (indicative) and irrealis (non-indicative) types of discourse.


Stars, Scholars, and Kings: On Propaganda and Celestial Divination in Ancient Iraq
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Jeffrey L. Cooley, Boston College

The tremendous abundance of mantically oriented textual material dating from first millennium Mesopotamia is undeniable testimony to the importance of divination to the political leadership of ancient Iraq. Of particular significance to the monarchy, as documented in the Neo-Assyrian reports and letters, was celestial divination. When one looks for references to celestial divination in the contemporary royal inscriptions, however, one finds mere scraps. Furthermore, unlike the relatively candid consideration of omina seen in reports and letters, which often tell of negative or dangerous signs, that seen in the inscriptions is, unsurprisingly, always positive and presents the monarch as a perfect servant of the gods. This paper will examine two issues in light of these facts. First, I will look at the image of celestial divination as portrayed in a number of first millennium royal inscriptions (dating to the reigns of the Assyrian kings Sargon II, Esarhaddon, Assurbanipal, and the Babylonian Nabonidus) vis-à-vis the king. While admitting that the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs judged the mantic tradition a genuine medium for divine guidance, I argue that they, nevertheless, felt free on occasion to exploit that medium for propagandistic purposes. This exploitation included: A) presenting omens with positive outcomes which demonstrated divine support for the king’s plans; and B) deliberately transforming otherwise negative or irrelevant omens into positive ones for precisely the same effect. Second, I will examine the related issue of the relative paucity of references to celestial divination in the royal inscriptions in light of the profound contemporary importance of the practice. Here, two explanations will be discussed: A) reluctance to discuss openly matters which were considered scribal secrets, and B) reluctance to show the results, which were often negative, of a practice which could undermine the perception of the divinely granted authority of the monarch.


Defending the Dead: Funerary Arts as Remnants of Social and Political Change in Ancient Egypt
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Kathlyn M. Cooney, University of California, Los Angeles

During the turmoil of the Late Bronze age in ancient Egypt – a period that included mass migrations, invasions of Sea Peoples and Libyans, the loss of the Syria-Palestinian empire, and the decline of mineral and metal mines – Egyptians suffered under political decentralization and repeated economic collapse. In Thebes, elite Egyptians had to transition from well-endowed systems of monolithic political and religious institution, adapting to different strategies of rule, strategies that were based on decentralized power structures and a newly formulated reliance on local community. Ancient Egyptians likewise had to adapt systems of funerary arts creation and burial deposition to these unstable political and economic contexts. Theban funerary arts of the late Ramesside Period (and the subsequent Third Intermediate Period) reflect a variety of innovative and defensive burial strategies – particularly against the threat of tomb robbery and the desecration of human remains in the burial. The 20th Dynasty coffin in particular is a survival of a complex negotiation between the opposing forces of institutional instability and increasingly costly social expectations and demands. On the one hand, the extreme economic, political, and social instability of the late New Kingdom made the commission of funerary arts very expensive, but on the other hand, pervasive social pressures and increasingly fluid social circumstances demanded that elites spend large amounts of their income on funerary materials for display in burial ceremonies. The economic and political downturn of the 20th Dynasty helped to shape funerary practices of the Third Intermediate Period, and in many ways the 21st Dynasty burial assemblage is an extension of the socio-political adaptations being made in the latter part of the New Kingdom.


Retrospective Narration: The Structure of a Cinematic Vision in The Seventh Sign
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Laura Copier, Universiteit van Amsterdam

The concept of vision resonates in a religious as well as cinematic sense. Both discourses incorporate it, though in diverging ways. Understood in a religious context, vision refers to the abstract: a thought, a religious belief, which is nevertheless rendered visually. Cinema is vision; its discourse centers on the visual, the image, the act of seeing and the power this act entails. Using the 1988 film The Seventh Sign (USA: Carl Schultz), I will show, how discourses, the biblical and the cinematical come together. In this presentation, then, vision functions as an interdisciplinary element that connects religion, more specifically Revelation, and film. The uncertainty of the temporal reality experienced during a vision provokes questions with regard to the status of the beginning and the end, a recurring issue in the apocalyptic discourse. The vision disrupts notions of linear time and, consequently, the unfolding of narrative. Time can be imagined as a loop, moving from past to present to future, but not necessarily in that order. This suggests the possibility that the visions are a kind of flashforward which, according to film theorist David Bordwell, provides a glimpse of the outcome before all causal chains are understood. THE SEVENTH SIGN adheres to the paradoxical paradigm established in Hollywood cinema, which dictates the advent of an ostensibly inevitable Apocalypse, only to have that Apocalypse averted at the last minute. I venture to read the opening sequence of this film as an act of retrospective narration. By doing so, a new interpretation on the puzzling opening sequence of the film can be made. Finally, I will argue that the shared narrative structure connects The Seventh Sign to its biblical predecessor, Revelation.


Revolution and Violence in Ernst Käsemann’s Radically Lutheran Theology of Liberation
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Wayne Coppins, University of Georgia

In my RBL Review of On Being a Disciple of the Crucified Nazarene I argued that Ernst Käsemann’s posthumously published work may be properly categorized as a radically Lutheran theology of liberation. In this paper, I will advance this line of thought by showing how his characteristically combative perspectives on revolution and violence fit within and contribute to this larger theological vision. The paper will begin with a study of the context of Käsemann’s work, focusing on his own retrospective account in “A Theological Review” (xii-xxi). Here I will address his complex relationship to pietism and Rudolf Bultmann as well as his account of the church struggle in his congregation during the Nazi period. Due to its relevance, this section will also discuss Käsemann’s writings on the 1977 murder of his daughter Elisabeth, who was killed in an Argentinean jail fourteen months after the military takeover. After a concise section on Käsemann’s approach to the Bible, the central section of the paper will then provide a close analysis of his specific comments on the related topics of revolution and violence. Rather than providing a blanket condemnation of revolution, Käsemann insists that in the context of exploitation “for good or ill Christians must take the side of the revolutionaries because they are called to serve humankind and not the partisans of those who cry for order” (26). In the same vein, he contends that “Nothing at all should be said of nonviolence. Such is always ideology, since there never or nowhere is or has been a place free of violence” (129). Through an investigation of such claims and Käsemann’s attempt to ground and develop them in relation to the Bible, the paper aims to contribute to the section’s theme of “the Bible and revolutions”.


Trampling the Enemy as an Act of Violence in Ancient Near Eastern Iconography
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Izak (Sakkie) Cornelius, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

Ancient Near Eastern iconography depicts Mesopotamian kings trampling on their enemies or Egyptian pharaohs pursuing their enemies and trampling them as an act of violence. In this paper a selection of images depicting the motif of “trampling the enemy” will be described: e.g. the soldiers of Eannatum on the vulture stela, Naram-Sin on his victory stela, Annubanini, Assyrian kings, Darius on the Behistun monument and the Egyptian pharaoh trampling the enemy and stepping on the nine bows representing the enemy (also depicted on his footstool) What were the context (during or after the battle) and the function (subjugation of the enemy as the other) and the possible meanings (legitimizing the ruler, ideology) of the imagery? How can these images be related to some Ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts?


Who Needs a Philosophical Way of Life? Ancient Koinonía in the Therapeutae "Pythagorean Life": Notes From Iamblichus' De Vita Pythagorica, Porphyry's Vita Pythagorae, and Philo's De Vita Contemplativa
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Gabriele Cornelli, Universidade de Brasilia

The identity of Philo’s Egyptian Jewish ascetics, the Therapeutai, is a perennial conundrum in Philonic scholarship, from the 19th century scholarship that saw in the Therapeutai a description of a community of Early Christians taking at face value Eusebiu’s testimony in Ecclesiastical History ii.17 to the profuse literature that followed the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which gave the Therapeutai an Essene-esque identity. Without getting into the merit of the fictive or true character of the community of the Mareotic Lake, this paper contends that Philo’s description of the Therapeutai, ethnographic or not, may have functioned according to certain tropes familiar to ancient tractates on the ideal Pythagorean life. Following the literary and philosophical picture of the Pythagorean koinonía extant principally in Iamblichus’ De Vita Pythagorica and Porphyry’s Vita Pythagorae, the paper will demonstrate how the Pythagorean tropes of arithmology, vegetarian dietary enkrateia, spiritual askesis of quietude, the active participation of women in the philosophical community and the Pythagorean ideal of radical friendship through communal sharing, all figure in Philo’s depiction of the Jewish monastic community. This paper also argues that Philo intended to portray his Egyptian Jewish community in a Pythagorean light and that such Pythagorizing could well be read alongside the Alexandrian thinker’s efforts to translate Judaism into a cosmopolitan and Hellenistic context – just as his transfiguration of Moses into a divine Sólon in Vita Mosis, the ascription of the Jewish Law to a code that transcends its nationalistic ties reaching the status of Law of Nature, or his recognition of the Decalogue as a means of attaining the ideal of apatheia from the emotions in De Decalogo. If the intention behind Philo’s project of cultural translation was driven by his eagerness to divest Judaism from all its potential parochialism, then one may raise the question of the appropriateness of transforming the Jewish community of the Mareotic Lake into a Pythagorean heitaría. Given the common opinion by the first century CE that the Pythagorean heitaría was sectarian and obtrusive, the paper wishes to discuss whether Philo’s efforts to translate Judaism into a more palatable, cosmopolitan parlance in his De Vita Contemplativa may have backfired.


Reading Textual Violence as “Real” Violence in the Liberal Arts Context
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Amy C. Cottrill, Birmingham-Southern College

In an undergraduate, liberal arts setting, I teach a class called Violence and the Bible. This course explores the violent narratives, imagery, symbolism, and rhetoric of the Bible. Fundamental questions have to do with the assumptions of the narrators about the appropriate use of violence, how the text positions the reader to violence, and what ideological and theological commitments one encounters when one enters into the textual world(s) of the Bible. The course also engages another more challenging issue: What happens when one reads violence? The question assumes that textual violence, encountered through the practice of reading, shapes the reader in significant ways. While my students become adept at exploring the textual dynamics of violence, they are frequently resistant to engaging the question of the effect of textual violence. For many students, textual violence is simply not “real.” Their resistance stems from three main assumptions. First, many have a powerful need to dismiss biblical violence as being influential in the way they perceive the world, largely because of theological commitments to what they deeply desire to understand as the “good” book. Second, many students are resistant to the idea that media (film, video games, television, music, and verbal texts) shape them in unconscious ways. They are attracted to the concept of the person as impermeable to influence that he or she does not consciously accept. Third, the question of the effect of textual violence involves confronting naïve understandings of the reading process in which reading is simply the comprehension of symbols on a page rather than a consequential encounter. The challenge of the course involves confronting a range of assumptions about reading, language, personhood, and agency, as well as violence itself. This paper will examine the pedagogical strategies that I have developed in response to these challenges.


Isaiah 10:10–11 and Neo-Assyrian Royal Ideology: A Suggestive Non-Parallel
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Blake Couey, Gustavus Adolphus College

Recent interpreters have identified a number of stylistic and thematic parallels between Isa 10:5–15 and Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions. These parallels add realism to Isaiah’s depiction of an unnamed Assyrian king, even as the prophet ironically employs them to undercut the imperialistic claims of Assyrian ideology. At a crucial point, however, the oracle departs from the typical self-presentation of Assyrian rulers. In vv. 10–11, the king haughtily boasts that the conquest of Jerusalem will pose no difficulty because he has already defeated kingdoms with more numerous images than Jerusalem and Samaria, and Samaria’s idols proved powerless to thwart his invasion. Notably, these verses use multiple terms for “idols” (’lyl, psyl, ‘?b) but avoid the term “gods” (’lhym). In Assyrian inscriptions, by contrast, the deities of enemy nations are generally described with ostensible respect and usually referred to as “gods” (ilani), even in contexts in which divine images are clearly meant. Two conclusions may be drawn from this “non-parallel.” First, Isaiah avoids the usual language of Neo-Assyrian inscriptions to amplify the hubris of the king and make him guilty of blasphemy, thus furthering the rhetorical aims of the oracle. Second, the language of idolatry here and elsewhere in First Isaiah—which need not derive from later, anti-idol polemics, as some scholars have proposed—arises from Isaiah’s developing view of YHWH as the supreme universal deity, surpassing Aššur and all other foreign deities. In Isa 10:10–11, then, the prophet projects his own view of foreign deities upon the Assyrian king. Careful consideration of both the parallels and non-parallels between First Isaiah and its Assyrian intertexts makes possible a richer understanding of the attitude toward Assyria and reception of Assyrian propaganda in ancient Judah.


The Logos as Consolation Prize: Sample Commentary on Philo, De Confusione
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Ronald Cox, Pepperdine University

A sample commentary of De Confusione Linguarum 134-149 will be presented in preparation for inclusion in the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series. This section of the Alexandrian’s commentary on the Babel story focuses on Genesis 11:5, a verse that gives Philo opportunity to fend off anthropomorphic interpretation, to polemicize against idolaters, and to offer anagogic consolation. The last is especially important as it represents a significant and recurring theme in Conf., namely, the salvific role of the divine Logos (perhaps the most developed of Philo’s teaching on the subject).


Is It Really Silly to Call Paul a Shaman? A Constructive Engagement with Colleen Shantz’s Paul in Ecstasy
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Pieter Craffert, University of South Africa

The neurological potential for experiencing alternate states of consciousness (ASCs) is supported by the anthropological record which shows that a pattern of such practices can be found across cultural divides. The designation for this phenomenon is frequently designated shamanism. Therefore, the term shaman in the first instance evokes the comparative material that enriches our historical and sociological imagination. Secondly, by definition a shaman is a religious functionary or entrepreneur who, based on ASCs, performs certain functions to the benefit of the community. The term ASC is not only a descriptive but also an explanatory one; it provides interpretive power to understand, analyse and explain the shamanic pattern. Shantz cautions us that Paul was not a shaman. But we should not hesitate, the anthropologist Ioan Lewis says, to call a shaman a shaman, because the term truly is a cross-cultural tool that, in the words of Jonathan Z Smith, can be used for "re-visioning phenomena as our data in order to solve our problems". Without explicitly using the label, that is what Shantz does in her book, Paul in ecstasy. Comparative material from anthropological research is supplemented by insights from the neurosciences in order to re-vision (describe, analyse and explain) Paul's ecstatic experiences. Perhaps shaman is the best term available for such a re-visioning.


Creation and Abstract Objects in the Johannine Prologue
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
William Lane Craig, Biola University

John 1 affirms that God alone exists eternally and a se. There are no objects of any sort which are co-eternal with God and uncreated by God via the divine Logos. One might think the author of John’s prologue to be ignorant of Platonism, the view that there are eternal and necessarily existing abstract objects. But it is far from clear that the author was unaware of abstract objects and their relation to the Logos. The doctrine of the divine, creative Logos was widespread in Middle Platonism, and it has striking similarities to John’s Logos doctrine. Many scholars have sought to explain the origin of the Johannine Logos in the personified figure of Wisdom. But the evangelist does not speak of Sophia but of Logos. Others have sought to trace John’s nomenclature to God’s logos in the Septuagint. But while the LXX speaks of creation by God’s word, nowhere is God’s word hypostatized as an individual. It might be said that the evangelist has creatively blended Logos and Sophia. But why think that this is original to the fourth evangelist? The fundamental problem for scholars who appeal to biblical motifs like divine Wisdom or the word of the Lord to explain John’s doctrine is that those same motifs were already known and appropriated by Philo to produce a full-blown Logos doctrine. Philonic scholars have come to appreciate that Philo was primarily a scriptural exegete who employed the categories of Greek philosophy. It was Philo who blended the Logos of Middle Platonism with Jewish Wisdom literature and Torah to produce a doctrine of creation through the hypostatized Logos. The author of the Johannine Prologue does not tarry to reflect on the role of the divine Logos causally prior to creation. But this pre-creation role features prominently in Philo’s Logos doctrine. A cornerstone of Middle Platonism was the bifurcation between the realm of static being and the realm of temporal becoming. The realm of becoming was comprised primarily of physical objects, while the static realm of being was comprised of what we would today call abstract objects. But for a Jewish monotheist like Philo, the realm of Ideas does not exist independently of God but as the contents of His mind. Given the close similarity of the Logos doctrine of the Johannine Prologue to Philo’s doctrine, it is not at all impossible that if the evangelist took the realm of created things to include only concrete objects subject to temporal becoming, that is only because abstract entities were not thought to be independently existing objects external to God. Interested as he is in the incarnation of the Logos, he does not linger over the pre-creatorial function of the Logos, but given the provenance of the Logos doctrine, he may well have been aware of the role of the Logos in grounding the intelligible realm as well as his role in creating the realm of temporal concrete objects.


Out of Eden and into Nod: The Banishment of Adam and Cain in the Bible and LDS Scripture
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Cory D. Crawford, Ohio University

In this paper, I take as a starting point the observation of structural similarities in the narratives and genealogies of Adam and Cain in Genesis--how both move from favored position to banishment from God’s presence. After comparing the stories, I survey ancient and modern commentary on the relationship between the accounts. I then turn to the analogous material found in the LDS Book of Moses, comparing the narratives of Adam and Cain there with each other and with the Hebrew Bible. I conclude that in the LDS context one finds the homologies between Adam and Cain drawn differently and, more important, structured such that they map onto early LDS theology in ways unnoticed until now.


“The Lord Shepherds Me”: Early Christian Exegesis of Psalm 22 (LXX)
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Matthew R. Crawford, University of Durham

This paper aims to highlight the diversity of approaches to Psalm 22 (LXX) taken by early Christian exegesis in the East. Broadly speaking, extant commentaries on the psalm fall into three categories - those that see the psalm as a story of the soul’s ascent, those that see the psalm as recounting Israel’s restoration from captivity, and those that do not neatly fall into either of the previous categories, presenting instead a hybrid approach to the text. Writing during the early third century, Origen offers the first thorough-going interpretation of Psalm 22, seeing it as a description of the soul’s journey through virtue to the divine. This Origenist interpretation, whereby the psalm becomes the story of the soul’s ascent, profoundly influenced later authors such as Eusebius and Didymus who both authored commentaries on the psalter. Nevertheless, a close examination of their exegesis demonstrates that even through both authors operated broadly within the Origenist tradition, their work demonstrates their own distinctive emphases. Diodore and Theodore of Mopsuestia, who also wrote commentaries on the psalter, present interpretations that differ entirely from the Origenist tradition, preferring to see the text as referring to the restoration of Israel after the Babylonian captivity. Finally, two fifth-century exegetes, Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret of Cyrus, provide commentaries on Psalm 22 that are not entirely beholden either to the Origenist tradition or to the historicizing approach of Diodore and Theodore, but instead present their own original interpretations that appropriate some selected insights of the prior tradition.


4Q365a Revisited
Program Unit: Qumran
Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

In 1995 Emanuel Tov and I published the Reworked Pentateuch manuscripts, including 4Q365 (DJD XIII). In that publication we separated out five fragments originally included by John Strugnell as belonging to 4Q365, renaming them 4Q365a and arguing that they did not belong to the larger manuscript. Since that publication there has been debate about that decision, centering mainly on the fact that the five fragments were copied by the same scribe who copied 4Q365. In this paper I will consider those debates and reconsider whether or not the five fragments of 4Q365a should be reintegrated into 4Q365.


The SWBTS Scrolls and the Biblical Text
Program Unit:
Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Athanasius' Life of Antony and Libanius' Autobiography
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Raffaella Cribiore, New York University

The Life of Antony of Athanasius of Alexandria is the most influential hagiographical text in the Christian tradition. In this paper I suggest that there are some points in common between the VA and Libanius’ Autobiography that deserve to be put into relief: the sophist may have taken the Christian life in some account when he composed in 374 the first part of his work. After reading all the orations and letters of Libanius, I became aware that he was on friendly terms with several Christian families. One of his best friends was Olympius 3 who was not a pagan, as scholars have maintained so far, but Christian. His brother was Evagrius 6 who was a student of Libanius, translated the Greek Vita into Latin, and later became bishop of Antioch. In this way the sophist may have come into contact with the Vita. Here I am going to highlight the points in Or. 1 that suggest that Libanius may have taken up Antony’s challenge. At age fifteen young Libanius had a quasi-conversion to rhetoric and underwent a radical transformation. The fame of his labors started to spread far and wide. He traveled in a vain quest for a perfect teacher. He refused to marry and developed “ascetic” character traits, such as indifference to food and sleep and compulsive work. Many students started to follow him. He had fierce competitors who attacked him with calumnies and accusations of magic but he prevailed and his orations became models for everyone to follow. Antony had challenged the pagan philosophers saying that their teaching was perishing while Christian teaching flourished. Libanius may have wanted to say a word or two. I think it is important to bring the Autobiography within the context of the "Holy Man Life."


Secular Critical Translation of the New Testament
Program Unit:
Zeba Crook, Carleton University

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From Abba-Cry to Father-Prayer
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
John Dominic Crossan, DePaul University

This paper explores the transformation of an Abba-cry to the Lord's prayer and whether the origins of the prayer go back to the historical Jesus.


Identity and the "Other" in Deuteronomy 23
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Carly Crouch, University of Cambridge

Approaches to Deuteronomy 23, with reference to historical issues of formation of identity.


Identity and Empire: Locating the Threat to Judahite Identity in the Book of Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Carly L. Crouch, University of Cambridge

This paper questions the assumption that the rhetoric of the book of Deuteronomy is aimed against either the Neo-Assyrian empire or its successor, the Neo-Babylonian empire. This scholarly commonplace derives both from the traditional dating of the book to the seventh century, during which the Neo-Assyrian empire held sway over the Levant, and the structural similarities between the book and ancient Near Eastern vassal treaties, particularly those of Esarhaddon. In contrast to this consensus, however, this paper argues that geographic indicators in the book point instead to a primary concern with the nations and cultures of the southern Levant. These indicators include the provisions concerning child sacrifice and mourning rituals as well as the concentration of attention on non-Yahwistic deities most plausibly identified among the West Semitic pantheon. Duly attended to, these indicators have significant implications for our understanding of the geographic and cultural orientation of the book as well as the book’s origins and date.


Fulfillment in Matthew as Eschatological Reversal
Program Unit: Matthew
Brandon D. Crowe, Westminster Theological Seminary

This paper seeks to revisit Matthew’s understanding of fulfillment, arguing that fulfillment for Matthew may be described as an eschatological reversal of the all-too-often tragic history of Israel. That is, Matthew understands there to be a diachronic or linear development—perhaps one could say a narrative development—of Israel’s history that is reflected in the Old Testament prophetic literature, and it is this Old Testament narrative that finds its telos embodied in Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, building on those who have suggested a more narratival approach to fulfillment in Matthew, this paper will suggest a new nuance for discussion: that Matthew construes fulfillment in Jesus to be a reversal of Israel’s past failings. Although fulfillment is certainly woven into the warp and woof of Matthew’s gospel, this paper will look primarily to Matthew’s fulfillment quotations that draw from the prophetic literature to test the present hypothesis. Indeed, one aspect of the paper will be to consider why the prophetic texts (as opposed to Torah) are privileged for the explicit fulfillment quotations. Additionally, it will be argued that the prophetic texts from which Matthew draws for these quotations seem to demonstrate a consistent pattern, a pattern that prefers those prophetic passages that most often relate negative assessments of Israel’s history and, indeed, often texts that recount some manner of divine judgment. It will be argued that by including the texts that he does, Matthew is able to show how Jesus both stands in continuity with Israel’s history, but also reverses what we might call the covenant curses that accrued to Israel’s disobedience. For Matthew, this is done by means of the wide-ranging obedience of Jesus, who is portrayed throughout his life as one who is consummately obedient as the true Israel in ways that historic Israel was ultimately disobedient. Thus it is for Matthew that many of the eschatological hopes of the prophets—those hopes that were yet to be realized because of the people’s lack of faithfulness—begin to find their fulfillment in Jesus. To conclude, I will suggest briefly how the formula quotations of Matthew 2 may fit with the proposed thesis. If the argument proves to be compelling, it may shed a bit of new light on the way Matthew viewed and engaged the OT prophetic literature, and as such, may inform our understanding of the extent to which some early Christian writers were aware of and made appeal to the narrative dynamics of Israel’s history.


Josiah's Judah as a "Postcolonial Nation"
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Brad Crowell, Drake University

The Deuteronomistic History portrays Josiah as a reforming king who benefited from the recent decline of the Assyrian Empire. Many of these "reforms" are similar to those carried out in decolonized countries of the modern era. This paper will examine a cross-cultural selection of postcolonial political reforms combined with postcolonial political theory in an attempt to contextualize Josiah's social and political reforms as an attempt to construct a new Israelite identity similar to those that occur in recently decolonized nations.


A God by Any Other Name: Polyonymy in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Early Christian Literature
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
N. Clayton Croy, Trinity Lutheran Seminary

The paper examines the phenomenon of polyonymy, the practice of addressing a god with multiple names and/or titles. An outline of the paper is as follows: (1) Definition of the terms and related concepts, such as syncretism and interpretatio Romana. (2) The Practice and Functions of Polyonymy in Graeco-Roman antiquity with particular attention to Zeus, Dionysus, Apollo, Selene, and Isis. Numerous texts are examined, especially prayers, hymns, and magical papyri. (3) Early Christian Critique and Adaptation of Polyonymy. Three NT texts will be examined in the light of the Graeco-Roman practice: Jesus' teaching on prayer (Matt 6:5-15), Paul's comments on the unknown Athenian god (Acts 17:16:33), and the profusion of titles for Jesus in John's Gospel, esp. chapter 1. The qualified Christian appropriation of polyonymy is explained with reference to Jewish monotheism, early Christian experiences of Jesus, and the burgeoning diversity of early Christology.


Experience in Ancient Jewish and Christian Mysticism: Insights from Cognitive Neuroscience
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Istvan Czachesz, University of Heidelberg

Modern brain imaging technology gives us access to brain function and potentially allows us to understand mystical states of consciousness better. In the first part of my paper, I will briefly consider what contributions these technologies have already made; what further contributions they might make; and the methodological challenge of applying this information to the mystical experiences of long dead people. In the second part of my paper, I will address the question of how religious experience is connected to other aspects of religiosity. In particular, I will propose that a religious movement gains evidence for its core beliefs from some typical form of religious experience that requires the activation of particular brain areas. This hypothesis allows for predictions about the typical operations, group structure, and theological views of the movement. In the final part of my paper, I will consider how the hypothesis helps us understand ancient Jewish and Christian mysticism.


Rituals in Religious Systems
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Istvan Czachesz, Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg

In this paper, I will delineate a systemic model of religion and investigate the role of rituals in such a framework. In the first part of my paper, I will consider the question of whether religions can be understood as systems. Whereas the idea of cultures as coherent systems has been criticized by anthropologists in recent decades, new interdisciplinary perspectives in cognitive and evolutionary studies are encouraging a new, systemic understanding of human culture. In the second part of my paper, I will examine the connection between rituals, on the one hand, and social networks, artifact production, textual traditions, subjective experience, and environmental resources, on the other hand. In my analysis of rituals in religious systems, I will rely on insights from cognitive science, neuroscience, cultural evolution, and network studies. In the final part of my paper, I will focus on the role of rituals in the emergence and success of early Christianity.


Ancient Near Eastern History and the Early Iron Age
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Lorenzo d'Alfonso, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

Current methods and conclusions of Ancient Near Eastern study relevant to Levantine and "biblical" history of the early Iron Age.


Acts as a Second-Century Text: Acts in the Context of Moral Propaganda from the Reigns of Trajan and Hadrian
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Mary R. D'Angelo, University of Notre Dame

While dating the anonymous texts of the NT is always difficult, an increasing body of literary and theological affinities has begun to place Luke-Acts in the early second century This paper will attempt to use the moral propaganda of Trajan and Hadrian to illuminate the context of Acts (in the version printed in the Nestle text). The ideology disseminated on behalf of Trajan is particularly accessible. Pliny’s Panegyric was performed before Trajan (and the Senate) in 100 and published in an expanded form very shortly after, and the four Orations on Kingship by Dio Chrysostom also appear to have been addressed to Trajan and to belong early in his reign. Both orators praise and cajole Trajan by telling him what sort of a princeps/ basileu/j he is (and therefore should be), and their concerns are reiterated in the coinage and monuments of Trajan. For Hadrian, coins and monuments are the best sources. While the author of Luke and Acts writes from a very different position and for very different purposes than do Pliny and Dio, aspects of divine kingship and paternity, the representation of masculinity and of citizenship, the display of good women in the company of men, and other features of the narrative take on new meaning in the context of imperial self-presentation, and help to locate Acts in the company of other second-century Jewish and Christian works like the Pastorals and 4 Maccabees


The Question of Religious Pluralism and Violence in the Qur’an
Program Unit: Institute on Religion and Civic Values
Canar Dagli, College of the Holy Cross

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The Qur’anic View of the Self: Moral Reflexivity and Judgment in the Qur’an
Program Unit: Institute on Religion and Civic Values
Maria Massi Dakake, George Mason University

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The ‘Unwritten Gospel’ of the Spirit: The Role of the Spirit in Fourth and Fifth Century Understandings of the Person of Christ
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Brian E. Daley, S.J., University of Notre Dame

Throughout the fourth century, Greek reflection on the person of Christ and his decisive role as Savior in human history was centered, to a large extent, on thought about the Son’s role within the eternal being of God: how does he pre-exist? what is his relationship with creation, especially with humanity? how does that role alter our understanding of what and who God is? It was really not until the 360s that Christological controversy began to widen to include direct reflection on the role and person of the Holy Spirit, and so lead to an explicitly Trinitarian understanding of God. In his Letters to Sarapion of Thmuis, for instance, Athanasius begins to articulate the role of the Spirit in identifying the believer with the life-giving work of Christ, and so concludes the Spirit must himself/itself be a divine hypostasis. Basil of Caesaraea, too, sees the distinct divine identity of the Holy Spirit as required by a right view of the divinity of Christ. Gregory of Nazianzus, in Oration 31, acknowledges that our knowledge of the Spirit’s identity and work is less clearly articulated in Scripture than that of the Son, but must be read from the Church’s present experience of sharing new life in Christ. Gregory of Nyssa, in his Antirrhetikos against Apollinarius, seems to suggest that Apollinarius’s way of conceiving Christ may be a new manifestation of a defective “Spirit Christology” of pre-Nicene times, and so that a proper understanding of Christ may require a new and deeper recognition of the Spirit as a distinct divine hypostasis. And one of Cyril of Alexandria’s central reasons for emphasizing the divine identity of the human Jesus is his conviction that Jesus is the first to receive the Spirit into his human flesh, and that he thus – as enfleshed Son of God - can give the Spirit “without measure” to his brothers and sisters. In this paper, I hope to explore briefly these developing connection of Spirit and Christ, at a crucial time for the formation of the Christian theological tradition.


From Equality, Freedom?
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Noelle Damico, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) / University of the Poor

Galatians 3:28 describes equality among baptized persons of differing social statuses within the assembly. But to what sort of freedom does such equality lead? Reading with leaders from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, whose human rights-award winning work against forced labor in the Florida agricultural fields has garnered commendations from US Department of State, US Department of Justice and the FBI, and looking at contemporary cases of slavery, this paper will explore how Paul’s assertion “there is no longer slave or free” can function to re-inscribe slavery as acceptable as well as to subtly question slavery in Paul’s own society.


Gandhi and the Parable of the Prodigal Son
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Alex Damm, Wilfrid Laurier University

The goal of this paper is to examine Mahatma Gandhi’s commentary on the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) in its historical setting. Gandhi (1869-1948), the single most significant figure in the Indian independence movement, was an admirer of and frequent commentator on texts of the New Testament, even as a committed Hindu. In the summer of 1920, Gandhi was locked in debate with colleagues on the value of satyagraha (non-violent resistance), and in this setting he chose to support his views by characterizing Luke’s parable of the prodigal son. A close study of the parable and Gandhi’s commentary on it helps reveal the intriguing effects of his historical setting on his interpretation of the parable and other Christian literature. It also reminds us of the important role which Christian literature played in India's anti-colonial struggle.


Challenging Gossip and Social Identity in the Gospels
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Jack Daniels, Proctor Library, Flagler College

As a social process in antiquity, gossip in the New Testament has been shown to be involved with reporting the transaction of honor, the manipulation of reputation, the negative gendering of women, and the construction of social identity. Related to the transaction of honor, it has also been suggested that some narrative descriptions of challenge-riposte in the Gospels often involve gossip as a particularly derisive element of public wrangling over the pivotal value. This project seeks to further illuminate the relationship between gossip and the process of challenge-riposte beyond reporting transactions of honor. A selection of texts from the canonical Gospels describing honor challenges involving gossip will be considered with an eye toward how the interrelatedness of the two social processes – honor challenges and gossip – contribute to shaping social identity, and particularly that of Jesus.


Syriac Lexicography Problems: Synonymy and Metonymy and Related Issues
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Frederick W. Danker, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

The paper will deal with the lexical presentation of lexemes in terms of actual definition in association with formal bilingual equivalence. It will examine the problem of contextual consideration in determining the meaning of a term. It will explore the need of awareness of the role that synonyms, antonyms, and metonymy play in conveying meaning in a given text. It will take account of problems generated by endeavor to relate the meaning of an ancient text to the modern interpreter’s world.


Living in a Material World: Idolatry, Iconography, and Materiality in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Erin Darby, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Studies in iconography and the Hebrew Bible often focus on visual symbols and their meaning. In so doing they track images across multiple media, from monumental stone reliefs to small clay seal impressions. Unfortunately, the materials from which objects are constructed, such as wood, metal, stone, or clay, are largely overlooked. Clay is particularly problematic. It was used to construct one of the most common iconographic objects from Iron II Judah—the Judean Pillar Figurines—but is absent from the Bible’s prohibitions against idolatry. Furthermore, this omission has been interpreted as intentional deletion on the part of the biblical authors and has been used as evidence for the authors’ implied disapproval. In contrast, art historians and archaeologists alike have argued that the medium through which an image is expressed is integral to its function. Thus, clay objects may have been omitted from prohibitions because clay, by its very nature, was inappropriate for the construction of idols. This paper compares biblical descriptions of clay objects with biblical depictions of idols in order to clarify the reasons clay objects are absent from polemics against idolatry. Rather than an expression of disapproval, their exclusion may be explained by the Hebrew Bible’s emphasis on the materials from which idols are produced and by the connection between the media of objects and their function as expressed in the biblical text.


Reading Ephesians 6:10–18 in Light of African Pentecostal Spirituality: A Response to J. Ayodeji Adewuya
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Daniel Darko, Gordon College

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Spirit-Cosmology in the Identity and Community Construction of Ephesians 1–3
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Daniel K. Darko, Gordon College

This paper argues for the need to bring the ‘world-construction’ of Ephesians to the forefront as an overarching concept in the study of identity and community of the letter and as an indispensable interpretative framework to understand what the author seeks to convey in the first three chapters. It examines a shared spirit-cosmology between the author and his readers,’ and underscores the manner in which activities in the cosmic realm inform individual identity and ecclesial formation. It will become apparent that the cosmic dimension of ‘salvation’ and ‘community’ is crucial to our understanding of God’s vision for humanity in the cosmos. The notion of ‘realized eschatology’ dissipates while the modern reader is challenged to observe the limitations of lexico-grammatical analysis of ancient religious texts, such as Ephesians.


Treating Troubling Traditions: Evasion, Deflection, and Confrontation in Matthew and Luke
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
John A. Darr, Boston College

Matthew and Luke inherited a vast array of Jesus traditions, many of which proved problematic for the evangelists’ narrative endeavors near the end of the first century. Challenging traditions clustered around sensitive nodes such as Jesus’ origins (legitimacy of birth and lineage), his ties to John the Baptist (status issues), and his relationship with disciples, most notably with Simon Peter (questions regarding transfer of authority to followers). At each of these neuralgic points one detects the stress of traditions in conflict. How then do Matthew and Luke deal with these troubling traditions? And what are we to make of differences in the evangelists’ treatments of them? Gospel scholars have addressed these issues almost exclusively from the perspective of redaction criticism, a methodology that can reveal some significant aspects of the evangelists’ projects (most notably their theological tendencies), but that also conceals many other interpretive possibilities. Redactional method, for example, is of little help when it comes to interpreting Lukan and Matthean birth narratives. I propose that we employ literary and rhetorical tools to define and compare how Matthew and Luke treat the troubling traditions that come down to them. Applying the categories of evasion, deflection, and confrontation to salient material in the birth narratives, the baptism of Jesus by John, and Peter’s confession and denial, reveals distinctive rhetorical tendencies. For example, Luke is much more apt to evade, avoid, deflect, or deny the problematic, whereas Matthew’s instinct is to confront, engage, argue, and attack. One goal of this paper will be to identify Greco-Roman rhetorical resources (in the handbooks and progymnastic exercises) that may have aided and influenced Matthew and Luke in handling the difficult traditions that came down to them. Another objective is to determine how these ways of dealing with difficult issues illuminate our understanding of the evangelists’ audiences and overall purposes in mounting their literary projects.


What Did the Sages Think They Were Doing? Proverb Audiences in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, Boston University School of Theology

In his commentary on Proverbs 1—9, Michael Fox states that the sayings in the book of Proverbs are called m?šalîm “because of the presumption or claim that they are well known and in widespread use. By calling the proverbs m?šalîm (rather than simply “words of . . .” as in 30:1; 31:1; and 27:17), the author-editor is implicitly asserting that these sayings are validated not only by their source (a wise man) but also by their use: [t]hey are current in public wisdom.” The presumption that m?šalîm within the book of Proverbs were well-known and widely used might arise either from the presumption that they were indigenous to ancient Israel, or from an awareness that, whatever their origins, they had become part of Israel’s proverbial stock. But was this claim accurate; and if so, when and for whom? What did the sages think they were doing when they composed primarily parallelistic sayings (either from “whole cloth” or from preexisting adages and “templates”)? For what audiences did the sages produce and compile literary sayings that eventually made their way into the Hebrew Bible’s canonical wisdom corpus? Did they regard their parallelistic proverbs as something substantially different from the popular adages performed in social interactions, i.e., as petite poems whose artfully encapsulated themes served the primary purpose of edifying their peers, peers-in-progress, and other elites, but whose potential, contextualized meanings in social interaction settings were of largely unexamined, secondary, or only “academic” interest? Did their proverb-producing activities impact those outside their spheres of influence? Scholars often observe that the non-parallelistic, popular adages quoted in interaction settings and scattered across the Canon did not make their way into the book of Proverbs. It is worth observing, however, that outside the canonical wisdom corpus, proverb speakers—including kings and other elites—appear not to perform parallelistic, sapiential sayings, either. In my paper, I argue that scholarly preoccupation with sapiential sayings leaves us with an incomplete, and so impoverished, understanding of the multiple roles that proverbs of all pedigrees played in ancient Israel.


Que(e)r(y)ing the Loincloth: Same Gender Love in Prophetic Discourse in the Jeremiah 13:1–11
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Steed Vernyl Davidson, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Prophetic discourse defaults on the use of female sexuality to infer the divine-human relationship. This trope usually divides female sexuality between that which is acceptable and that which is abhorrent. More frequently, as in a book like Jeremiah, the abhorrent variety appears. Male sexuality hardly surfaces in prophetic discourse on the divine-human relationship. The explanatory note on the prophetic action of the loincloth in Jer 13:11 uses male genitalia in a metaphoric way to portray a desirable human-divine relationship. This unequal relationship is constructed so as to attract the houses of Israel and Judah who ultimately refuse the relationship. The language of this verse that uses male sexuality is marked by the absence of the usual divine vitriol for being spurned and suggests a level of vulnerability not seen in other metaphoric portrayals of the divine-human relationship. Additionally, the verse contains an abundance of male pronouns and references suggesting a same gender pairing in the divine-human relationship and in the uniqueness of the portrayal of the divine-human relationship here. This paper explores the construction of the divine-human relationship in this verse that uses male sexuality. This exploration takes place from the perspective of a same-gender relationship and contrasts the same-gender pairing with the male-female relationships normally used in the book of Jeremiah.


Why Is There a Deuteronomistic History?
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Philip R. Davies, University of Sheffield

The paper represents a refinement and development of a thesis presented in my book The Origins of Ancient Israel, which is that the earliest written history of Israel was produced, as Noth originally suggested, in Mizpah, in celebration of the return of kingship to Benjamin. It told the story of land conquest, defence and consolidation and culminated in the kingship of Saul. This story underlies the structure of Joshua-1 Samuel. The 'Deuteronomistic History' is the result of an extensive reworking of that story from a Judahite and Jerusalemite perspective, in which Saul is superseded by David and Judah assumed leadership of both Judah and Israel. The notion of a single sanctuary for this Israel originated with Bethel, which served both provinces in the Neo-Babylonian period. Without a previous Benjaminite history, there would be no 'Deuteronomistic History'; once such a history existed, however, a major Judean revision was inevitable.


Ritual Praxis in Ancient Jewish and Christian Mysticism
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
James R. Davila, University of St. Andrews

Mystical experience is a black box to non-practitioners. Mystics engage in certain practices (prayer, rituals, etc.), which function as inputs; they have experiences inaccessible to anyone else (the black box); and, at least often, they give accounts of those experiences, which functions as the output. The experiences of ancient mystics are doubly inaccessible, since the practitioners are all dead and we are left only with such accounts of their experiences as have survived the vicissitudes of time. Our information for ancient mysticism comes from written instructions for engaging in mystical praxis; actual accounts of specific visionary experiences; fictional accounts of such experiences (which may nevertheless describe real praxis); and, in rare cases, architecture or artifacts tied to such rites. Such evidence can studied with the normal array of historical critical methods, but also by means of phenomenological comparison with other accounts of premodern esoteric rites and anthropological work with modern shamans and visionaries. This paper investigates how ritual praxis can contribute to our understanding of ancient Jewish and Christian mystical experience, drawing on a range of primary evidence from antiquity to the modern era and exploring the methodologies that can help us extract the maximum amount of of information from that evidence.


The Impact of 16th and Early 17 Century Printing on the KJV
Program Unit:
David J. Davis, Houston Baptist University

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The Ecomonics of Stabilitas
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Ellen Davis, Duke University

Approaches to Deuteronomy 23, with reference to Benedictine spirituality.


Untangling the Books of Esther: Textual Variants in Esther 8
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Mary D. Davis, Harvard University

In the forty years since C.A. Moore's analysis of the Alpha-text of Esther renewed interest in textual criticism of the book, a number of widely divergent theories have been proposed as to the relationship among the three main textual editions, the MT, the LXX, and the AT. This paper will begin with a brief overview of the different thematic emphases of the three editions, identifying some of the major editorial principles at work in shaping each of them. Each version of the story voices distinctive concerns, all of which, however, can be traced back to the same goals: to show how Jews might succeed and thrive within a diaspora situation, and to establish Esther as a story that shares in the authoritativeness of Daniel and Joseph. The discussion will then move to a text-critical analysis of what corresponds to MT chapter 8 (excluding the LXX Additions for reasons of scope). The AT material examined falls into two parts, the first of which represents a recension of the Septuagint, and the other of which is not part of the same text family as the MT/LXX. Thus, the AT of chapter 8 represents either a heavily reworked translation of the Septuagint or a compilation of multiple texts. Finally, the broader implications of these findings, in terms of the intersection of literary analysis and textual criticism, will be briefly discussed.


There’s Something about Mary’s Child: Rabbinic Polemics and the Early Christian Scribal Reception of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Stephen J. Davis, Yale University

Part of a book-length study of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and its history of reception, this paper focuses on the way that cultural memories of a young Jesus were hotly contested in late ancient Jewish polemics and early Christian scribal practice. The argument of my paper will be organized in two parts. First, I will discuss the negative portrayal of Jesus’ childhood in the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds, and in the early medieval text, Toledot Yeshu ("History of Jesus"). Drawing on earlier gospel traditions and the polemical work of the second-century Greek philosopher Celsus, these rabbinic sources pointedly called into question the legitimacy of Jesus’ birth and accused him of practicing the magical arts from an early age. Here, I analyze this body of literature as part of the wider textual reception of the infancy gospel stories—as a form of (counter)cultural memory practice that sought to subvert contrasting Christian claims about the divine origins and miraculous deeds of the Christ child. Second, I will argue that the early Christian scribal reception of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was crucially framed by attempts to defend Jesus against the same accusations raised by rabbinic Jewish authors. By examining the manuscript record—in particular, the transmission of the infancy gospel in its multiple Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions—I will show how Christian copyists and translators amended (and sometimes censored) the stories in order to address such apologetic concerns. In this way, editorial work performed by anonymous scribes may itself be understood as a “counter-countercultural” memory practice—a means by which Jesus’ childhood was both constructively and selectively remembered, and by which the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was reclaimed for the consumption of Christian readers.


She’s Always a Woman to Me: The Acts of Paul and Thecla in the Hands of an Arabic Christian Scribe
Program Unit: Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
Stephen Davis, Yale University

In this paper, I discuss an eighteenth-century Arabic manuscript of the Acts of Paul and Thecla. Copied by a monk in the Monastery of St. Paul at the Red Sea, this unpublished document will serve as a case study for the textual reception of the Acts of Paul and Thecla in relation to (1) scribal practices of emendation and censorship and (2) monastic liturgical practice. Through the pages of this text, one gets an intriguing glimpse of how a male monastic community adopted this controversial female saint as a model for the ascetic life while negotiating boundaries of canon and gender identity.


Does Josephus Describe a Deuteronomic View of History in Antiquities?
Program Unit: Josephus
Kathy Barrett Dawson, Duke University

Louis H. Feldman notes that Josephus displays a positive view of the exile in some texts and a negative view in others. He concludes that Josephus’ ambiguity on exile and his relative silence on the future restoration of Jerusalem should be attributed “to the various audiences that he is addressing.” I will argue that Antiquities 4.305-314 reflects a Deuteronomic view of history in which Josephus indicates that the Jewish people are still under the blessings and curses of Deut 27-28. However, Josephus presents this view subtly so that the final element of the Deuteronomic scheme would not sound seditious to Roman readers. While Josephus proposes that the punishment inherent in the curses for his generation occurred in the destruction of the temple and a return to slavery under Roman rule, he makes several changes to the biblical account of Deut 27-28. In 4.307, Josephus records that Moses, not the people, “engraved the blessings and the curses [rather than “all the words of the law”] in order that their lesson would never cease.” In 4.312-13, Josephus edits the biblical description of the curses and inserts that Moses foretold the specific evils that the people would experience if they transgressed the law. Also, Josephus strategically places Moses’ prediction that the temple would be burned due to transgressions at the conclusion of his discussion of the Deuteronomic blessings and curses. The fact that Josephus has Moses voice a promise of recurring restoration in 4.314 indicates that Josephus did propose that the people were still living under the Deuteronomic scheme of history. This interpretation correlates well with 1.14-15 in which Josephus states that the main thing to be learned from Israel’s history is that prosperity comes to those who do not transgress the Mosaic law, but calamity comes to those who commit apostasy.


On Isaiah 27:1, 2–13
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Wilson de Angelo Cunha, Universiteit Leiden

This paper will address two different but interrelated issues on Isaiah 27:1, 2-13. The first will discuss their literary function in their present literary contexts that includes Isaiah 24-27. A few problems will be addressed in the present paper. First, what is the literary function of Isaiah 27:1? Does it belong with Isa 26:1-19 or should it be taken on its own? Or does it belong with Isa 27:2-13? Second, what is the identity of the “city” in Isa 27:10? Is it the city of the oppressor mentioned in Isa 25:2 or would it be a reference to Jerusalem? The second aspect that will be addressed relates to the original setting of Isa 27:1, 2-13. Although scholarship has long considered Isa 24-27 as a literary unit, some would argue that Isa 27 does not have the same historical setting as Isa 24-26. This paper will try to address the issue of the historical setting of Isa 27, discussing whether it should be seen as stemming from the same historical setting of Isa 24-26 or not.


Progressive Revelation in Two Nineteenth Century Women Interpreters
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Christiana de Groot, Calvin College

The notion of progressive revelation was widely employed by nineteenth-century biblical interpreters - both Jewish and Christian. This paper will study its use by Grace Aquilar, a Jewish author who advocated for Jews at a time in England when they were discriminated against in many areas. Aquilar used the notion to explain development within the Hebrew Bible. Her ideas will be compared with Clara Lucas Balfour's, an evangelical Christian who was a prolific writer and an activist in the temperance movement. Balfour contrasted the more primitive religion of the Old Testament with the more enlightened faith of the New Testament. This comparison will include consideration of their place in the history of biblical interpretation as well as the context of women's lives in Victorian England.


Cherubs and Seraphs: Between Literary Device and Reality
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Izaak J. de Hulster, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

In a stimulating study Judit Blair (FAT-II 37; 2009) argues that azazel, lilith, deber, qeteb and reshef are not presented as demons, but were employed as literary devices in the biblical text. Thus, she challenges the existing scholarly view on the portrayal of these ‘demons’ in the Hebrew Bible. Although these five ‘demons’ were perceived as non-human beings by people in Israel’s environment, the authors of the Hebrew Bible turned them into literary devices. The present paper argues that seraphs were likewise initially not presented as heavenly beings in Isaiah’s vision. They were turned into heavenly beings, however, by the receivers of this text. Secondly, the cherubs are examined as objects of art, questioning how they were conceptually perceived, and scrutinizing their reception as heavenly beings.


The Body and Its Boundaries: An Investigation of Corporeal Metaphors in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Johan de Joode, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

In this contribution, I investigate how the Joban poet deploys the conceptual metaphor THE BODY IS A CONTAINER as well as related containment metaphors to express enmity and opposition. By analysing several key texts (mainly Job 16:9-14 and 19:6-12), I argue that there are five subsidiary metaphorical conceptualisations that are based on the aforementioned conceptual metaphor. The first, and for our purposes most significant, conceptual metaphor is based on the idea that skin is the boundary of the container that constitutes the body. Job explains how his skin is broken, pierced, and breached; indeed, his body is torn to pieces. This conceptual metaphor I term ENMITY IS THE BREAKING OF A BOUNDARY (see, for instance, Job 16:12-14). Contrariwise, the protagonist also describes how he is physically locked in, walled up and hemmed in by his enemies. Hence, the second conceptual metaphor to be discussed is ENMITY IS THE SETTING OF A BOUNDARY (among many other examples, see Job 3:23; 19:8.12). Analysis of the prologue and the dialogues reveals three more metaphorical conceptualisations related to the body: ILLNESS IS THE FADING OF BODILY BOUNDARIES (Job 2:7; 7:5; 18:13; 19:26; 30:30), PROTECTION IS THE MAINTAINING OF A BOUNDARY (Job 1:10) and ENMITY IS THE EXTRACTION OF AN INDIVIDUAL FROM A SAFE, DELIMITED CONTEXT (Job 16:11; 19:10). The body is the object and subject of containment, viz. it is both container and contained and, consequently, the correlation between the abovementioned metaphors is significant. The value of this study lies in the insight conceptual metaphors provide in the thought world of the Book of Job. That analysis serves to see the structure in the book’s chaotic plethora of images. Hence, these results illustrate the significance of Conceptual Metaphor Theory for the exegesis of both Job and other texts of lament, such as those found in the Psalms.


Conceptual Blending as an Integrative Approach to Metaphor and Iconography: The Complex Divine Warrior Imagery in Josh 10:9–15 as Case Study
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Jannica de Prenter, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

With the increased attention for ANE iconography in biblical studies (Keel 1997; Strawn 2005; Klingbeil 1999; de Hulster 2009), the question arises how this iconography is to be conceptually related to figurative language in the Hebrew Bible. Klingbeil and de Hulster have made important methodological contributions to this issue: drawing upon the insights of Cognitive-Linguistics, they interpreted textual and iconographic imagery as different expressions of the same conceptual metaphor (de Hulster 2009:117; Klingbeil 2009:208-209). This methodology is unfortunately unable to analyze the structure of complex metaphors in which more than one source domain is mapped onto a target domain. I will therefore argue that ‘Conceptual Blending’ (Fauconnier & Turner 2003) – a cognitive approach holding that combining mental images is an essential enterprise of human thought – is a more fruitful approach to analyze such complex metaphoric mappings. Drawing upon recent developments in Blending Theory, it will be argued that language and art both mediate blended mental images (Turner 2006). I will illustrate my methodology with the complex divine warrior imagery in Josh 10:9-15 in which YHWH is pictured as divine warrior as well as heavenly storm-god. This metaphoric conceptualization was also briefly noticed by Klingbeil who correctly concluded that both metaphors frequently appear in a mixed form (Klingbeil 1999:304; 2010:132-134). Based upon the insights of ‘Conceptual Blending’, I will demonstrate that this conceptualization (so in Josh 10:9-15) is the result of a ‘blend’ of mental images in which the conceptual field of war (input space 1) and the conceptual field of meteorology (input space 2) are both mapped into the divine (input space 3), resulting in a blended space in which YHWH fights Israel’s enemies by throwing hailstones from heaven and stopping the celestial bodies. A comparative study subsequently shows that this combination of conceptual fields also appears in ANE iconographic depictions of the first and second millennium BCE.


Slave-Metaphors in Early Christian Invective Rhetoric (200–400 CE)
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Chris de Wet, University of South Africa

This article examines how early Christian authors used the ancient economic classification of slave and master as metaphors in their invective rhetorical discourses, and what the effect thereof was in the years 200-400 A.D. A brief discussion of the dynamics of ancient invective is provided, followed by a listing and discussion of the various motifs exhibited in these metaphors, such as: a) slaves of sin/vice in general; b) slaves of lust; c) slaves of money/greed; d) slaves of vainglory and honour; e) slaves of the belly; etc. These metaphors illustrate how the early Christians borrowed and reinvented various categories of vices from classical Graeco-Roman invective discourse, towards the construction of a new social reality with new power-dynamics, relying heavily on a polarization between rich and poor on the one hand, and on the other, regulating and controlling bodies and sexualities of group-participants. It proves Michel Foucault’s point that ‘discourses’ are rhetorical ‘practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak.’ These slave-/master-metaphors, as invective rhetoric, were powerful and popular discourses which constructed a vision of the world as it is supposed to be, and due to their frequency over two centuries, were powerful rhetorical tools which convinced many of the validity and reality of that vision.


Without Walls and a Wall of Fire: God’s Vision for His People
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Janice P. De-Whyte, McMaster Divinity College

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For Translating Tanakh: Dilemmas and Decisions: Translating the Psalms and Qoheleth
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University

I am not a "biblical translator" by training or trade, but I have been "translating the psalms" for over twenty years--in lecture and sermon preparations, in the classroom with students, and for various academic presentations. Each of these undertakings has been interesting, but ephemeral. In them, I could "play" (borrowing Riceourean language) with the text; try out various approaches to the text; change my mind and alter a translation. But during the past seven years, I have worked on two projects that have required a more "committed" approach to my translation work--the New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Eerdmans) and The Voice Biblical Project (Thomas Nelson). The NICOT project required me to translate the psalms and then provide interpretative and theological reflections on each of them. The General Editor's Preface to the series describes its audience as "scholars, pastors, and serious Bible students" who seek a rigorous examination of the text that respects the text's sacred character. As I translated the psalms, a number of issues emerged: (1) translating into English various Hebrew words; (2) representing the purposeful repetition of Hebrew sounds, verbal roots, and words and phrases; (3) maintaining the word order of much of Hebrew poetry; and (4) rendering into English the powerful concrete imagery of the Hebrew language. The Voice project demanded a different approach to the text. It is touted as "a scripture project to rediscover the story of the Bible." The editors enlisted artists (poets, painters, songwriters, etc.), who had, for the most part, no theological training, to translate the text. Their "translations" were then given to biblical consultants like me, who reviewed the "translations" for accuracy in maintaining the "spirit and intent" of the text. I worked on a number of the psalms for the project and will discuss what I encountered in terms of the "semantic borders" of translation. In addition, "The Voice" editors asked me to pick up the translation and commentary on the book of Qoheleth, since their original "artist author" bowed out of the assignment, apparently throwing his hands up in confusion somewhere around chapter 7. I have attempted to render Qoheleth into language that allows the reader to "rediscover the story of the Bible." Unlike the other authors of the project, however, I elected to begin with the Hebrew text (rather than the prescribed New International Version)and render a translation that is artistic (as artistic as a nerdy biblical scholar can be), but true to the Hebrew text. In these three undertakings, I have learned some valuable lessons in the "art" of biblical translation. I would appreciate being granted a session at the November meeting to present my findings and receive valuable feedback from the gathered members.


The Canonical Approach to Scripture and The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Nancy deClaissé-Walford, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University

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“The Road for Souls Is through the Planets”: The Mysteries of the Ophites Diagrammed
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
April D. DeConick, Rice University

This paper will reexamine the Ophite Diagram presented by Origen in his treatise against Celsus (6.21-40). I will make a detailed reading of the text and argue that the Diagram is exactly what Celsus and Origen claimed it was, a map of the soul’s journey through the planets. Furthermore, I will demonstrate that the prayers correlate to a Neopythagorean ascent pattern. I will conclude with the argument that Origen has preserved for us a piece of an Ophite initiatory handbook, that is the map, prayers and seals used in the intermediate initiatory rite when the soul practiced the death journey through the heavenly realms.


"Serious" Questions about "True Words" in Culture: Against Dogmatics IV.3 as a Source for Barth's Theology of Culture
Program Unit: Karl Barth Society of North America
Jessica DeCou, University of Chicago

This paper argues that Barth's writings present two discrete approaches to culture and that interpreters’ attempts to link the two overlook the rationale behind Barth's efforts to isolate them. The first approach is explicated in CD IV/3 §69 (the usual focus for interpreters of Barth's theology of culture – what I call the ‘true words approach’) and the other is implied in his analyses of particular cultural forms. I argue that the material in IV/3 ought not to be viewed as a starting point for understanding Barth's theology of culture, but simply as a necessary extension of his doctrine of the freedom and authority of the Word and the task of the church – identical in both content and context to his remarks *against* theology of culture in CD I/1. Moreover, Barth insistence that his general acknowledgment of the possibility of true words in secular culture must be kept separate from concrete examples raises another red flag, as this runs contrary to his attitude toward hermeneutics, which cannot be explored independently of particular texts and particular acts of interpretation. I maintain, therefore, that the material in IV/3 is not the place to look for Barth's theology of culture, nor for insights into his analyses of particular cultural forms. Toward this end, I turn to the Mozart essays in order to demonstrate that the customary strategy of interpreting them in terms of the ‘true words approach’ of IV/3 are simply taking Barth too seriously in a context where he intended to be playful. Indeed, if we wish to view these works as exemplary of Barth's theology of culture, they are better understood as instances of his concept of eschatological play. Just as the artist ‘plays with reality,’ so Barth’s use of hyperbole and tongue-in-cheek humor is meant to play – with language, with Mozart, and with his audience. Drawing from Barth's eschatology not only provides an interpretive lens through which to better understand Barth's analyses of cultural forms, but also provides a model through which the theologian of culture can appreciate culture’s value and respect its secular self-understanding, while avoiding the cultural assimilation of theology – to which Barth feared a ‘theology of culture’ might lead. This new starting point thus reveals the significance of Barth's theology for contemporary work in theology of culture.


The Freedom to Play: Winnicott's Theories on Playing and Reality, and Their Relevance for Healthy Biblical Scholarship
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Elizabeth Berne DeGear, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

In “Winnicott’s Squiggle Game and Biblical Interpretation”, Ralph Underwood proffers the squiggle game as an analogy for the hermeneutical process, and reminds us of the dynamic and developmental potential inherent in the ‘transitional space’ between the biblical text and the reader/interpreter. This paper seeks to explore other aspects of DW Winnicott’s theories on playing-and-reality, to see what insight they might offer those of us engaged in biblical interpretation. Specifically, the paper will examine Winnicott’s notion of the “environment mother” and Winnicott’s notes on the psychopathology of play, as we ask the question: “What does biblical criticism require in order to be psychologically healthy?”


The Stone Jars of Cana—Recent Developments in Studies of Archaeology and the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Rolan Deines, University of Nottingham

Since the 1990s, the stone jars mentioned in John 2:6 in connection with Jewish purity rituals are a common feature in archaeological discussion. In the newly refurbished archaeological wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, some of the most beautifully preserved exemplars of these large stone jars are on display. The explanatory text in the exhibition refers explicitly to John 2:6. In commentaries to the Gospel of John this piece of archaeological information, and connected to it the halakhic traditions, appears now rather frequently, albeit often without much understanding and precision. The paper will analyze the development in archaeological research related to stone vessels, and in the interpretation of John 2:6 in Johannine studies since 1993, when I published the first exegetical monograph on this topic (Mohr Siebeck 1993).


The Literary Development of the Narrative of Saul’s Deliverance of Jabesh-Gilead in 1 Samuel 11
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
David DeJong, University of Notre Dame

A strikingly longer version of the account of Saul’s deliverance of Jabesh-gilead was found in 4QSama, and subsequently included in the NRSV. This discovery was significant in underscoring the textual pluriformity of the Hebrew Bible in Second Temple times. The early scholarship on this text-critical discovery, however, was overly polarized, tending to judge in terms of authenticity or inauthenticity. My paper takes its cue from the recent methodological shift in textual criticism, which rejects the traditional sharp distinction between the composition history of book and the subsequent textual variants in that book. Studying composition and transmission together, I examine the plus in 4QSama from a literary-critical perspective. I argue that the account of Saul’s deliverance of Jabesh-gilead went through at least four stages in its literary development. I make my case by means of close comparison of the extant versions (LXX, MT, 4QSama, and Josephus), using the evidence to show that through the process of editing and transmission this narrative evolved from a local tale about the relationship between Jabesh-gilead and Gibeah to one with a pan-Israelite perspective. The argument is strengthened by means of a comparison with editing techniques observable in the redaction of Judges. Ultimately, I argue that the pluriformity of textual traditions in the Second Temple period can provide scholars with a window on the formation and editing of the Deuteronomistic History itself.


Spirit Christology Reconsidered: A Dogmatic Perspective
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Ralph G. Del Colle, Marquette University

Two types of Spirit Christology have developed over the past three decades, one in which Spirit Christology displaces Logos Christology, and the other where it serves to compliment the former. Significant implications follow for both Trinitarian theology and Christology proper. In fact, it is fair to say that presuppositions about the doctrine of the Trinity usually inform the type of Spirit Christology advanced. These focus on whether or not the three divine persons are understood as eternal hypostatic identities in the Trinity, or are exclusively rendered as symbols or metaphors of divine agency in the economy of salvation. Even for those who advocate the more classical rendition of Trinitarian doctrine the question arises as to whether or not one inverts the traditional taxis of the divine persons such that the Holy Spirit precedes the Son in the incarnation (as in conceived by the Holy Spirit) rather than proceeds from the Son to his humanity (as the filioque seems to implicate). This paper will argue that the classical view of the Trinity must be maintained if due measure be given to the agency of the risen Christ who in his glorified humanity is inseparable from the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s agency in Christian and ecclesial life, however, must be related to the earthly Jesus’s possession of the Spirit without measure in the double anointing of his conception and baptism. Although it is here that the traditional taxis of Trinitarian predication has often been inverted, I will argue that need not be the case since both the Spirit’s agency and that of the eternal Son incarnate require within the one divine economic operation a differentiated account of their respective agencies that does not violate the Spirit proceeding from the Son. Both the biblical narrative and speculative theological construction upholds the verity and richness of the classical doctrine and its coordinate taxis of the divine persons.


EMIP in Ethiopia: Sociological, Ecclesiastical, and Economic Engines Surrounding Manuscripts in Ethiopia
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Steve Delamarter, George Fox University

The challenges to digitizing manuscripts in Ethiopia are Legion. Delamarter has led several projects to digitize manuscripts there: 1) the digitization of around 6,700 Manuscripts and Archives of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (with support from the British Library Endangered Archives Programme [EAP], the Hill Museum and Manuscripts Library [HMML], and the Ethiopic Manuscript Imaging Project [EMIP]); 2) around 1,000 manuscripts from microfilms in Ethiopia; 3) the collection of 54 manuscripts from the Mekane Yesus Seminary Library in Addis Ababa; 4) the collection of about 97 manuscripts from the Capuchin Friary in Asko; 5) about 600 manuscripts in the collections of churches and monasteries; and 6) another 100 owned by dealers in Addis Ababa. Surrounding all of these institutions and their collections are a set of dynamics that affect access. Delamarter will contribute to a panel of presenters who conduct similar projects in Ethiopia.


The THEOT Project: Goals, Standards, Manuscripts, and Tools
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Steve Delamarter, George Fox University

The Textual History of the Ethiopic Bible Project (THEOT) is a three-year project to write a preliminary account of the textual history of the books of the Ethiopic Bible shared in common with the Hebrew Bible. The plan is: 1) to identify about 50 verses from each book to serve as sample passages; 2) to gather 25 to 30 manuscripts which represent, for each book, the full range of the extant manuscript tradition; 3) to collate variants and identify families of manuscripts; and 4) to characterize the families, both in terms of their relationships to one another and to other manuscript traditions (e.g., Greek, Syriac, Christian Arabic, etc. ). This paper will report on the goals of the project (as they continue to clarify), the standards of collation and presentation of evidence we will employ, the manuscripts used in collations, and the software tools we will use to do our work.


Eusebius of Caesarea’s Defense and Critique of Asterius the Sophist in the Anti-Marcellan Writings
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Mark DelCogliano, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)

As used in contemporary scholarship, the "Eusebian alliance" refers to that ad hoc group of eastern bishops and theologians initially formed around the figures of Eusebius of Nicomedia and Eusebius of Caesarea that lasted from c. 320 to c. 355. Two of the most significant Eusebian theologians are Asterius the Sophist and Eusebius of Caesarea himself. One of the features of an ecclesiastical alliance, as I have argued elsewhere, is the activity of mutual defense and critique. In this communication, I explore to what extent Eusebius defended and critiqued the views of Asterius in his anti-Marcellan works (Contra Marcellum and De ecclesiastica theologia). Asterius was one of the principle targets of Marcellus, and so Eusebius’ anti-Marcellan works can in some sense be construed as writings pro Asterio. By determining the contours of the theological relationship between Asterius and Eusebius, not only do we see evidence for development within the Eusebian tradition, but also we come away with a new appreciation for the crucial role played by Eusebius of Caesarea in the foundation and transmission of an influential theological culture.


“Cursed Be the Day I Was Born!” Job and Jeremiah Revisited
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Katharine Dell, University of Cambridge

Links between Job’s laments and Jeremiah’s confessions have long been noted, but largely from a form-critical rather than intertextual perspective. This paper argues that the intertextual connections go beyond simply the parallel ‘lament forms’ and their standard lament content (even if the author of Job parodies rather than simply reuses Jeremiah’s sentiments) to form a wider set of intertextual connections between the two books. The intertextual method used here will be synchronic in the sense that there does not have to be a historical relationship between texts that naturally align themselves on a literary level, but diachronic questions such as possible intertextual relationship are considered. The author is demonstrably not tied to inter-wisdom allusion nor even to parodying a known lament tradition but rather shows a wider intertextual knowledge and connection that strains the book of Job’s classification as wisdom literature.


The Exegetical Basis of Philo's Exposition of the Sabbath Command in De Decalogo and De Specialibus Legibus
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Brian C. Dennert, Loyola University of Chicago

This paper seeks to advance previous studies on Philo’s understanding of the Sabbath by focusing on exegetical underpinnings of his description of the Sabbath in De Decalogo and De Specialbus Legibus. While others have explored how philosophical ideas and social factors influenced Philo's discussion of the Sabbath, I argue that many elements of his exposition of the Sabbath may also stem from a careful reading of the text and traditions of interpretation, reflecting possible interpretations of the LXX in line with interpretative trajectories appearing in the LXX translation of the Pentateuch. For example, there may be textual reasons or justifications for viewing the Sabbath as one of ten feasts, the head of the feasts, a day for the people to gather, a time for self-examination, a command to work for six days, and a time of equality. Rather than highlighting the universal rationale of the Sabbath command of Exod 20:8-11 over the covenantal grounding of the Sabbath in Deut 5:12-15 for philosophical or social reasons, it thus appears that Philo's discussion is an attempt to interpret and integrate these two traditions, as he still maintains the special relationship of the Sabbath to the Jewish people while also noting its universal significance. Therefore, in addition to illustrating the way that one Jew adapted the Sabbath command in light of the intellectual and social realities in which he lived, Philo's explanation of the Sabbath also shows the way that one sought to understand traditions of the Sabbath in the Pentateuch that modern scholars view as coming from different sources.


Matthew and the Torah: What about the Priesthood?
Program Unit: Matthew
Brian C. Dennert, Loyola University of Chicago

Studies on Matthew and the Torah often focus on Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees and issues such as the Sabbath or purity laws, but another important avenue in discerning Matthew’s stance towards the Law is the topic of the Jewish priesthood. The Torah describes the important place of the priest in the life of the Jewish people, and the significance of the priesthood caused the proper practice and rightful holder of the institution to be a critical point of debate in the time of the Second Temple. These discussions did not immediately end with the destruction of the temple, as the rabbis gradually exerted authority over the priests and did not abolish the priesthood, letting priests perform ceremonial functions under the sages' guidance. The Jewish context of Matthew indicates that the place of the Jewish priesthood would be an important question for the community to consider. In particular, what happens to the priesthood described in the Torah in light of the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus? Rather than describing Jesus as the true priest or the community being the new priests, an analysis of the Gospel's portrayal of the chief priests, ministry of Jesus, and ministry of his followers points to the elimination of the priesthood, as the chief priests reject Jesus, Jesus' ministry fulfills and subverts the function of the priest, and Jesus does not commission a new set of priests. In relegating the role of the priesthood to the time before Jesus’ arrival, the community no longer attempts to observe these important prescriptions of the Torah. Such a rejection is not of a particular interpretation of the Torah but of a central point in it, raising the question of whether the Matthean community may also have seen other important elements of the Torah ceasing with Jesus.


Death on the Nile: Egyptian Christianity, Codicology, and the Christian “Book of the Dead” as Cultural Commodity
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Nicola Denzey Lewis, Brown University

The copying and collecting of apocalyptic and visionary texts constituted a minor industry in 4th-cen. Egypt. Codex Five of the Nag Hammadi Codices, for example, assembles a variety of apocalyptic writings, ostensibly to gather into one place information on the fate of the soul at death; Codex Two also can be read as a collection of earlier texts that could be pressed into service for afterlife instruction. How would members of a 4th-cen. monastic community have understood 200 year-old writings on the post-mortem trial? How would these “guides” to the afterlife have accorded with the process of “Christianizing” death in Late Antique Egypt? What are the connections and disjunctions between these two types of cultural products concerning post-mortem instruction? Addressing archeological excavations of late antique tomb sites and their inventories, the "logic" of codicological composition, and any extant evidence of Christian mortuary ritual, this paper will explore an under-studied and under-theorized aspect of late Egyptian “Gnostic” praxis.


Princess Di, JFK, and Jesus: On Experimental Psychology as a Means of Investigating the Compositional History of the Synoptic Gospels
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
T. M. Derico, University of Oxford

Although it is almost universally conceded that the Synoptic Evangelists made some use of oral-traditional information in the composition of their Gospels, there is very little unambiguous evidence to indicate the precise character or scope of any part of the first-century oral Jesus tradition, or to illuminate the editorial policies of the Synoptic Evangelists with respect to it. In recent years some New Testament scholars have attempted to circumnavigate this problem with the aid of evidence derived from experimental studies of human memory, in an effort to demonstrate the existence or character of certain features of early Christian oral tradition by appeal to physical and mental characteristics shared by all human beings. In this paper I discuss several major theoretical and practical problems involved in the application of the tools of cognitive psychology to historical considerations of early Christian oral tradition, focusing on recent experiments conducted by R. McIver and M. Carroll. I argue that the promised convenience and explanatory power of these tools have not yet been realized for purposes of Synoptic criticism, because such studies uniformly fail to take into account the social character of first-century Mediterranean Christianity and the particularity of individual oral-traditional systems.


Supporting Discussion Based Teaching in Courses with Large Enrollments
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Karen Derris, University of Redlands

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Neither Tamil nor Sinhala: Reading Galatians in Sri Lanka
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
David A. deSilva, Ashland Theological Seminary

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Neither Tamil nor Sinhalese: Reading Galatians in Sri Lanka
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
David A. deSilva, Ashland Theological Seminary

This paper presents the most salient results of a two-month project of reading Galatians alongside Tamil and Sinhalese Christians in Sri Lanka, chiefly in the context of Christian theological education. These participants used Galatians as a lens by which to reflect on the particular challenges of their context and through which to look for resources to address those challenges. The paper will particularly address the following topics that emerged from the conversations: (1) Paul's autobiographical narrative and "salvation-historical" narratives, and the experience of converts to Christianity from Buddhism and Hinduism; (2) Paul's model of authority and issues of authority in Sri Lankan churches; (3) Paul's vision for oneness in Christ and divisions within Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Christianity; (4) Neocolonial influences in the Sri Lankan churches as hindrances to attaining Paul's vision for community; (5) Paul and Buddha on desire as "problem" and its remedy. The procedure followed in this experiment, which involved contextual reading, engagement in cross-cultural and cross-temporal reading (i.e., contemporary-historical exegesis), and engagement with readings from other social locations, suggests the positive fruits of integrating social-location and traditional hermeneutics for critical reflection on a text and on the challenges of one's own social location.


Why Chronology Matters: The Highs and Lows of the Iron Age II
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
J. P. Dessel, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The “traditional” or “high” chronology for the Iron Age II was formulated in the golden age of Biblical Archaeology in the 1920’s and 30’s. It was based on the integration of archaeological data into a chronological schema established by the biblical narratives. Over the years there were slight modifications to this framework, but it’s overall structure was never doubted. That changed in the 1990’s when two of the leading archaeologists in Israel, Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, proposed a low chronology that challenged not just the dating of archaeological data but the interpretation of that data and ultimately our understanding of the biblical narratives. These challenges were a sorely needed wake up call for both archaeologists and biblical scholars that forced scholars to carefully examine long held assumptions. With the development of more refined ceramic typologies and an increased use of Carbon 14 dating for the Iron Age a healthy and robust re-examination of the entire Iron Age chronology ensued. This paper will present the origins and development of the traditional or high chronology and review how its proponents address the challenges presented by the low chronology.


Profiles in Brilliance: Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History and the Construction of a Christian Intellectual Heritage
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
David J. DeVore, University of California-Berkeley

In the early 1960s, Arnaldo Momigliano argued that Eusebius composed his Ecclesiastical History [HE] partly on the model of Greek philosophical (or intellectual) biography. Since then some scholars have noted Eusebius’ reproduction of this genre (Carotenuto, Tradizione e Innovazione nella Historia Ecclesiastica di Eusebio di Cesarea (2001); Markschies, Origines und seine Erbe (2007)); but none has pursued Momigliano’s insight at length. This paper does so by isolating the elements of Eusebius’ profiles of “all who, without writing or in written works, engaged with the divine logos” (HE 1.1.1) and showing how and why they serve to construct an “intellectual” heritage for Christianity. Previous intellectual biographers such as Diogenes Laertius, Philostratus, and Porphyry provided Eusebius with the rubrics he used to profile intellectuals. In this paper, I highlight Eusebius’ location of intellectuals in relationships with masters and students; catalogues of written works; anecdotes that illustrate intellectual activity; and a vocabulary of encomiastic rhetoric that proclaimed excellence in the intellectual field. The interweaving and repetition of such traits in profiles throughout books 2 through 8 of the HE constructed a Christian Hochkultur in the form of a uniform intellectual heritage for Christianity (including “heretical” but still profiled Christians such as Tatian, and purportedly admiring Jewish authors Philo and Josephus). Eusebius aimed these profiles at three audiences. For the Christian community, he created a canon of ecclesiastical writers to maintain notoriety in Christian memory and serve as exemplars for Christian modes of living. For contemporary intellectuals, he provided the Christian ethnos with the intellectual credentials to compete the Greek philosophical school whose literary genre he appropriated. And for other non-Christian elites, a Christianity defined by its geistige Lebensweise (tropos) would appear worthy of inclusion in an empire-wide elite that valued a philosophical way of life as a mark of prestige.


Jesus’ Actions, Jesus’ Sayings, and God
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Joanna Dewey, Episcopal Divinity School

At the 2009 SBL meeting, in the Mark seminar, Rikki Watts presented “In the Power and Authority of God: A Preliminary Exploration of Yahweh Christology in Mark.” In it he argued that “there are strong indications that Jesus is acting with the power and authority characteristically attributed to Yahweh alone. That is, Mark distinctively characterizes Jesus as assuming in a unique and quite natural manner the prerogatives of Israel’s God.”At the same meeting, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon’s book, Mark’s Jesus, was reviewed (I was a reviewer). In it, Malbon argues that the markan Jesus consistently points away from himself to God, while the narrator and other characters point to Jesus. I found both presentations convincing but not exactly compatible. Both work with the Markan text as it stands; Watts’ method focused on Mark’s use of OT motifs to convey his message, while Malbon conducted a narrative critical analysis of the text. She focused primarily on the sayings material and not on Jesus’ actions. In this paper, I wish to focus on some of Jesus’ actions that Watts used to make his case (the boat and feeding scenes, the transfiguration and John-Elijah sequence, and perhaps others) using primarily a narrative approach similar to Malbon’s to see if a consideration of Jesus’ actions leads me to a modification of Malbon’s thesis, or more broadly, to test how these two views fit or do not fit together.


Does Genesis 2:7–8 Relate to the Mesopotamian Mis Pî Ritual?
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Michael B. Dick, Siena College

Recently several scholars in articles and conference presentations see the Mesopotamian ritual for inducting a cult image (Mis Pî KA.LU.U3.DA) as the source on which the creation (and installation) of the salam in Gen. 2:7–8 has been constructed. Since the previous anthropogony in Gen. 1:26 refers to statues expresso verbo and since Gen. 2:7–8 seemingly recalls the making and installation of a figurine, the assumption of a base in Mis Pî would seem warranted. Furthermore, Atra-hasis (inuma ilu awilum) like Gen 2:7 had portrayed anthropogenesis as a divine molding from earth/clay (I 210–226). This paper will examine the possible Mesopotamian background for Gen 2:7–8. A statue or figurine in the ancient Near East was made from different materials and for widely divergent functions, for which each was often consecrated by a specific ritual. Is the Mis Pî KA.LU.U3.DA ritual the best schema within which to understand Gen 2:7-8?


A Bourdieuian Analysis of the Authority of Violence in the Gideon-Abimelech Narrative
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Linda A. Dietch, Drew University

Whether it’s symbolic or physical in nature, the term violence suggests harm of a magnitude that requires explanation, rationalization, and justification. For the purposes of this paper, the term violence will be circumscribed to harm that gravely threatens or succeeds in ending human life within the sociopolitical sphere. Although Weber wrote extensively on types of legitimate domination, Bourdieu contends that he failed to ask who benefits and who suffers from the state’s monopoly of legitimate violence. Beginning with the same basic thrust of these questions, my analysis explores the nexus of power, violence, and legitimacy in the narration of the Gideon-Abimelech cycle of Judges by asking: Who benefits and who suffers from state-sponsored violence? What sort of backing, if any, enables violent actions, and how does this contribute to their portrayal as legitimate or illegitimate? In order to facilitate this line of questioning, Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus will be employed to contemplate a practice of physical violence. Simply put, competency in committing violence (e.g., handling a sword, commanding troops, organizing raids, and killing enemies) will be regarded as a form of cultural capital within the sociopolitical field, as an ability or mark of distinction that enables an agent to secure greater prestige and position within the field or, conversely, to lose ground. Crucial to whether or not the use of violence is “successful” is determined by whether or not it conforms to standards of “fair play.” It is argued here that the standards presumed in the story ultimately reflect those of the text’s later editors. Examining how and what the narrative distinguishes as legitimate uses of violence vis-à-vis those it paints as illegitimate sheds light on the principles or doxa undergirding the sociopolitical field of those responsible for the composition.


Investigating Ritual Risk, Ritual Failure, and Ritual Efficacy: Comparing Pauline Corinth and a Contemporary Reformed-Experiential Setting
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Petra Dijkhuizen, University of South Africa

A ritual can be viewed as a test, trial, contest or examination, involving both winners and losers (Howe 2000:76). This study has selected two exempla – first-century Corinth and the present-day denomination of the Reformed Congregations in The Netherlands – that have in common the performing of the ‘Lord’s supper’ (1 Cor 11:20). More specifically, the exempla share the realisation that performing this meal involves risk – that the ritual can in fact fail. The warning of the apostle Paul to the Corinthian believers not to eat and drink in an unworthy manner lest they eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Cor 11:27–29) points to the possibility of some kind of flawed or ‘infelicitous’ performance, with dire consequences for the performers involved in this ritual infelicity (Grimes 1988a:103). This Pauline warning also features in the script for the performance of the Lord’s supper in the Reformed Congregations. As a result, it carries considerable weight in the religious engagement with and the actual performance of the ritual in this denomination. Hence, both the first-century church at Corinth and the contemporary micro-context, the Reformed Congregations, testify to the fact that something is at stake in the performance of the Lord’s supper, and that ritual ‘failure’ or – to put it less severely – ritual ‘imperfection’ can occur (Schieffelin 2007:16). Via the four moments of the comparative enterprise this study aims to investigate the risks that accompany or are inherent in the performance of the Lord’s supper in the contexts of the two selected exempla. Secondly, this study will examine how each exemplum copes with these risks. It will investigate whether effective internal measures are in place to prevent mistakes and failure. If effective risk management appears to be lacking or, alternatively, if risk has been worked in the ritual so forcefully that it causes paralysis, this study will analyse the kind of ritual imperfection or ritual failure that ensues. Thirdly, since every performance has a so-called ‘emergent dimension’ (Schieffelin 1985:722), this study will explore what the performance of the Lord’s supper as performance brings about in social reality – and thus in the experience of the principal performers and the other participants in the contexts of the two selected exempla. It is the emergence of realities and presences in performance and their movement into the domain of social historical events which constitutes the movement of ritual efficacy into the human world (Schieffelin 1996:81). This is true even when what emerges is not necessarily predictable or desirable, as in cases of ritual imperfection or failure. It is recognised from the onset that categories like ‘failure’ and ‘imperfection’ are value-laden; they cannot be used in any final or absolute way. Rites are flawed from group X’s point of view or in relation to goal Y (Grimes 1990:209). Consequently, a multi-perspectival approach is applied whereby the positioned differences in relation to the allegations of flaws in the ritual are clarified (Schieffelin 2007:16, 19).


Investigating Ritual Risk, Ritual Failure, and Ritual Efficacy in Pauline Corinth
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Petra Dijkhuizen, University of South Africa

A ritual can be viewed as a test, trial, contest or examination, involving both winners and losers (Howe 2000:76). Often something of value is at stake which by virtue of the very act of performing the ritual might be lost. This constitutes the element of risk involved in the performance of a ritual. This study briefly lists the risks that accompany or are inherent in the performance of the Lord’s supper in first-century Corinth. Secondly, this study examines how the believing community in Corinth copes with these risks. It investigates whether effective internal measures are in place to prevent mistakes and failure. If effective risk management appears to be lacking, this study will analyse the kind of ritual imperfection or ritual failure that ensues. Thirdly, since every performance has a so-called ‘emergent dimension’ (Schieffelin 1985:722), this study will explore what the performance of the Lord’s supper as performance brings about in social reality – and thus in the experience of the principal performers and the other participants in the ekklesia of Corinth. It is the emergence of realities and presences in performance and their movement into the domain of social historical events which constitutes the movement of ritual efficacy into the human world (Schieffelin 1996:81). This is true even when what emerges is not necessarily predictable or desirable, as in cases of ritual imperfection or failure. This third section will be the main focus of the paper as it will zoom in on 1 Cor 11:30 – ‘For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.’ The task here will be to investigate who among the believers in Corinth are the ones that suffer the negative consequences of the failed ritual. By so doing this study will get to the inner logic of the ritual. It is recognised from the onset that categories like ‘failure’ and ‘imperfection’ are value-laden; they cannot be used in any final or absolute way. Rites are flawed from group X’s point of view or in relation to goal Y (Grimes 1990:209). The attribution of success or failure depends on the competing agendas of performers and other participants, as they manoeuvre and position themselves in and through the ritual around issues such as status, identity, and power. Consequently, this study implements a multi-perspectival approach whereby the positioned differences in relation to the allegations of flaws in the ritual are clarified (Schieffelin 2007:16, 19).


Incorporating the “Fear of God” into the Early Christian Sensorium
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Paul Dilley, Penn State University

Early Christian missionaries and apologists made frequent reference to the awesome majesty and terror of the future divine judgment, a powerful image that nonetheless was remote from the sense perceptions of their audience. Indeed, many people, including some Christians, disputed God’s ability to see all things and to know human thoughts, and thus to assemble damning evidence against them; additionally, many questioned the reality of eternal fire and other forms of post-mortem punishment. Yet acceptance of their existence, despite the lack of immediate evidence, was necessary to cultivate the “fear of God,” one of the fundamental (if largely overlooked) components of early Christianity identity. In the following paper, I will discuss how the fear of God was nevertheless made present to the human sensorium. The fear of God is at once an image, a disposition, and a philosophical exercise to be deployed in certain situations, such as temptation. At its center is the scene of divine judgment, usually imagined as an individual standing before a tribunal composed of Christ and a crowd of the righteous, “naked” in several senses, as one’s entire personal history, including thoughts, becomes visible to all, with eternal punishment or bliss imminent. The cognitive and corporeal internalization of this image was a central goal of Christian discipline, for which the greatest body of evidence is found in monastic sources. In this context, I will explore three central aspects of the fear of God, namely feelings of shame (associated with vision), guilt (associated with hearing), and bodily pain (associated with touch), and the process by which these are incorporated by novices as they gradually acquire the monastic habit.


Reclaiming the Pneumatikoi for Paul: Moral Progression and Religious Hierarchy in 1 Cor 2:6–3:4
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Laura Dingeldein, Brown University

For generations the concept of the “spiritual man” (pneumatikos) has been denied to Paul; many scholars either label this term as Corinthian in provenance, or accept its Pauline origins while simultaneously downplaying the moral and pedagogical hierarchy that Paul’s use of the concept entails. This paper opposes such denials, reclaiming for Paul the concept of the pneumatikos along with its attendant notions of moral progression and religious hierarchy. A straightforward (and non-ironic) reading of 1 Cor 2.6-3.4 demonstrates Paul’s positive valuation of the pneumatic man as well as his disparaging of the psychic (or “soul-ish”) man. References to the Corinthians as infants who are not yet ready for solid food, combined with Paul’s contrasting of the pneumatikos with the psychikos, paint a picture of Christian development; such distinctions and their accompanying ideas of moral progression also necessitate the concept of hierarchy within the community which Paul envisions. Paul’s use of the concept of the pneumatic man in Gal 6.1, along with his descriptions of moral progression and religious hierarchy throughout the epistles, help to illustrate the importance of these notions in Pauline thought. Furthermore, parallels to these concepts in other facets of Greco-Roman intellectual thought, particularly as exemplified by the major philosophical schools of the day (Middle Platonism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism), demonstrate that reclaiming the concept of the pneumatikos for Paul not only grounds his ideas historically, but also makes his arguments more intelligible.


Telling Silences: The Functions of Ambiguities and Silences in the Gospel of Luke
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Michal Beth Dinkler, Harvard University

Speech and silence are often considered to be mutually exclusive: silence is the absence of speech. However, this perceptual frame limits, rather than opens up, interpretive possibilities when reading ancient texts. Textually, speech and silence are mutually constituted in subtly intricate and inextricable ways. Silences can be meaningful discursive events, powerful aspects of – not absences of – linguistic exchange. In this paper, I consider the complex narrative representations of speech and silence – and the ambiguities they introduce - in the Gospel of Luke. In the first section, I argue that narrated silences introduce ambiguities into the Lukan narrative in two distinct ways: first, the silences of Lukan characters must be interpreted. Still, philosophical conceptions and practices of silence are culturally specific, which means that representations of silence in ancient narratives are easily misunderstood. The second way that silence introduces ambiguities into the narrative is that narrators often omit or delay crucial information, creating narratological gaps that readers must fill as part of the interpretive process. The Lukan narrator’s silences invite readers to attend to significant textual omissions as meaningful, rather than as simple lacunae. Although silences create ambiguities, they also facilitate a kind of dialogue between text and reader as the reader seeks to resolve those ambiguities. One way to read the Lukan text is as an early Christian proclamation – not only of the gospel message, as readers have rightly understood – but also of the proper way to behave as a follower of Jesus in light of that message. Thus, in the second section of the paper, I utilize conceptual tools from narratology and reader-response criticism to explore the ways that complex intersections of narrative representations of speech, unspoken words (thoughts), and silences offer crucial touchpoints for understanding how the Lukan narrative attempts to shape its readers.


Speaking of Silence: The Narrative Representations of Speech and Silence in the Gospel of Luke
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Michal Beth Dinkler, Harvard University

Scholars have long agreed: the author of the Gospel of Luke loves words. Luke’s language has been hailed as the best Greek in the New Testament, reported speech is central to Lukan storytelling, and the unstoppable divine word is a key Lukan theme. However, few scholars have examined how the Lukan portrayals of speech and silence function together rhetorically in Luke’s Gospel. In this paper, I consider Lukan silences as meaningful discursive events, powerful aspects of – not absences of – linguistic exchange. In the first section of the paper, I contend that Lukan deployments of speech and silence establish certain characters’ authority over others. At times, Jesus commands silence (4:35, 41; 5:14; 8:56; 9:21), though elsewhere, he curiously commends those who speak about him (7:22; 12:8; 19:37-40). Certain characters are silenced due to unbelief (1:20), or because Jesus bests them in a verbal duel (14:4, 6; 20:26). In these cases, silencing marks God’s and/or Jesus’ authority. However, silence functions differently when the disciples and Jesus are “silent” (9:36, 23:9). Thus, I consider the multiple portrayals of speech and silence in Luke and the narratological implications of such representations. In the second section of the paper, I propose that the narrative-critical distinction between a story and its telling is a helpful way to approach Lukan silences. First, the story/narration distinction allows one to consider the ways that the same instance of speech and/or silence can function differently on the story level and on the narration level; second, it helps us to make explicit the otherwise implicit ways that story and narration levels are co-instantiated in the interpretive process. Along the way, I offer examples that illustrate how this distinction is useful for mapping what remains largely uncharted territory – namely, the tightly woven intertwining of words and silences in the Lukan narrative.


The Internet Apocalypse: 2012 in Context
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Lorenzo DiTommaso, Concordia University - Université Concordia

Much about the 2012 phenomenon seems historically unprecedented and thoroughly modern. Its basic timetable is non-biblical (Mayan). Its doomsday structure accommodates a wide range of expectations, many of which seem far removed from traditional apocalyptic speculation. Its intimate relationship with the Internet and other modern social media is distinctively contemporary, particularly insofar as it has rebooted the message and purposes of the apocalyptic worldview in light of a fully wired and global public. Yet many of these features are not as new or unanticipated as might first appear. For example, the "superflat apocalypticism" fostered by the Internet has a conceptual antecedent in mediaeval apocalyptic manuscripts (text, illumination, and glosses/marginalia). The essential fluidity of the 2012 message is reflected in the logic of the worldview and in the recombinant nature of many of its earlier expressions, while the "flexible" aspects of this message (syncretistic, trans-national, and multi-cultural) are hardly unique from a historical perspective. Most importantly, the propositions of the apocalyptic worldview regarding time, space, and human destiny have not changed for over 2,300 years. All of this points to some larger issues. This paper seeks to locate the 2012 phenomenon in the context of apocalypticism as a historical and organic worldview. Such an enquiry naturally embraces a discussion of subordinate categories such as genre, social settings, discourse, historiography, and eschatology.


Ornamental Motifs in the Two Manuscripts and Later Additions to St. Petersburg 53
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Elina Dobrynina, State Institute for Art Studies, Moscow

Elina Dobrynina, currently preparing a catalogue of illuminated Greek manuscripts in Russian collections, analyzes ornamental motifs of the two manuscripts (headpieces, initials, and the miniatures’ frames) in the context of the Byzantine ornamental repertoire. In addition, she describes and analyzes later additions (marginal narrative miniatures) to the St. Petersburg codex as an example of manuscript restoration in the Palaeologan period


Analysing the Interpretation of the Old Testament in Hebrews: Towards a New Methodology
Program Unit: Hebrews
Susan Docherty, Newman University College Birmingham UK

The interpretation of the Old Testament in Hebrews, so fundamental to the letter’s argument, is a subject addressed by all commentators, and it has been the specific focus of numerous very valuable studies over the years (such as those by, for instance, Markus Barth, George Caird, and Graham Hughes). This paper will argue, however, that the application to Hebrews of a new methodology may enable us to better understand the author’s use of the Old Testament and to identify some of his characteristic exegetical techniques which have been previously overlooked. The approach advocated here begins from the premise that Hebrews should be placed firmly within the context of early Jewish bible interpretation, and is inspired by current research within the field of Jewish Studies, particularly the work of Alexander Samely, who has within the last decade developed a highly sophisticated methodology for defining targumic and mishnaic exegetical techniques. Some key sections of the letter which draw heavily on scripture will therefore be analysed to illustrate this methodology, including Heb 7:1-10 (Melchizedek) and Heb 11:1-22 (the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis. The paper will use these passages to seek to explore issues such as: the relationship between Hebrews and other genres of scriptural interpretation found within early post-biblical Judaism, including targum and rewritten bible; the attitude taken to reproducing the exact wording of a scriptural text; the techniques by which a text could be assigned as relevant to a particular topic; the ways in which the author prepares his audience for his ensuing interpretation of scripture by the provision of new literary context for a citation; and the factors which allowed for the linking of two or more scriptural texts.


First Come, First Served: Simon, Peter, and the Orders of Knowledge in the Didascalia Apostolorum and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Maria E. Doerfler, Duke University

In Acts 8:9, the reader encounters a character named Simon, a sorcerer, whose eagerness to purchase the apostles’ power brings him into conflict with Peter and James. The episode takes up a scant fifteen verses; yet despite the brevity of his cameo appearance, Simon Magus proceeded to capture the patristic imagination. The highlight of Simon's "literary career" occurs without question in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions. Both texts tell the story of the apostle Peter's pursuit of and polemical engagement with Simon, as narrated by Peter's disciple Clement. The narratives are punctuated with trappings of both apologetic encounter and classical romance; Peter and Simon debate one another, perform magic and miracle, mislead and convert, and in the process effect the reconciliation of a family torn apart by fate. The depiction of Simon Magus in the Pseudo-Clementines has received a measure of scholarly attention, in part due to the tantalizing resemblance between this Simon and the second-century writer Marcion or even the apostle Paul. Inasmuch as the Pseudo-Clementines stem from what might be considered a "Jewish Christian" milieu, Simon’s depiction as making converts from among the Gentiles and as preaching a false gospel purged of Jewish elements will not come as a surprise. Yet the character’s very versatility and polyvalence allowed for the existence of competing and mutually incompatible versions of Simon Magus in late ancient texts. The Simon of the Pseudo-Clementines is thus confronted by another Simon located in a text of equally uncertain provenance and similar Jewish-Christian tendencies – the Didascalia Apostolorum. In this paper, I examine three facets of the literary confrontation between the Didascalia and the Pseudo-Clementines surrounding Simon Magus’s encounter with the apostle Peter. First, I will demonstrate that the Didascalia’s account seeks to establish a counter-narrative vis-à-vis the Pseudo-Clementines by pointedly inverting the structure of revelation established in the latter. Whereas Peter’s claim to epistemic reliability in the Pseudo-Clementines hinges upon his coming second to Simon, the Didascalia thus emphasize Simon’s following after Peter, effectively de-stabilizing the dynamics of reliable and misleading expositions of Christian gnosis. The confrontation between the texts furthermore extends to the content of Simon’s teaching. The Didascalia’s ascription of disparate or even mutually exclusive doctrines to Simon Magus and his disciples reflects not the author’s or redactor’s confusion, but his polemical engagement with the Pseudo-Clementine narrative. Finally, I consider the location of the Simon Magus pericopé in the Didascalia and its effect on the reader. Sitting at the seams between a discussion of schism and a condemnation of “Judaizing” practice, the Didascalia’s re-writing of the central Pseudo-Clementine narrative thus serves to polemically reinforce several of the text’s key themes while undermining their exposition in the Clementines. In the process, I hope to show that a literary relationship exists between the documents, and that at least one of the Didascalia’s redactors’ polemical foci rested on Christians like those that had produced and continued to read the Pseudo-Clementines.


The Money Market at the Roman State
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Justin Dombrowski, Columbia University in the City of New York

Recent research by scholars such as David Hollander, William Harris, and Peter Temin among others, has drawn attention to the increasing likelihood that credit instruments constituted a far more significant portion of the money supply during the Late Republic and High Empire than we have traditionally thought. The purpose of my presentation is to push this argument in a new direction by illuminating various roles the state played as an actor in the credit market, as well as its motivations for doing so. The presentation will proceed programmatically in three steps. First, I will first offer some hitherto unexamined data that seems to imply that accounting and non-coined financial instruments were centrally important to the financial administration of the empire. This will include not only arguments about the provincially-internal nature of imperial pay and donativa, but also about the balancing of civic and provincial expenditures with tax revenues due the imperial aerarium and fiscus. Second, I will provide a sample of the evidence that illustrates the involvement of the state and the emperor’s subordinates in the lending market. Evidence such as that concerning imperial freedmen in the Sulpicii archive and the importance of government lending in Pliny the Younger, though impressionistic, provide important insights into the nature of imperial finance and investment. Finally, given this information I shall explore several reasons behind the state’s activity in the credit market. To give one example, several letters between Pliny and Trajan may suggest that government-issued loans were given as an attempt to secure and increase provincial treasuries. Other evidence suggest the state had a direct role in financing commerce as well.


"Gentile Christianity" as a Category in the Study of Christian Origins
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Terence L. Donaldson, Wycliffe College

In the task of reconstructing Christian origins, conceptual categories are essential tools of critical analysis. Tools have their limitations, however; they also require periodic maintenance if they are to retain their usefulness. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the category “Gentile Christianity,” a category which, among other uses, helps to define its binary counterpart “Jewish Christianity.” The paper will explore several pertinent issues: (i) Translation: The choice between “nations” and “Gentiles” is often not an easy one, and even when “Gentiles” is appropriate, this rendering loses the nuance of “nations” that is always present in Greek (or Latin). (ii) Gentile Christianities: As Raymond Brown and John Meier reminded us a quarter-century ago, Jewish Christians held different and often competing conceptions of how non-Jewish Christ-believers might be incorporated into, or relate with, communities of Jewish Christ-believers, resulting in several distinct varieties of “Gentile Christianity.” (iii) Self-identification: “Gentiles” is not a term that non-Jews would naturally use of themselves. The use of this essentially Jewish category hinders investigation into the ways in which non-Jewish Christ-believers would identify themselves. (iv) Ethnic homogenization: Related to this is the fact that, as a trans-ethnic category, ethne (nations, Gentiles) serves to override the various ethnic entities that it comprises, which may well have been important categories of self-definition for “Gentile Christians.” (v) Greco-Roman quests for unity: In the Greco-Roman world there were several other projects (philosophical, imperial) whose goal was likewise to draw “all the nations” (panta ta ethne, omnes gentes) into some form of trans-ethnic unity. The use of the Jewish term “Gentiles” tends to obscure the possible connections between the “Gentile Christian” movement and these wider non-Jewish phenomena.


Reading 2 Maccabees: Engagement of an Ancient Story by Two Later Commentators
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Robert Doran, Amherst College

This paper traces the author's engagement with 2 Maccabees, first arguing for its viability as an historical source on the basis of its superior representation of the timeframe for the death of Antiochus IV over against the presentation of the same in 1 Maccabees, and thus against its relegation to the genre of "pathetic historiography." The author traces his movement away from concern with defending the book's historical value and more interested in the epitome's author agenda in writing, using traditional literary patterns and manipulating" the course of events. The epitome's casting of the trial of the 7 brothers and the mother within a traditional mythic pattern has been ignored by the author of 4 Maccabees in his telling of the story, a text that shows a clear, early instance of the reception and imprint of 2 Maccabees.


The Greek Text of De Indolentia
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Janet Downie, Princeton University

Panelist


Prosopological Exegesis in Cyprian’s De opere et eleemosynis
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
David J. Downs, Fuller Theological Seminary

Cyprian of Carthage’s treatise De opere et eleemosynis represents an important contribution to the emerging early Christian discourse about the redemptive value of almsgiving (so Jerome, Ep. 66.5; see R. Finn, Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire, 123-26). Throughout the treatise, Cyprian draws deeply upon the language of scripture in order to develop his claim that almsgiving serves to purge the post-baptismal sins of the donor. It has been suggested that Cyprian employs a collection of scriptural “proof-texts” to demonstrate the validity of his assertion (Finn, 125). There is no doubt that Cyprian often presents ethical exhortation on the basis of scriptural proof-texts (see Testimonies 3). Yet in De opere et eleemosynis, Cyprian offers a nuanced reading of scripture that goes beyond mere proof-texting. This paper will explore one aspect of Cyprian’s hermeneutical strategy in the treatise, namely, the bishop’s employment of “prosopological exegesis,” an interpretative technique that allows Cyprian to identify the Holy Spirit as the “speaker” of certain biblical texts. This is seen, for example, in the citation of both Prov 16:6 and Sirach 3:30 in the opening of De opere et eleemosynis — two texts (along with Luke 11:41) that provide the foundational scriptural warrant for Cyprian’s theological claim that almsgiving removes post-baptismal sin— although the reading strategy is found throughout the document (e.g., 4, 5, 9). Thus, Cyprian’s appeal for Christians to participate in the ministry of almsgiving and his critique of pagan euergetism is supported by a hermeneutical strategy that identifies divine authors of biblical texts. Rather than simply assembling a list of “proof-texts,” Cyprian’s De opere et eleemosynis presents the whole of scripture as a witness to “the strain and exhortation of the Holy Spirit,” who commands all who hope in the heavenly kingdom to give alms (Eleem. 4).


“Love Covers a Multitude of Sins”: Redemptive Almsgiving in 1 Peter 4:8 and Its Early Christian Reception
Program Unit: Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
David J. Downs, Fuller Theological Seminary

An answer to the question, “Whose love covers whose sins according to the axiom in 1 Pet 4:8?” is not easy to discern based on the syntax of the text. Among early Christian and patristic advocates of redemptive almsgiving, however, 1 Peter 4:8 is one of the New Testament texts cited most frequently to support the notion that providing material assistance to the poor covers (or redeems or cancels or cleanses) the sins of the donor (so 2 Clem 16.4; Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 38; Strom. 4.18; cf. Origen, Hom. Lev. 2.4; 1 Clem. 49.5). It has been said that this popular patristic interpretation is “rendered questionable by the assertion of [the author of 1 Peter] that sins against God have been taken away by Christ (1.18-19; 2.24; 3.18)” (Achtemeier, 1 Peter, 296). This paper will explore 1 Pet 4:8 in light of its early Christian reception history, focusing particularly on the nature of sin in 1 Peter and on the relationship between the removal of sins through the death of Christ and the removal of sins through human love. Does the claim that love for others within the community of faith brings atonement for the sins of the one who demonstrates love necessarily compromise the conviction that removal of sins results from the death of Christ? An examination of the use of 1 Pet 4:8 among second and third century advocates of redemptive almsgiving will show that several early Christian interpreters were not unaware of this tension, yet emphasized both the unique, atoning significance of the cross and the possibility of sin remission through almsgiving.


The Interpretation of Circumcision in the MT and the LXX of Josh 5:2–9
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Thomas B. Dozeman, United Theological Seminary

The MT and the LXX diverge significantly in their interpretation of circumcision in Josh 5:2-9, where the MT represents the more expanded textual tradition over the shorter LXX. The differences have given rise to debate over the literary priority of the two textual traditions. A. G. Auld, working in the tradition of S. Holmes, argues that the MT pluses are expansions to the more original Vorlage of the LXX, added for theological reasons. The clarification in the MT of vv. 4-7, that all males were circumcised in Egypt, is meant to counter the opposite statement in the LXX, that only a portion of the Israelite males where circumcised. D. W. Gooding reverses the literary relationship of the MT and the LXX. He argues that the LXX version of the wilderness journey in vv. 4-7 is a latter explanation for the problematic statement in v. 2 of the MT that the Israelites circumcised for a second time at Gilgal. M. van der Meer extends the argument of Gooding, attributing the textual differences between the MT and the LXX to the Greek translator. The debate clarifies how different the textual traditions of the MT and the LXX are from each other in the composition of the story of circumcision in Josh 5:2-9. I wish to build on this research by adopting E. Ulrich’s hypothesis of textual “pluriformity” to explore the way in which competing views of circumcision in the post-exilic period may be influencing the MT and LXX textual traditions.


The Attitude to Gentiles in the Community of the Didache
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Jonathan A. Draper, University of KwaZulu-Natal

It has often been argued, from its first rediscovery in 1883, that the Didache represents a manual for the admission of Gentiles to a Jewish Christian community (e.g. Seeberg, Klein, Taylor). The early Jewish Christian nature of the text has been increasingly emphasized in recent studies of the text (e.g. Alon, Flusser and van de Sandt, Draper). This paper builds on this work and explores the attitude of the Didache community to Gentile outsiders to the community before and after their admission to the community.


How Binitarian/Trinitarian is Eusebius' Theology?
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Volker Drecoll, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Some scholars argued that Eusebius' Binitarianism is responsible for the later, "Eusebian" tradition (and its Pneumatomachian part) and assumed that in Eusebius' eyes the Spirit has an unclear position between Creator and Creation. This was reckoned as an effect of a certain Origenistic tradition. Holger Strutwolf who stresses the high level of Eiusebius' theology, refused this interpretation and pointed out the Trinitarian passage in Praep. ev. XI and De eccl. theol. A detailed analysis of both passages shows that in Praep. ev. XI the reference to Ps.-Plato, ep. 213de is merely a "traditional" one (it follows esp. Clemens Alex.), while Eusebius pays much more attention to the Father-Son-relation in Middle- and Neoplatonism. In De ecclesiastica theologia the profile of Eusebius' theology is heavily dependent on his opponent Marcellus. And Marcellus is the first theologian as far as we know, who has a really Trinitarian starting point (Ansatz) of his theology (all others were concerned primarily with Christology); so the pneumatological parts of De eccl. theol. are the reaction to this. The relevant section in Book III is very interesting because of its effects upon the symbol (creed) tradition in the later fourth century; but in itself, it is a quite limited pneumatology dependent upon the struggle against Marcellus. So, even if the opposition between binitarianism and trinitarianism cannot be maintained in its strict sense, the impact of the theology of Marcellus (and its effect in Eusebius) on the pneumatology in the Trinitarian controversy should not be neglected.


Exegesis: A Defining Characteristic in 4QSam-a
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Jason Driesbach, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

4QSam-a is the most complete of the texts of Samuel recovered from Qumran, and it is text-critically very significant. Our understanding of the character of 4QSam-a, as of any text, will affect its application in text-criticism. Although portions of the scroll’s content have been known for some time, consensus has not been reached on the nature of the scroll itself. One scholar has suggested that it is not a biblical text but a midrash (A. Rofé), while others have strongly supported some of its variants, even using them in the text of English translations of the Bible (e.g., the material regarding Nahash before 1 Sam 11:1 in the New Revised Standard Version and New Living Translation). In order to address this issue, the relation of 4QSam-a to the MT, Codex Vaticanus, and the Lucianic Greek text needs to be studied in great detail. The present paper focuses on the secondary readings in these texts as a means to assess the textual character of 4QSam-a. I think it is an exaggeration to call the scroll a commentary or midrash, but there is a significant amount of stylistic and theological exegesis in the text (including what has been termed “nomistic” exegesis). Specifically, I find that 4QSam-a contains 33% more secondary readings than the MT and that 4QSam-a is twice as likely as the MT to have an exegetical reading. The presence of this tendency toward exegesis raises serious questions about understanding the text as a “better” witness to the earliest text of Samuel than the MT, although the scroll undoubtedly reflects some significant original readings. The paper will present an examination of various examples of exegesis in 4QSam-a as a step towards a sound text-critical approach towards the scroll.


Psalm 2 in Antiochene Exegesis: On the Difficulty of Identifying Nations and Peoples
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Daniel R. Driver, Tyndale University College and Seminary (Ontario)

Although Old Testament exegesis in the Antiochene school is known for its emphasis on the literal and historical ("historia"), it it equally well-remembered for the exceptional cases in which texts do point beyond Israel to Christ and the church. Psalm 2 is the first of perhaps only four psalms that Diodore, Theodore and Theodoret take in a christological sense. Their approach is not without difficulty, particularly in that their readings turn on a difficult identification of the nations in conspiracy (2:1). This paper will present an analysis of the touchy and somewhat atypical reception of Psalm 2 at Antioch.


All Things Bright and Beautiful: Translating the Bible for Children
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Jaqueline du Toit, University of the Free State, South Africa

The act of translating the Bible for children is primarily driven by the impetus for one generation of a religious community to impart their values and identity to the next. It implies the involvement of the adult both as creator and primary audience (consumer) of the children’s Bible: the Bible was written by adults for adults and it is translated, reformatted and illustrated by adults for children. Considering the seminal work of Riitta Oittinen (2000) on translation for children, as well as that of Emer O’Sullivan on comparative children’s literature (2005), this paper looks at the adult religious collective’s image of childhood and the influence this has on the idealised presentation of Judaeo-Christian values to children. Oittinen and O’Sullivan’s work on secular children’s literature in translation is contextualized in terms of children’s Bibles and the particular parameters of the intimate knowledge exchange between parent and child traditionally conducted at bedtime. The paper points to and elaborates on the challenges of framing moral discourse and primarily adult material in a child friendly format when contributing to the transfer of a religious community’s intellectual and moral heritage from one generation to the next. To illustrate I shall rely largely on the South African context which informs my own work.


Dating the Inscriptions from Mt. Gerizim
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Jan Dušek, Univerzita Karlova v Praze

The paper is devoted to the presentation of some results of the author's research concerning the inscriptions discovered by the team of Yitzhak Magen in the vicinity of the former Yahwistic sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim. It seems that in the Persian and Hellenistic periods the Yahwistic groups in Samaria and Judea had two official sanctuaries: on Mt. Gerizim and in Jerusalem. Whereas the history of the Judean community with its center in Jerusalem was described by many studies, the Yahwistic community with its centre on Mt. Gerizim remained in the shadow. Even some recent publications concerning the history of Levant during the Hellenistic period simply omit its existence. The archaeological excavations led by Y. Magen in the vicinity of the former Yahwistic sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim, and especially the discovery of a high number of fragments of stones with Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions, indirectly provide an important evidence for the history of this community. According to the editio princeps the Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions from Mt. Gerizim are dated approximately to the 3rd – 2nd centuries, some of them perhaps to the 5th-4th centuries BCE. More precise dating of the inscriptions is however necessary in order to obtain from this epigraphic material the utmost for further historical research. More exact dating, that we wish to present in our paper, is based especially upon the paleographic analysis, seems to be confirmed by some historical circumstances, and represents a starting point for further considerations about the Yahwistic community in Samaria during the Hellenistic period.


Israel’s Hardened Minds: 2 Cor 3:14a and the Development of a Theological Idea
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Paul B. Duff, George Washington University

In 2 Cor 3:12-13, Paul suggests that he acts with “openness” unlike Moses who veiled his face “to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of what was being set aside” (3:13). In the verses that follow, Paul characterizes Israel’s understanding—particularly with regard to the scriptures—as veiled from that moment on (3:14-15). Curiously, Paul does not blame Moses for Israel’s veiled perception. Instead, he inserts the brief phrase, “but their minds were hardened” in 3:14a. This effectively shifts the blame for Israel’s failings to the deity since, I will argue, the verb eporothe functions as a divine passive. In this paper, I will explore the historical situation that resulted in Paul’s appeal to Moses in 2 Corinthians 3. I will argue that such did not result from any polemic against outside opponents (i. e., the “false apostles” of 11:13) as is often suggested. Rather, it was part of Paul’s defensive response to opponents within the community and their demand for letters of recommendation. Based upon that analysis, I will attempt to show why Paul felt compelled to shift the blame for Israel’s hardening away from Moses. Finally, I will suggest that shifting the blame from Moses to God, based upon the exigencies of Paul’s argument, provided the seed for a theological idea that Paul would later use to explain the temporary failure of the Jewish mission (Romans 11). The earlier passage, 2 Corinthians 3, depicts Israel as a negative example (much like Israel in 1 Corinthians 10), whose salvation is hoped for but not presumed. Romans 11, on the other hand, portrays Israel’s hardening in a positive light. It represents a temporary opportunity for the gentiles. Nevertheless, Israel's salvation is ultimately assured.


Biblical Studies/Interpretation and Metacognitive Reading Skills
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Rodney Duke, Appalachian State University

Increasingly, or rather retrogressively, students coming out of high school have fewer learning skills and a mistaken notion about what constitutes learning. These characteristic are appreciatively noticeable in their lack of reading comprehension skills. Moreover, when it comes to reading the Bible, a subject over which students often have preconceived notions and some vested interest, students tend to abandon what reading skills they have acquired and read the Bible "on the flat" without nuance. Metacognition refers to the ability to observe and analyze one's own thought process, such as deliberatively choosing a strategic method for solving a problem. A metacognitive approach to reading seeks to get students to think about what the process of successful communication through reading entails and then deliberatively to employ appropriate reading strategies. This paper briefly outlines the problem, defines metacognitive reading for successful communication, and then presents a couple of specific strategies and exercises that have worked in an undergraduate setting.


Creation, Tripartite Anthropologies, and the Limits of the Human
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Ben Dunning, Fordham University

The idea of some sort of tripartite division to the human subject is at least as old as Plato, and similar divisions can be seen in the writings of later Platonists such as Plutarch and Philo. Building on this philosophical tradition as well as the anthropological speculations of Paul in 1 Corinthians, certain so-called “Valentinian” Christians in the second and third centuries posited three specific kinds of human beings: material/choic humans, psychic humans, and pneumatic humans. Scholarly conversation around this topic has focused primarily on the degree of eschatological determinism that the division entails—with recent scholarship making a convincing set of arguments for a more fluid or dynamic understanding of the three classes of human beings in question (Buell 2005, Dunderberg 2008, Thomassen 2009). While agreeing with the ways in which this work has complicated the notion of a “saved by nature” theology in Valentinian texts, this paper takes up a different set of questions, beginning not with eschaton/salvation, but rather with creation—and the implications of various creation stories for the constitution of the human subject. Here I explore the ways in which different deployments of tripartite categories in early Christian creation myths function to demarcate and delimit the contours of “the human” in specific and theologically significant ways. That is to say, Valentinian texts mobilize the distinction between material, psychic, and pneumatic bodies variably in order to articulate where the human starts, where it stops, and where its limits interact—both licitly and illicitly—with the registers of the non-human (divine, archonic, bestial). To make this case, the analysis centers on three representative texts: the Tripartite Tractate, the Excerpts from Theodotus (as preserved in Clement of Alexandria), and On the Origin of the World (the last text not being strictly Valentinian but containing a tripartite anthropological scheme commonly identified with a Valentinian redactor).


Mourning Stability: Judith Butler, Sexual Difference, and Early Christian Theological Anthropology
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Ben Dunning, Fordham University

This paper examines the problem of the sexually differentiated subject/body in Paul and his early interpreters in conversation with Judith Butler’s recent work on ethics, mourning, and violence as constitutive of subjectivity. Confronted with a Pauline typological matrix oriented around the male bodies of Adam and Christ, early Christians (including Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, and authors from the Nag Hammadi corpus) faced a basic theological conundrum: sexual difference simply does not fit in any obvious or uncomplicated way into a theology of creation and resurrection grounded in an Adam-Christ typology. Ancient authors responded by figuring the paradigmatic “woman” (whether Eve, Mary, or simply an abstract “femininity”) in multiple ways: as a temporary aberration, as a specific site of the divine in the world inassimilable to the Pauline “two man” paradigm, or as a secondary supplement to that paradigm. But none of these approaches, I argue, entirely succeed in delivering the coherence that they promise. Rather, the early Christian dream of an absolute fulfillment of type in antitype, creation in eschaton, stumbles over sexual difference. Here Butler’s work proves useful for exploring the implications of this discursive failure for feminist and queer theology. Following her lead, I contend that this failure of coherence on the part of early Christians need not be construed as an ethical one—nor as a theological dead end. Instead, these texts offer us a vivid illustration of one way in which “[any] account of myself is partial, haunted by that for which I can devise no definitive story” (Giving an Account of Oneself, 40). Yet precisely the failure to produce a definitive story for sexually differentiated theological anthropology has the potential to force open the space for other kinds of stories. But this process may entail a certain necessary mourning for the loss of a putative (if problematic) anthropological stability—a mourning that, as Butler notes, “has to do with agreeing to undergo a transformation (perhaps one should say submitting to a transformation) the full result of which one cannot know in advance” (Precarious Life, 21).


Reading Resistance in the Ending of Acts: Arrests and Trials in Texts of the Second Sophistic
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Ruben Dupertuis, Trinity University

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Like a Motherless Child: Procreation without Women in John 1–2
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Nicole Wilkinson Duran, Meadville Lombard Theological School

As an American heterosexual woman and a feminist, I function in a society in which women live under the names of men—their father’s or their husband’s. Exposure to my husband’s Turkish culture has intensified my interest in the patrilineal—the sustained and counter-intuitive social effort to trace family entirely through men, from father to son, and revealed to me the extent to which the system of surnames in English perpetuates patrilineal concerns. Women are to some extent erased as progenitors, or serve only as generational links between men, in this process. Although, or perhaps because John lacks a birth narrative, the idea of begetting is central to the first two chapters of this gospel, in the narrator’s initial explanation of Jesus’ mission and in Jesus first narrated conversation, with Nicodemus. In both, the focus is entirely on the father’s role, so that the word “born” is in fact something more like “begotten” or “fathered.” Birth according to the flesh, from the mother’s womb, is despised, while birth according to the spirit appears to involve no mother equivalent. Looking at these two chapters with issues of family definition and patrilineality in mind, I will examine in this paper the extent to which John’s preference for spiritual over physical birth effectively erases women from the procreative process.


The Hebrew and the Syriac Copula in Kings
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Janet W. Dyk, Vrije Universiteit

The two verbs ??? and??? are cognates, similar to one another in both form and meaning, yet they do not always correspond to one another in the Masoretic and the Peshitta versions of Kings. In both texts a significant number have no equivalent in the other version; nonethe¬less, the motivations for the cases without correspondence differ per language. We mention a limited number of syntactic and distributional factors which account for the majority of cases where these copular verbs are not rendered by one another in the other version.


Blessed Are the Poor: Images of Christ's Poverty in Early Lutheran Propaganda
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Bobbi Dykema, Hamline University

The abuse of indulgences was only the tip of the iceberg of Luther’s case against the papacy. In 1520 he published his open letter To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, calling upon the German elite to resist both the spiritual and material excesses of the papacy. In May 1521, Luther’s colleagues Philipp Melanchthon and Lucas Cranach the Elder collaborated on a 26-page pamphlet which made the same case against the papacy for the benefit of the third estate: Passional Christi und Antichristi. Each pair of facing pages of Passional contrasts woodcut images from the life of Christ with images of the excesses of the Pope, with texts below each images quoting scripture and/or canon law. Many of the images of Christ emphasize his poverty over against the material wealth and ostentation of the Pope, a particular concern of the sixteenth-century Reformers. A particularly notable example is the page depicting Christ’s nativity, which is paired with a text not from the gospel of Matthew or of Luke, but with 2 Corinthians 8:9, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” The texts accompanying the woodcuts of Passional are not mere illustrations; rather, the images and texts of Passional combine to create a powerful and synergistic message amplified across its 26 pages of an ostentatiously wealthy papacy serving as vicar to a poor and humble Christ. Other texts highlighted including Christ’s sending forth of the disciples with nothing but the clothes on their backs; the miraculous finding of the coin in the fish; and, as the title would seem to indicate, images of Christ’s Passion. These are contrasted with images of the Pope indulging in feasts, being carried in a litter, providing bishoprics only to wealthy and prestigious towns, and (of course) signing indulgences. This paper will examine the ways in which Passional Christi und Antichristi worked hand in hand with contemporary evangelical sermons, visually preaching the doctrine of the poverty of Christ as a prophetic corrective to the sumptuary and mercenary excesses of the papacy, particularly those of Julius II and Leo X. Passional borrowed from the artistic traditions, both visual and literary, of German devotional prints and the poetry, to create a hand-held visual prophetic sermon against the papacy that was accessible to the German laity at all levels of literacy. It is a unique document in the genre of early Lutheran print propaganda, in that its images were produced by a well-known master artist rather than anonymously; that it carries both a positive message affirming the values of the evangelical movement as well as a negative message against the papacy; and that it ingeniously functions as both propaganda and prayer.


Intertextuality and Mimesis Criticism: Understanding the Gospels as Scriptural Historiography
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Tom Dykstra, University of Washington

The word "intertextuality" has been turning up with increasing frequency in the writings of biblical scholars. It has a wide variety of meanings, most of them falling along a spectrum that has a focus on authors at one end and on readers at the other end. Authors consult and borrow from other texts as they compose their own, and some scholars seek to recognize those intertextual relationships primarily to gain insight into the author's intentions. For other scholars the author's intention is irrelevant; once a text begins to circulate it's a self-standing entity and the author is out of the picture. Here the idea is to understand how a text has been understood by its readers or hearers, and that understanding is determined by a text's relationship to other texts those readers or hearers are familiar with. Dennis MacDonald coined the term "mimesis criticism" for a methodology mainly aimed at ascertaining authorial method and intention. His work has helped spur an interest in intertextuality in general. In this article I review the development of this line of inquiry in biblical scholarship, with special attention on ramifications for understanding the gospels. Seen in this light, the evangelists' methods parallel those of Old Testament authors, and I call the resulting genre "scriptural historiography" based on Meir Sternberg's analysis of the relationship between "history" and "fiction" in Old Testament scripture. This analysis undermines the foundations of such basic paradigms of gospel scholarship as the two-source hypothesis, oral tradition, and form criticism. At the same time, it gives the evangelists more credit for literary genius and suggests that to appreciate their literary achievement one must take seriously both ends of the intertextuality spectrum.


Old Rome as New Rome: The Cult of Peter and Paul and the Recreation of Roman Identity
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
David L. Eastman, Yale University

This paper focuses on the Christian reimagination of Roman history and identity through the ascribing of two roles to the apostles Peter and Paul as part of their cult in Rome: founders and citizens. In On the Crowns of Martyrdom, the poet Prudentius sings the praises of Peter and Paul and of their cultic centers on the Vatican Hill and Ostian Road. However, he also directs the focus of the audience to the Tiber River, which he presents as the conceptual bridge between the shrines and traditional locations of the shedding of apostolic blood. In doing so, he evokes the foundation myths of Aeneas, Father Tiber, and Romulus and Remus, but then recasts the narrative to present the apostolic pair as the twin founders of the city, a full half-century before the famous sermon of Leo I. Another important image for the proliferation of the apostolic cult was Peter and Paul as "citizens" of Rome itself. Several bishops specifically appealed to this citizenship in order to re-assert the primacy of the city vis-à-vis Christian centers in the East. This language occurs in a poem placed by Damasus at the Catacombs on the Appian Road, the earliest documented site of the apostolic cult in Rome. It later appeared again in a letter from Gregory I to the empress Constantina, in which Gregory recounts a failed attempt to take the apostolic relics from Rome to the East. Gregory highlights the identity of Paul and Peter as citizens of the city of Rome as a central factor in the failure of the attempted translation. He also implicitly draws upon themes from Rome's hallowed past, namely the "evocatio deorum" and scenes of imperial "adventus." These presentations of the apostles as founders and citizens were employed to justify the claims that the apostles and their cult were fully Roman and that Rome was a fully empowered apostolic city.


Outpouring of the Spirit and Salvation: Joel 3 as a Corrective Reception of Zech 12:9–13:9 in the Book of the Twelve
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Ruth Ebach, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

The paper investigates the outpouring of the Spirit of God as described in Joel 3 regarding its function in the Book of Joel. It will argue, that Joel 3, a secondary addition to the Book of Joel, is a coherent text and that the individual motives of this text, which are only loosely linked to Joel 1-2 and 4, depend on Zech 12:9-13:9. The paper will show, that the author of Joel 3 uses the framing themes of Zech 12f. – the outpouring of the Spirit (12:10) and the calling of the name of Yhwh (13:9). But he universalizes their scope and he defines the calling of the name as a condition not as a consequence of divine salvation thus emphasizing human autonomy. On this basis, within the Book of Joel, Joel 3 modifies the book’s former intention. Joel 3 changes the chronology of the Day of Yhwh. After Joel 1-2 predicting salvation for Israel, Joel 3 declares that the addressees are (again) all awaiting the Day of Yhwh. But now, the outpouring of the Spirit makes mankind equal, and the criteria in Joel 3:5 give the addressees an instruction that allows to survive the Day of Yhwh. In contrast to the already promised, unconfined salvation for Israel in Joel 2:27, Joel 3 implies, that everybody fulfilling these criteria – Israelite or Non-Israelite – will be saved. Additionally, the observations on Joel 3 influence the interpretation of the Book of the Twelve as a unit. According to Jakob Wöhrle, Joel 3 traces back to the Hellenistic “Salvation-for-the-Nations-Redaction,” which also added Zech 14:16-19. The paper will show that, beyond Wöhrle, both texts – as a new frame around the growing Book of the Twelve – correct the view of Zech 12:9-13:9 by showing a perspective of universal salvation and by emphasizing human autonomy. Thus, Joel 3 together with Zech 14:16-19 takes up Zech 12,9ff, goes beyond its limited scope and reverses the order of human contribution and divine salvation in order to show a differentiated way from judgment to salvation for all humankind.


Perpetua and Classical Literature
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Jennifer Ebbeler, University of Texas, Austin

This paper examines ways in which the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas engages the classical tradition.


P46 with the Pastorals: A Misleading Proposal? Reinvestigating the Evidence of the Missing Last Pages of P46
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Edgar Battad Ebojo, University of Birmingham

Throughout its history of research, many have approached the question of content in the missing last pages of P46 theologically (i.e., canonically). Recently, however, it has been proposed that the increasing number of characters in the last third of the extant leaves of P46 indicates scribal intention to include the Pastorals in the quire proper but proved unsuccessful in his bid. Such proposal should be seriously reconsidered for it has direct consequences to the formation, collection, and canon of the corpus Paulinum, and is a gentle reminder not to be eagerly excited about hastily concluding that P46 originally did not include the Pastorals—a view first enunciated by Sir Frederic Kenyon in his editio princeps, and equally advocated by some of the more prominent textual scholars. Nevertheless, despite the good intentions to put back the Pastorals to its venerable place, the proposal has methodological loopholes. Conversely, the traditional Kenyon proposal is, in the same token, problematic in a number of ways. Hence, a reinvestigation of the evidence (or the lack of it) is not only essential but imperative, especially because of the strategic importance of P46 in the canonical discussion of the Pastorals. In general, this paper re-appraises the usual bases for the arguments that P46 did or did not contain the Pastorals, and argues how an alternative appreciation of the palaeographical-codicological evidence from this ancient papyrus raises new issues and possibilities as to its question of content. In particular, this presentation attempts to demonstrate how the establishable scribal habits of the original hand in the way he inscribed the text of his Vorlage into his codex can probably help in unlocking the mysterious content of the last pages of P46 that is now lost to oblivion.


The Role of the Decalogue in the Book of the Twelve: Pre- and/or Post-Pentateuchal Redaction?
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Cynthia Edenburg, Open University of Israel

Given the Persian period frame of reference for the initial composition of the Book of the Twelve, it seems likely that editorial activity within the scroll continued after the Pentateuch achieved a measure of authority. Nonetheless, the Book of the Twelve displays surprisingly few citations or allusions to Pentateuchal texts or traditions. Therefore, the various texts within the Book of the Twelve that evoke intertextual association with the Decalogue (e.g., Hos 4:2, 13:4, Amos 8:5, and Mal 3:5) provide a basis to examine whether they reflect a "proto-Decalogue" or evoke the authority of a received Tetrateuch or Pentateuch. Finally, I shall explore the role the Decalogue (or Decalogue related texts) plays within the structure of both the Pentateuch and the Twelve, and how the authority readers attribute to the Decalogue shapes their perception of the implied meaning of the two corpora as a whole.


Speaking, Writing, and Reading the Law: Scribality and Royal Perogative in Deuteronomy and Kings
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Cynthia Edenburg, Open University of Israel

Although Deuteronomy is cast as a lengthy address spoken by Moses, the complex and dense texture of its syntax, as well its extensive use of lemmatic citation, overwriting and revision of earlier law, clearly mark it as a scribal composition. So too the Deuteronomistic History, with its appeal to sources and use of sources, bears the stamp of the scribal circles that composed, revised and transmitted the work. Furthermore, the purpose of these works, their style and the general limited accessibility of sources, indicate that these compositions were the work of groups or families of scribes that had been connected to the royal chancery. And yet the number of references to writing and reading in the DtrH are surprisingly few, notwithstanding the original scribal setting of the work and the central role the idea plays in it, of a Book of the Torah inscribed with divine words. Furthermore, nearly all those whom the Deuteronomists credit with writing or reading are royal figures, whether divine or earthly kings or royal alter-egos, such as Moses, Joshua, Gideon and Samuel. This paper will examine the ideology implicit in the deuteronomistic representation of scribality as a royal prerogative within a broader Ancient Near Eastern context, and will discuss how the theme of the king reading the law imparts structure to the DtrH.


"And the Scripture Cannot Be Broken": Corrections in LXX Manuscripts toward the NT Text
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Seth M. Ehorn, University of Edinburgh

The purpose of this paper is to explore various instances when Israel's Greek Scriptures were "corrected" to conform to NT citations, presumably in an act of harmonizing the LXX text to the citation given by the NT text. After cataloging and exploring some of these interesting textual phenomena, this paper will be concerned with the question of coherence, or lack thereof, which such changes introduce into the LXX context(s). Additionally, it will be argued that these kinds of corrections not only give an indication of the access which LXX copyists had to various NT texts, but of an understanding that the texts should agree with one other.


The Ark in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Raanan Eichler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Ark is the primary cult object in the Hebrew Bible. A central question in research on the Ark is as follows: as what type of ancient Near Eastern object, if any, can the Ark be classified? In other words, what is the Ark? The two answers to this question most widely accepted by scholars are (a) that the Ark is a tent shrine comparable to the qubbah, a pre-Islamic bedouin structure, and to later variations of the object; and (b) that the Ark is a footstool for the deity, whose throne is provided by the cherubim above it. It is argued in this paper that both answers are unjustified. A third approach is presented, which takes as its starting point the characteristics of the Ark agreed on by multiple biblical traditions. These suggest a classification of the Ark as a portable (Numbers 4:15; Deuteronomy 10:8, 31:25; 2 Samuel 15:24; etc.) wooden (Exodus 25:10 = 37:1; Deuteronomy 10:1, 3) container (its name; Exodus 25:16, 21 = 40:20; Deuteronomy 10:2, 5; 1 Kings 8:9, 21 = 2 Chronicles 5:10, 6:11) with carrying poles (Exodus 25:13-15 = 37:4-5 + 40:20; I Kings 8:7-8 = II Chronicles 5:8-9). This is a richly attested type of ancient Near Eastern object; hundreds of portable wooden containers and depictions of such objects from ancient Egypt, several of them equipped with carrying poles, are extant. Examination of these containers and related objects reveals parallels to every major element in the detailed description of the Ark in P (Exodus 25:10–22, 37:1–9, 40:20–21), including the use of proportion and dimensions based on the cubit, acacia wood construction, inside-and-out gilding with pure gold, the use of wooden carying poles slid through metal rings attached to the object, and the addition of an ornate, removable lid with sculptures of winged creatures affixed to it. Additionally, the investigation leads to the solution of several difficulties in the Priestly description of the Ark that have received much attention but no satisfactory answer. First, why is it casually mentioned that the Ark has "feet" (Exodus 25:12, 37:3), when no instruction to fashion them is given? Second, how can the Ark's poles be "set in place" in preparation for transport (Numbers 4:6), when the poles are never to be removed from the Ark to begin with (Exodus 25:15)? Finally, what exactly is the zer attached to the Ark (Exodus 25:11, 37:2)?


The Function of the Ark Cherubim
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Raanan Eichler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The two temples described in detail in the Hebrew Bible, the Temple of Solomon and the wilderness Tabernacle, contained in their innermost chamber, the focal point of Israelite worship, the Ark of the Covenant and two sculpted representations of fantastic winged creatures, the cherubim. Understanding the symbolic function of these cherubim may be central to understanding the ancient Israelite cult. The prevailing view regarding this question is that the cherubim formed or supported the throne of YHWH, while the Ark beneath them served as His footstool. The Temple cherubim and Ark are thus considered together as an instance of the sphinx-throne, a known motif in Phoenician and Canaanite visual art from the biblical period. This paper challenges the prevailing view on several grounds. First, biblical sources explicitly define the cherubim as having the role of guardians, not throne-bearers. These sources cannot be down-dated and dismissed, since they are backed up by multiple sources which consistently show that the cherubim were not the primary objects in the Temple and Tabernacle, as would be expected if they served as the throne of YHWH. Second, no actual throne is mentioned in the Bible in relation to the cherubim. Third, the cherubim as described in the Bible stood upright, while all throne-bearing creatures in Ancient Near Eastern visual art are quadrupeds. Fourth, the large dimensions attributed to the cherubim of the Temple would have left insufficient space for a proportional throne. It is shown that the cherubim as described in the Bible correspond to a separate motif in Egyptian-Canaanite iconography, that of the winged protectors. In this motif, two or more winged creatures flank a deity, a person, or an object, and spread their wings toward it in a gesture of protection. A common form of this motif, in which the wings meet in a diamond pattern, appears in several Iron Age items from the Land of Israel, and corresponds specifically to the cherubim of the Tabernacle as depicted in the Bible. A less common form, in which the protecting beings appear en face with their wings spread to the sides, appears on the 14th-century BCE sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, and corresponds to the cherubim of the Temple.


Propagandistic Constructions of Empires in the Book(s) of Isaiah
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Göran Eidevall, Uppsala Universitet

To what extent can prophetic literature in the Hebrew Bible be understood as political propaganda, in the light of our present knowledge of propagandistic texts from different parts of the Ancient Near East? This paper discusses passages in the book(s) of Isaiah that would seem to express a Jerusalem-centred, “anti-imperialist”, point of view. Some oracles display an unmistakably anti-Assyrian agenda, others are uncompromisingly anti-Babylonian. Pejorative images of Egypt might reflect Mesopotamian propaganda. But when were these texts composed? By whom and for whom? Possible scenarios, entailing different rhetoric purposes, are discussed. If the book of Isaiah is interpreted as a post-exilic product, its various constructions of empire add up to an ambiguous picture. It can be demonstrated that this prophetic book (or a penultimate version of it) was edited in accordance with a pro-Persian perspective, perhaps around the time of Nehemiah. However, it is also possible to uncover textual features and structures indicating an overall message which would, at least indirectly, undermine all empires


Jesus, Divorce, and Qumran: Reorienting the Discussion
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
C. D. Elledge, Gustavus Adolphus College

Jesus’ teaching on divorce and remarriage (Matthew 5:31-32 // Luke 16:18; Matthew 19:1-12 // Mark 10:1-12; cf. 1 Corinthians 7:10-11) has proven an especially interesting case in which to evaluate his standing with regard to Jewish law. The study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has both deepened and complicated current understandings of this problem (Temple Scroll [11Q19]; Damascus Document [CDa; 4Q271]). While earlier comparative studies noted a continuity between Jesus’ prohibition of divorce and earlier legal traditions found in the Scrolls, more recent treatments of Qumran’s legal thinking on divorce have advanced a rereading of the problem in which Jesus’ prohibition was completely unique within its ancient context. This divide in current scholarship has left us with either a Jesus who is wholly similar to Qumran’s sectarian teaching on divorce or a Jesus who is entirely dissimilar to all known currents in early Jewish legal interpretation. This paper argues that comparative studies of this problem should focus analysis more narrowly on attitudes toward remarriage in both the Gospel and Qumran evidence, before moving too quickly to the question of divorce. A reading of both New Testament and Qumran evidence regarding remarriage more fully reveals Jesus’ standing within a stream of popular legal interpretation that was increasingly concerned with the dangers of illicit remarriage. While Qumran may or may not have taken the additional step of prohibiting divorce entirely, the Scrolls help to contextualize Jesus’ ardent concern over remarriage within contemporary currents of sectarian legal interpretation; and this alternative method of comparison between the two overcomes an important impasse in the current climate of scholarship on this question: Beyond the “either-or” of previous comparative methodology, reorienting the discussion on remarriage offers the more complex possibility that Jesus’ position had both continuities and discontinuities with earlier legal attitudes toward marriage.


Lament: Psalms, Sorrow, Self, and Society in a Post-Tramatic Society: Peter Homans' Ability to Mourn
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
J. Harold Ellens, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

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Patristic and Reformation Antiphony across Psalm 2
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Mark W. Elliott, University of St. Andrews

This paper will compare and contrast patristic (Gregory of Nyssa, Jerome, Augustine and Theodoret ) and Reformation era commentators (Erasmus, Luther, Bucer, Alesius, Aretius, Calvin, Bellarmine) on Psalm 2. The aim is not so much a competition (whose exegesis is 'better'?) as to see how the different eras of interpretation complement each other. The paper will start with a consideration of which verses seemed worthy of more or less commentary. Perhaps surprisingly for some fathers (Jerome and Augustine) the issue was more that of anthropomorphisms and theo-logy while for the late medieval-early moderns it was Christology that was the focus, although one can see this shift beginning with Cassiodorus. There are some like Calvin, for whom the theology serves as metaphysical scaffolding for a consideration of the travails of the Church. Through a dialogue of interpreters, these questions will be addressed: How far does Peter's interpretation of the Psalm in Acts 2 determine later Christian interpretations? Did the attempt to take the Hebraica veritas seriously actually make a material difference to the later period's exegesis (compare Erasmus with Aretius)? How can Christ be both the servant and the conquering king with implications for the political order?


Jesus in the Gutter: Comics and Graphic Novels Re-imagining the Gospels
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Scott S. Elliott, Adrian College

Graphic novels and comics have long provided a venue for visually portraying biblical narratives. While the genre frequently provides a clever hook for devotees to capture the imagination in order to safely entertain the existing flock or to entice would-be converts into the fold, there is a tradition of graphic novels and comics that are not concerned primarily with a faithful visual rendering of biblical narrative. These productions interrogate and/or appropriate biblical narrative in a variety of ways while maintaining a high degree of fidelity to the requirements of the art form and to the expectations of its readers. Of particular interest, in this regard, are comics and graphic novels focused on the figure of Jesus. This paper investigates two such productions: Mark Millar and Peter Gross, American Jesus, Book One: Chosen (2009), and Frank Stack, The New Adventures of Jesus: The Second Coming (2006). Though remarkably different in many respects, these publications share and exploit the iconoclastic nature and marginal status of the genre, and find in the figure of Jesus a narrative and character uniquely befitting of the form. While neither aims to render Jesus directly, each manages to capture something of both the discursive aspects of the gospel literature, and the counter-cultural message and disposition of the historical Jesus. Conventional Bible comics present images as supplements to the biblical text. American Jesus and The New Adventures of Jesus, however, manipulate the closure that readers provide through recourse to the familiar biblical text. The resulting dissonance allows for a disturbing twist in the former, and genuinely humorous satire in the latter. I contend that these productions faithfully, if ironically, refract the subversive potential of both the biblical narrative and the historical Jesus precisely by their infidelity to what might be loosely described as a more orthodox Christ.


The Sensual Palate: The Priestly Use of Sensory Cues to Prompt Divine Memory
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Barat Ellman, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

This paper argues that a primary objective of priestly ritual is to stimulate continually God’s memory, the arousal and maintenance of which ensure the continuation of God’s covenant with Israel. An analysis of the memory terminology used by the authors of the priestly portions of the Pentateuch (i.e., "sign," "remembrance," safeguarded thing" and "token portion") reveals that this tradition conceptualizes memory as a function of sensory stimulation. In contrast to Deuteronomy’s conception of memory as a verbal exercise for sustaining semantic content, priestly literature assumes that memory is prompted mainly by visual, aural and olfactory cues. Such cues serve to prompt Israel’s memory of particular obligations and prohibitions, but their most important purpose is to prompt God’s memory and attention, both of which are crucial guarantors of God’s covenantal promises to Israel. In consequence, a primary objective underlying priestly ritual is to provide a continual supply of sensory stimulants for God’s memory. The paradigm for priestly ritual derives from the sacrifices offered by Noah (Gen 8:20-21) and the sight of the bow (Gen 9:12-17), both of which bring about a reaffirmation and restoration of creation. On a microcosmic level, the high priest’s garments Exod 28), the trumpets blown on set days and festivals (Num 10), and the fragrance of sacrifices and the "token portion" (azkkarah) (Lev (Lev 1-4, 24:5-8, Num 5:15-31) keep God mindful of his promises to Israel.


Of Human and Divine Bondage: Slavery and Constraint in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Susanna Elm, University of California-Berkeley

Focusing on select letters by Augustine and Ambrose, the paper seeks to contribute to an examination of the social, philosophical, and metaphorical themes of bondage and constraint in the later Roman Empire. The paper will first seek to locate these letters, concerned with slave trade and the language of debt bondage, in their historical context to address these questions: How does language of slavery, indebtedness, or bondage function economically and socially? How does ownership or manumission by a god work as a metaphor within social realities? In privileging slavery as analytical category, the paper seeks to contribute to the methodological discussions of violence and its representation.


The Unity of 2 Corinthians as Reflected in the Account of Paul’s and Titus’ Travels between Ephesus, Macedonia, and Corinth and the Theology of 2:14–7:4
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Copenhagen University

This paper attempts to do two things. Part one addresses the concrete historical circumstances behind the letter. A proposal is made that shows that 2 Corinthians should be understood as a single letter that is tied together by Paul’s account of his own and Titus’ travels: Paul’s own between Ephesus and Macedonia until he met Titus coming up from Corinth (chapters 1-7), Titus’ return to Corinth from Macedonia – accompanied by two other brothers – to prepare for the collection (chapters 8-9) and finally Paul’s own arrival in Corinth from Macedonia as prepared for by Titus (chapters 10-13). It is argued on methodological grounds that this travel scheme settles the issue of the unity of the letter before one begins to consider all the traditional issues (of literary form and concrete content) that have engaged scholars since J.S. Semler. It is further claimed that one previous commentator did see this methodological division of the tasks to be addressed: P.E. Hughes (NICNT 1962). But his insight was lost, probably under the burden of the more traditional approaches. Part two of the paper then addresses in more detail chapters 1-7, the internal coherence of which – viewed as a travel account – constitutes the basis for the reading presented in part one. Here the paper addresses the specific question of how Paul employs and connects four theological themes in the ‘reflection section’ of 2:14-7:4 to lay the ground for his celebration in 7:5-16 of the Corinthians’ return to obedience. The four themes are: his own qualification as an apostle (passim), the advantages of the new dispensation (Paul’s) over the old one of Moses (3:6-18), the presence and activity of the pneuma in Paul and believers in the present and future (4:7-5:10), and the theology and actual practice of reconciliation (5:11-7:4). In this part of the paper the focus is on the way the concrete historical circumstances of the letter gave a very specific form to these theological themes and to their inner connection.


The Fantastic in Bible Picturebooks for Children
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Emma England, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Children’s Bibles, particularly picturebooks, are one of the first, primary, and sometimes only way people read or hear biblical narratives. Understanding the mode or modes of these retellings is therefore a necessary academic endeavor. The most common Hebrew Bible stories retold and illustrated for children tend to be ‘astonishing,’ sharing elements of the fantastic. I focus on Noah and the Ark where animals mysteriously co-exist on a giant boat, but Moses magically parting the ‘Red’ Sea, and Jonah alive in the belly of a ‘Whale’ are other common examples. Concentrating on retellings of the Flood story, I consider how the use of illustrations highlights and often enhances the wondrous. Sometimes fantastic elements like talking animals, giants, or unicorns are added, further moving the retellings away from the mimetic realm; where imitation of (shifting views of) reality dominates. Beyond content, diverse verbal and visual narrative structures function together to create different mimetic and non-mimetic modes. These structures include changes in style, framing, coloring, typesetting, speech tags, and rhyming verse. Using When the Purple Waters Came Again (1971), a picturebook written by the biblical scholar and environmental campaigner Norman C. Habel with illustrations by Jim Roberts, I contrast how changes in these structures create different modes in the retelling of the Flood story. I discuss what role these modes have within the retellings, including how the contrast between reality and fantastic fictionality justifies and evades challenging elements of the biblical narratives. I close by examining the implications of using imagery of the fantastic to retell biblical narratives. These include how the retellings invariably highlight their fantastic elements at the expense of the primary content of the story, and the fact that some people may only ever directly encounter biblical narratives through the fantastic.


Amatory Interventions: Musico-Biblical Allegories of Postmodern Love
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Heidi Epstein, University of Saskatchewan

What theoretical insights might re-reading the Song of Solomon through its contemporary musical afterlives, and through postmodern conceptualizations of love produce? Love re-defined as: 1) a highly commodified, “regulatory fiction,” constituted through rituals of consumption that (paradoxically) afford “utopian transgressions” of the capitalist daily grind (Eva Illouz); 2) the crucial “ideologeme” grounding an “intimate public sphere” that is sustained by a “women’s culture” of film, novels and music. Therein “universalized features of the heart” generate a “politics of true feeling” which dissolves sex/race/class/ethnic differences and produces societal “progress” (Lauren Berlant); 3) a conflicted, defiant quest for transcendent/metaphysical experience within hyper-commodified life-worlds, one that nevertheless includes cynical acknowledgments that confessions of “true love” are thoroughly mediated through clichés, conventions, and citations from popular culture (Catherine Belsey). I propose that the Song of Songs, and especially its musical afterlives, participate in the discursive composition of these postmodern versions of love. I attend particularly to musical enfleshments of the Song whose un-conventional erotic semiotics disrupt the transmission of normalizing socio-romantic energies within the intimate public sphere, thereby countering religio-theological models of love that enlist and prescribe the Song’s timeless wisdom that “love conquers all” to bolster heteronormative institutions of love, sexuality, marriage, and family. Following Belsey and Berlant, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ "Flos campi"(1925)—a seemingly bucolic “symphony of eroticism” (Trible)--becomes a dystopic allegory of postmodern love: its quasi-cliché pastiche of amatory musical conventions is complicated by RVW’s enigmatic use of 1) musical pastoralisms; 2) parodic military idioms; 3) modal-tonal vacillations; and 4) ambiguous text-music relations in which wisps of the text are never sung, but used instead as a paratext of voiceless, prefatory citations. Biographical detail and historical context further intensify reception of the work as a postmodern language of love: gestating during WWI when RVW collected the dead and wounded as an ambulance driver in France, then written during a post-war decade of severe, collective disenchantment with the Great War’s socio-political balance sheet, "Flos campi" arguably constitutes an ambivalent response to both RVW’s individual, as well as a more collective experience of national, post-war trauma. My interdisciplinary analysis of "Flos campi" elaborates three new trajectories for Song interpretation. "Flos campi" and other unsettling musical afterlives of the Song: 1. allegorise, via acutely material sets of dissonant gestures and conventions, the thoroughly mediated nature of love as a cultural practice, thereby challenging religio-rhetorical use of the text to promote falsely universalist “politics of true feeling”; 2. invite a re-situation of the Song-as-love-song within the musical discourse of love as a cultural practice; 3. obliquely ‘reference’ the haunting, ‘archaeological’ dis-connection of the text from its originary “songfulness” (Kramer)--a rift paradoxically flagged in "Flos campi" through the text’s absent presence. This archival lack constitutes an overlooked “trigger” of “insatiable desire” that biblical scholars anatomize in the Song-as-text (cf. Boer; Moore and Burrus). The Song’s portrait of desire-as-lack (another postmodern/Lacanian construction of love) supposedly stems from its perversely repetitive formal and metaphorical properties, but the Song’s irretrievable musical ‘body’ also amplifies desire’s ache.


Reading as an Act of Offering: Leviticus 1–7 a Ritual Text or a Fictional One?
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Dorothea Erbele Kuester, Protestantse Theologische Universiteit

Exegesis on the sacrificial system in Lev 1-7 has been almost exclusively focused on the questions of literary criticism and form criticism. Yet, reading these texts simply as ritual texts does not disclose us how they function on a literary level within the book. It further remains unclear why these texts have been read in situations far beyond cultic sacrifice. By reading the texts as literature, however, gaps in the sacrificial instructions become obvious: the vagueness within the text regarding who has to perform which action, or the absence of a priestly voice within the ritual. The paper shall give an analysis of these gaps in the instructions, concentrating on chapter one of Leviticus. This analysis reveals that performing the instructions of the offering-torot in a ritual way would have proved rather difficult; which is not to deny that they may reflect earlier ritual practice; however this is not the focus of the paper which deals with the literary form of the offering-torot. I shall finally discuss the thesis that Leviticus 1-7 is a fictional text whose primary function was to constitute the identity of Israel at a time when the temple and any cultic practice were no longer at hand. The instructions apply to those remaining in the golah who continued not to have a place to sacrifice. The offering-torot as a text thus restored cultic practice on a literary level, through its fictionality. This implies that the temple need not be restored in order for sacrifice to be restored through the text. The text serves as a means for the offering to be re-enacted in the reading process.


Donning the Right Garb: The Egyptian Ritual of "Opening the Mouth" and the Biblical Regulations in Exodus 28–30
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Nancy Erickson, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

The Egyptian ritual of “Opening the Mouth,” wpt r, details actions performed in order to quicken statuary for use. The animation rite involved various implements and gestures describing the clothing of the statue, its anointing, and presentation of elaborate offerings. Textual reference to the ritual is attested in the 4th dynasty through the New Kingdom. Of note are the inscriptions and pictorial representations found on the tomb of Rekhmire (18th d.) attesting some seventy-five episodes. The ritual was performed by a distinctive group of officiants. The primary role of craftsman and fashioner was held by the sm-priest under the direction of the ?ry-?bt, “ritualist.” Throughout the ceremony the sm-priest repeatedly puts on and takes off the qn? garment and in its stead dons the skin of an animal. Changing garb is the first action taken by the sm-priest in the “mouth-opening” ritual and at no point throughout the ceremony is the officiant not wearing some sort of special article of clothing. The initial time the qn? garment is taken off the sm-priest then dons the skin of a bull. Later in the ceremony a switch of adornment involves the slaughtering of a bull and subsequent presentation of its parts to the statue. The change of the sm-priest’s garb throughout the rite signaled a change in his role and status at distinct points throughout the ceremony. The switch in clothing made the actions that he took while wearing the various garments ritually effective, as though the articles themselves were transformative. Likewise, special garb plays a significant role in the biblical regulations of priestly clothing detailed in Exodus 28-30. The elaborate preparations for the donning of the priestly garments include regulations regarding fabrication, consecration, and ritual cleansing. The subsequent donning of the articles is deemed essential in order to perform specific cultic responsibilities, as though the garments themselves provided a conduit by which the actions of the individuals were made efficacious. This paper proposes a shared ancient perception of specialized clothing utilized for cultic purposes between the Egyptian ritual of “Opening the Mouth” and the biblical priestly regulations in Exodus 28-30.


Interdependent Variants in the Versions of the Book of Jeremiah
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Johanna Erzberger, German Conference of Bishops

The versions of the book of Jeremiah differ both in length and order. A number of those passag-es singular to MT are parallels of other passages of the book of Jeremiah that LXX and MT have in common (Stipp). Quite often those passages differ in LXX and MT. There is reason to assume the passages not occurring in the LXX, but only in MT linked to their parallels in their MT variant (Bogaert, Gosse). Under these circumstances it seems reasonable to take interdependent variants into account. The interdependence of text variants at different parts of the book has consequences for any model of the formation of the text. Interdependent text variants point to more extensive revisions. As far as similar contents are concerned those contents point to a common social historical background. Jer 33:14-26 singular in MT and consisting of parallels from other parts of the book of Jeremiah may serve as example and starting point.


Reading the Bible with Mediterranean Anthropolgy
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Philip Esler, Saint Mary's University College (Twickenham)

This presentation reviews six decades’ anthropological research into Mediterranean cultures and its three decades of application in biblical research. The first part of the presentation consists of a historical account of the development of Mediterranean anthropology from the 1950s onward (with some reference to earlier work), criticisms that have been levelled against it and a critical reply to those criticisms. It is argued that the ethnographic work on rural cultures carried out in the 1950s-1980s is of abiding importance given their rapid transformation and disintegration. While the importance of a more nuanced and particularistic understanding of the cultural features highlighted in that research is acknowledged, these features are still useful at appropriate levels of abstraction. This discussion concludes with the more recent work of the last two decades and where it might take us. The second part of the presentation shows how Mediterranean anthropology continues to shed light on the historical meaning of biblical texts in ways that are difficult to achieve otherwise. In particular, cultural difference is real (and it is not ‘Orientalism’ to say so) and the importance of Mediterranean anthropology in helping modern readers socialized in post-industrialist, individualistic societies understand texts produced in the very different agrarian, collectivist societies from which the Bible emerged remains.


Racism, Politics, or Historical Method? Assessing the Role of Cushites in Historical Reconstructions of Sennacherib's 701 BCE Campaign to the Levant
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Paul Evans, McMaster Divinity College

In her recent article "The Rescue of Jerusalem from the Assyrians in 701 B.C.E. by the Cushites," Alice Bellis has argued that due to racial prejudices historians and biblical interpreters have failed to acknowledge the central role of Cushites in the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian threat under Sennacherib in 701 BCE. Much of her thesis draws directly from the popular book by journalist Henry Aubin, The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC. This paper critically examines this thesis and concludes that the evidence does not bear the weight of their conclusions. The paper also explores alternative reasons why scholarship by and large has not viewed a Cushite contribution as instrumental to the withdrawal of Sennacherib from the Levant in 701 BCE. A survey of the literature will show that the role of the Assyrian annals was more determinative for explaining the scholarly consensus than racial and political bias (though some bias is evident in some of the older scholarly literature). While initially, the Assyrian documents were initially thought to be extremely biased and untrustworthy whenever they conflicted with the biblical accounts (e.g., G. Rawlinson 1864), in time scholars came to view the Assyrian documents as quite reliable sources of historical information. Thus, the consideration of the evidence of Sennacherib¹s annals better explains the small role given to a Cushite contribution in modern reconstructions of Sennacherib¹s campaign than racial or political bias.


The Dialogues of 1 Chronicles 21, Exodus 30, and the ‘Sin’ of the Census
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Paul Evans, McMaster Divinity College

David’s sinful census in 1 Chronicles 21 has invariably been read in light of its putative Vorlage, 2 Samuel 24. Differences between the Chronicler’s account and the Deuteronomist’s have often been noted, however, there is no consensus over why the census is viewed as sinful. Furthermore, the Chronicler is often one to explain such ambiguity in his sources (e.g., explaining Uzzah’s death by appealing to legal precedent). In Chronicles and Exodus Johnstone suggested that the sin of the census in 1 Chronicles 21 was David’s failure to implement Mosaic legislation (Exod 30:11-16) requiring the collection of a levy from each person during the census, else a “plague” come on Israel. Unfortunately, Johnstone failed to convincingly support this provocative thesis and few seem to be convinced. However, this paper will follow Johnstone’s lead and examine the relationship between 1 Chronicls 21, 2 Samuel 24 and Exodus 30, drawing on Bakhtin’s ideas of diaologism. The levy required in Exodus 30 is to be collected in the context of impending sanctuary construction. The census of 2 Samuel 24 occurred immediately before Solomon’s ascension to the throne (1 Kings 1ff). Since Solomon was to be the temple builder, in the Chronicler’s view this census, occurring so close to the temple’s construction, should have collected the levy. Therefore, in 1 Chronicles 21 the Chronicler created a literary context of impending temple construction by reducing the narrative space between the census and David’s request to build a temple (from 17 chapters [2 Sam 7, 24] to 3 [1 Chr 17, 21]) and narrating David’s temple preparations immediately thereafter (1 Chronicles 22). Thus, the Chronicler intends the voice of Exod 30:11-16 to be heard in dialogue with 2 Samuel 24 and the mystifying divine wrath on David’s census.


Redemption in the Isaiah Scroll: Reflections on Mikhail Gorbachev and Cyrus of Persia
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
A. Joseph Everson, California Lutheran University

The Hebrew terms for "redemption" (ga-al and padhah) are prominent throughout Isaiah 40-55 (41:1; 44:22-23; 48:20; 52:9; 50:2 and 51:10-11). The terms appear to be directly connected with expectations and later memories concerning Cyrus of Persia, who is mentioned in three passages (44:28; 45:1-2 and 45:13). In the Isaiah scroll, Cyrus is understood to be the human agent through whom God brings redemption for people in exile. The words of promise were fulfilled or became reality when exiles returned to Jerusalem. This study will explore certain parallels between the actions of Mikhail Gorbachev with East Germany, Poland and Hungary in 1989 and those of Cyrus of Persia with captive people in Babylon in the era of 539 BCE. The study will suggest that the entire Isaiah scroll may be understood as a theological interpretation of history.


Who Wrote the Song of Songs?
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
J. Cheryl Exum, University of Sheffield

The answer is not ‘Solomon’. Rather than try to identify a specific individual responsible for the Song of Songs, the paper aims to construct the identity of the author based on clues from the text itself. It will deal with the following questions: (1) is there one poet or many?, (2) when did the poet write?, (3) the sex of the poet, (4) the age of the poet, (5) the education of the poet, (6) the influences on the poet, (7) the project of the poet; i.e., why did the poet write the Song of Songs?, (8) the success of the poet, (9) unfortunate side-effects of the poet’s project.


The Use of d?sµaí in the Septuagint
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Erik Eynikel, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and University of Dallas

??sµaí (the setting of the sun, the west) occurs 62 times in the LXX most often translating ???? and ????. Fourteen times, however, d?sµaí renders ???? or ?????. A simple misreading of ??? is excluded as an explanation because it occurs too often. In the first four cases, all in Numbers, d?sµaí indicates “west of (Moab)” and translates (????) ?????. Probably the Greek translator wanted to indicate that the Israelites camped at the west side of Moab. The stories related in these passages are situated in Transjordan. From their perspective, the plains of the Araba are situated on the Westside of the Jordan. In other instances, however, no such explanation is possible. For example, in Joshua 5,10 where the MT has ????? ????? “in the plains of Jericho”; the LXX situates the Passover (in Gilgal) ?p? d?sµ?? ?e????. This may be explained by a stereotypical translation of ????? by “west”, taken from the instances in the Pentateuch. These cases can teach us more about the translation techniques of the LXX translators.


Critique and Criticism in D. F. Strauss’ “Critical Examination” of the Life of Jesus
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Thomas Fabisiak, Emory University

Alongside the figures included in the genealogies of critique that Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood intermittently sketch out in Is Critique Secular?, we could well add various modern critics of the Bible. As Brown notes in her introduction, Karl Marx’s critical project, for instance, emerged out of the “critical criticism” of the Young Hegelians—including the biblical scholarship of D.F Strauss and Bruno Bauer. As a contribution to a genealogy of biblical critique that would not be reducible to a history of a progressive liberation of secular thought from religious dogma, I explore certain key critical gestures in D.F. Strauss’ Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835). In particular, I highlight the inexorable slippage in Strauss’ work between tendencies that correspond roughly to Butler’s distinction between criticism—the work of judgment by which one discerns or evaluates an object—and critique—the work of elaborating the conditions of possibility of such an object of judgment. As critique, Strauss’ work was dedicated to articulating and sustaining the social, religious, and political crises of Vormärz Germany. He undertakes a comparative analysis that destabilizes the Christian exceptionalist priority ascribed to the objective historical content of the stories of Jesus; in doing so, he explicitly attends to the contingency of a certain politico-religious ontology of the subject—an effort whose radical implications subsequent biblical scholarship has largely ignored and abandoned. At the same time, however, Strauss also develops a renewedly exceptionalist rhetoric of modernity that corresponds to a vision of a normative constitutional state. In elaborating on this tension, I explore the precarious ambivalence that Asad identifies at the heart of Butler’s distinction between criticism and critique in light of one of biblical criticism’s once-infamously secularizing interventions.


Ancient Interpretations of Isaac's Blindness
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
John W. Fadden, Iliff School of Theology and University of Denver

Isaac’s blindness is presented in Genesis 27:1 with little indication for how it should be understood. This verse attracts the attention of numerous ancient interpreters. Interestingly, there is not a uniform tradition for understanding Isaac’s blindness. In this paper, I wish to see how the ancients may have understood Isaac’s blindness in order to discuss the use of Isaac’s blindness in the Sahidic Testament of Isaac. First, I will categorize the various ancient Jewish interpretations by their general attitude in explaining the blindness: Are they concerned with its causes, its negative effects (what is Isaac not able to do as a result), or its positive effects (what is Isaac able to do as a result)? Is there ambivalence, or even a general acceptance of it as ‘natural’? Second, I will contrast the Testament of Isaac with these interpretations to suggest that the numerous possibilities allow the Testament the freedom to develop its own ambiguous understanding of Isaac’s blindness. On the one hand, Isaac is not prevented from functioning as an ascetic priest for his family and, apparently, converses with the angels. On the other hand, the restoration of Isaac’s sight is treated as a positive gift from God, implying that blindness is a negative thing. In the final section, I will reflect on the ambiguity in interpretations of Isaac’s blindness and what it may mean for understanding attitudes towards blindness in late antiquity.


Delilah’s Space: An Island Space
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Ikani Fakasi'i'eiki , Graduate Theological Union

This presentation explores the space of Delilah from the experiences of a Pacific Islander. The reading comes from a space in which islands depend on the ocean for food and foreign government aid for funds, are vulnerable to Climate Change and global warming, are often embraced by tourists for their exotic beauty, while at the same time neglected for their remote locations, and finally, have often been used as central strategic locations for major international colonizing operations through religious missions and military campaigns, including Nuclear Testing. In this way, those spaces are not so different from Delilah’s precarious location between the Philistines and Samson in the book of Judges. Throughout Christian history, Delilah is identified as one of the “bad girls" in the Bible. Biblical scholars have overlooked through repetitive discourse the space of Delilah as a place where important action occurs, such as regarding the source of life, romance, love contested and rejected, international intrigue, power plays and death.


Mythologies of Evil in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Qumran
Daniel K. Falk, University of Oregon

On the whole, the sectarian texts found at Qumran do not offer a singular explanation for evil, but reflect different conceptions of evil and fragmented myths of the origin of evil. Despite the importance at Qumran of apocalyptic texts like the Enochic writings and Jubilees that develop elaborate mythologies concerning the origin of evil, the sectarian texts show relatively little interest in these, focusing more on the eschatological resolution of the problem of evil. According to the fall of Watchers myth, divine beings change allegiance, either in heaven as in the Enochic Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 6–8) or on earth as in Jubilees (Jub. 4:15, 22; 5:6; 7:21). This is not easily incorporated into the strictest expressions of deterministic dualism in the sectarian scrolls, according to which God created the realm of darkness with its ruler: this latter is not developed in a mythological narrative. The language of the Watchers myth does appear in a few of the sectarian scrolls, but is relatively rare, and is used in passing rather than developed as a fall myth or integrated into the dominant theological outlook. This paper examines the use and non-use of the fall of Watchers myth in the sectarian texts found at Qumran: in which contexts is it used, what is its function in those contexts, and how is the tension with deterministic ideology navigated?


The Universe of Classical Syriac Conjunctions: Their Syntactic, Semantic, and Rhetorical Role
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Terry C. Falla, University of Melbourne

Eliminate conjunctions from a piece of well-written prose and their significance becomes immediately obvious. Syntactically, semantically and rhetorically a conjunction can be pivotal. Syriac conjunctions are no exception. According to the light up to which they are held, they can even be seen as small discourse crystals flashing hues of colour. Yet often they are perceived as the most colourless, the most inconsequential, of all lexemes. Their minor place in the best Syriac lexicons relative to the magnitude of their use and impact is witness to a subject begging further exploration. This paper takes a fresh look at the place of the conjunction in classical Syriac literature and lexicography. It focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on the syntactic, semantic and rhetorical functions of conjunctions in the Syriac New Testament as a literary translation and thus seeks to provide a point of entry into the study of conjunctions in all Syriac literature, original and translated. While a selection of conjunctions is discussed, especial attention is given to the ubiquitous particle Khad, its various meanings, the manner in which it has different syntactic functions at the same time in the hierarchy of the grammatical structures to which it belongs, and what we can learn about its functions in Syriac as a natural language from its relationship to the Greek that it translates. The study of this fascinating subordinating conjunction has led to a thirty-two column lexical entry. This is in contrast to the three words given to its primary functions (as distinct from its well-established use in idiomatic collocations) in Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum and Sokoloff's A Syriac Lexicon, twenty-four lines in R. Payne Smith’s Thesaurus Syriac, and ten-line summary in J. Payne Smith’s A Compendious Syriac Dictionary.


Joshua in the Pentateuch: A Diachronic Study
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Zev Farber, Emory University

Joshua appears in the bible without warning or preamble. Given no patronymic or tribal affiliation, he has only a sword and orders to muster the troops and engage the enemy. The orders come directly from Moses and the reader is left wondering how Joshua was selected for this role. Later in the book of Exodus we meet Joshua again, as a young attendant of Moses who follows him up Mount Sinai and spends all of his time in the Tent of Meeting -- hardly evocative of the warrior and general battling the ruthless Amalekites. In Numbers 12, we are introduced yet again to Joshua, this time as Hoshea bin Nun, the chosen scout for the Ephramites. Finally, toward the end of Numbers and in Deuteronomy, Joshua is named as successor to Moses and the future administrative partner of Elazar the priest. Although the redactors of the Pentateuch have made an effort, though fairly nominal, to create a timeline for this important character, the discontinuities and contradictions demand source-critical analysis. This paper will make use of the discontinuities and false starts in the presentation of Joshua to probe into the sources and traditions that make up the Pentateuch. By isolating and characterizing the various Pentateuchal traditions that describe Joshua, I will focus on the number of Joshua images that appear in the text and the society or values these images may represent, and examine the relationships between the various traditions. Concluding with a diachronic analysis, I will suggest a Joshua timeline of my own. By focusing on the particular difficulties surrounding the presentation of one character, this paper will be a modest attempt to contribute to the larger question of Pentateuchal source theory.


Theological and Legal Implications of the Practice of Circumcision in South Africa
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Dorothy M. Farisani, University of South Africa

One of the customs among some of the people of South Africa is that as a rite of passage into manhood, young men must go through traditional circumcision. Thus, this paper focuses on both the theological and legal implications of the practice of Circumcision in South Africa, with special reference to the provinces of Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Free State. First, we examine the Biblical view of circumcision. Here the focus is on the understanding and practice of circumcision in both the Old and the New Testaments. Second, we will discuss the role and significance of circumcision among men in rural communities. The focus here will be on the social/cultural dimension of circumcision. Third, we look at the role of religion/theology in South Africa either in promoting or discouraging circumcision practices. Our fourth focus is the legal implication of the practice of circumcision. Whereas in the past, there were no legal implications of the practice in South Africa, (except the application of criminal law in the event of the death of an initiate) nowadays, with the recognition of Indigenous law the practice is being increasingly regulated by law. The influence of the Constitution (which is the supreme law of the land) and of provincial statutes on the practice will also be highlighted here. Finally, the paper focuses on the role of African Biblical Hermeneutics on the challenges facing the practice of circumcision.


Current Trends in Bible Translation: A Critical Analysis of the TshiVenda Bible Translations (1936 and 1998) of Genesis 9:18–28 and Genesis 11:1–9
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Elelwani B Farisani, University of South Africa

This paper focuses on current trends in Bible Translation and on the implications that developments in Translation and African Biblical Hermeneutics have for Bible Translation with particular reference to the Tshivenda Bible translations of 1936 and 1998 of Genesis 9:18-28 and Genesis 11:1-9. This will be done in the following five main steps. First, we will discuss current trends in Bible Translation. Second, we will provide a brief historical overview of both the 1936 and the 1998 Tshivenda translations. Third, we will look at the translation of Genesis 9:18-28 and Genesis 11:1-9. Here we will start off by examining both the 1936 and 1998 Tshivenda Bible translations of Genesis 9:18-28 and Genesis 11:1-9. Thereafter, we will go on to examine our own translation of the abovementioned texts. Fourth, we will compare our own translation to both the 1936 and 1998 Tshivenda ones. And, finally, we will spell out few challenges facing both translation studies and African Biblical Hermeneutics.


Tel 'Eton and the Shephelah from the Iron Age IIB to the Persian Period
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Avraham Faust, Bar-Ilan University

The Shephelah experienced dramatic demographic and political changes during the 8th-3rd centuries BCE. Following a settlement peak in the 8th century BCE, the region was devastated in Sennacherib's campaign of 701. The region only partially recovered during the 7th century BCE, before suffering another blow in the Babylonian campaign of 586 BCE. Resettlement was slow and gradual, and only during the late Persian period can we speak of any sizeable settlement. Recovery continued in the Hellenistic period, but even at this time settlement in the Shephelah did not reach Iron Age levels. The present paper will examine the history of the Shephelah through the prism of the new excavations at Tel 'Eton, where significant remains from the Iron Age IIB and the Persian period were unearthed. The finds uncovered at Tel 'Eton will be compared and contrasted with those discovered in other sites in the Shephelah, in order to reconstruct the demographic and political history of the region.


Between Israelites, Philistines, and Canaanites: Current Issues in the Archaeological Study of the Iron Age I
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Avraham Faust, Bar-Ilan University

Current methods and conclusions in the archaeology of the early Iron Age relevant to biblical scholars and historians.


David’s Refusal to Kill Saul: A Butlerian Reading of 1 Samuel 24, 26
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
April Favara, Iliff School of Theology/University of Denver

This paper reads David’s refusal to kill Saul in the biblical narrative of 1 Sam 24 and 26 in light of Judith Butler’s work and the theorists she is in conversation with throughout in, Giving an Account of Oneself. Butler’s ethical framework is communal. The “I” must give an account of itself and its constitution as a moral agent, but this account will always be incomplete because of the self’s opacity in relation to its dependency upon others, and the social conditions through which one acts. The character of David is without an identifiable essence that would enable him to act ethically towards Saul in the situation in the narrative that he encounters. David, the subject, cannot know himself until he begins to break into the social and linguistic processes that can help him to form the concept of his selfhood. David allows himself to be de-centered by his own opacity, which gives him the ability to recognize, be undone by, and act responsibly toward the other, Saul. David is able to become ethically responsible to Saul because he risks his own self-exposure. David acknowledges the contextualized singularity and opacity to his own self-formation, allowing him to then affirm the commonalities inherent between himself and the other, creating the basis for his ethical behavior towards Saul in the narrative.


Egyptian Solar Mythology in Judges 16
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
April Favara, Iliff School of Theology/University of Denver

Attention to the solar mythology present within the Samson cycle has been severely neglected for over a century. Early works, one by H. Steinthal and another by Abram Palmer, opened up the issue but with very poor substantiation, very munificent treatment of the biblical text, and a rather wide breadth of comparative material, both in date and locales. In order to begin to add a new, more substantial contribution to the discussion begun almost a century ago, this paper documents specific parallels between the Egyptian solar myth of Ra and Isis and the legend of Samson and Delilah, giving careful attention to the distinct settings and intentions of the two different texts. The common elements between the two are acute and include the persistence of the female characters to procure the source of the secret power of the male solar figures, the subsequent appropriation of the secret from the male solar figures to the female figures with the corresponding shift of power to the female figures and lesser characters who help secure the new shift in power, and the appropriation of the eyes of the male solar figures, which is further indicative of the loss of their power. Other solar elements and themes within Judg 16, in addition to the parallels from the myth of Ra and Isis, are documented to further illuminate the text of Judg 16. The implication of Samson as a solar figure and his relation to prominent Egyptian solar mythology was evident to the ancient audience, and served as a subtle, illustrative commentary by the author(s) of Judges on the dangers of the affiliation between solar divinities and Israelite leadership, most pertinently kings.


Scripture and Politics in the KJV Era
Program Unit:
Lori Ann Ferrell, Claremont Graduate UNiversity

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Teaching Greek Aspect Using Communicative Methods: Preparation and Practice
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Lee M. Fields, Mid-Atlantic Christian University

The goal of this presentation is to show how Greek aspect can effectively be taught using communicative methods. It consists of two parts: preparation and demonstration. The preparation consists of explaining one teacher’s methods of preparing lessons. This includes (1) lesson aims and measurements, (2) coming up with stock vocabulary, and (3) teaching strategies. The demonstration will involve a few attendees in performing directed activities that they can use in their classrooms.


Dying for the Law or Martyrdom? Religious Competition in Emperor Julian’s Writings
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Ari Finkelstein, Harvard University

In an epistle to Theodorus, Emperor Julian’s High Priest of Asia, Julian wrote that Jews would willingly choose to die rather than eat pork or any animal that had been strangled. In this paper, I examine Julian’s sources and consider what role dying for ancestral food laws played in Julian’s argument against Christianity. I demonstrate that Julian was aware of IV Maccabees but drew upon a Neoplatonic philosophical tradition which attacked Christians for not following Mosaic food laws, and also incorporated the language of the Apostolic Decree. Julian’s struggle to create a new ‘Hellenic’ Empire at the expense of Christianity is well known. In this letter Julian contrasts the Jews’ zeal for their laws favorably with ‘Hellenic’ apathy and against a wayward Christianity. Structurally and literarily, this argument resembles anti-Christian polemic and likely appeared in the lost parts of Contra Galileos. Julian attacked Christianity by appropriating its Scriptures. Unlike Christian exegetes who had either removed the word “strangled” from their texts or had allegorized the Apostolic Decree, Julian read the text plainly. By doing so, he highlighted Christianity’s failure to follow its own practices. This is an argument that would have reverberated deeply within Christian Antioch. Years later, John Chrysostom raged against Christians who kept Jewish practices in Antioch. Julian hoped that these Judaizers might keep Jewish ancestral practices. In Julian’s own day, the controversial cult of the Maccabean martyrs began to blossom. Opposition to the cult is attested on the grounds that these were Jewish martyrs who had died for Jewish law. Julian joined the debate by seeking to redefine martyrdom and the identity of the Maccabean martyrs. True martyrdom, he argued, was to die for one’s ancestral laws and not for belief in a man. By re-characterizing martyrdom as death for the laws, Julian sought to change the rhetorical discourse of martyrdom in order to deconstruct established Christian norms and discourses about martyrdom and thus Christianity’s understanding of itself.


The Synchronic Case for the Diachronic Development of Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Timothy D. Finlay, Azusa Pacific University

With the rise of structural linguistics, diachronic analysis has been eschewed in favor of synchronic analysis in certain circles. Within the field of Biblical Hebrew, although there has been a vigorous debate concerning the status of “Late Biblical Hebrew” with regard to “Classical Biblical Hebrew,” it is not really a matter of dispute that the Hebrew language underwent numerous developments—the sound shift from long a to long o, the merging of once distinct phonemes, the shifting of stress etc.—before the Massoretes used the Tiberian vowel points and two different systems of accents to create the Massoretic Text. Among the valuable tools that scholars have used to reconstruct the early history of the Hebrew language are comparisons with other Semitic languages, evidence from early inscriptions, and noting how the Septuagint transliterates proper nouns. However, much of the evidence either is explicitly derived from a synchronic analysis of the forms found in a manuscript such as the St. Petersburg Codex or could be so derived. This paper examines features such as the differences between contextual and pausal forms, differences between weak and sound verbs in the same binyan, differences between unmodified nouns and nouns with pronominal suffixes, and alternate spellings of the same lexeme all within the St. Petersburg Codex. It shows the extent to which a synchronic analysis gives us the data with which to perform a diachronic analysis of Biblical Hebrew and, more generally, shows that synchronic and diachronic analyses of language should not be considered in opposition to each other.


Janus-Face in Song of Songs
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Stefan Fischer, University of Vienna, Austria

At several occasions words in Songs of Songs are positioned janus-faced (e.g. 1:12; 2:12; 7:1.6). These words are polysemous. Their translation depends on the preceding and subsequent passages and has a pivotal function for the linking of the poetic passages. Some words are not only ambiguous but refer to different roots with the same consonants others need a vocalization different from the masoretic texts. This paper points out possible instances and discusses their effect on the interpretation of Song of Songs.


Inner-Biblical Exegesis and the Formations of Torah Culture
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Michael Fishbane, University of Chicago

This presentation will focus on a number of significant scribal, theological and social features that attest to a revolution in ancient Israelite religious culture and ideology. Emphasis will be on certain notable revisions, re-presentations and re-conceptualizations in the early post-exilic period.


Reading the Bible through a Historical Lens: Jews, Christians, and the Early Modern Background to Modern Biblical Scholarship
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Benjamin Fisher, University of Pennsylvania

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, historical memories of the biblical past began to move toward the center of both Jewish and Christian religious identities, and European biblical scholarship was significantly transformed by the emergence of historicist approaches to reading Scripture. Leading scholars such as John Calvin, Joseph Scaliger, Daniel Heinsius, Hugo Grotius, and John Selden emphasized the importance of appreciating ancient Jewish, Greek, and Roman religious practices in order to achieve an accurate understanding of both the Old and New Testaments. Historical approaches could be both validating and subversive, and European scholars were acutely aware of this ambivalence. These methods were used constructively to show that Christian Scriptures were true because they were historical, to reconcile contradictory accounts in the New Testament, and to support their authors’ views regarding the political organization of their own societies. Additionally, Catholic and Protestant scholars used the Bible’s ancient historical context to subvert the theological doctrines of their adversaries. This paper demonstrates the absorption of these methods of biblical scholarship by one of the leading rabbis of seventeenth century Amsterdam. Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira argued that many elements of the New Testament reflected the influence of ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman religious practices that were prevalent in the Mediterranean world where Jesus lived. Furthermore, he attempted to show that there was evidence for the development of the Gospel texts over time. By dislocating the study of Christian Scriptures from the realm of theological study to the discipline of historical analysis, Morteira sought to encourage certain Christian movements to adopt Jewish perspectives regarding the canon of Scripture, and to demonstrate the superiority of the Hebrew Bible. In so doing, however, Morteira participated in the historicization of biblical memory and the emergence of modern methods of biblical criticism in early modern Europe.


Blogging a Short-Cut to Peer Review: How to Do It Effectively
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Madeleine Flannagan, University of Auckland

In this talk, widely read biblio-bloggers Matthew and Madeleine Flannagan from New Zealand blog MandM explain how blogging, though not a replacement for peer reviewed publication, can provide a very useful way of getting a theological scholars work widely read and known. Matthew Flannagan will explain how four years of blogging has proven a more successful strategy in getting his work known to leading scholars in his field than peer reviewed publication has. Blogging has directly gained him citations in academic works, invitations to publish and co-publish with those working at the top of his field; he was even invited to speak at the Evangelical Philosophical Society’s session at the Society for Biblical Literature on the strength of one of his blog posts! His handful of peer reviewed publications have not received anywhere near this level of attention. Further, Matthew will attest that putting a piece on a blog gives him a good opportunity to test it and refine it in light of blog comments before submitting to peer review. Having strong content is an aspect of blogging that many biblical and theological bloggers may have but getting it noticed and making it stand out is another. To that end, Matthew has had another tool in his belt; his wife and co-blogger Madeleine has dedicated hours to learning the arts of search engine optimisation, page rank building, blog promotion, link building and the crucial art of effective networking with those academics who have online profiles, which requires a solid understanding of blog and social network politics and etiquette. Madeleine has tailored her tactics to suit the theological blogging niche of MandM and the results speak for themselves. In January MandM were once again ranked in the top 5 biblio-blogs and they are one of only 2 biblio-blogs to have a Google Page Rank 6 – a very high Page Rank for a blog on any topic.


Mysticism as an Epistemological Sub-category of Religious Experience: The Case of the Testament of Abraham
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Frances Flannery, James Madison University

The work of the Early Jewish and Early Christian Mysticism Group significantly widened earlier definitions of mysticism (April DeConick, ed. Paradise Now: Essays on Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism, Atlanta: SBL Press, 2006). Very recently, the Religious Experience Section, as well as the work by Ann Taves (Religious Experience Reconsidered, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), helped to sketch the parameters for investigations on religious experience (Frances Flannery, Colleen Shantz and Rodney Werline, eds., Experientia: Volume One, Leiden: Brill, 2008). As these arenas of investigation have demonstrated, the definitions and the relationship of mysticism to religious experience are close and sometimes overlapping. Here, I explore the idea that mystical practice is usefully construed as a sub-category of religious experience that entails perceived events rooted in individual bodily expressions of an epistemological personal revelation. Such a revelation, while not necessarily new within the mystical or religious framework, is singular in that it is freshly orienting and purposeful for the mystic. I investigate The Testament of Abraham, a late antique text of either Jewish, Christian, or “god-fearing” provenance. Regardless of its exact origin, the text encodes esoteric mystical practice, recognizable only to elite ritual experts, within a larger religious story, which is aimed at a general Jewish or Christian audience and which involves practice of a different order. I argue that this text’s encoding strategy speaks to the self-constructed, emic identity of some early mystics (whether Jewish or Christian), who saw themselves as standing within but above non-mystical strains of their religion, as a result of their own profound personal somatic and epistemological experiences. Finally, I argue for a categorical shift in our contemporary discussions of “mysticism” and “religious experience.”


The Plot of Q
Program Unit: Q
Harry Fleddermann, Alverno College

Aristotle elevates plot over character, setting, and other features as the most important element of narrative. If Q is a narrative, then we should be able to identify, describe, and analyze its plot. Using insights from the modern discipline of narratology, this paper probes the plot of Q and relates it to the theology of Q and to the central theme of Q.


The Influence of Q on the Formation of the Third Gospel
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Harry T. Fleddermann, Alverno College

Fleddermann will speak from his book, Q: A Reconstruction and Commentary (Peeters, 2005), on Luke's compositional use of Q. He will be responded to by Dennis MacDonald, John Kloppenborg, Thomas Brodie, and Leslie Keylock.


Extracts of the Gilgamesh Huwawa Tale and the Role of Akkadian Literature in Scribal Education
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Daniel E. Fleming, New York University

In our recent investigation of the earliest Gilgamesh Epic, Sara Milstein and I give considerable weight to the fact that all eight single-column tablets from the Old Babylonian Gilgamesh treat the episode with Huwawa. Aside from our hypothesis that an Akkadian Huwawa narrative was the basis for composition of a larger epic, the concentration of single-column texts represents an important problem on its own. Sumerian literary texts from the same period appear primarily in two formats: multi-column tablets that present the complete narrative; and single-column tablets that cover only a portion. Paul Delnero has proposed that these extract tablets reflect a stage of memorization before the scribes in training would produce a full multi-column rendition. By analogy to the Sumerian situation, it appears that the four multi-column tablets for the OB Gilgamesh belonged to full copies of the epic, while the others were extracts only. As extracts, these texts would reflect the memorization of smaller segments, always from the Huwawa tale. Although there is significant evidence that the Sumerian extracts served scribal education, the question is more difficult for the Akkadian Huwawa extracts. Until now, Akkadian literature has not been understood to contribute to OB scribal training, and it is not clear what aspects of scribal work were served by the creation and reproduction of this new literature. The Gilgamesh evidence raises the possibility that at least one Akkadian narrative, the adventure with Huwawa, could be included in such education, or that it was learned by the same method. This unique role for Huwawa in copying OB Gilgamesh material offers one indication that the story was treated differently from the rest of the epic.


“It’s Raining Men”: A Feminist Approach to Masculinity in Biblical Texts
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Bonnie Flessen, Carthage College

The emerging field of masculinity studies poses both questions and opportunities for feminist biblical interpreters. While the forms and features of masculinity in biblical texts vary widely and can be difficult to extricate, feminists can practice and extend their hermeneutical principles through the critical analysis of male characters as well as the rhetorical impacts of the texts in which male characters appear. Such critical analysis should be informed and guided by feminists so that the infrastructure of masculinity studies does not collapse onto women or obstruct the view of individuals without power, either in antiquity or today. As the profile of masculinity studies rises, so does the need to establish a framework to guide future contributions to it. Feminist biblical interpreters can determine how masculinity studies and biblical interpretation can work together. By delineating key principles and laying a foundation for the critical, ethical study of masculinity, feminists can establish an identity for this interpretive lens. As a result, the study of masculinity in biblical texts will be able to define itself in relation to other interdisciplinary approaches to biblical texts. This paper will assemble a framework for a hermeneutic that recognizes the diversity of ancient masculinity and excavates the contours of the male figure as it takes shape in biblical texts. The hermeneutic also aims to highlight how biblical authors weave together messages about masculinity with religious and political dynamics. This multi-faceted lens allows interpreters to see not only the interplay among race, class, and gender, but also the ways that biblical texts can subvert power structures and lift up rather surprising heroes.


The SWBTS Scrolls and the Dead Sea Scroll Library
Program Unit:
Peter Flint, Trinity Western University

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Four-Pass Fortran, Torn Tapes, and a Crazy Blue Jay
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
A. Dean Forbes, Andersen-Forbes.org

In the Spring of 1970, I made my first computational study of a biblical text, an eigenvalue analysis of the incidence patterns of ntn in Jeremiah. Frank Andersen, my Semitic philology professor, already had a huge store of index cards inscribed with Pentateuchal clause patterns and thus was very receptive when I suggested that use of a computer might facilitate his work. By the end of the year, I had devised a transliteration scheme, had designed a home-brew Hebrew font, and had modified assembler code to allow its display. By early 1971, Frank had input a pilot corpus (the book of Ruth) and was inputting and correcting Hosea, Amos, and Micah. Together, we were at work segmenting the texts. In this paper, I will describe what we did over the ensuing four-plus decades and explain why we did it that way. In the process, I will answer a few questions that I have repeatedly been asked (or should have been asked!), share a few anecdotes, and supply a few cautionary tales…


Diachrony, Synchrony, or Both? Perspectives from Pattern Recognition and Meta-analysis
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
A. Dean Forbes, University of the Free State

Central to the diachrony-synchrony debate is the criterion of “accumulation.” Its proper formulation and application are best assessed using some concepts from statistical pattern recognition. Suppressing jargon and relying on readily accessible examples, I will explain the needed concepts and then use them to appraise “accumulation” and to suggest ways of making the compounding of the evidence provided by textual features more rigorous. I will also show how meta-analysis provides guidance for evaluating the combined work of the many analysts who have sought to date texts linguistically and how consideration of the prohibitions and practices of meta-analysis leads to balanced ways of addressing the diachrony-synchrony puzzle.


A Womb, a Tomb, and a Wound: Darkened Spaces of the Divine in John's Gospel
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Noel Forlini, Drew University

This paper reads Jesus’ night encounter with Nicodemus in John 3:1-21 and Mary Magdalene’s entrance into the darkened garden tomb in 19:41-20:18 through the lens of apophatic theology in general and The Cloud of Unknowing in particular. I argue that these two encounters unveil darkness as the space between discovery and devotion to the Divine. They demonstrate the tensions between apophasis and embodiment, seeing and unseeing, and knowing and unknowing that are part of a longstanding apophatic tradition where darkness is valued. My reading serves to destabilize the negativity of darkness in the Fourth Gospel and its interpretation. The symbolism scholars have traditionally attributed to Nicodemus’ choice of darkness fails to acknowledge this darkness in a positive way. I argue that in John 3:1-21 darkness is a blinding, luminous Light, one Jesus calls Nicodemus not to eschew but to embrace. Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus is a power struggle over knowledge. Nicodemus proclaims what he knows, Jesus tells him what he does not know. Not so with Mary Magdalene, who always speaks of what she does not know, “unsaying” in true apophatic fashion. Though she searches for Jesus in the darkness, she does not find him where she expects him to be. Only after Mary unsays what she knows—about where Jesus ought to be, and even about what Jesus ought to be doing—is she able to “say” a new proclamation. Only after she “unsays” what she knows can she listen to Jesus’ revelation. Only after she “unsays” what she knows can recognize the face of Jesus. The blindness caused by her tears allows her to “see” God anew. Her unseeing and seeing, her unsaying and saying, occurs only after she enters the darkened space of the tomb and buries what she knows of God. *Full paper available upon request.*


Coming Out of Babylon and Christian Unity
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Denis Fortin, Andrews University

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The Extent and Function of Parabolic Material in Q
Program Unit: Q
Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh

A number of issues surround discussions of the parabolic material in Q. First, the extent of parabolic material is debated. This paper will look at the problems that accompany deciding which parabolic elements belong to Q, and why such material might be especially problematic. Secondly, the paper will explore how the parables function in the Q context to promote the ideological and religious perspectives of those who framed the Q document.


Learn from Me: Jesus, Jewish Scripture, and Identity Formation
Program Unit: Matthew
Robert L. Foster, Dallas, TX

The rising conflict in the plot of the gospel of Matthew makes a key turn at 12:14 as the Pharisees take counsel about how to destroy Jesus. From a social scientific perspective, this conflict portrayed by the gospel revolves in no small measure around the way two groups view the cultural production of educated persons. The gospel reinforces that knowing God in the present means knowing God through Jesus, which simultaneously transforms one’s understanding of Jewish Scripture. We are not surprised, then, to find a density of scriptural references in 11:25-12:21, given the importance of this narrative in the gospel plot and the nature of the conflict shown throughout the gospel. Jesus invites all the weary and heavy laden to learn from him, essentially an invitation to know God (11:25-30). The following section uses Scripture to reinforce several points of great theological importance in the gospel. First, in reference to the Scripture about the priests violating the temple, Jesus proclaims himself greater than the temple, a significant claim by “God-with-us” in a post-70 era. Second, Jesus invokes the hermeneutical key to understanding Scripture: I desire mercy not sacrifice, which parallels the earlier reference to Hosea 6:6, as well as “do unto others” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” Finally, the “all” whom Jesus calls to learn from him is more than Israel (contra Luz) but includes the Gentiles who put their hope in God’s justice, as Scripture proclaims. The easy yoke then is not a new ability to obey Torah (contra e.g., France) but knowing (experiencing) the expansive mercy, goodness, and justice of God. This understanding confirms Lybek’s thesis that Jesus fulfills Scripture in prophetic, rather than apocalyptic, fashion. The prophetic nature of Jesus’ revelation of God indicates that the Matthean community existed intra muros of formative Judaism.


The Growth of Wisdom Books
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Michael V. Fox, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Wisdom books are not static texts. They develop by accretion, rearrangement, rewording, and other forms of enrichment. The authors themselves sometimes claim to use the wisdom of the ancients. They see themselves as conservators, not innovators. The Egyptian wisdom books often exist in multiple documents (some of which are "copies," other of which are editions). This paper will look at the kinds of developments one sees in the major variant editions to determine the apparent motives of these changes. It will also consider Proverbs, in this case using mainly the LXX as the point of comparison. As time allows, Ahiqar and Ben Sira will be brought into consideration. The primary claim is that scribal modification is the way Wisdom develops. The "final form" in any textual series may be simply an historical accident.


Last Sensed: Ritualizing the Ascension of Jesus in Late Antique Christianity
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Georgia Frank, Colgate University

This paper examines the role of the senses in ancient Christian retellings of Jesus’ appearance to the apostles prior to his ascension to heaven (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-10). The episode prompted later interpreters to focus on the sensory perceptions of both the apostles, who were the last to see Jesus with the “eyes of the body,” and those of the angels, who first saw Jesus in heaven. As interpreters suggest, the episode marked a turning point in the sensory perception of Jesus, prompting many to puzzle over what value if any the physical senses might hold for lay Christians in a post-Ascension world. This paper addresses this concern in two parts: the first part surveys ancient Christian interpretations of the Ascension from the fourth and fifth centuries (e.g., sermons by John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Proclus of Constantinople). The second part of the paper focuses on how these concerns are explored in the chanted sermons of Romanos the Melodist, who reimagined the story as part of the night vigils of Constantinople during the mid-sixth century.


The Social Location of Binding Rites and the Fallacy of "Black Magic"
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
David Frankfurter, Boston University

This is a prepared response to Ronald Stroud's paper, Ancient Magic and Social Context: New Evidence from the Sanctuary of Demeter in Corinth.


Exodus Reversed: A New Interpretive Option for Deuteronomy 28:68
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Eric S. Fredrickson, Harvard University

Deuteronomy 28:68, the final, climactic curse threatened in Deut 28, has proved difficult to interpret. The basic thrust is clear: should the Israelites fail to keep their covenantal obligations, Yahweh will send them back to Egypt, the site of their former slavery. The details are more obscure. In particular, the threat that Israel will return to Egypt “in ships” has proved puzzling. P.R. Craigie states the problem well: “sailing to Egypt from Palestine would not be an altogether natural means for a relatively short journey” (Deuteronomy, 352). S.R. Driver argued that the curse was best understood as attesting to a Phoenician slave trade network that included exchange between Phoenicia and Egypt. Donald Schley suggested that the curse is a reference to an Assyrian practice of utilizing Levantine forces as auxiliaries in military campaigns against Egypt in which, he argues, Israelites were forced to travel to Egypt by sea. While these and other commentators have attempted to provide a specific historical circumstance in which a journey to Egypt by sea might have taken place, less attention has been given to the possible routes between Egypt and Israel that the verse could be suggesting. After a close reading of the text and its context in Deut 28, a discussion of the traditions to which the text alludes, and an examination of previous solutions to this problem, this paper offers an examination of possible routes from Israel to Egypt, both by land and by sea. It concludes that an alternative route which has not been highlighted by previous commentators and which may be attested by a late New Kingdom historical text offers a more satisfying reading of the verse in question.


Food and Identity in Pauline Communities
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
David M. Freidenreich, Colby College

Norms about food--not only its ingredients but also the manner of its preparation and the context of its consumption--served as important markers of the distinction between Jews and gentiles within the Hellenistic world. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Paul and members of his communities use food-related practices to express and debate ideas about what it means to be a believer in Christ. Paul himself uses discourse about food to communicate the message that Jews and Greeks, while different, nevertheless constitute a single Christ-believing community distinct from its Greco-Roman surroundings. Although Paul’s norms regarding food do not depart radically from those of contemporaneous Jewish authorities, the communal identity he forges through these norms is explicitly not Jewish. His conception of Christ-believing identity, moreover, differs significantly not only from the ideas associated with Jesus in the Gospels but also from those that become normative within later Christian communities.


The Redemption of King Saul
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Blaire French, University of Virginia

The author of Acts saw in the story of King Saul a piece of unfinished business. In Jewish Scripture, Saul is the only person to receive from God a new heart (Kgdms 10.9), yet he ends his life unreconciled to God. Acts’ author casts Paul in the role of Saul in order to retell the tale within a Christian context. He accomplishes this task through the construction of an allusion. This allusion accounts for the three call narratives of Paul in Acts. Acts’ author appropriates a doublet from 1 Kingdoms and adds a third retelling. The doublet is the parallel accounts of Saul’s confrontation with David (1 Kgdms 24.9-23/26.17-25). In the first, David asks Saul, “Whom do you pursue (?atad???e??)?” (24.15); and in the second, he asks, “Why does my lord thus pursue (?atad???e?) his slave?”(26.18) In each of Acts’ three call narratives, a voice says, “Saul, Saul, why do you pursue me?” (sa??? sa??? t? µe d???e??) (Acts 9.4, 22.7, 26.15). The verb d???? is an implicit reference to d???? in the 1 Kingdoms doublet. In the first two call narratives, Paul, like King Saul in the doublet (1 Kgdms 24.16; 26.17), is blinded. Only in the third version does Christ assign Paul his mission to the Gentiles as part of his conversion experience; and only in this version is Paul not blinded. Instead, Christ charges him to open the eyes of others (26.17-18). The final recounting of Paul’s call is an improved version of the 1 Kingdoms doublet: Saul is finally reconciled to God. Once we recognize the allusion, other connections appear. For instance, First Supplements says King Saul’s great crime is that he made “inquiries at the ventriloquist” (1 Supp 10.13). In Acts we learn that magicians burned their books and ceased their practice because of Paul (Acts 19.17-20). The other Saul from the tribe of Benjamin repairs and completes the Saul of Jewish Scripture.


Jacob's Wrestling and Issues of Divine Power (Gen 32:22–32)
Program Unit: Genesis
Terence Fretheim, Luther Seminary

The identity of the "man" who wrestled with Jacob has long been debated. Most commonly, the figure is identified with God or God in human form. But such an identification creates problems. How can Jacob hold his own with God? I explore efforts to overcome this difficulty, including issues of divine self-limitation in the exercise of power.


Whose Temple? The Dura Europos Synagogue Murals and the Temple of Jerusalem
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Richard Freund, University of Hartford

The Dura Europos synagogue has some of the most extensive renderings of what is supposed to be the artifacts, installations and functionaries of the Temple of Jerusalem. Upon closer inspection(and comparisons with other early Temple renderings from the Arch of Titus, large decoration pieces on synagogues elsewhere and on small objects (oil lamps, bullae, glass, etc., the elements at Dura may be giving us more information about other (non-Jewish) temples, artifacts, installations, and functionaries than the Temple of Jerusalem.


Numbers and the Twelve
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Christian Frevel, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Quotations and allusions to the Book of Numbers within the Book of the Twelve are rare, but nonetheless crucial. Some pertinent examples include the reference to the Baal-Peor account (Num 25:1-5) in Hosea 9:10, the mentioning of the leadership of Moses with Aaron and Miriam (Num 12) together with an allusion to the Balaam narrative (Num 22-24) in Micah 6:4-5, or the midrashic reference to the covenant of peace (Num 25:12-13) in Malachi 2. In addition to these more or less clear references the question arises to what extent the references to the forty years in the desert (e.g. Amos 2:10; 5:25) already reflect the narrative context of Num 13-14. Likewise, the allusion to the impurity of corpses in Haggai 2:12-14 may already presuppose Num 19. The paper will discuss the relevant passages focusing on diachronic conclusions with regard to a pre-priestly account in the Book of Numbers, on the one hand, and its literary growth in the later Persian period, on the other hand. The observations will be evaluated against the background of the redactional processes within the Book of the Twelve.


Josephus on the Servile Origins of the Jews
Program Unit: Josephus
David Friedman, University of Oxford

¶ This paper argues that Josephus deliberately obscures and de-emphasises the servile origins of the Jews in books 1-2 of the Antiquities, probably reflecting late 1st century literate elite attitudes towards freedmen, and then-current ideas about natural slavery and slavery-by-chance. ¶ As the defining account of its nationhood and covenant with God, the story of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt and subsequent redemption was central to Jewish identity. At key points in his rewriting of the Pentateuch, however, Josephus obscures the story of the Jew's servile origins. For example, Josephus modifies God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 15, noting that Abraham's posterity will suffer rather than be enslaved. Josephus' repeated emphasis on Joseph's virtue, high-birth, and nobility under changed circumstances, and extra-biblical details like Joseph's education as a free-born man, and Jacob's suspicion that Joseph has been captured and enslaved, suggest the Josephus was apologetically casting Joseph as a slave-by-chance. While Exodus 1 makes it clear that the Israelites were enslaved, in Josephus' version, they were only mistreated. Although Josephus does not eliminate every reference to slavery in Egypt, he downplays the Israelites' servitude at key points in the narrative. ¶ Josephus' sensitivity to the Jews' servile origins may stem from specific, late 1st century factors. Aristotle's theory of natural slavery is echoed in the first century attitudes of Philo and Cicero, who acknowledge that men can be enslaved unfairly by chance. Josephus emphasises that his own captivity left no slight on his civil status. In addition, late 1st century Roman historians, such as Suetonius and Tacitus, were highly critical of the power of imperial freedmen, and Josephus seems to share this bias. Both of these factors may have played a role in Josephus' downplaying the Jews' servile origins.


Selective Memory: The Recollection of Nero in Revelation and His Irrelevance to 4 Ezra
Program Unit: Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Steven Friesen, University of Texas at Austin

Nero appears as a significant symbolic resource in Revelation, but is absent from similar contemporary material found in 4 Ezra. Why is Nero useful in Revelation but irrelevant to 4 Ezra? This paper uses Stephen O’Leary’s theory of millennial rhetoric to explain the difference. O’Leary argues that apocalyptic discourse is characterized by the restructuring of public time in order to resolve the problem of evil. While 4 Ezra and Revelation both bring time to its denouement in typical apocalyptic terms (the messiah brings evil to an end by destroying the Roman Empire), the texts organize time around different problems and present a different logic of theodicy. For Revelation, temporality revolves around Satan’s persecution of the saints and a sacrificial logic of martyrdom justifies God’s current inaction. 4 Ezra, on the other hand, organizes time around the fate of the Jerusalem temple and resolves the problem of evil by asserting that the wise have secret knowledge which explains the delay of justice. So Revelation recalls Nero as a useful image for an understanding of the suffering of the saints, while 4 Ezra focuses instead on the Flavian emperors and claims to have revealed knowledge about the consequences of their assault on the Jerusalem temple.


Beyond Astruc: Reclaiming the Integrity of the Enneateuch
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Serge Frolov, Southern Methodist University

Higher biblical criticism was born when Jean Astruc and others began to take apart the textual continuum that spans the first nine books of the Hebrew Bible (according to the Jewish canon) and is known therefore as Genesis-Kings or the Enneateuch. Since then, critical scholarship has operated under the unspoken assumption that the only viable perspective on the Enneateuch as a whole is diachronic, in other words, that there is no alternative to treating it as an assemblage of sources, traditions, redactional layers, or self-contained books, coming from different backgrounds and displaying divergent, sometimes conflicting agendas. Even the advent in the last three decades of holistic, integrative approaches has failed to change the situation because their practitioners rarely, if ever, address the text on this macro-scale. Over against the prevailing tendency, the present paper argues that the Enneateuch can be plausibly and profitably read from a strictly synchronic perspective, in other words, as an integral authorial composition with a harmonious composition and consistent thrust.


The Socio-economic Situation of the Christian Communities in Northern Africa in the Second and Third Centuries and Its Impact on Understandings of Martyrdom
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Sebastian Fuhrmann, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

This paper is concerned with the economic situation of Christian communities in Carthage and Alexandria at the turn of the 2nd to the 3rd century (cf. Schölgen 1985; Haas 1997; Jakab 2001; Fürst 2007) and its impact on and relation to their view of martyrdom. As is generally recognized, both the treatises of Christian authors of this time and area (viz. of Tertullian, Cyprian, Clement, and Origin) related to the topic of martyrdom, and the accounts of the martyrdoms themselves (the respective Acta Martyrum, cf. Barnes 2010) are mainly addressed to those situated within circles of higher status in Roman-African society. On the basis of this insight the pragmatic intentions of those texts and their intended readership will be elaborated in this paper. Of particular interest is the question, whether the thesis, contested since at least Nietzsche (cf. Warren Smith 2006), that self-denial and martyrdom form a strategy of religious reevaluation to express the will to power, is justifiable and fruitful for the interpretation and explanation of the theologies of martyrdom found in these texts. It will be argued that these texts rather promulge aristocratic, though christianized, virtues, like duty and honour, instead of the wish for eschatological exaltation above former suppressors and persecutors. In comparison to relevant New Testament passages (e.g. 1 Peter, Revelation), it will be shown that changed social-economic conditions influenced the understanding of martyrdom.


What’s in a Name? The Use of Theophoric Yahwistic Personal Names in Ezra-Nehemiah and the Implications for the Jerusalem Population in the Persian Period
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Deirdre Fulton, Pennsylvania State University

In archaeological and epigraphical studies of the Persian period, one area that has occasionally attracted scholarly interest is the study of anthroponyms. Often these studies concentrate on the theophoric elements in personal names, in an attempt to ascertain the identity, both individual and group, of inhabitants of certain regions. In Persian period studies, the appearance of specific theophoric elements in the anthroponyms found in the Idumean Ostraca, Elephantine texts, well as the papyri from Wadi ed-Daliyeh are examined in order to determine how personal names may reflect larger patterns of identity. These names are oftentimes used for two purposes: 1) In order to examine issues of identity and of inhabitation of certain regions and, 2) as a means of reconstructing the hypothetical borders of Judah versus other areas such as Idumea. In Ezra and Nehemiah, there are several lists of names which identify specific individuals who are part of the returnees to from Babylon, particularly Ezra 2 and the corresponding list in Nehemiah 7, Ezra 8, as well as Nehemiah 12. Ezra and Nehemiah focus on the reinstitution of the worship of Yahweh, but the names in the lists of the golah community do not always clearly identify the people as Yahweh worshippers. In fact, upon closer inspection, the theophoric elements of the anthroponyms show that there are many, non Yahistic names within the community. I will present the predominance (or lack thereof) of Yahwistic personal names in the lists, examining if there are any patterns that develop, particularly how this relates to the changing presentation of the inhabitation of Jerusalem. I will also discuss if there are any discernable developments in the use of Yahwistic personal names in the lists of returnees in Ezra and Nehemiah and how these present different portraits of inhabitation.


Examples of Socratic Faith
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Rick Anthony Furtak, Colorado College

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A Pacific Rim Hermeneutics for Pastoral Theology
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Randall Y. Furushima, New Hope Christian College

This paper will introduce a hermeneutical framework towards the integrating of Euro-centric biblical interpretation with a post-colonial Pacific Rim framework that is informed by traditional native Hawai`ian perspectives. This framework will be relevant to the praxis of pastoral theology and the biblical assumptions that have informed the discipline’s current methodologies. An alternative framework also challenges the present interpretive structures from a cultural critique outside of dominant western influence that is inclusive of Asian and Pacific Islander perspectives. A new blending will be offered that forms a distinctive “Pacific Rim” framework. The native Hawaiian principles of pono (“way of living”), a`o (“educational traditions”), and ho`oponopono (“ways of healing to make things right”) will be considered. Insights from current post-colonial biblical hermeneutics will be offered along with conclusions from the 2011 Native People’s Colloquy on Postcolonialism, which gathers Native Americans and Native Hawai`ians. Research principles from cross-cultural faith development research in Hawai`i conducted by this writer will provide a critical input to the framework’s structure as well as the content upon which the framework is developed. As the first completed cross-cultural study in Faith Development Theory (Fowler), the liberating power of story and narrative, symbol and metaphor, history and ideology will suggest multivariate approaches toward resourcing the pastoral theologian. New ways of critically engaging cross-cultural and multi-religious praxis in pastoral theology will be suggested as significant outcomes.


New Light on the Textual History of Acts: P127, Its Peculiarities, and Related Witnesses
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Georg Gäbel, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

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“Foreign to the Old Testament”? An Anti-mythic Bias in the Interpretation of Numbers 13–14 and Some Disappearing Giants
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Deane Galbraith, University of Otago

In Homer’s Odyssey and the Near East (2011), Bruce Louden observes that commentaries regularly omit any mention of Old Testament-Homeric parallels. Louden blames such an omission on “the long dominance of Christianity and Judaism in the West” (p. 5), reasoning that Judeo-Christianity has constructed biblical and Homeric narratives as opposites, pitting reality and truth against myth and fiction. The claim is illustrated in Lothar Perlitt’s article on Old Testament giants (1990), which argues that the Greek mythical conception of giants is, quite simply, “foreign to the Old Testament.” In order to understand more precisely the nature of the anti-mythic bias evident within biblical scholarship (Oden 2000; Wyatt 2005), I examine the tendency of commentators on Num. 13-14 to marginalize references to the gigantic Anakim. I argue that this tendency originated in the latter half of the nineteenth century on the basis of the developmental (or “evolutionary”) theory of myth (Maine 1861; Müller 1867; Tylor 1871), a key feature of which was to equate myth with “untruth” and with a so-called “primitive” stage of development. I then observe the persistence of this uncritical view of myth in some recent commentaries on Num. 13-14. In addition, and perhaps more disturbingly, some recent scholarship employs stereotypes which were developed in nineteenth-century evolutionary scholarship, even employing inaccurate and outdated colonial terminology. Furthermore, I observe a major tension whereby the presumed antiquity of the mythic material purportedly guarantees both the preservation of ancient historical facts and also its corruption during the extended period of transmission. This central tension, I argue, is homologous with the well-known Orientalist representation of so-called “primitive” peoples as, contradictorily, both noble savages and vicious beasts, both edenic and corrupt. The paper concludes with an outline of new possibilities for the interpretation of Num. 13-14 if we no longer presume the antiquity of the giant motif, but instead entertain a relatively late derivation from Greek literature.


Readings in 1 Kings 18 and 3 Kingdoms 18: Intentional Revision
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Bayarjargal Garamtseren, University of Cambridge

Chapter 18 of LXX 3 Kingdoms is a part of the translation unit (Thackeray’s so-called Gamma-Gamma), which has one of the highest numbers of differences between the Greek and Hebrew texts within the broader context of 1-4 Kingdoms (MT Samuel-Kings). When MT and B (Codex Vaticanus, the earliest Greek manuscript we have) are compared side by side in this chapter, about 6% of the Hebrew text has no correspondant in B and 11% of B is material not witnessed in MT. Many of the differences between the two readings occur in vv. 29-39, where there are transpositions and other re-ordering of Elijah’s actions. When compared to MT, B has more repetition, detail and explications as well as a greater attention to the execution of commands. Intentional altering of the text is apparent. The question of which reading is more original—or in other words determining the direction of textual change whether in the Hebrew or in the Greek—is the main quest in this analysis. The MT reading will be compared with readings from various Greek manuscripts, and for textual differences, especially in vv. 29-39, a possible Hebrew Vorlage differing from proto-MT will be considered, as well as the possibility that the differences are due to the translator’s addition or omission of material or to later revision in the Greek. The findings of this analysis should help clarify the origin of the many large-scale differences between the Hebrew and Greek in this translation unit.


Comics as the Gateway Drug to (Biblical) Literacy? Using Graphic Novels to Teach Narrative Art in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
David G. Garber, Jr., Mercer University

Comic book writer and novelist Neil Gaiman is fond of saying that “comics are the gateway drug to literacy.” Could the same be said of biblical literacy? In this presentation I will explore the use of three graphic novels in order to teach concepts of narrative art in the Hebrew Bible. After a very brief introduction to the concepts of narrative art and to the graphic novels employed, I will engage participants in the session in active learning by asking them to analyze the interpretation of three Genesis narratives in graphic novels with particular attention to the ways in which each interpretation responds to what Robert Alter has called the “rigorous economy of biblical narrative.” Participants will form three groups. One will analyze the presentation of Genesis 1-3 in Gaiman’s A Parliament of Rooks. A second will analyze R. Crumb’s drawing of Genesis 4 in Genesis. A third will analyze Douglas Rushkoff’s presentation of the Akedah in Testament. To convene the session, I will ask each group to share their observations on each author’s/artist’s portrayal of the biblical text and any creative pedagogical insights that might arise from the activity.


Jesus and the Halakhic Obligation to Give to the Poor
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Jeffrey Paul Garcia, New York University

While Jesus’ view on halakha (i.e. Jewish law) has been of general interest to New Testament scholars, “giving to the poor” as an integral part of this discussion has been largely neglected. Even the pioneering studies of New Testament scholars E.P. Sanders (Jewish Law between the Bible and the Mishnah [Trinity Press, 1990]) and J.P. Meier (A Marginal Jew: Law and Love [vol 4; YUP, 2009]) have overlooked the manner in which “giving to the poor” functions in Jesus’ view of the law. Yet, biblical legislation, as well as the subsequent legal developments in the Second Temple Period, indicates that charity played a distinctive role in observing the commandments. Moreover, there are several narratives preserved in the Synoptic gospels that discuss charity in relation to other commandments. In fact, these discussions at times closely parallel the legal discussions codified in the literature of the early rabbis, especially the Mishnah and Tosefta. Therefore, the purpose of this paper will be to explore four Synoptic narratives, “The Rich Young Man” (Matt 19:16-22; Mk 10:19-22; Luke 18:18-23), “The Law and Righteousness” (Matt 5:17-20, 6:1-4), “The Widow’s Mites” (Luke 19:1-10), and “Zacchaeus the Tax Collector” (Mk 12:41-44; Lk 21:1-4), in light of the legal context of “giving to the poor” in Second Temple texts and early rabbinic literature in order to shed light on an area of Jesus’ so-called halakha that has been heretofore ignored.


Touch: Mutuality in Pastoral Care
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Cristina Garcia-Alfonso, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper explores the image of ‘mutual care.’ Rooted in the passage of Luke 24: 13-35 where Jesus joins two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus the presenter discusses dimensions of mutuality in the pastoral care displayed by the characters. The work of Latina theologian Mayra Rivera on The Touch of Transcendence: A Postcolonial Theology of God expands the understanding of this pastoral image of 'mutual care.'


(Once more) on Personal Letters by Members of the Manichaean Community in Egypt
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Iain Gardner, University of Sydney

The presenter has been a leading proponent of the idea that a number of personal letters on papyrus, principally dating from the IVth century and Egypt, should be identified as having been written by members of the ancient Manichaean community. Examples include letters in Greek such as P. Harr. 107, P. Oxy. 2603 and 4965; as well as many more from ancient Kellis in Coptic that the presenter has himself edited. Although these are sometimes termed ‘Manichaean letters’, it would be more accurate to speak of them as letters that incidentally evidence authorship by persons of Manichaean belief. The whole matter has occasioned some controversy. For instance, David Martinez in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (ed. R.S. Bagnall 2009, at pp. 601-602) has questioned some of the arguments concerning P. Harr. 107, and indeed Lincoln Blumell read a critical paper on the whole subject at Atlanta in 2010. In this paper Gardner takes the opportunity to clarify the crucial issues, as well as presenting new and relevant data from recently edited portions of Mani’s own Epistles.


The Didache and the Synoptic Problem
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Alan Garrow, Bath Abbey

In 'Is Q a Juggernaut' (JBL, 1996) Michael Goulder noted that the logjam surrounding the Synoptic Problem is unlikely to shift unless a new and irrefutable piece of evidence comes to light. What is required is the discovery of a very early Christian text that provides an insight into the sources used by Matthew's and Luke's Gospels. Over the past ten years the antiquity of the Didache, relative to Matthew and Luke, has gained increasing scholarly support. Further, this early Christian text contains material that is remarkably similar to, and plausibly more ancient than, portions of the 'double tradition'. This paper explores the potential impact of introducing the earliest portions of the Didache into the debate over Synoptic relationships, and, by this means, presents a case for seeing Matthew as directly dependent on both Luke's and Mark's Gospels.


Topographical Considerations on the Deborah-Barak Composition (Jdg 4–5)
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Erasmus Gass, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

For ages the topography outlined in the prose and the poetical account of the Deborah-Barak-Composition has been troublesome. According to the Song of Deborah, the battle took place at Taanach near the waters of Megiddo where, as a result of a sweeping torrent of the Kishon, the kings of Canaan were killed. Thus the miracle took place in the Plain of Esdraelon. In the prose account, on the other hand, the location of the battle is not clarified. Only the encampment of both armies - on Mt. Tabor and near Kishon - is specified. Sisera fled to an otherwise unknown Oak of Zaanannim after the battle while Barak chased the Canaanite army as far as Haroshet-ha-Goiim, which may be identified with the fertile Plain of Esdraelon. Thus a location of this battle more to the north seems possible, contrary to the Song of Deborah. In this respect, topographical considerations may have an effect on the literary history of Jdg 4-5.


Is Her Door Open or Closed? Another Look at the Architectural Imagery in Song of Songs 8:8–10
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Brian P. Gault, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Rather than the book’s numerous hapax legomena, the crux interpretum in Song 8:8-10 involves the architectural imagery of the wall and door. Scholars have tended to interpret these figures in one of two ways. The images are either (1) antithetic, contrasting an impenetrable wall, symbolic of purity, with an accessible door, portraying promiscuity, or (2) they are synonymous, duplicate depictions of fidelity. Another question relates to their promised results. Will these future conditions lead to fortification, reward, or both? While many offer an opinion on these figures, few incorporate literary parallels from the Song’s own imagery or the love lyrics of surrounding cultures. The purpose of this paper is to bring such comparative evidence to bear on the meaning of this passage as well as to show its connection to the immediate context and larger themes of the book.


The Santa Biblia Reina-Valera 2009: A Brief Project Review
Program Unit: Bible Translation
David Geilman, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

In 2009, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the LDS Church, published the Santa Biblia Reina-Valera 2009. This Spanish Bible publication was the result of a translation project that followed the historical pattern of review and revision within the Reina-Valera textual tradition and produced a conservative, linguistically-oriented revision of the 1909 Reina-Valera text with accompanying study aids. This 2009 edition is intended to enhance and facilitate personal and congregational study and use of the scriptures. This paper will briefly review the project, providing insights into the motivation behind it, the philosophy that guided it, and the process by which it was completed. It is hoped that this study will spur additional thought and consideration for other languages that have older, well-established Bibles that are now too difficult for modern readers to use and embrace.


In Search of Christian Paideia: Education and Biography in Early Christianity
Program Unit:
Peter Gemeinhardt, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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Once More MS 159 (Rahlfs): The Half Has Not Been Told
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Peter J. Gentry, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

In preparation of a critical edition of Ecclesiastes for the Göttingen Septuaginta Series, images of manuscript Rahlfs Number 159 were acquired after a long search. This is a Catena manuscript of LXX Ecclesiastes, Proverbs 25-28:12, and Canticum, and has not been consulted since the collation of G. L. Spohn in 1785 and the publications of E.Klostermann in 1892 and 1895. Recently the manuscripted was re-identified in a Library in Moscow. A paper was given at The Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Litera¬ture in November, 2008 on “Reading the Missing Pages,” but the half has not been told.


Super-Superscription "People of the Book": Torah-Orientation in the Psalter-Spiritual Practice and Theological Consequences
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Erhard Gerstenberger, Philipps-Universität Marburg

There are a good number of OT psalms standing out from the accustomed complaints and thanksgivings, hymns and litanies. They ostensibly show a meditative and/or didactic character, and Torah looms large in some of them. How did this “musing / murmuring over Torah” (Ps 1:2) as a spiritual exercise really work? In which cultural and religious context did it take place? What was the internal structure of that community in which Torah became the paramount axis of daily life? Apparently, reading and meditating sacred words constituted quite a change in OT spirituality and theological conceptualizations. We may place this turnover into the exilic/post-exilic era and link it to the emerging new faith-community of the covenant people of Yahweh.


Digitization of Manuscripts in Rural Ethiopia
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Michael Gervers, University of Toronto Scarborough

Digitization in rural Ethiopia provides rich rewards, but access can be extremely difficult and conditions are invariably rough. It is a far more expensive undertaking than working in towns as one requires a 4WD vehicle to get within a day’s walk of some sites, and a full range of supplies including a photographic field studio, food, water, camping gear, a reliable energy source and experienced personnel. A two-camera field team requires a minimum of four people. Equally important are the necessary permissions to undertake the work, which invariably carry a significant economic factor. Even with permissions in place and contracts signed, the local community can cancel a project from one day to the next. It is highly recommended, therefore, that any expedition have alternative venues.


Sacrificial Typology and Nazarite’s Burning Hair
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
James R. Getz Jr., Temple University

Numbers 6:1-21 contains ritual prescriptions required for those who take Nazirite vows. At the conclusion of such vows v.18 states that Nazirites are required to shave their heads and place their hair on the fire under the well-being sacrifice (?????). Scholars have traditionally looked at the burning of a Nazirite’s hair in Numbers 6:18 as a sacrificial event. Using a combination of internal evidence and ancient Near-eastern parallels, these scholars conclude that the hair represents the Nazirite pars pro toto. The offering of the hair represents the total dedication of the Nazirite to the deity—an act of self-sacrifice. This paper questions the premise of whether the burning of the Nazirite’s hair is sacrificial and addresses this question by using Kathryn McClymond’s polythetic understanding of sacrifice. McClymond posits a spectrum for ritual activity from more to less sacrificial based on the following general types of action: selection, association, identification, killing, heating, appropriation and consumption. A ritual need not contain all of these types of action to be sacrificial, but the denser the assemblage of these elements, the more sacrificial an activity is. This paper examines the ritual of the Nazirite in Numbers 6 according to McClymond’s schema and finds that the burning of the Nazirite’s hair has very few indicators of sacrificial activity. The paper concludes by positing other possible interpretations of the Nazirite’s burning hair.


A Series of Infelicitous Events: Cascading Ritual Infelicity in Kirtu
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
James R. Getz Jr., Temple University

Scholars have long recognized infelicitous ritual activity in the legend of Kirtu. The tragedy at the center of the tale involves an unfulfilled vow to Athiratu, which results in a plague upon the king and the ironic disavowal of the very heir that the vow was meant to insure. This paper argues that the unfulfilled vow is merely the last of a series of ritual improprieties by Kirtu by examining the ritual activities of the king, with special attention to markers of temporary cultic status change. At the outset of the tale, Kirtu is alone and in need of an heir. The king is given explicit ritual instructions by the Ilu involving washing, reddening, a tower ritual and other preparations for war. Kirtu's washing and reddening can be seen as preparation for both the roof ritual and subsequent war. In an immediate sense, the washing and reddening is construed as allowing him to perform the tower ritual; in an elongated sense this ritual enables him to proceed with the military campaign to insure a wife. The tower ritual is as a manifestation of Ba‘lu’s divine favor that helps assure Kirtu of success. However, the narrative clearly depicts Kirtu as unconvinced of such assurances, having him make the additional vow to Athiratu. Kirtu does not satisfy the requirements for any of these temporary rites of cultic transition since the text nowhere subsequently indicates a return to a quotidian state. By viewing the vow as the last in a series of status changes placed upon Kirtu, this paper argues that the text is heaping such status changes, one upon another, onto Kirtu without a return to the quotidian, without a ritual resolution. Such a ritual understanding helps explicate the need for Ilu—as opposed to Athiratu—to intervene late in the story.


The Trial of Jesus and Pilate's Praetorium
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Shimon Gibson, University of the Holy Land & UNC Charlotte

The details of the trials of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel include distinctive features not found in other Gospels, but which are confirmed in recent archaeological discovery. This paper will explore the latest finds regarding the houses of Annas and Caiaphas and the Praetorium of Pilate in Jerusalem. These include the courtyard, the lithostrotos, Gabbatha and other Johannine details.


Experiencing the Eschaton: John’s Jesus and Qumran’s Community as Entrance to the Eschaton
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Eric J. Gilchrest, Baylor University

This paper explores the realized eschatologies of John and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In it, I attempt to do three things. First, I begin by establishing the presence of realized eschatology in the Dead Sea Scrolls by looking at key texts from the scrolls. In particular, I focus on 1QH, 1QS, and 1QSa noting specific eschatological expectations that are taking place in the present. It is here I argue that one can find six elements of realized eschatology in the scrolls: eternal life, judgment of the wicked, purification, new creation, communion with angels, and the acquisition of special knowledge. Second, I compare the findings of the first section with that of realized eschatology in John. John’s realized eschatology is strikingly similar to that found in the Dead Sea Scrolls; the one major difference being that for John the messiah has come, whereas the Dead Sea Scrolls await a future fulfillment of the messianic hope. Lastly, I offer a thesis that the shared similarities between the eschatologies of John and the Dead Sea Scrolls are largely due to similarities between Jesus and the Qumran community. I argue that because both Jesus and the Qumran community, for their respective documents, constitute a new Temple, they function as the arbiter of God’s truth, the nexus between the heavens and the earth, and the place where atonement is made possible. It is only through Jesus (for John) and through the community (for Qumran) that one is able to experience eschatological realities that would otherwise be inaccessible. In this way, John’s eschatology is tightly bound to his Christology, whereas the eschatology of Qumran is bound to its ecclesiology.


Echoes of Homer and Echoes of Moses: The Literary Repertoire of Revelation’s Readers
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Eric J. Gilchrest, Baylor University

In this paper I attempt to map out a methodology for reading NT texts in general and Revelation in particular. Reading with the “authorial audience”, a phrase coined by Peter Rabinowitz, is an attempt to circumvent problems that arise with other hermeneutical approaches, particularly reading for authorial intent. The basic premise is that rather than searching for the author’s meaning behind the text, one attempts to reconstruct the author’s intended audience in order to hear the text as the authorial audience would have heard it. This requires a “thick description” of the audience and the thought world in which the text was received. Through reconstructing the intertexts that inform the intended audience, modern scholars are then able to better hear the text as it would have been heard by a first-century audience. What I wish to do is to push one step further the questions, Who constituted the audience of a given text? And what intertexts were they using? Authorial-audience criticism typically assumes a monolithic audience. Upon further reflection, however, this assumption proves untenable with any audience (whether ancient or modern) in that any given audience is going to be made up of a variety of readers—male/female, rich/poor, slave/free, Jew/Gentile, etc. My proposal, then, is that we begin pressing the different ways in which an ancient text might have been heard by its original audience(s). Focusing my attention on Jew/Gentile readings, I will read passages of Revelation through Jewish intertexts and Greco-Roman intertexts in order to show that determining “what a text meant” does not always produce a singular answer. Though recent scholarship has highlighted the various ways an ancient text might be heard by modern readers (e.g. reader-response theories), more work needs to be done examining the variety of ways a text was heard in its ancient context.


Israelite Warfare and Israelite Sacrifice
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
William Gilders, Emory University

In this paper, I will explore the relationship between ancient Israelite warfare and sacrificial practices, attending to the textual evidence for various juxtapositions of sacrificial ritual and the conduct of military campaigns: sacrifices in preparation for and at the conclusion of military campaigns, as well as sacrifices in the midst of conflict. I will also discuss the ongoing debates about the relationship between sacrificial slaughter and “violence” raised by René Girard’s theory of the origins and inner dynamics of sacrifice. My goal is to enhance understanding of the “native” Israelite meaning given to the categories of “war” and “sacrifice” and to consider how these culture-specific meanings might influence general theories about sacrifice and its relationship to “violence.”


Women's Education, Initiation, and Authority in the Damascus Rule: A Comparative Approach
Program Unit: Qumran
Yonder Moynihan Gillihan, Boston College

Recent studies of laws in the D mss. from Cave 4 have shown that the role of women in the Covenanters' sect was much more important than previously thought. That some women had formal rank and authority is proved by laws on the Mothers of the Congregation and the "knowledgeable and trustworthy" women who worked with the Examiner on lawsuits against new brides. Exactly how women acquired knowledge, authority, and rank is difficult to reconstruct, but there are good clues. In her monograph, Women in the Damascus Document, Cecilia Wassen made a strong case that, from childhood until adulthood, females were educated, initiated as full members, and assigned rank, just like their male counterparts. This study attempts to show that, while Wassen's description of women's roles in the sect is essentially correct, it can be further supported, fleshed out, and sharpened by comparing the evidence of D with evidence for the education, rank, and authority of women in ancient voluntary associations, in constitutional texts such as Plato's Republic and Laws and Aristotle's Politics, and in the Mishnah. I argue that, while the role of women in D has some analogies in cultic and scholastic associations, the more salient analogies come in laws on women in the constitutional texts. These analogies confirm that, while the Covenanters' sect was a voluntary association, its self-perception was that of a state-in-the-making; its associational laws were crafted as precursors to comprehensive laws for restored Israel. The constitutional texts argue that a state must not neglect the education of women nor bar them from public service: if so treated, a full half of the state's subjects will transgress the laws, offend the gods, and bring the state to ruin. These texts agree with D on a key issue: sexual transgressions are most damaging. The philosophers make sexual laws central to women's legal education; female leaders are responsible for teaching and enforcing them. I argue that laws in D suggest that this was also the case among the Covenanters: advanced female education centered around sexual laws; female authorities' taught their details to other women, and cooperated with the Examiner in their enforcement. While the Mishnah is famously reticent on (and sometimes hostile to) female education, it provides invaluable details about what such education would have included. Educating women and including them in leadership not only ensured that all are equally accountable to the laws; most importantly, inclusion minimizes transgressions that bring covenantal curses upon all Israel. Comprehensive sexual education for women is not merely a matter of personal morality, but of national security.


In the Eye of the Reader: The Beautiful "Other"
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Catholic-Theological Private University of Linz

Bodily imagery and aesthetics are closely linked. The construction of a body is a way through which an individual or a community express themselves or their image of the "other". Whether this body is shown as beautiful or ugly, desirable or repulsive, alluring, threatening or grotesque determines the way it is perceived. Metaphors and metaphorical concepts play an essential role in the process of assembling and designing bodily imagery. Furthermore, these images help to structure the perception according to their underlying cognitive strategies and thus to lead the readers to a specific response. In this way metaphorical body images offer an insight into a rhetoric strategy. This paper will explore the dynamics of the metaphorical rhetoric on examples of the beautiful but, nevertheless, threatening “other” in the prophetic oracles to the nations. It will analyse how body metaphors map conceptual structures and images in order to construct an alluring but ambivalent image of the “other”. In the prophetic oracles the body of the “other” bears traits of an ideal image but it reveals grotesque and hybrid images as well. Although metaphorical language recognises the alluring aspect of the beautiful “other” the metaphors, nevertheless, tend to deconstruct their beauty in the eyes of the reader.


What’s Paul’s Beef with Oxen? Animal Compassion in Light of 1 Corinthians 9:9–10
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Michael Gilmour, Providence College (Canada)

According to Paul, the prohibition against muzzling an ox has nothing to do with the animal in question and everything to do with human wellbeing (“entirely for our sake”). This passage presents an interesting challenge for those concerned with a biblically informed animal ethic because the apostle dismisses a straightforward Torah mandate (Deut 25:4) in favour of an anthropocentric reading. Unfortunately, this is one instance where the later reception of biblical teaching has presumably unexpected, even horrific consequences. Regardless of Paul’s rhetorical motives in shifting emphasis away from oxen to people within the argument of 1 Corinthians, the remarkable influence of his letter diminishes the possibility of an animal-friendly Christian reading of Deut 25:4. The author of 1 Tim 5:17-18 and Augustine, for instance, follow Paul in dismissing the Torah’s provisions for labouring animals. This paper examines the unfortunate legacy of Paul’s citation of Deut 25:4 and the challenge this presents to those bringing modern ethical concerns to ancient texts. It recommends resistance to Paul’s suppression of animal-compassion Torah legislation in this instance but maintains the Apostle remains essential for any conversation about Christian obligations to non-human, sentient creation.


Juxtaposed Episodes of Biblical Narrative in Dialogue
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Rachelle Gilmour, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Bakhtin describes the dialogue of ideas as “similar to what happens in painting when a distinct tone, thanks to the reflections of surrounding tones, loses its abstract purity, and only then begins to live an authentic ‘painterly’ life.” A similar process took place when the biblical narrative was edited and different episodes and stories were juxtaposed. Individual episodes took on new life and interpretation in their new context and our reading of them is greatly enriched by attention to such juxtaposition. The episodes often come literally from different voices and so Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and the polyphonic novel is an interesting avenue for exploring how these voices interact and reinterpret one another. Using Bakhtin’s analysis of dialogism in the novel, this paper will examine how juxtaposed episodes can dialogue with one another through contradiction, corroboration and complementation, in particular a question and answer relationship. It is this dialogue which consequently affects the interpretation of the episodes in juxtaposition. This understanding of dialogue will be applied to stories in the Elijah and Elisha narratives. For example the juxtaposed episodes of Elijah providing the widow of Zarephath with food and then raising her son from the dead in 1 Kings 17 simultaneously contradict, corroborate and complement one another. Elijah’s ability to perform miracles is corroborated, the nature of the widow’s faith is contradicted and the meaning of the stories complement each other through the resolution reached in 17.24. Not only is the interpretation of an episode changed based on its new context, the resulting three-dimensional dialogue brings tension, complexity and intensification to the reading.


Parenesis and Peroration in Galatians: The Rhetorical Function of Gal 4:12–6:18
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Mark D. Given, Missouri State University

Most historical-critical scholars consider Galatians 5:1 or 5:13 to 6:10 to be primarily parenetic in function, and most rhetorical-critical scholars argue that 6:12–17 is the peroration of the letter. Both perspectives are misleading and obscure the rhetorical function of 4:12–6:18. This paper will demonstrate that while much of 4:12–6:18 is indeed parenetic, it also functions as a suitable peroration for Galatians. Many New Testament rhetorical critics have been overly influenced by commonly repeated narrow and misleading definitions of both the length and functions of perorations. A more accurate understanding of the variety of perorations will enable scholars to see why 4:12–6:18 should be identified as the peroration of Galatians. Furthermore, I will offer a new interpretation of the function of the elliptical sentence in 4:12 that will confirm that it sums up or recapitulates the two major arguments of the letter and signals the beginning of the application of the arguments.


Paul's Mystery Thriller: The Use of the Danielic Mystery in 1 Corinthians
Program Unit: Scripture and Paul
Benjamin Gladd, Wheaton College, Illinois

Though commentators have long noted the importance of the apocalyptic term "mystery" in 1 Corinthians, this paper attempts to refine further the background and nature of the technical term. The Pauline mystery is deeply indebted to the book of Daniel, and its presence is felt throughout much of 1 Corinthians. Once the Danielic background is understood, Paul's discussion of the cross, his stewardship as mediator of revelation, the nature of tongues, and the resurrection is more fully appreciated.


The Voluntary Nature of the Nehemiah Covenant in Rabbinic Literature
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
David A. Glatt-Gilad, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Much scholarly attention has been devoted to the central covenant text in Nehemiah, namely chapters 8–10, in terms of its sources, literary structure, and theology. An important aspect of the discussion is the relationship between the Nehemiah covenant and the Sinai covenant, particularly in view of the unusual mention of the latter in the Nehemiah material (Neh 9:13). My paper will draw from rabbinic insights on the said relationship, both in terms of similarities and contrasts. I shall highlight the marked emphasis in rabbinic sources, from the Jerusalem Talmud through the various midrashic collections, on the spirit of voluntarism and religious initiative that characterizes the post-exilic covenant experience. Furthermore, I shall point out how the rabbinic sources occasionally anticipate certain conclusions of modern scholarship, at least on the ideational level. Finally, I shall suggest how the theme of voluntary acceptance of the covenant stipulations on the part of the post-exilic community serves as a conceptual basis for the establishment of rabbinic authority.


Translation Technique in the Septuagint of Micah
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
W. Edward Glenny, Northwestern College - St. Paul

There is a general consensus that one translator produced the Septuagint (LXX) Minor Prophets. One of the books often given short shrift in the study of the LXX Minor Prophets and in the question of their unity is Micah. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the translation technique of the translator of LXX Micah and to consider what implications that evidence has concerning the unity of the Minor Prophets in the LXX. In conclusion it will be important to consider what this evidence contributes to our understanding of the translator of the LXX Minor Prophets.


The Deuteronomistic History: A Hellenistic Era Composition in Two Redactions
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Russell Gmirkin, Portland, OR

This article summarizes new theories on the Deuteronomistic History presented in full in my 2011 book Berossus and Kings: The Library of Alexandria and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. Part 1 outlines evidence for two major redactions of Kings that effectively reverses the dual redaction theory of the Cross school. I propose that the oldest literary stratum, the Manasseh Redaction (DtrM), schematically portrayed all the last kings from Manasseh to the fall of Jerusalem as uniformly wicked. A later Josiah Redaction (DtrJ) inserted a new portrait of Josiah as a righteous king and a reformer. The book of Jeremiah, which knew nothing of a righteous Josiah or of Deuteronomistic reforms, provides key external literary evidence for the existence of the Manasseh Redaction. The account of the last kings of Judah in 2 Kgs 21-25 reads smoothly as a consistent negative account of the approaching divine punishment of Jerusalem for the sins of Manasseh after the discordant DtrJ material is excized. DtrM material both preceding and succeeding Josiah interpreted his reign negatively, as did the first Huldah oracle from DtrM. The DtrJ materials consisted of a revision of 2 Kgs 22.1 to contain a positive formula for his reign, the addition of the second Huldah oracle (2 Kgs 22.11, 18-20) and the story of Josiah’s reforms (2 Kgs 23.1-25). The DtrJ additions contain systematic literary dependence on the older DtrM materials, while the reverse is never the case, showing the relative sequence of these contradictory traditions. An immediate consequence is that DtrJ does not bear contemporary historical witness to events in the time of Josiah as commonly supposed. Part 2 outlines evidence for the Hellenistic Era date of the Deuteronomistic Historian(s). Since the Josiah reforms of DtrJ are found in a late literary addition unknown to the authors of DtrM or to the Prophets, there remains no reasonable evidentiary basis for supposing either the Josiah reforms or the purported introduction of an UrDeuteronomy in the time of Josiah to support those reforms as historical. This in turn undermines the notion of a hypothetical Deuteronomistic movement that operated across multiple generations in biblical times starting during the monarchy. Several lines of evidence point to the use of the Babyloniaca of Berossus (278 BCE) by DtrH. The Babyloniaca drew on the Babylonian Chronicles. 2 Kgs 24-25 used the objective Babylonian Chronicles style. Events dated in terms of regnal years of Babylonian kings 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah point to a Babylonian source. 2 Kings knew of the same idiosyncratic sequence of Babylonian kings and Assyrian kings who ruled Babylon found in Berossus: where Kings strayed from Berossus it often lapsed into error. The account of Sennacherib’s death at 2 Kgs 19.35-37 is manifestly dependent on a more detailed passage from Berossus on this same event found at Josephus, Ant. 10.20-23, which contained additional information from cuneiform sources not found in the biblical account. The use of the Babyloniaca of Berossus by the Deuteronomistic Historian(s) situates DtrH in the early Hellenistic Era.


The Rhetorical Function of Ezekiel’s Dirge over the King of Tyre
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Greg Schmidt Goering, University of Virginia

The poetic genre qinah plays a significant rhetorical role in Ezekiel's oracles against the ruler of Tyre (Ezek 28.1-19). The judgment oracle against the prince of Tyre in Ezek 28.1-10 and the funeral dirge over the king of Tyre in Ezek 28.11-19 may be distinguished on form-critical grounds, and in all likelihood the two literary units have distinct origins. Yet, as this paper argues, in their present redactional framework, the two passages function jointly. Although Ezekiel 28.11-19 bears the label "dirge" (qinah), many of the genre's formal features are absent in the passage. Of those characteristics of the dirge enumerated by Hedwig Jahnow, only a few remain, most notably, the once-now pattern which contrasts the king's past glory with his present demise. Some have explained this dearth of formal features as a "disintegration" of the genre. The nonconformity may result, however, from the transformation of the dirge by Israelite prophets into a gleeful taunt over enemies. In Ezekiel's dirge, the modification of several elements attests to the presence of parody: public humiliation replaces admonitions to keep the death private from enemies, and eulogies of incomparable terror substitute for statements of irreplaceability. We should add to Jahnow's list one more characteristic of the funeral dirge: the irreversibility of the deceased person's fate. In contrast to a lament, which presupposes a situation of distress that can be changed by divine intervention, the funeral dirge suits a situation that cannot be altered. The irreversibility of the king's fate suggested by the dirge genre figures prominently in the rhetorical strategy of chapter 28: the past-oriented dirge in Ezek 28.11-19 punctuates the future-oriented judgment oracle in Ezek 28.1-10 as a fait accompli.


Intersecting Identities and Persuasive Discourse: The Cases of Judah and Esther
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Greg Schmidt Goering, University of Virginia

Scholars have long noted similarities between the Joseph story and the book of Esther, including the motifs of hidden and mistaken identities. As a result of these similarities, commentators have concluded that the author of Esther took the stories and language of the Joseph novella as a model for the composition of his book. By closely analyzing the rhetoric—or persuasive art—exhibited in Judah's speech before Joseph in Genesis 44 and in Esther's series of requests before Ahasuerus, the present study reinforces this conclusion. The speeches of the two figures occur at decisive moments in the narratives, when hidden identities are revealed, and share not only verbal similarities but also numerous rhetorical strategies. Both speeches combine deferential language, grammatical shifts, hypothetical situations, a selective recounting of events, and exclamatory speech. These commonalities commend a comparison of the speech practices of the two characters. Such a comparison provides an unusual opportunity for an intersectional exploration of multiple identities in the deployment of persuasive discourse. The settings for the two speech acts consist in complex cultural combinations involving social status, ethnicity, gender, and relatedness. Because Esther's speeches were modeled on Judah's speech, a comparison brings into relief several interesting differences. For example, in addition to the five rhetorical strategies already enumerated, Esther’s character orchestrates an elaborate series of events, employs conditional clauses, and combines intimate speech with deferential forms of address. And although both characters deftly mobilize the rhetorical mode of pathos in order to evoke emotional sympathy across a social divide, the two figures do so in different ways: Esther's character merges pathos and ethos in a way that Judah's character does not. These subtle differences between the rhetorical strategies of the two figures may provide a clue to the way in which persuasive discourse was influenced by intersecting identities and also served to shape social realities in the diasporic communities of these texts.


The Issue of Eidolothuta in First Corinthians 8 and Popular Chinese Ancestor Veneration: An Inter(con)textual Interpretation
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Menghun Goh, Vanderbilt University

This paper aims to put 1 Corinthians 8 in dialogue with the issue of the eating of eidolothuta in Chinese (Malaysian) context. To speak of eidolothuta in popular Chinese beliefs and practices, we first note that for Chinese, everything (material and immaterial) is made of Qi (breath or energy). There is no dichotomy between the visible and invisible worlds. Rather, they are a continuum where yin-yang (a dynamic complementary system); heaven-earth-humanity (a triadic verticality); five phases (wood; fire; earth; metal; and water); and nine fields or palaces (horizontal division system) form the essential components for correlative thoughts in Chinese semantic universe. As such, gods, ancestors, and ghosts are not ontologically different from human beings. This worldview is important to Chinese interpretation, especially when Bourdieu’s habitus or Merleau-Ponty’s “habit body” remind us that our being-in-the-world shapes our mind and behavior, and vice versa. Thus, Chinese ancestor veneration or worship is not just a cultural form of filial piety or a grieving therapy; nor is it merely a kind of “superstitious” practice to allay fear or to receive blessings from the deceased. Rather, it is both, since Chinese worldview is non-dualistic. In Roman Corinth, the ubiquitous presence of altars, temples, etc. also seems to reflect such a close everyday interaction with the invisible powers (1 Cor. 8:5). Given this inter(con)textual discourse, the eating of eidolothuta is not just about “to eat or not to eat” (8:8); nor is it merely about “knowledge” vs. “love.” Paul, moreover, does not set “love” against “knowledge.” For Paul, if all things come from (the one) God and (the one) Lord (8:6), then our sense of identity should be understood within the death and life of Christ (8:11). This cross-oriented interpretation is helpful to Chinese context as it offers a more (w)holistic view on the eidolothuta issue. (300 words)


“That No Plague May Come upon Them for Being Registered” (Exod 30:12): Census and Plague in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Shira J. Golani, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The census is an elementary and necessary procedure for all organized regimes, from antiquity till today. It is a requirement for regulating the collection of various monetary taxes, labor and military drafts. Yet in the Bible we find two separate pericopes depicting the census as a possible instigator of communal death. The first text under discussion is Exod 30:11-16 – a law concerned with the proper way of census taking.The second text is 2 Samuel 24 which tells of the census conducted by King David in his kingdom. This census is understood as a sin, and as such, entails a heavy punishment – a plague that kills tens of thousands of Israelites. In my lecture I will discuss these two literary units and will examine the bond they present between census and plague in light of other Biblical writings and pertinent ancient Near Eastern texts, particularly from Mari, concerning census taking.


Jewish Children's Bibles in Twentieth-Century America
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Penny Schine Gold, Knox College

The genre of children's bibles has a much briefer history within Judaism than it does within Christianity, beginning only in the nineteenth century. In the context of modernizing Judaism, the Bible replaced the Talmud as the centerpiece of the education of Jewish children. The form in which the Bible was taught also changed; no longer did young children learn to read the original Hebrew text word-by-word, but instead they were taught through collections of Bible stories in English that were highly modified texts, created specifically for children. This paper will explain the educational goals of Jewish educators with respect to teaching the Bible and will then examine sample stories from popular collections to see the extent to which educational theory was carried out in the stories being read to children in religious school classrooms. Attention will also be paid to the ways in which the American environment influenced the directions in which biblical narrative was changed to children's story, particularly with regard to moral values and the nature of God. A brief comparison to Bible story collections created for an Israeli audience will highlight the importance of cultural/historical context for the specific shaping of these texts.


How Important is Isaiah 1–55 to Isaiah 56–66
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
John Goldingay, Fuller Theological Seminary

The paper will consider ways in which material in Isaiah 1-55 is taken up in Isaiah 56-66 and how significant its contribution or influence is.


Expanding Notions of Tumah: A Historical Approach to Female Impurity at Qumran
Program Unit: Qumran
Elizabeth W. Goldstein, Gonzaga University

In my doctoral dissertation (defended July 2010), I demonstrated an evolution in the representation of purity law from the earliest biblical law to the latest figurative ideas expressed in Ezra-Nehemiah. I showed that the concrete move from (1) ritual purity to (2) moral purity to (3) genealogical purity necessarily involves an unfolding of denigrating images of women and the female body. Purity in the Dead Sea Scrolls marks a further refinement in the Bible’s purity laws. Klawans has put forward what I call a “fourth category” in Sin and Impurity in Ancient Judaism. He shows that, in general, the Scrolls often collapse the categories of ritual and moral purity. In this paper, I seek to determine whether gender plays a significant role in this fourth representation of the biblical purity laws. Secondarily, depending upon how women are portrayed in the scrolls in connection to purity law (and this can range from neutral [as in P] to exceedingly bad [as in Ezekiel]), I will use methods I have already developed from biblical studies, women's studies and anthropology to assess the portrayal of women in the scrolls


Medieval Jewish Exegesis on Psalm 2
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Mariano Gomez-Aranda, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas

Psalm 2 has been discussed in several Jewish commentaries in the Middle Ages. Questions such as its authorship, its position in the Book of the Psalms in connection with other psalms, or its references to the King Messiah have been the object of controversies among medieval Jewish exegetes such as Saadia Gaon, the karaites, Rashi, Ibn Ezra and David Kimhi. The medieval Jewish responses to the question of messianship alluded to in the text have been possibly motivated by the Christian interpretations of this psalm. In this paper, I will focus on the matters of controversy and discussion among medieval Jewish exegetes on Psalm 2, and analyze how the historical circumstances in which they lived influenced their own exegetical perspectives. A special attention will be given to the question of messianship in the context of Jewish-Christians controversies.


Refrigerium and the Cult of the Dead in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Eliezer Gonzalez, Macquarie University

This paper proposes to that an important aspect of the mental and cultural world of the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is the Roman cult of the dead in North Africa in the early third century. There are a significant number of direct references and allusions within the Passion to the North African cult of the dead, and these references have perhaps previously not been seen to be what they really are. In essence, a new contextual frame is being proposed for this important text. Without negating the important Christian and apocalyptic elements in the text, this paper highlights the setting of Perpetua within a culture in which the cult of the dead had an extremely significant place within both pagan and Christian society. The Passion of Perpetua should not be considered as a sacred and timeless liturgical text, in the sense of being divorced from its context. The ancient liturgical use of the text, together with the long-standing debates regarding its orthodoxy, have perhaps clouded the evidence of the text itself, in its own historical context. Having proposed a new context for this ancient text, this paper then attempts to reconsider the function of the text. The role Roman ideology of refrigerium within the Carthaginian Christian communities is explored, as suggested by the internal evidence of The Passion of Perpetua. Fundamentally, the paper will argue that the Christian community which produced this text understood the function of the cult of the dead to be to transcend the worlds of the living and the dead, as well as the past and the present, and essentially, to create community unity and identity. As part of this, it seems that the sacral use of the text itself had a significant role in fulfilling this purpose.


Junia— An Apostle in Christ Before Paul: A Neglected Feature in the Discussion of Romans 16:7
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Mark Goodacre, Duke University

There is now a broad consensus that Iounian in Romans 16.7 refers to a woman (Junia) and not a man (Junias), but there is still disagreement over the translation of the clause hoitines eisin episemoi en tois apostolois. Does this expression mean that Andronicus and Junia are “prominent among the apostles” (NRSV, Epp, Belleville, Bauckham) or that they are “well known to the apostles” (NET Bible, Wallace and Burer)? A neglected feature in discussion of the verse helps to resolve the issue in favour of construing en with the dative here as “prominent among the apostles.” Paul is not in the habit of appealing for approval to an external group designated “the apostles”. His well-known sensitivity about the term makes it unlikely that he is excluding himself from a group that he is usually adamant about belonging to. Any conferring of apostolic esteem here would have included Paul too (cf. 1 Cor. 4.9, “us apostles”). The final clause in Rom. 16.7, hoi kai pro emou gegonan en Christo (“who also were in Christ before me”) provides further helpful circumstantial evidence. It places Andronicus and Junia at the beginning of the new movement, increasing the likelihood that they were regarded as “apostles” and witnesses to the resurrection. Appreciation of the broader context of Paul’s brief comments about Junia lend support to the notion that she was an apostle like him, in Christ before him.


Pods, Blogs, and other Time-wasters: Do Electronic Media Detract from Proper Scholarship?
Program Unit:
Mark Goodacre, Duke University

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Managing God’s Household: Overseers as Stewards and the Qualifications for Leadership in the Pastoral Epistles
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
John Goodrich, Moody Bible Institute

Scholars often notice how the comparison of the overseer (episkopos) to an estate steward/manager (oikonomos) in Titus 1.7 reiterates and reinforces the household of God motif permeating the Pastoral Epistles. There is, however, little scholarly agreement regarding how the author utilizes the steward metaphor and precisely what it highlights about early Christian leadership. This paper seeks to demonstrate that the metaphor not only illustrates the representative, managerial role of the overseer, but also provides the appropriate context in which to interpret the qualifications for leadership recorded in the surrounding verses (Titus 1:5-9; cf. 1 Tim 3:1-7). Drawing on a host of Greek and Latin literary sources on estate management (e.g., Xenophon, Aristotle, Philodemus, Cato, Varro, Columella), the paper will show that the qualifications for church leadership prescribed by the Paulinist closely resemble and occasionally challenge those traits sought in estate managers. While not suggesting that the Paulinist borrowed directly from these Greek and Latin sources, it will be argued that he drew on popular conceptions of the steward role in order to pattern his vice and virtue lists after those traditions. The conclusions of the study will have implications for the ideological correspondences and contrasts between early Christianity and Greco-Roman society, especially pertaining to conceptions of leadership.


How to Oppose a Law: Acts 15 in Light of the Progymnasmata
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Matthew E. Gordley, Regent University

Acts 15 has been called the “most crucial chapter in the whole book” and, appropriately, has received a great deal of scholarly attention. In recent decades, it has been the subject of a variety of rhetorical analyses, which have highlighted such features as the deliberative nature of the speeches in Acts 15, Peter’s use of refutation, and the ways that aspects of the rhetoric of the passage contribute to Luke’s overall aims. The present paper contributes to this ongoing discussion of Acts 15 by bringing the passage into conversation with a little-discussed feature of the progymnasmata, namely, instructions on proposing or refuting a law. This specific compositional exercise drew on the skills mastered in the earlier exercises as students utilized compositional and rhetorical skills to persuade the reader or audience to enact or abandon a particular law based on the topics of legality, possibility, advantage, and appropriateness, among others. Reading Acts 15 in light of this particular aspect of the progymnasmata yields insights into the biblical text on two levels. On one level, this paper explores the three individual speeches with regard to the extent to which they correspond to these ancient guidelines for opposing or introducing a law. The believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees (v. 5) argue from necessity in support of their proposal. Peter (vv. 7-11) opposes their proposed law using the arguments that it is unnecessary, impossible, and even shameful and inappropriate. James (vv. 13-21) renders his decision against the proposal with an argument of advantage and legality (citing the words of the prophets), and makes a new proposal of his own based on what is good for the Gentiles. According to Luke, the argument and rhetorical features of these speeches were highly effective in persuading the audience; their adherence to rhetorical conventions may have contributed to this. More significantly, this paper examines Luke’s retelling of this event as a whole, as itself an instance of opposing a law according to the conventions of ancient rhetoric. The effectiveness of Luke’s own presentation is not provided by the text and must be judged by the reader of Luke-Acts. This paper finds that, given the instructions provided in the progymnasmata, the process of refutation of a law inscribed in Acts 15 is a process that would have communicated effectively to educated Greek and Roman audiences about the credible and persuasive way in which it was decided that Gentile Christians should not be subject to obeying the entire law of Moses.


Encomiastic Praise in Paul, Horace, and Lucretius: Functional Similarity in Phil 2:6–11, Odes 4.15, and De Rerum Natura 5.1–54
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Matthew E. Gordley, Regent University

Studies of Paul’s citation of purported hymnic materials have often focused on the form of these passages, their background, their verbal or theological relationship to other texts, possible parallels, redactional elements, and their possible existence prior to their use in an epistolary context. Some attention has also been given to the ways these hymns are used relative to the structure and purposes of the larger epistles in which they are found. At the same time, recent studies in a variety of fields (Qumran; early Judaism; classics; etc.) have begun to highlight ways that hymns, songs, and prayers in antiquity played a significant role in the process of formation of communal identity for a particular audience. This paper contributes to this discussion by considering the ways that Paul’s inclusion of a hymn or encomium of Jesus in Phil 2 shares functional parallels with other encomia in the Roman world. Specifically, this paper examines the didactic and instructional functions of Horace’s Odes in praise of Augustus (especially Odes 4.15), as well as several hymns in praise of Epicurus found in Lucretius’s On the Nature of the Universe (especially 5.1-54). Though worlds apart in some regards, these passages share an important feature: they each praise a human subject with language that is clearly associated with the divine. By attending to the contents of these passages, as well as their participation with broader cultural conventions for encomiastic praise, this paper discusses a variety of ways that hymns in praise of exalted humans helped to construct a vision of reality that the hearer/reader was invited to embrace. Recognition of these dynamics places each of these texts at the intersection of the process of communal formation as well as the process of redescribing and redefining the key values and ideals of the particular community in light of forces that may have been challenging those ideals. We see also that, in spite of major differences in form, style, and content, the poets who penned these hymns appear to have shared the larger goal of creating a compelling vision of reality that could contribute to a sense of collective identity. It is on this functional level that we can see that Paul’s inclusion of hymnic praise of Jesus Christ (whether citing earlier material or providing his own composition) reflects a broader cultural phenomenon of instructing a human audience through the use of encomia of exalted individuals. This comparison also allows for recognition of ways that New Testament hymnic passages may go beyond the sensibilities of earlier poets as they develop Christological reflections in new directions.


Reading the Sayings of Sextus
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Pamela Gordon, University of Kansas - Lawrence

Apparently formulated in a pagan Greek context, the collection of moral and religious aphorisms known as the Sayings of Sextus had a brilliant afterlife among early Christians. Over 50 years ago, Henry Chadwick suggested that the Sentences of Sextus might aptly be called “the wisdom-literature of early Gentile Christendom.” Writing before publication of the longer Coptic version discovered among the codices that would become known as the Nag Hammadi Library, Chadwick stressed the extensive Christian readership of the sayings in Armenian, Greek, Latin, and Syriac language versions “from Britain to Mesopotamia.” This paper offers an orientation to the sayings and revisits Henry Chadwick’s suggestion that they are of great importance to “that neglected subject, the history of ethics” (Henry Chadwick, The Sentences of Sextus, Cambridge, 1959).


Interweaving Innocence: The Role of Rhetoric in Luke's Defense of Jesus
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Heather M. Gorman, Baylor University

The importance of the theme of innocence in Luke’s Passion narrative has long been recognized though it has been interpreted in various ways. Typical evidence for Luke’s interest in Jesus’ innocence focuses on the proclamations by those at the trial and crucifixion (namely, Pilate, Herod, the second thief, and [possibly] the centurion). Outside of the centurion’s proclamation, scholars accept these examples with little resistance as evidence of Luke’s interest in Jesus’ innocence. Beyond these examples—which are relatively obvious at a surface level—this essay argues that Luke’s presentation of Jesus’ innocence is interwoven throughout his Passion narrative on a deeper level. That is to say, Jesus’ innocence in Luke’s passion narrative goes beyond the blatant statements of innocence by Pilate and the others. The basis of this argument is a rhetorical analysis of Luke’s passion narrative, with a particular emphasis on Luke’s use of the ancient rhetorical techniques of paraphrase, refutation, and confirmation as described by Theon and Quintilian. When Luke’s use of Mark’s passion narrative is viewed with these techniques in mind, the depth of Luke’s characterization of Jesus as an innocent victim emerges—a depth that permeates both the structure and style of Luke’s passion narrative. Ultimately, this rhetorical analysis offers insights into two issues that are debated in Lukan studies: first, it suggests that Luke would have intended his audience to hear the centurion’s proclamation of Jesus as "dikaios" in terms of political innocence; second, it eliminates the need to posit a source other than Mark for Luke’s passion narrative.


Relating Text and Archaeology: The Case of Jerusalem
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Lester L. Grabbe, University of Hull

A continuing problem for the historian of ancient Israel and Judah is how to relate texts and archaeology, especially when the data sets from the two sorts of sources appear to contradict each other. This paper will examine several examples from Iron Age and Persian period Jerusalem and make some suggestions of principles that might apply.


The Prophet Jeremiah in Qur’anic Exegesis
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Michael Graves, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Although the prophet Jeremiah is not mentioned by name in the Qur’an, early interpreters of the Qur’an associated Jeremiah with several Qur’anic passages. Perhaps the most interesting passage is Q 2:259, in which a nameless person passes by a ruined town and asks how God can give life to this town after it has died, and then God causes this person to die for one hundred years and then revive. Early exegetes did not reach consensus on the identity of this individual, but one prominent line of tradition identifies him as Jeremiah (Ezra was another option). This paper will describe how early sources (such as Tabari, Qummi, and Ibn al-Kalbi) read the Qur’anic passage with Jeremiah as the protagonist; for example, the city is Jerusalem, Jeremiah’s food includes figs, and Jeremiah partially revives after seventy years to see the city being rebuilt. The narratives told by Qur’anic exegetes include elements known from the biblical book of Jeremiah, such as Jeremiah’s “call.” Also, these narratives adapt the Jeremiah tradition to the details of the Qur’an, as regarding the donkey in Q 2:259. The goal of this paper is to provide another example of how biblical traditions were reshaped in the exegesis of the Qur’an, and how the meaning of the Qur’an was explained by the use of biblical materials. In addition, the Jeremiah narratives related to the Qur’an will be compared with traditions about Jeremiah known from the Midrash and from patristic commentaries (including Jerome and Ephrem), to show how similar processes were taking places in these communities.


A Deluge of Retellings: Toward a Definition and Vocabulary of the Flood in Contemporary Literature
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Emily O. Gravett, University of Virginia

The flood narrative from Genesis 6-9 has been retold in numerous, recent pieces of literature, ranging from Julian Barnes’s “The Stowaway” to David Maine’s The Preservationist. Though extensive, none of the scholarship on this phenomenon—such as Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg’s recent monograph Sustaining Fictions or the collection Subverting Scriptures, edited by Beth Hawkins Benedix—attempts to argue for or to define the term “retelling,” however. These scholars seem to simply assume that we all know a “retelling” when we encounter it. This paper disagrees, so it will first provide an explanation for why the term “retelling” should be preferred above the others currently in use, such as “afterlife” (e.g. Sherwood) or “transfiguration” (e.g. Ziolkowski). It will also propose a distinct definition of the literary phenomenon of biblical “retellings,” which oddly no scholar has done yet. Most basically, biblical retellings are those post-biblical pieces of literature that initiate a dialogue with the biblical text—which also acts as its predominant source—through a variety of overt correspondences. This definition will be useful not only in literary retellings, but in other mediums (like film), as well. Finally, this paper will proffer a vocabulary that traces how contemporary flood narratives adapt the biblical deluge; this vocabulary includes terms such as reorientation (the telling of a biblical story from a different or new point of view and/or voice) and repopulation (the addition of totally new characters into the biblical story). These terms are helpful not only because readers can use them as categories of analysis—to illuminate individual retellings and to compare different retellings—but also because they may, in turn, reveal aspects of the Bible that may have gone unnoticed otherwise.


Music of The Mountain Goats: The Bible in Indie-Rock America
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Emily O. Gravett, University of Virginia

In 2009, American Indie Rock band The Mountain Goats, who have performed on The Colbert Report and at the Austin City Limits Musical Festival, released their 17th album called The Life of the World to Come. Each of its 12 tracks, such as “Genesis 3:23,” “Deuteronomy 2:10,” and “Psalm 40:2,” is titled after a single verse of the Bible. Using several of these biblically themed songs as examples, this paper will investigate the various ways that The Mountain Goats understand, use, and transform their biblical inspiration. In order to do so, this paper will try to locate or discern—using both lyrics and, if instructive, musical elements—any apparent and productive correspondences between the biblical verse and the individual song. At times the connections will be mostly thematic—“Genesis 3:23” includes notions of homelessness, maturation, and nostalgia, just as the biblical verse implies—and at other times the songs will cull language directly from the Bible—“Psalm 40:2” sings of a “pit,” just as the biblical verse does. These correspondences will help to reveal how The Mountain Goats interpreted these biblical texts and why they chose to conjoin that song, with its particular sentiments, with that verse. The paper will also struggle with songs—such as “Deuteronomy 2:10”—where no apparent connections to the Bible can be found, and what this absence may imply. In general, however, we can hear the songs making meaning that is personal, situated, embodied, and placed—all associated in some way with contemporary America—out of verses that may seem irrelevant or obsolete to many listeners today. This paper will also have the added benefit of being able to re-read and re-discover the biblical verses, and their surrounding passages, by using The Mountain Goats songs as an interpretive lens for those parts of the Bible.


Beyond the Prophecy Principle: Repetition and Violence in Jeremiah’s Oracles against the Nations
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Rhiannon Graybill, University of California-Berkeley

This paper takes up the relationship between violence and aesthetics in the Book of Jeremiah through an analysis of the function of repetition in the Oracles Against the Nations. The violence of the Oracles against the Nations draws much of its power from the use of repetition. Specific images, fields of metaphor, and rhetorical structures of address repeat across the collection of Oracles and even within a single oracle. While this repetition is sometimes understood as either an accident of composition or deliberate literary excess, I argue that the repeated structures of the text are both deliberate and not oriented toward aesthetic pleasure. Instead, I suggest reading the repetitions of the Oracles against the Nations as a "repetition compulsion," following Freud’s work in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle." Repetition, even the repetition of violent fantasies, signals a literary negotiation with trauma. As such, the Oracles against the Nations are best read not as a reflection of real or desired political violence against the other, but rather as the symptom of a deeper drive toward death and a violence against the self. In constructing this argument, I will begin my analysis with the Oracle concerning Edom and then situate this text in the larger contexts of the Oracles against the Nations and of Freud’s theorization of the death drive, as well as more recent work on repetition and trauma.


Jesus Christ, the Final Scapegoat?
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Matthias Grebe, Christ's College, University of Cambridge

This paper seeks to restore the Hebrew notion of sacrifice as a gift from God to his people, as opposed to the Greco-Roman concept of a gift or appeasement to a deity from a person. It looks at both the Old Testament and the New Testament concepts of the atonement and seeks to move from away from a penal substitutionary atonement to a non-penal, non-sin bearing (but still a substitutionary) one. This might at first seem somewhat unorthodox, but this paper is written from a profoundly biblical standpoint, analysing the biblical texts afresh by considering both recent as well as old scholarship. The issue of ‘sin-bearing’ seems to be the pivotal point of the doctrine of the atonement, and particularly in the question 'How can a holy God have fellowship with sinful humanity?' For both in the Old Testament cult as well as on the cross, sin needs to be dealt with – the question is whether the hattat and/or Jesus 'bears' sins and is consequently judged for it (Penal Substitution) or whether it is actually sin itself that is condemned. This paper looks at the five passages (Lev 16; Is 53; John 1:29; 2 Cor 5:21 and the cry on the cross used by advocates of Penal Substitution) and gives an alternative exegesis. It then offers an alternative view which seeks to affirm all biblical and orthodox teachings and does not deny doctrines such as the wrath of God, but arrives at different conclusions to those normally argued by proponents of PS. The aim of the paper is to highlight that neither the OT cultic atonement nor the death of Christ should be sees as a punishment or an appeasement of a deity, but as an event made possible by God himself, a sacrifice that grants access to a holy God, in which humanity participates and through which is incorporated into the holy: it is a coming to God through death.


Jeremiah's Character Zone
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Barbara Green, Dominican School at the Graduate Theological Union

Bakhtin’s interest in modern novels (e.g., Dickens and Dostoevsky) helped him fashion his distinctive theory of heroic characterization. I will borrow from that work and supplement it as well to offer a characterization of Jeremiah considering ten factors (e.g., overlap with the narrating voice, shared speech with another central character [God]), vast network of named associates, predilection for violent metaphors, potential for re-casting in the arts [drama, music, painting]). For each of the factors I will define the term or concept, offer key data, and distill a significant ‘take-away’ point. Those distillations will offer a fresh and provocative ‘character scan’ on the prophet.


The Garden of Eden: A Sensual Study in Rabbinic Midrash
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Deborah Green, University of Oregon

Gerson Cohen argued that the Song was included in the Hebrew canon as a response to the negative image of Israel as the fornicating wife found in the Prophets. More recently, Edmée Kingsmill has argued that images that attach to the garden of Eden and those that adhere to the garden of the Song of Songs already come together or elide into each other within the Bible itself—resulting in identification of both gardens as being one and the same or at least having the same properties (i.e. flora, construction, representational value, etc.). This paper assumes both of these points to be true and operational with respect to rabbinic midrash and goes on to ask, if experience is derived and understood through the senses, what do the rabbis imagine of the experience of Paradise or Eden? What can one see? What does the garden smell like? Are these midrashim triggered by sensory cues or are the senses used more subtly in the interpretation? This paper seeks to evaluate the rabbinic images that attach to one or both gardens (particularly in those midrashim in which the two gardens come together) through the lens of the senses. The focus of this study is on Genesis Rabbah and Song of Songs Rabbah, the two collections containing the most significant amount of “garden” midrashim.


The Testimony of Peter: 2 Peter and the Gospel Traditions
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Gene L. Green, Wheaton College (Illinois)

The author of 2 Peter is familiar with and uses the early Jesus traditions. The most prominent examples of his engagement with these traditions are the reference to Peter's imminent death (1.14) and his account of the Transfiguration (1.16-18). His appeal to these traditions is part of his attempt to counter the influence of the false teachers who “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them” (2.1). This essay will focus on the way that the author of 2 Peter utilized the epistemological category of testimony in his presentation of the traditions. The author’s method of presenting the traditions as testimony is a central plank in his polemic. The essay will also introduce some ancient and current reflection on the nature of testimony.


Deuteronomy and Centralization
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Frederick E. Greenspahn, Florida Atlantic University

Biblical scholars have long attributed King Josiah’s reform to the influence of Deuteronomy and its call for centralizing the cult. Even those who trace the book’s origin to the Northern kingdom or regard chapter 12 as a late insertion understand it as requiring cult centralization. Since so much of modern biblical scholarship rests on linking Deuteronomy to Josiah’s reform, that chapter has been described as “an archimedean point” for biblical studies. However, I will show that the syntax of Deuteronomy 12 (especially verses 5 and 13-14) does not require limiting sacrifice to a single place, though these verses may have come to be understood that way. As a result, the dating of other biblical books on the basis of their dependence on Deuteronomy or their awareness of cult centralization must be reconsidered.


Exodus 21:22: Two Fighting Men, One Pregnant Woman...
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

Exodus 21:22 has figured prominently in halachic discussions. This paper will look at the representations of this verse in a number of different Jewish biblical translations, from the Septuagint and Targumim, to the twenty-first century. The primary purpose of this analysis is not to determine which renderings are “better” or “worse” in comparison with the admittedly enigmatic Hebrew text. Rather, our goal is to assess each version in terms of the historical, cultural, and religious circumstances or contexts in which its translator (or group of translators) worked.


Potential and Limitation: The King James Version as a "Jewish" Translation
Program Unit:
Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

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Wisdom in Ugaritic
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Edward L. Greenstein, Bar-Ilan University

It is by now well-known that there was wisdom literature at Ugarit. However, all the wisdom texts that have been found are written in languages that are not West Semitic. Nevertheless, there is wisdom embedded and embodied within texts written in Ugaritic. Such wisdom can be discerned in gnomic expressions, quasi-philosophical formulations, wisdom themes and motifs, as well as passages that have demonstrable parallels in biblical wisdom texts. In view of this material it can be suggested that Syro-Palestine or Canaan was the breeding ground for the biblical wisdom tradition.


An Akkadian Etymology and a Different Meaning for Hebrew Bagad
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Edward L. Greenstein, Bar-Ilan University

The Hebrew verb bagad is generally understood to have the basic sense of treachery. This sense is based on a dubious semantic analogy and a dubious dialectal Arabic etymology that is itself influenced by the same semantic analogy. An inspection of bagad in its various biblical contexts shows that it does not specifically denote treachery but rather breaking faith or wrongdoing in general. Moreover, contrary to claims, it is more often than not intransitive. An Akkadian etymology for bagad suggests that its basic sense is to turn against (with b) or away from (with min) and that its derived meaning is indeed to break faith or renege, and sometimes to retreat. The Akkadian cognate, nabalkutu, also tends to be used intransitively. In this paper semantic and etymological arguments for the Akkadian cognate connection are presented.


Debating Wisdom: The Role of Voice in Qoheleth
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Kyle R. Greenwood, Colorado Christian University

Building on the work of other wisdom scholars, I argue that three (rather than two) distinct voices may be “heard” within Qoheleth. Each voice has its own characteristics, which can be traced throughout. Voice 1 (QP) is that of Qoheleth, the Preacher. His is the true voice of wisdom. He speaks with authority and dispenses nuggets of practical theology, primarily in second-person imperatives. Voice 2 (QS), by contrast, is that of Qoheleth speaking as Solomon. Serving as Qoheleth’s foil, QS speaks in the voice of the great and wise king Solomon as a means of reflecting on Solomon’s misguided wisdom. Solomon, allegedly the most wise man in the history of Israel (Ecc 1:16; 1 Kgs 4:29–34), failed to find ultimate meaning in life “because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel” (1 Kgs 11:9). The two voices together seemingly mock Solomon as one who should have been content with everything under the sun, but was not because he did not fear God. A third voice may also be heard on two brief, but prominent, occasions. This voice (QFN) serves as the “Frame-Narrator,” to borrow from Fox’s parlance, and is found in the third-person narrative sections of chapters 1 and 12. He not only speaks about Solomon, but also speaks for Solomon.


The Relationship between Pride and Sin in the Versions of Sirach
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Bradley Gregory, University of Scranton

This paper examines the complex relationship between pride and sin in the Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac versions of Sirach. After briefly discussing the vocabulary employed to denote pride, the paper focuses on Sir 10:12-18, especially verses 12-13. These verses relate pride and sin in terms of one giving rise to the other, but each version construes the relationship differently. I will discuss what is likely to be the original reading and offer an explanation for the production of the variant readings. By appropriating earlier sapiential notions concerning the importance of pride to the concept of sin (e.g. Prov 6:16-19; 8:13), Ben Sira understands pride and sin each to lead to the other, which explains why sometimes he places them in parallel. Both have religious and socio-political dimensions that mirror one another. As such, pride typically appears in contexts of rebellion, violence, and oppression. This understanding is reflected in the translational tendencies of the versions. In 10:12-13, the textual tradition shows fluidity in whether sin originates in pride or whether pride originates in sin. In the rest of Sirach, the LXX sometimes translates words in the domain of pride with Greek equivalents, but in several cases it translates pride with words like “ungodly,” “sinner”, and in at least one case “blasphemy” (3:16; not unprecedented in the LXX). Likewise, there is at least one case where the Hebrew manuscript tradition (A and C) has likely altered “iniquity” to “pride” (7:6). Thus, Ben Sira and the Nachleben of his book participate in a wider conception of the inextricable relationship between sin and pride that would exert significant influence in the West, as can be seen in Dante and Milton.


The Preservation of Priestly Lineage after 70 C.E.
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Matthew J. Grey, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

For over a century, most scholars have assumed that the presence, activities, and prestige of Jewish priests declined sharply following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 C.E. As a result of this assumption, little attention has been given to the subsequent fate and role of priests in Jewish society. However, an increasing amount of evidence indicates that priests did not disappear after 70, but continued to contribute in significant ways to Jewish social dynamics throughout Late Antiquity. Several sources suggest that priests continued to function in non-cultic capacities such as serving as judges, teachers, recipients of tithes, and participants in liturgical synagogue worship. Because Jewish priesthood was determined by lineage, there must have been a way for the community to recognize which individuals and families could be identified as priests so that they could perform these responsibilities. In this paper I will examine evidence for the preservation of priestly lineage after 70 C.E. Literary and epigraphic evidence indicates that some priestly families – both within and outside of rabbinic circles – retained their identities as priests for centuries after the First Revolt. It is also apparent that priestly lineage retained a high degree of prestige in the Jewish community. This is made clear by individuals claiming priestly titles in the writings of Josephus, early rabbinic literature, numismatic legends, and inscriptions found in funerary and synagogal contexts. There is even evidence that some priestly families after 70 continued to identify themselves as descendants of the twenty-four priestly courses. This raises the issue of how priestly lineage was preserved and verified during this period. Unfortunately, we are not able to reconstruct these logistics fully, but hints in the extant sources allow us to make some preliminary observations. For example, Josephus (writing in the late 90s) claims that priestly marriages after 70 still required genealogical documents attesting to the bride’s lineage in order to ensure the “purity” of the priestly line. Interest in priestly lineage continued in subsequent centuries. This is shown by conflicts between some priests and rabbis over the regulation of priestly marriages and the legal status of their offspring. Patriarchs and rabbinic sages attempted to assert their authority over these matters in the third and fourth centuries, but there is evidence that not all priestly families adhered to their guidelines. Although different circles disagreed on the parameters of priestly lineage, it is clear that the issue continued to be an important part of Jewish dynamics long after the loss of the Jerusalem temple.


“The Lord is the Spirit”: The Location of Freedom in the Spirit of the Lord
Program Unit: Society of Christian Ethics
Katherine Grieb, Virginia Theological Seminary

Abstract Pending


Using Technology to Increase Student Learning in Large Class Size Introductory Level Bible Courses
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
William Griffin, Simpson University

This session will focus on ways to employ computer technology, such as video Podcasts and classroom management systems, in introductory Bible classes where the number of students is often quite large (i.e. high double and triple digits). In addition this seminar will show how to provide a rich multifaceted learning experience that matches with a variety of different student learning modalities. The challenge with larger sized introductory Bible classes is, on the one hand, the necessity of getting students on board with a number of basic conceptual "tools" and approaches (i.e. historical background, cultural context and genre-specific information) and, on the other hand, providing students the opportunity to engage in close readings were they get to employ the "tools." This session will demonstrate a combined methods approach where learners practice close reading learning experiences in a "safe" environment vs. mostly memorizing and reproducing facts about the Bible and its context. This session will outline how to: 1. Leverage available computer screen capture and video rendering tools to produce enhanced lecture video Podcasts and 2. Integrate podcast viewing with an online Class Management System, such as Moodle, and small group size close reading experiences. Data will indicate that this method of instruction enhances student learning and comprehension of the New Testament.


The Language of the KJV and the Language of Liturgy
Program Unit:
Robin Griffith-Jones, Temple Church

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Body Language and Birth Metaphors in the Psalms
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Marianne Grohmann, Universität Wien

Ps 22:10-11 and Ps 139:13-16 are full of body-language. They describe the womb as starting-place of the close relationship between God and human beings. The paper asks which aspects of interaction and cognition theories of metaphor are helpful for the interpretation of birth metaphors in the Psalms. What concepts of pre-natal life and birth do the Biblical texts reflect? What connotations do these birth metaphors attribute to YHWH, the God of Israel? What associations are created in the interaction of these special metaphoric fields?


The Use of Hebrew in the Age of Bar Kokhba
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Andrew D. Gross, Catholic University of America

The discovery of documentary materials from the Judean Desert has opened an invaluable window on the use of Hebrew during the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, not the least of which is a recently published Hebrew contract dated to the “fourth year of the destruction of the house of Israel”. These documents stem from a particularly tumultuous era in Jewish history that included two devastating military revolts against Rome, and the nationalistic fervor that surrounded these revolts. While most of the documents were composed in the expected administrative languages of the time, namely Aramaic and Greek, a number of them were composed in Hebrew. The recently published Hebrew contract is of particular interest because its scribe appears to have been an Aramaic speaker with limited facility in Hebrew. This paper will consider the nature of the Hebrew used in these documents and consider what role, if any, the use of Hebrew played in the nationalist agenda of the leaders of the abovementioned revolts.


The Royal Garden at Ramat Rahel: An Archaeological, Iconographical and Textual Study
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Boaz Gross, Tel Aviv University

During the 2006 season of the New Excavations conducted at Ramat Rahel, the remains of a Royal Garden were discovered. Throughout the following five excavation seasons, between 2006 and 2010, the ancient garden was gradually unearthed. The physical remains reviled an evenly laid layer of rich dark “garden soil”, several plastered water pools, tunnels and channels, carved stone gutters as well as a water reservoir. The intriguing features of the garden, its monumentality and grandeur, mark it as a unique archaeological complex - the first and only of its kind to be discovered in pre-Hellenistic Judah. This paper seeks to understand the different aspects of the garden at Ramat Rahel in light of the Iconographic and textual representations of gardens in the Ancient Near East, as well as in the Old Testament. The biblical analysis will focus on three words that may shed light on the purpose and function the garden in Ramat Rahel may have had: gan (garden), pardes (orchard) and kerem (vineyard). The archaeological, iconographical and textual examination will provide an answer to the question of the role the garden played in the site, its date of construction, and the social and cultural implication such a garden might have had in Late Iron Age Judah.


“We Came from the Light": The Community’s Origins in the Gospel of Thomas
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Matteo Grosso, Università degli Studi di Torino

The origins of the “seekers’ community” of the Gospel of Thomas (NHC II,2) are addressed in a number of heterogeneous textual unities. Through these literary elements we can appreciate relevant facets of the self-understanding of the group’s identity. An analysis of such material will put forward that the reflection on the community’s origins is conducted along two main paths: on the one hand, as recent studies on communal memory have broadly disclosed, the group tends to emphasize its ties with authoritative Apostolic figures (James the Just, Thomas, Mary…) and to recollect meaningful events of its past history (such as persecutions and geographical relocations); on the other hand, a deeper anthropological reflection is pursued. The latter is firmly interwoven with the interest on protology, which is a hallmark of this text, and is aimed to secure the seekers’ status to the genuine pre-lapsarian figure of Adam. Their origin is understood as ultimately rooted in God, and becomes a metaphor for salvation and overcoming of the death.


De Géradon’s Body-Zone Model and Greco-Roman Physiognomy: The Role of Socio-culturally Encoded Bodily Actions in Socio-rhetorical Analysis
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Alexandra Gruca-Macaulay, Université Saint-Paul

Bernard De Géradon proposed that biblical texts often presented the makeup of the human through bodily actions located within three somatic zones: emotion-fused thought, self-expressive speech, and purposeful action. While de Géradon conceived the tri-partite body-zone model primarily within semitic expression, a broader Mediterranean first-century socio-cultural understanding attests to viewing external, material, bodily actions as being reflective of the inner person. Specifically, Greco-Roman physiognomic thinking governed what actions were appropriate and fitting to any given circumstance. Analysis of the social and cultural encoding of the three body-zones helps to display the rhetorical dimensions of these actions in biblical texts.


The Image of Nero in the Sibylline Oracles
Program Unit: Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Erich Gruen, University of California-Berkeley

The Sibylline Oracles, as we possess them, are a confused collection of prophecies, forecasts of doom, and muddled memories of historical events. Although drawing on Greco-Roman models, they are composed by Jewish and Christian authors, and different parts date from every period, from the 2nd century BCE to late antiquity. Nero appears on numerous occasions, mostly in Jewish texts, where he is treated in a bewildering variety of representations: as a refugee from Rome and champion of Parthia, as destroyer of the Temple in Jerusalem, as heir to the eastern enemies of the Jews (like Babylon and Persia), but also as a wise and welcome conqueror, the avenger of the East against Rome, and even of the oppressed against the oppressor. These multiple images need investigation to sort out and understand the plural reputation of Nero in Jewish memory.


Mummies, Martyrs, and the Construction of Christian Identity
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
William "Chip" Gruen, Muhlenberg College

In the final speech before his death, the 4th century anchorite Antony is shown in his hagiography to be hostile to the preservation of the bodies of the deceased, a mortuary ritual most often associated with traditional Egyptian practice. However, a closer examination of the text, together with other references to mummification in 4th century Egypt shows that the factors at work in this contested ritual are not solely wrapped in religious identity. Instead, several tensions are laid bare by the portrayal of mummification in The Life of Antony: Greek and Egyptian ethnicity, Nicene orthodoxy and the Melitian church of the martyrs, episcopal and monastic power, and local and imperial power. This paper argues that the simplifying rhetoric of the The Life of Anthony attempts to mediate and resolve the tensions surrounding these contested identities. The compiler of The Life uses Antony as the lens to focus these issues precisely because he is, in many ways, a liminal figure, sitting between many of these dualisms presented in the text. This paper argues that this ritual treatment of the dead maps onto late-antique Egyptian discussions of ethnicity in Roman Egypt, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and the use of the cult of the martyrs. Additionally, the compiler's retelling of Antony's death and diatribe against Egyptian mortuary practice lays the groundwork for situating Antony's legacy among other prominent figures who either leave no corporeal remains (Jesus and Elijah) or whose remains are lost (Moses) and then claiming that power for the Alexandrian episcopate.


Women in the Shepherd of Hermas
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Mark R.C. Grundeken, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

The paper examines the characterization and the role of women in the Shepherd of Hermas. It will attempt to show that the author has ambivalent views on women. Hermas' wife is described as loose-tongued (Vis. 2.2.3), but on the level of the narrative her voice is silenced. Hermas admires the beauty of (his former matron) Rhoda (Vis. 1.1.2), while he lives with his own wife 'as brother and sister', that is, in sexual abstinence (Vis. 2.2.3; cf. Vis. 1.1.1; Sim. 9.11.3). Women like the figure of the woman church and the virgins are portrayed as having control over Hermas (Vis. 3.1.8-9; 9.11.2), but in the building process of the tower (representing the process of conversion and formation of the Church), women play a subordinate role to men (e.g. Sim. 9.3.4; pace Osiek and Balch 1997, 2). After reassessing the major views in the literature on Hermas, it will be argued that Hermas' views on women are probably closely linked with his 'biography'. As a (former) rich man (Vis. 3.6.7), he may well have known women who were better-off, to a certain extent independent and in leading positions (cf. Winter 2003). On the one hand, Hermas' views on female visibility, sexuality and gender roles may seem to be disadvantageous to women, but on the other hand it is clear that Hermas cannot ignore the reality that women had a prominent role in daily life and in the Christian community (see esp. Grapte in Vis. 2.4.3).


Remapping the Garden of Eden: A Cartographic Reading of the Johannine Genesis
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Leticia Guardiola-Sáenz, Seattle University

What is the significance of retelling a foundational narrative with new coordinates? In this essay I analyze the radical Johannine relocation of the divine-human territory of encounter offered in John 1:1-18. Using border theory and my identity as a US-Mexico borderlander as critical lenses, I compare and contrast the divine-human encounters in Genesis and the Prologue of John in light of the main models of borderlands interaction. In reading the biblical stories with these cartographic images I explore, on the one hand, the eschatological need of the Johannine community in revamping the foundational story and on the other hand the geopolitical ramifications that such a story offers as a model for transnational interactions between Mexico and the United States.


Tamez and James
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Leticia Guardiola-Sáenz, Seattle University

N/A


Non-Biblical Motifs in the Art of the Dura Synagogue: A Mesopotamian Visual Library of Jewish Religious Folklore
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Zsuzsanna Gulacsi, Northern Arizona University

The famous painted synagogue of Dura-Europos preserves 15 narrative panels that retain enough data to identify their contents. A significant portion of them, 5 panels, shows deviations from the biblical text in favor of Mesopotamian Jewish folklore. This paper explores the visual communication of these panels, in order to highlight their non-biblical content. I argue that these paintings do not depict the Hebrew Bible. Instead, they reflect folkloric versions of the biblical stories recorded also in Mesopotamian rabbinic literature dating between the 5th and 7th centuries CE, best known in the collection Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg. The striking similarity between the early medieval Mesopotamian rabbinic stories and the pictorial contents of the late ancient wall paintings at the Dura synagogue suggests not only continuity, but also highlights the importance of oral culture as a foundation of religious didactic art among the Jewish communities of early 3rd century northern Mesopotamia.


Does Paul Think Singles Avoid Hardship, Anxiety, or Conflict of Interest? 1 Cor 7:25–35 in the Light of Recent Research on Paul, Marriage, and Celibacy
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Judith M. Gundry, Yale University Divinity School

The question of Cynic-Stoic influence in 1 Cor 7:25-35 has long been asked. Does Paul here advocate detachment from the world under the influence of a philosophical ideal of ataraxia (tranquility) and being aperispastos (free from distraction)? Does he view celibacy in this light as affording inner freedom from the anxiety-producing distractions of marriage, and as therefore inherently preferable? Or, as Will Deming argues in his recent book, Paul on Marriage and Celibacy: The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7 (2nd edition, 2004), does Paul, similarly to the Cynics and Stoics, regard marriage and celibacy as “indifferent things,” and prefer one to the other only “under certain circumstances”? Deming argues that Paul sees the Corinthians’ current circumstances—hardships (“the present distress” and “afflictions in the flesh,” 7:26, 28—to make marriage, with its many obligations, simply too difficult, or cause it to interfere with enacting one’s allegiance to Christ (cf. also Rosner, 1994). Celibacy is thus “expedient” under such circumstances. Deming concludes that Paul does not prefer celibacy on moral or theological grounds, including eschatological grounds (i.e., the imminent end of this world, and marriage with it, which Deming denies is in view in this chapter). In this paper I will investigate whether either of these explanations of Paul’s preference for celibacy—as inherently preferable, or preferable only under certain circumstances—is persuasive. I will argue that neither is well-supported by a careful reading of 1 Corinthians 7, rather, that Paul prefers celibacy on the basis of his conviction about believers’ relationship to Christ, to whom they are under obligation as “slaves” or “freedpersons.” Certain circumstances, however, can trump that convictionally-based preference, and point to marriage for Christ-believers.


The Establishment's Bible: The Books of Samuel and the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
David Gunn, Texas Christian University

The unsuccessful risings in support of the deposed House of Stuart stirred deep anxieties in England and contributed to the breakdown of the clan system in the Scottish Highlands. This paper explores how some Church of England preachers used texts from the Books of Samuel to assert, in the face of the uprisings, the authority of the established realm and church. It draws data from Sampson Letsome’s The Preacher’s Assistant, which catalogs sermons from the restoration of Charles II (1660) to 1753, and John Cooke’s 1783 expanded catalog. Particular attention is given to uses of the story of Absalom’s rebellion in 2 Samuel. The paper also sets these eighteenth-century uses in the context of earlier literature, including John Dryden’s widely-read poem, Absalom and Achitophel (1681-2), as well as sermons preached in response to the Duke of Monmouth’s ill-fated rebellion of 1685.


“... But We Proclaim Christ Crucified:” What to Make of Paul’s Message about the Cross?
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Arnfriður Guðmundsdóttir, University of Iceland

invited paper


The Judah Story: A Preview of the Resolution in the Joseph Narrative
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Kevin (Kyungji) Ha, Calvin Theological Seminary

Authors of Korean literature enjoy developing a story’s flow through implicit hints and descriptions of circumstances rather than through the narrator’s direct voice. A ‘foreshadowing (bok-sun)’ is a prevelant strategy in general. Having an Asian background, Hebrew Bible narratives are also quite familiar with this method of implication. The Joseph narrative is an excellent example of this narrative strategy. Due to its great volume (Gen 37-50), the longest single narrative in the Hebrew Bible, the author employed a ‘preview’ by presenting the Judah story in chapter 38 as a miniature to foreshow the resolution of its final stage. Apart from the present paper’s approach, however, Genesis 38 has suffered from long and painful history with regard to its interconnectedness with its surrounding chapters. Looking back over two thousand years of the history of interpretation, the majority of scholars are not favorable to the relatedness of the Judah story to the Joseph narrative. Even prominent Hebrew Bible scholars deny the two unit’s close relationship, arguing that chapter 38 is isolated in every way. In the midst of these suspicious problems, however, some contemporary scholars have begun to view the Judah story with respect to its neighboring context. In spite of these positive tries, the present paper points out that the solutions so far seem just fragmentary, arguing for unity yet failing to develop the theme of the whole narrative. To resolve this vagueness about the function and placement of chapter 38, this paper will show how certain miniatures in the inner narrative preview the resolution of the whole narrative. To support this claim, this paper will argue that (1) positioning the Judah story right after chapter 37 is justifiable; (2) demonstrate what purpose the narrator has by positioning this chapter there; and then (3) examine four miniatures in chapter 38 showing how they anticipate the resolution of the whole narrative.


Ecological Hermeneutics and the Bible: Centering Earth
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Norman Habel, Flinders University

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The Concept of Exile in the Septuagint
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Hacham Noah, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Galut (Exile) in Biblical theology is simply a punishment. The people no longer live in their homeland since they do not deserve to live there: "For the land shall be forsaken of them… while they atone for their iniquity" (Lev. 27:43). However, most of the Jewish people lived outside the Land of Israel during the Second Temple period. Did they see themselves as being punished? How did they explain the punishment of the "exile"? In my paper I will examine some Jewish-Hellenistic authors' views, but mainly the way the LXX understands the concept of Galut. Based on the words and terms the LXX uses to translate the semantic field of Gola, we will suggest that the punishment is not the sojourn outside the homeland but the circumstances of life in those places. Thus enslavement and captivity are the true negative essence of Gola: a free man anywhere in the world is not in exile at all.


Teaching Genesis as a General Education First-Year Seminar
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Susan E. Haddox, University of Mount Union

The first-year seminar is a course designed to acclimate students to the collegiate academic context and to help them understand the value of a liberal arts education, while introducing critical reading and thinking, writing and communication skills. I designed the course “Genesis: Text and Context” to fulfill these learning outcomes through a close study of the biblical book of Genesis. The course introduces both academic analysis of the text and an exploration of its contemporary social influence. The course assignments work to fulfill the general education learning outcomes, while simultaneously infusing the principles of biblical scholarship. The students learn critical reading through a number of short exegesis exercises, which lead them through different approaches to interpretation of the text, including comparisons with ancient cognate literature and exploration of their own social location. A group project investigates a contemporary issue in which Genesis plays a role, while requiring the students to practice oral communication and develop skills in analyzing opposing arguments. Topics for this project include creationism and evolution, environmental concerns, gender roles, and homosexuality. This exercise also helps students to see the relevance of biblical scholarship in current society and helps further the liberal arts goal of engaging in reasoned and multifaceted debate. In a final assignment, the students create an “M Source” project, modeled on the Documentary Hypothesis. They provide a creative interpretation of a story from Genesis, which can be written, visual, or aural. The project engages students' imagination and allows them to integrate the academic knowledge they have gained with their individual interpretation of the text.


The New Creation (2 Cor 5:17) as the Cross-Shaped Life: The Development of a Pauline Theme
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Scott J Hafemann, University of St. Andrews

The purpose of this essay is to show the development of the “new creation” motif from Gal 5:15 to 2 Cor 5:17 against the backdrop of the parallels established between Paul’s threefold use of the circumcision/uncircumcision contrasts in Gal 5:6, Gal 5:15 and 1 Cor 7:19. These parallels demonstrate that, for Paul, the “new creation” of Gal 5:15 is to be interpreted in terms of a life characterized by “faith working itself out through love” (Gal 5:6), which in turn can be framed in terms of “keeping the commandments of God” (1 Cor 7:19). In view of these mutually interpreting concepts, Paul’s reference to the “old things” in 2 Cor 5:17 refers to the “old age” human distinctives of ethnic identity, while the “new creation” refers to an eschatological, ontological reality (cf. the now programmatic essay of P. Stuhlmacher). Contextually, this reality should be interpreted in terms of the life-pattern established by Christ’s love on the cross as outlined in 2 Cor 5:14-15. For as this text makes clear, for Paul the cross provides both the impetus and model for the life of the new creation, which against the background of the development of the theme of new creation in Galatians and 1 Corinthians can be understood as a keeping of God’s commands as they find their fulfillment in this cross-shaped love (Gal 5:6 in view of 5:13-14 and 1 Cor 7:19 in view of 1 Cor 13; cf. Rom 13:8-10). To support this conclusion, the essay will outline the conceptual parallels between 2 Cor 5:14-15 and 5:20-21 as Paul’s decoding in the immediate context of what it means to be a “new creation in Christ.”


Deut 23:25–26 in Its Mediterranean Legal Context
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Anselm C. Hagedorn, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The law on „scrumping“ in Deut 23:25-26 represents an anomaly within the ancient Near Eastern legal tradition since no comparable law has yet been found that parallels the deuteronomic stipulation. The lengthy discussion of the stipulation in Josephus (Ant. 4.234-237), however, suggests that the law was regarded as important. In this paper we will first offer a fresh analysis of the setting of Deut 23:25-26 within Deut 12-26 and then – in a second step – present comparable legal evidence from ancient Greece that will help to situate as well as to understand the law in Deuteronomy. Here, literary material (e.g. Plato) as well as epigraphic sources (e.g. IG2 1362) will be used for a detailed legal analysis.


A Dozen Other “Gospels of the Savior” and “Gospels of the Apostles”? A Fragmentary Coptic “Apocryphal Gospel” in Its Proper Context
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Joost L. Hagen, Leipzig University, Egyptological Institute

A Coptic apocryphal gospel now largely eclipsed by the “Gospel of Judas”, the fragmentarily-preserved “Gospel of the Savior” from the Berlin Papyrussammlung was announced as a major discovery in 1996. Since then, much has been speculated about its date and place of origin and its original length and contents. Taken together with allegedly similar pieces from other manuscripts (the fragmentary “Strasbourg Coptic Gospel” and the brief but complete “Stauros Text” from Qasr el-Wizz in Nubia), the text was considered as one “complete gospel”, interpreted in the light of “Gnostic discoveries” like the “Nag Hammadi library” and taken to contain possibly original sayings of Jesus. Because of the title “Savior” used for its main character and the words “we, the apostles” used in the narration, the fragments were called “Gospel of the Savior” and have been tentatively identified as the “Gospel of the Apostles” referred to in early Christian sources. In spite of some controversy in the scholarly debate, this “Gospel” seems to have been more or less “taken for granted” in recent years. None of this, I argue, places the work in its proper context. The Berlin and Strasbourg “apocryphal gospel” fragments and the “Stauros Text” have many elements in common with about a dozen other Coptic texts, most of which are completely preserved and have been published long ago, but seem to be largely unknown to or ignored by specialists. When studied together, these texts clearly refute the current interpretation of the “Gospel of the Savior”. For one, they are not “complete gospels” (say, from Advent to Ascension): the core of most of them is a single dialogue of Christ and the apostles, before or after “Easter”, focusing on the revelation of “apocryphal data” and contained in a book allegedly written by one of the apostles or evangelists. In most cases, this part is further embedded within a homily attributed to a famous bishop or patriarch, surrounded by a prologue and epilogue with an alleged eye-witness account of the discovery of original apostolic writings preserved in “the library in Jerusalem” or of copies kept in the patriarchal library at Alexandria. With or without “find frame”, the “traditions” preserved in these texts are decidedly written rather than oral, and it would be a methodological error to look for parallels only in well-known Gnostic works. Moreover, several of these “gospels” also exist in Arabic, Ethiopic and Old Nubian versions. What all this means for the date and place of origin of the so-called “Gospel of the Savior” remains to be seen; in this paper, I will first of all present a reappraisal of the “Gospel of the Savior” and other Coptic “apocryphal gospels” in view of their overall structure and content details, also referring to the “Gospel of Peter”.


Chreia Elaboration and the Last Supper Discourse
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Tobias Hagerland, Lund University

Several scholars have suggested that an influence from the Progymnasmata’s exercise of chreia elaboration can be detected in various places in the Gospel of Luke. Here I propose that the elaboration pattern also guided the composition of Jesus’ farewell address at the last supper in Luke 22:14–38. Within this section, linguistic markers as well as the topic and function of each unit signal the presence of the so-called headings (kephalaia) of the chreia exercise: the paraphrasis, rationale, contrast, analogy, example, and testimony. The appearance of these argumentative building-blocks in the very order perpetuated by the textbooks of Hermogenes and Aphthonius is not likely to be coincidental, but indicates that Luke made use of his familiarity with the preliminary rhetorical exercises even when composing from traditional material. It will be shown that recognition of the elaboration pattern confirms the section’s thematic coherence and enhances the understanding of Luke’s idea about apostleship.


Imagining Sound and Silence
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Kim Haines-Eitzen, Cornell University

To what extent can we think of sound as material culture? In what way is sound an object to be observed? And how does sound function within the early Christian literary and aesthetic imagination? These questions are at the fore of this paper, which turns our attention to sound as an important feature of the material imagination of late antiquity. The ancient “eye,” of course, was a tremendously productive paradox, simultaneously vulnerable and powerful; but the “ear” was just as paradoxical as the eye, and perhaps even more so in a world where orality and aurality were central: ears can hear the voices of angels or the songs of the demons, the voice can speak truth or lies, sounds can distract or discipline the body—the difficulty is knowing the difference.


Violence on the Road to Jericho: Telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a Palestinian West Bank Village (Luke 10:25–37)
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Sakari Häkkinen, Diocese of Kuopio, Finland

The parables in the Gospels are perhaps the most familiar parts of the Bible for most Christians. In the West, we are accustomed to reading them either directly from the Bible or by having them read to us in a church setting where we listen without comment. Originally, however, storytelling was a social happening which probably meant that a lively discussion took place both during and after the telling. In 2010 I traveled to the West Bank Palestinian village of Jayyous. There, I was privileged to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan to four, young, Muslim men who had never heard the story before. Rather than simply reading it to them I performed the story and their reaction was extraordinary. Taking it almost as contemporary news they interrupted the story many times with many excited questions and comments. In particular they wanted to know who the victim was and who the robbers were. Living as they did with extreme strife and conflict, they focused considerably on the violence and the by-passers who did nothing to help the victim. In the paper I report on the storytelling that took place with the Palestinians and focus on two questions raised by the discussion. First, how does the way in which we hear the story influence our understanding of the story? Second, the Palestinians felt tremendous sympathy for man who was beaten in the story. They identified with the victim and saw the Jews as the robbers – as well as those who passed by without helping. With whom did the first audience of the Gospel of Luke identify themselves with in the Parable of the Good Samaritan?


Beyond Vocabulary and Grammar: Comparative Translation, Openness, and Creativity in the Biblical Hebrew Introductory Class
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Rahel Halabe, Vancouver, BC

Hinneh – Biblical Hebrew the Practical Way balances two major pedagogical demands of a language program: the presentation of frequently occurring lexical and grammatical examples, and the sequencing of the material in a way that allows for easier teaching and learning. Hinneh provides students with what is deemed necessary information for the introductory stage, postponing minute linguistic details for later, should they wish to continue beyond the introductory level. Attention is given to imparting the most efficient and effective lexical and grammatical skills and tools. Rather than through ineffective memorization, competence and proficiency are built through wide exposure to, and translation exercises of many Biblical verses, prose, and poetry. These are supported by a heavy use of the lexicon and a rich 'Tool Box' containing frequently occurring vocabulary lists, paradigms and parsing charts. However, skills and tools are not enough. Openness to the unaccustomed, creativity and even some educated guessing are also encouraged. At every stage, even beyond the introductory level, much insight can be drawn from context. Therefore, students are expected to always integrate the results of their lexical and grammatical findings with information extracted from context in order to reach a sound understanding and translation. There is no perfect translation for any literary text, certainly not for the richly layered and theologically loaded Hebrew Bible; an important objective of the Hinneh program is to shake students from their confidence in only one favored translation. Students are exposed to a variety of translations, old and new, and have opportunities to compare the solutions of different translators to problems stemming from grammatical, lexical, thematic, and other features of the text, and to discuss their results and effects. This way, students develop also their ability for critical examination and evaluation of Biblical translations as well as build their confidence in their own attempts. www.hebrew-with-halabe.com


Decoded: Exploring Rap’s Use of Biblical-Apocalyptic Rhetoric
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
T. Michael W. Halcomb, Asbury Theological Seminary

Within the last few decades, researchers have raised questions about what constitutes a “native language” and whether languages themselves can be meaningfully studied apart from the individuals who use them. One approach to answering this question can be found in the theory known as Code-Switching, a linguistic analytic that examines the phenomenon of multi-lingual speakers and their respective dialogues. In this paper, I will use Code-Switching theory to show how modern rap artists draw on the biblical-apocalyptic motif of war to address a host of conflicts, ideologies, oppositions to authority and positionings within modern society.


Using Electronic Response Systems to Enhance Close Reading Skills
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Taylor Halverson, Brigham Young University

One of the most important skills that Biblical studies learners must practice and master is close readings of texts. Hence, one of the most important tasks for teachers of Biblical studies is to design activities and assessments that help learners masters close reading skills. These skills are easier to teach and assess in small class settings. But how does one have the same success in a large lecture course? This presentation will demonstrate the utility, especially in large courses, of an electronic response system (e.g., iClicker) to significantly enhance students’ ability to read texts closely, critically, and analytically.


Teaching the Bible with Technology
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Taylor Halverson, Brigham Young University

Modern electronic technologies are transforming many aspects of society and culture, including the art and science of teaching. Pressing questions arise: What role does technology play in teaching the Bible? What role does technology play in student learning? Should we use technology to teach the Bible and related texts? What types of technologies are best suited to accomplish specific teaching and learning purposes? What are the best practices, pedagogical and otherwise, in the use of technology for teaching and learning, especially related to Biblical literature? How do we stay up-to-date with the ever changing landscape of instructional technologies? Our table discussion will center on these and related questions.


Abraham and Sarah in a Foreign Land: Memory and Exile in the Fashioning of Jewish Identity
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor, University of Virginia

Recent pentateuchal scholarship has made the case for reading Genesis 11–25 as an exilic and postexilic narrative that reflects the situation of returning Jews in the Persian period. While a prehistory for the material should not be discounted, the final shaping of the material points to the collective memory about Abraham and Sarah in a later period; the chapters present a “meaningful past” that remembers the past in order to construct Jewish identity in the postexilic present. If the collective memory of a given group is the key to its sense of identity, what then do the wife-sister episodes in Genesis 12, 20 and 26 indicate about the construction of Jewish identity in the postexilic period? This paper will examine those chapters to ask: What is the memory of exile-forced migration that the episodes perpetuate? And what, based on this memory, is the paradigm for Jewish identity that they constitute? Finally, by considering the wife-sister motif alongside the book of Esther, this paper assesses Genesis 12’s contribution to the postexilic debate over the possibilities of diasporic existence.


Ritual Symbols as Represented on Roman Imperial Coinage: The Lituus
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Stephanie Laine Hamilton, Independent Scholar

Religious and ritual symbols are often used as motifs in the arts because their established associations tend to persist within a politically and religiously shifting world, which was characteristic of the Mediterranean world of the early Roman Empire. An example of this symbolic persistence surrounds the instantly recognizable, curved wooden staff known from antiquity as the lituus. The lituus was the symbol most closely associated with the influential priesthood of Roman Augurs. The significance of the augural priesthood, as it pertained to manifestations of actual political authority, would shift markedly from the Republican to Imperial periods; but, the associations of political legitimacy that were connected in the popular mind to the ritual objects used by the Augurs would ultimately persist. Powerful ritual symbols, such as the lituus, would be utilized for various reasons in a range of art forms well into the Imperial period. Images of ritual objects associated with various Roman priesthoods and public ritual practices, like the lituus) were often represented for symbolic reasons in many types of art: statuary, fresco, and epigraphy—including numismatic inscriptions. As a form of art, numismatic evidence is a telling primary source to consider due to the deliberate nature of monetary circulation, the diverse audiences that engaged with circulating coinage, and the agendas of the patrons that prompted the manufacture and distribution of this type of art in the first place. “Ritual Symbols as Represented on Roman Imperial Coinage: the Lituus,” seeks to explore the implications that accompanied the use of the ritual symbol of the lituus on Roman Imperial coinage for the purposes of political legitimation spanning from the Late Republic to the 4th century CE.


Sorcery and Sexual Deviance in Biblical and Mesopotamian Literary Insults
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Esther J. Hamori, Union Theological Seminary

There are several texts in the Hebrew Bible in which a paired reference to women’s divination and sexual deviance is used as an insult. In Isa 57:3, for instance, “sons of a soothsayer” (‘onenah) is used in parallel with “offspring of an adulterer and a harlot” (mena’ef, tizneh), or in the vernacular, “sons of witches” and “son of a bitch” or “bastard”. There are similar repeated parallels between the sexual deviant (zonah) and the mistress of sorcery (ba‘alat keshafim), and between their respective activities (zenuneha, keshafeha), in Nah 3:4. The association is made more subtly in Prov 6:26, where the sexually dangerous woman is said to hunt nefesh. While this is usually read in terms of seduction, the phrase occurs only here (nefesh… tatsud) and in the equally searing condemnation of the divining women of Ezek 13:18 (letsoded nefashot), and should be understood to refer to divination in Prov 6:26 as well. In each of the above cases, the language is clearly metaphorical. (As a point of comparison, consider the uses of mekhashefim and mena’afim in immediate succession in Mal 3:5, where the context is a list of literal transgressions.) Other cases are more ambiguous: these behaviors are also derided in tandem, for example, in Jehu’s biting reference to the sexual deviance and sorcery of Jezebel (zenunei Jez., keshafeha), spoken rather viciously to her son (2 Kgs 9:22). Various types of associations between sorcery and sex are also found in the Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft literature. While there are many references to male witches, individual accusations are predominantly against women. The preponderance of literary accusations of women’s sorcery, coupled with sexual language, sets the tone for the biblical material and offers a fuller picture of the social background for such ideology.


Bear Arms, Know Shame
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Jin H. Han, New York Theological Seminary

B. Shabbat 63a begins with a Mishnaic law that prohibits one from carrying weapons on the Sabbath, whether they are primarily for defense like a shield (terîs) or potentially for offense such as sword (sayyaf), bow (qešet), or spear (rôma?). The next sentence seems to subvert the injunction, however, for it stipulates that, in the case of a violation, satisfaction may be made by means of a sin offering, suggesting that the crime is not capital but reparable (cf. Exod 31:14-15; 35:2; Num 15:32-36). Then follows a tanna’s depiction of combat instruments as ornaments (takšî?în). This curious caricature virtually nullifies the initial prohibition, for the weapons are now not borne but worn like pieces of jewelry (which the Gemara compares to the sword ‘girded’ at the wedding in Ps 45:5 ?agôr harbeka ‘al-yarek). The ‘sages’ (?akamîm) offer an allegedly dissenting view and call the Sabbath weaponry ‘shameful’ (ligan’y), but they do not refute their ornamentality. The rabbinic deliberation proceeds to discuss a knee-band (bîrît) and an ankle-chains (kevalîm), reinforcing the gemological understanding of the Sabbath weaponry. This Talmudic tradition is often cited for its ambiguous stance toward arms on the Sabbath, or even for a non-rigorist position paralleled by Matthias’ ruling (1 Macc 2:41) and attested to by Josephus (J.W. 2.517). However, the strategy of the rabbinic discourse demonstrates an arduous engagement of the exigencies of conflict, in which the sages underscore that one should not bear arms on the Sabbath in principle and that any infraction is a shameful temporary arrangement in a world where peace is postponed to a world to come.


Quiet Housewives in Q?
Program Unit: Q
Gertraud Harb, University Graz

Many scholars have observed that there are passages with gender specific language in the Source Q. W. Arnal called parables like Q 17:34-35 or Q 13,18-21 “gendered couplets“ and most scholars assume that women were addressed deliberately in these passages (compare, for example, A. Batten). On the basis of Q 12:51-52 and 14:26, L. Schottroff argued for Wandercharismatikerinnen in the Q communities. However, H. Melzer-Keller has criticized the idea that women play any special role in Q. In this presentation, I shall try to offer an intermediate position to the above Schottroff and Melzer-Keller. I shall survey examples of the so-called “gendered couplets“ and other significant passages in Q which specifically refer to women and their way of life. This investigation will show that these passages are very different from one another and that it seems inappropriate to classify them all as part of a single category. Q 17:34-35 for example seems to illustrate ordinary daily life and need not to be interpreted as a passage which tries to address both genders. Of all the passages examined, only Q 14:26 suggests the possibility that women left their families and households to evangelize other people.


Traduttore, traditore? The Ambiguities of Job and the Integrity of God-Talk
Program Unit: Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars
James Harding, University of Otago

Traduttore, traditore? The ambiguities of Job and the integrity of God-talk


The Silent Goddess and the Gendering of Divine Speech in Jeremiah 44
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
James E. Harding, University of Otago

In a recent article in Theology & Sexuality (Boer 2010), Roland Boer explores the interconnection between power, writing, and the production of prophetic masculinity. Boer focuses on prophetic texts that refer explicitly to writing (esp. Ezek 9; Jer 36). What he does not consider, however, are texts crucial to the production of prophetic masculinity that represent authoritative speech through the medium of writing. Such a text is Jer 44, in which the prophet Jeremiah, recently faced with a charge of speaking falsehood at the scribe Baruch’s behest (43:2-3; cf. Jer 36), is represented as speaking the truth on behalf of Yhwh. Divine speech is represented here in inescapably gendered terms. It is not simply that the prophet is male, nor that the god on whose behalf he speaks is male, both obvious points. More significant is the fact that in the written representation of the conflict between Jeremiah and devotees of the Queen of Heaven over the theological import of the destruction of Jerusalem (44:15-19), only the male god is permitted, by the scribe, to speak. Moreover, the voices of women in this text are silenced. In 44:19, it seems that women are speaking (cf. Peshitta), yet in 44:15 the entire speech in 44:15-19 is attributed to men, with the women only mentioned in passing. The scribal representation of truthful speech on Yhwh’s behalf thus constructs the prophet’s spoken words as both divine and masculine through the silencing of both women and the goddess. In the written corpus of Jeremiah, then, truthful speech on behalf of Yhwh — the bedrock of the theology of the book — is inextricably linked with both the scribal construction of the masculinity of the prophet and the scribal construction of the hyper-masculinity of the deity, expressed through merciless, violent retribution against devotees of the silenced goddess.


Mapping Semantic Change on the Lexical-Grammatical Interface: From "back" to "after" and Beyond
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Humphrey H. Hardy II, University of Chicago

Studies of grammaticalization phenomena have become increasingly popular in historical linguistics over the past thirty years. Some researchers have brought this concept to bear on certain semantic changes in Semitic that result in grammatical function(s). With regard to Biblical Hebrew, one area which continues to be ripe for the application of grammaticalization theory is the study of the development of function words from original lexical items and constructions. The evolution of functional morphemes may be understood and described as a series of novel adaptations which result from speakers interacting and adapting to one another's language patterns in discrete, recurrent steps. This paper, which is a part of a larger project to map the origin and modification of grammatical words in Hebrew, examines one such pathway of change—?a?are from an original nominal to the LOCATIVE, TEMPORAL, CAUSAL and other functions. It has been long recognized that in many of the world's languages nouns grammaticalize into prepositions. Already in the 19th century, Gesenius' Hebräische Grammatik affirmed this idea, "Sämtliche Wörter, welche im Sprachgebrauche als Präpositionen erscheinen, sind urspr. Substantiva" (§101), and nearly every Hebrew grammarian since has echoed it. The lexical-grammatical transformation from nominal ?a?are to preposition, however well-known, is only one step along a continuum of multifunctional usages which involves subsequent innovations such as adverbializers and prepositional-verbs. Consequently, the examination of these adaptations must be mapped according to known trajectories of typological change, external evidence, and internal usage patterns in order to describe fully the adaptations involved in the emergence of a multi-use function word.


“Who Hopes for What Is Seen?” Paul’s Messianic-Apocalyptic Political Universalism
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Douglas Harink, King's University College (Edmonton)

invited paper


The Role of Emotions in the Study of Religious Experience
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Angela Harkins, Fairfield University

This paper seeks to advance the scholarly understanding of religious experience by examining the role of emotions in religions, accompanied by some discussion of the scholarly bias against the emotions in general. The proposal is that a deeper study of the emotions and their social history can lead to insights into religious experience in early Judaism and Christianity. Texts that are thought to report religious experiences (the Qumran Hodayot) will be discussed from the aspect of the emotions that are aroused by the text. In these texts, the types of religious experience include transformation and reports of vertical ascent. This paper will conclude by offering a theoretical model for understanding how the arousal of emotions in the Qumran Hodayot may have contributed to a religious experience.


Aspects of the Sociocultural Turn in Bible Translation
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Bryan Harmelink, SIL International

During the second half of the 20th century, functional equivalence was the primary theoretical approach in Bible translation around the world. Developed in the context of American Descriptive Linguistics, this theory provided a very pragmatic approach to numerous translation challenges in the world’s diverse languages. Translation Studies scholars such as Gentzler and Biblical Studies scholars like D.A. Carson have pointed out many of the limitations of functional equivalence, which have provided helpful correctives to the theory, expressing many of the concerns raised by many Bible translators themselves. These correctives and concerns will be presented in the paper’s theoretical overview, which will also include a re-evaluation of Nida’s concepts of identity and equivalence from his 1964 text, The Theory and Practice of Translation. Further questions about notions of equivalence have been raised by cognitive models of inferential communication which expect more nuanced awareness of the sociocultural setting of the communicators. The various ways in which the sociocultural turn in communication and translation theory is influencing Bible translation practice will be explored in this paper, with specific attention given to the intersection of the notion of equivalence with the concepts of domestication and foreignization. Consideration will also be given to aspects of postcolonial criticism that are impacting Bible translation, as greater attention is given to the diverse places from which Bible translations are being read. The paper concludes by teasing out several implications of the sociocultural turn for Bible translators, followed by recommendations for further research.


Shall I Surely Translate This? The Hebrew Infinitive Absolute in the Greek Twelve Prophets
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Joshua Harper, University of Cambridge

Simply hearing the term translation-technical study, some people’s eyes begin to glaze over, as they unhappily imagine list after list of statistics and examples. The detailed data sets are an inescapable part of any translation-technical study, but they are merely a means to an end: retracing a translator’s route from his Vorlage to his finished text, to help elucidate passages where the translational path is obscure. This paper intends, therefore, to examine briefly the approximately forty straightforward renderings of the Hebrew Infinitive Absolute in the Greek Twelve Prophets and then to use the translator’s typical strategies to examine more problematic texts—in an engaging manner. Some of these difficult texts (such as Amos 7:11, 17 and Micah 1:10) involve unusual renderings for an infinitive present in our Hebrew witnesses. Others (Nah 2:3 and Hab 3:9) appear to translate an infinitive not found in MT. Such apparent inconsistencies between OG and MT raise questions about the Vorlage of OG and its relationship with MT. Nevertheless, it is important first to examine each case in its own context, for in many cases non-grammatical factors (such as vocabulary, context, and ideology) may have influenced the translator’s turn of phrase. The result is than in many cases in the Greek Twelve the Vorlage may have been closer to MT than the Greek translation. Thus, the framework developed in the initial translation-technical study of the Greek renderings of the Hebrew Infinitive Absolute will be helpful as an early step in the broader process of clarifying the relationship of the OG Twelve to its Vorlage and that between the Vorlage and MT.


Curse Tablets and Binding Spells as a Context for the Agonistic Scenario of Violence in Ephesians 6:5–7
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
J. Albert Harrill, Indiana University (Bloomington)

As Christopher Faraone has shown, ancient curse tablets and binding spells (defixiones) use the language of violence not to kill but to constrain a victim within a particular pattern of political or social competition (Greek, agôn). This "agonistic" context explains why curse and binding spells target specific body parts for restraining ("The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells," in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink [New York: Oxford University Press, 1991]). Athletic curses, for example, attempted to bind the parts of a charioteer's body in which his competitive skill lay, such as the shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, and eyes. Judicial spells, likewise, targeted the cognitive and rhetorical faculties in which victory in the art of litigation lay: an orator's psychê, mouth, and tongue. In this way, defixiones aimed to incapacitate a victim even before the actual agôn began (e.g., "tongue-tied" in court). This paper argues that the Ephesian household code (specifically, Eph 6:5–7) participates in a language of violence and an "agonistic" context similar to those found in the defixiones. The author of Ephesians, for example, targets a slave's psychê as an object to bind and so to control. By constraining the psychê and so binding a slave's cognitive and personal motivation, the author of Ephesians hopes to incapacitate a slave's will to fight back or rebel. The hope is that the will of slave will be defeated with minimal effort, even before potential struggles begin in household management.


The Body as Sanctuary in the Dead Sea Scrolls: From Ezra to Paul
Program Unit: Qumran
Hannah K. Harrington, Patten University

Qumran Studies has opened up new light on Biblical Studies by revealing concepts that were in place in Second Temple times that may be embryonic or implicit rather than explicit in what later becomes the canon of the Hebrew Bible. For example, the notion that the human body is a sanctuary, prominent in Pauline literature is not explicit in the Hebrew Bible. However, an examination of the data of the Scrolls reveals that this idea was current in Second Temple times. Since some biblical books, such as, Ezra-Nehemiah and Malachi are Second Temple documents as well, probably late fourth century BCE, they are not far removed from Tobit and Aramaic Levi. Since the canon was not set this early, the biblical/non-biblical designation becomes cumbersome and drives an artificial wedge between these texts. Thus, setting aside biblical, post-biblical, and non-biblical labels, I trace the origins and development of the concept of body as sanctuary in texts in evidence at Qumran. It is my claim that the watershed for this view began not at the end of the canonical Hebrew Bible but as far back as the loss of the First Temple BCE. Although not all Jews subscribed to such an individual and personal concept of sanctuary, the idea can be traced and examined throughout Second Temple texts, beginning with Ezra-Nehemiah, Malachi, Aramaic Levi, Tobit, Jubilees and the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. In fact, all of these texts are in evidence at Qumran, and thus the idea resides powerfully in the “Dead Sea Scrolls.” The paper serves then as a “genealogical history” of the notion of body as sanctuary in Second Temple times.


Intermarriage in the Temple Scroll: A Legal Fiction
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Hannah K. Harrington, Patten University

The late Professor Jacob Milgrom published important articles on the Temple Scroll shortly after it first came to light (when I was his student) and was also a primary participant in the new Princeton edition. His articles, “The Scriptural Foundations and Deviations in the Laws of Purity of the Temple Scroll,” (1990) and “The Qumran Cult: Its Exegetical Principles” (1989), written over 20 years ago, argued that the Temple Scroll, in particular, took an expansive approach to biblical purity laws which was more stringent and exclusionary than evidenced heretofore (Milgrom, 1989). However, recent claims of some scholars suggest that the Temple Scroll is not so elitist. In support of this view, it is noted that the author invites the resident alien into the Temple courts (Wassen, 2010) and even tolerates intermarriage between Jew and non-Jew (Loader, 2010). In this paper I argue that the Temple Scroll is, first of all, a legal document with strong ties to Scripture, and the author is well aware of his biblical parameters. His nod to intermarriage is a legal fiction which allows him to be true to the law while, in fact, legislating a different view entirely. The plan here is to 1) examine the exclusions and expansions of the Temple Scroll on both the temple city and the ordinary city; and 2) to examine the passages related to the captive war bride as well as the resident alien. This paper is relevant on a larger scale, as well, since it points to the nature of exclusion in a certain strain of Second Temple Judaism.


Nicholas of Cusa's Cribratio Alkorani (Scrutiny of the Qur'an): A 15th Century Model for a 21st Century Approach to the Qur'an
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Tod R Harris, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 saw a revival in Christian polemic against Islam that had been dormant since the Crusades. Amid much that was stridently negative, there arose one voice of reason and reconciliation, represented by the early Renaissance churchman and philosopher Nicholas of Cusa. Known at the time for his power as a preacher and his efforts to reunify Eastern and Western Christianity at Constantinople in 1437, Nicholas turned his considerable exegetical skills to the Qur’an as European interest in Islam was reawakened. The result of this focus was the production in 1461 of his Cribratio Alkorani, a “sifting” or scrutiny of the Qur’an as the scripture of Islam. Though largely unknown among Christian scholars currently, this obscure but important work is remarkably modern in its approach and attitude and contains much which is useful, especially for those interested in gaining insight into the 15th Century Christian opinion of the Qur’an and how such an insight might be useful in the West’s current engagement with Islam. The purpose of this paper is to reintroduce Nicholas’ Cribratio Alkorani by providing a brief overview of the historical milieu out of which the work emerged and noting contemporary analogs, to outline the approach Nicholas takes in his analysis and review his conclusions, and finally to develop a model based on that approach that can be used today as a model for a reasonable and tolerant consideration of Islam and the Qur’an in a post-9/11 world.


"More Than Conquerors" (Rom 8:37): Paul's Gospel and the Augustan Triumphal Arches of the Greek East and Latin West
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
James R Harrison, Wesley Institute, Sydney, Australia

Recently D.C. Lopez and B. Kahl have investigated the iconographic evidence of Aphrodisias and Pergamon in discussing the political implications of Paul’s gospel in the Roman province of Asia. As far as we know, Paul visited neither city, so arguments about Paul’s interaction with the imperial ideology of ‘victory’ depend more on the ubiquity of the Julio-Claudian propaganda in the eastern Mediterranean than on any contact Paul might have had with the monuments. Strangely overlooked in this regard is the Sebasteion at Pisidian Antioch — a city visited by Paul on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:14-50) — with its depiction of conquered barbarians on the central arch. Indeed, the Augustan arches throughout the Empire stereotypically depict the humiliation of barbarians, including the sites of La Turbie (Monaco), Glanum (St. Rémy), Carpentras (Provence), and the triple arch at the Roman Forum (Rome). In once case, a barbarian is depicted as the grotesque buffoon and 'stupidus' of the comic mime productions (L’Orange, Provence). Other media — cups, gems, reliefs, coins, statues, and the Augustan poets — reinforce the social divide between barbarians and the Roman overlord. However, there were other messages that conflicted with the triumphal ideology of the Augustan arches: the signing of a peace treaty with 14 Alpine tribes at Susa (Italy) and the Roman gesture of reconciliation and assimilation towards a barbarian captive (Glanum). These different understandings of the intersection of Roman rule with the provinces expressed an alternate vision of social relations between conqueror and conquered. This paper will investigate the social and theological import of several texts of Romans against the backdrop of the iconography of the Augustan arches: namely, Paul’s indebtedness to Greeks and barbarians (Rom 1:14), the reconciliation of enemies (5:6-11; 12:17-21), the victory of Christ on behalf of believers (8:37-39), and his rule over the nations (15:7-13).


From Temple to Tent: Scripturalization of Israelite Cult in the Babylonian Diaspora
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Sarah Hart, Melbourne College of Divinity

The paper builds on the premise that the tabernacle text (Exodus 25-Numbers 10) is a mimetic text where textual representation takes the place of reality. Israelite communities produce the text in the Babylonian Diaspora. With temple as trope the paper draws on the biblical inter-texts and "canonical consciousness" of 1 Kings 5-9, Ezekiel 40-48 and Exodus 25 through to Numbers 10. This paper explores the move from performance of cult in a temple environment to cult in the temple-tent of scripture. The end result is an Israelite cultic world that can be practised and celebrated through text. The reading of scripture becomes the performance of ritual.


The Narrative Structure and Genre of the Resurrection Account in the Gospel of Peter
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Judith Hartenstein, Philipps-Universität Marburg

The paper analyses the narrative describing the resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of Peter (9,35-11,45) with special attention to the narrative structure of the text and its literary genre. The Gospel of Peter skilfully intertwines the story of the guards at the tomb with the events observed by them, thereby creating credible witnesses for the resurrection. Even more interesting in my opinion, are the possibilities this composition offers for the narration of the story. It is told from the perspective of the guards and therefore confined to what they see. In consequence, the climax of the story, the resurrection itself, is not narrated. As long as the men from heaven are inside the tomb no account can be given about them, the focus shifts to the activities of the guards instead, leaving a gap at the most important point. Furthermore, the structure of the narrative makes it diffcult to decide about its literary genre. The text contains elements of an epiphany story, but the portrayal of the guards, for example, does not resemble that of other human recipients of heavenly appearances. On the other hand, a relationship to miracle stories can be observed and might help to understand how und why the resurrection account of the Gospel of Peter differs so considerably from other known early Christian writings.


Ethos and Ethics in the Didache: Affinity with Other Early Jesus Groups?
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Patrick J. Hartin, Gonzaga University

The ethos of a people or a community points to its identity and vision: this is who we are, this is what distinguishes us from other groups or communities. This ethos gives rise to the ethics of the community: those rules, values, and guidelines to which members of the community adhere and that express their identity. This paper analyzes the Didache with a view to disclosing the ethos and identity of the community that it reflects. This analysis also leads to an examination of the ethical admonitions occurring as boundary markers that give expression to the identity of the community of the Didache. The ethical admonitions of the Didache all occur within a theological rather than Christological context. Among the ethical admonitions, attention is given to the Jewish Two Ways of Did 3:1-6; the Double Command of Love; and concepts such as “being perfect” (teleios) and “being double-minded” (dipsychein). The second part of this paper examines similar ethical admonitions within two other documents from early Jesus groups, namely the Letter of James and the Sermon on the Mount. This investigation seeks to discover possible affinities between the Didache and these two texts and what might be concluded as regards a common, developing milieu.


The Healing of the Man with Dropsy (Luke 14:1–6) and the Lukan Landscape
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Chad Hartsock, Carson-Newman College

The healing of the man with dropsy is a surprisingly under-noticed passage in Luke. Few commentaries give much attention to it at all. Where attention is given, the passage is usually heard in one of the following ways: 1) in the context of healing stories or Sabbath healings in general, and thus through the lens of form criticism and how this story participates in the larger context of healing stories; 2) in the context of the symposia or meal stories since this passage introduces such a scene, and the background for understanding the passage is thus the literary topos of meal stories in the Greco-Roman world; 3) many debate whether the apparently uninvited guest is an unusual occurrence in an ancient meal scene, or perhaps if the man with dropsy might even be “a plant”, set up in order to trap Jesus in some way. In each of these readings, the fact that the man has dropsy specifically is essentially irrelevant to the story; he might as well have been blind or lame or deaf. Yet this is the only occurrence in the NT of this specific condition, and I would like to suggest that dropsy is not incidental to the story at all. Rather, the dropsy is itself key to the story. Dropsy is used widely in the ancient Greek world, particularly in the writings of philosophers (Philostratus, Lucian, and Stobaeus, to name only three), and it is frequently a metaphor for greed and wealth. Dropsy is a condition marked by the body’s inability to process fluids, thus the victim continues to drink more and more until he eventually dies from drinking too much. Dropsy, then, is an appropriate metaphor for wealth and greed, as the victim thirsts for more wealth, only to find that the wealth is eventually his undoing. Among the commentary tradition, few scholars take notice of the dropsy metaphor (Talbert, for example, notices but only offers a couple of sentences in the way of comment). I propose a paper that will do a few things. First, I will mine the Greek philosophical tradition for examples of dropsy to build the case for its metaphorical usage. Second, I will apply that metaphor to this passage in Luke to see if it serves the interpretation of the passage well. Third, I will speculate about how this passage might fit well within the larger landscape of the Lukan narrative. As a part of this third goal, I would also address why such a story is a great fit within the Gospel of Luke, perhaps in a way that it is not a great fit for Mark or Matthew, as it so perfectly fits Luke’s larger themes and purposes in his understanding of Jesus’ mission and ministry.


Christ the Foundation: John of Tella’s Profession of Faith and 1 Corinthians 3:10–15
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Blake Hartung, Saint Louis University

In 1 Corinthians 3:11, the Apostle Paul declares: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ” (NRSV). Throughout Christian history, this passage has proven to be fertile ground for interpreters to build on Paul’s metaphor of Christ as the “foundation.” One of these interpreters was the sixth-century Syrian anti-Chalcedonian leader John of Tella (d.538), who draws heavily upon this familiar passage in an important section of his Profession of Faith. The Profession of Faith was a document intended to outline John’s own theology in contrast to the Council of Chalcedon. In his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 3, John uses the Pauline text to articulate a vision of the church that will encourage the anti-Chalcedonian faithful to persevere and grow in holiness and likeness to Christ. Supplementing Paul’s language of Christ as the “foundation,” John communicates a unified vision of the church which includes the faithful as the builders, the doctrines of the ecumenical councils as the building plan, and the virtues of faith, hope, and love as the stones for building. In this paper, I will argue that John of Tella’s uses 1 Corinthians 3 as a metaphor that aids in creating a vision of the true, anti-Chalcedonian church, a church which has Jesus Christ as its foundation, a foundation to be built up by true believers and their “spiritual practice.” This paper shows that the imagery drawn from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 is John’s great bridge between the theological significance of the person of Jesus Christ and the necessity of faithful obedience through ascetic self-denial.


Markan Parable Theory and the Greek Muthos
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Matthew Hauge, Azusa Pacific University

In Mark 4:10-12, Jesus offers this explanation of his storytelling technique, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’ In the Gospel, the Sower in 4:1-9 and theWicked Tenants in 12:1-11 are the only narratives designated as parables, and yet the latter does not correspond to Mark’s “theory of parables” in 4:10-12. Rather, the Wicked Talents corresponds to a well-known genre throughout the Mediterranean world – the Greek µuthos (Lat. fabula) – a genre that would have a profound influence upon the storytelling traditions in Mark’s earliest interpreters, Matthew and Luke. In antiquity, fables were popularly attributed to Aesop, the sixth-century Phrygian slave from Samos. This paper is an exploration of the influence of the Aesopic tradition upon Markan composition generally, and the storytelling tradition specifically


"Fresh off the boat" with Jonah: Into the Waves of Postcolonialism
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Jione Havea, Charles Sturt University

This presentation acknowledges that colonization is ongoing in Oceania, politically (esp. by USA, France and Indonesia), ideologically (in the name of democracy and christianity), and economically, funded by missionary-positioned-biblical cultures, in the arms of Western-defined-and-driven development. At the underside are natives wanting to affirm "brown masks" (the other side of Fanon's "white masks"), on small land spaces that are disintegrating and drifting in the waves of climate change. What does the postcolonial shift of attention to the diaspora offer such people? This presentation will interrogate the postcolonial waves that are ebbing the shores of Oceania, around the story of Jonah. The reading will be "off the boat" and fishy, with affection for the non-Hebrew sailors and "the animals" of Nineveh.


Abraham in the Fatherland: The Masculine Character of the Nation
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago

Abraham’s character depends on movement and the founding of territory. His very purpose is to set the borders of the Promised Land and to keep them quiet through alliance. Abraham marks the land with ethnicity and gender. Because it has a founding father, the motherland becomes realized as the male nation of Israel. By combining theories of masculinity and nationalism, I suggest that the establishment of gender dynamics coincides with the first representations of the nation. In other words, the very conditions of national representation at once demand the subordination of women and non-nationals. These conditions are at work in Abraham’s covenant. Marked through circumcision, this covenant designates Abraham as the progenitor of nations and kingdoms (Gen. 17:6), establishes an eternal bond between Abraham’s descendants and God (17:7), and transfers the site of Abraham’s sojourns to a perpetual inheritance for male heirs (17:8). This is perhaps best expressed by the case of Moab and Ammon, born of incest initiated by their mothers and destined for the godless land beyond the Jordan. The Hebrew Bible characterizes gender deviance as Moabite behavior. Not only are Moabites depicted as deviants, but political passivity on the part of men and political assertion by women is also categorized as Moabite behavior.


Tech-Aided Hebrew Study: Possibilities and Pitfalls
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Elizabeth R. Hayes, Fuller Theological Seminary

With the rapid rise of technology, opportunities to incorporate computer-assisted learning in the language classroom have increased in recent years. This presentation will explore just a few of the many ways that a Hebrew professor might incorporate technology into his or her Hebrew curriculum. Topics to be examined include: 1) Why should I include a technological component within my current curriculum? 2) What Hebrew-learning tasks can be successfully addressed with technology? 3) What Hebrew-learning tasks are best done technology-free? 4) How will technology help my students prepare for advanced study? It is hoped that by examining these questions, the intrepid Hebrew professor might uncover an un-tapped vein of pedagogical riches.


Between Pythagoras and Philostratus: Wealth Ethics in Neo-Pythagoreanism and their Relevance for Early Christianity
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Christopher M. Hays, University of Oxford

As Christianity spread across the Mediterranean world, propelled in part by its ethic of sacrificial generosity and care for the needy, it progressively integrated the generally Jewish contours of its social ethic into the more complex frameworks of Hellenistic philosophies. Significant work has been done regarding the influence of Cynicism on early Christian wealth ethics; neither are Stoic or Middle-Platonist ethics untilled soils. But Neo-Pythagoreanism garners rather less attention than it ought to do, and so it will be the goal of this paper to bring the spotlight back on that exotic school of thought, and to sketch it’s pertinence to one aspect of early Christianity: wealth ethics. I will first attempt to propound an account of Neo-Pythagorean meta-ethics. The task of discussing Neo-Pythagorean meta-ethics is a challenging one, considering the limits of available material, and I will be obliged to give a synthetic presentation, though drawing especially on the fragments of Numenius. This will provide a platform for specific discussion of Neo-Pythagorean wealth-ethics, with special attention to Apollonius of Tyana. In this endeavor I will attempt to coordinate what we can glean from the (controversial) biography by Philostratus with what we know more generally of Pythagoreanism from other sources (such as Iamblichus). The description of Apollonius’ teachings on the right use of possessions will be supplemented by comment about the teachings of other philosophical schools on which Apollonius (or Philostratus) may have drawn. Finally, I will discuss how an apprehension of Neo-Pythagorean ethics might shed light on a variety of early Christian texts, including mention of the alleged communism of the Jerusalem Community in Acts 2 and 4, the (not-exclusively Christian) Sentences of Sextus, and certain ascetic Syrian-Christian groups.


Rendering to God What Belongs to God while Dwelling in the City of Caesar: Wealth Ethics in Pre-Constantinian Roman Christianity
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Christopher M. Hays, University of Oxford

Designated for sub-project three: Christianity and the Economy in the second through fifth centuries. The proper use of money was variably a distinguishing feature and a sore subject for patristic Christianity; sometimes Christian love and care for the poor functioned as a powerful apologetic for the religion, and other times, as enthusiasm waned, bishops found themselves haranguing congregations in hopes of renewing their charitable giving. But of all the Christian communities in the Empire, the churches in Rome seem to have been the most consistent, generous, and effective in their care for the needy. The present essay will examine the wealth ethics of the churches in pre-Constantinian Rome. Drawing particularly on the Shepherd of Hermas, 1-2 Clement, the writings of Hippolytus and Justin Martyr, and Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, I will attempt to offer an account of how Roman-Christian charity was conducted. I will also inquire into what Scriptural, philosophical, and traditional values were utilized to motivate the churches, and, if time permits, I will discuss the role of financial considerations in controversies with heretics. While Roman-Christian ethics are by no means typical homogeneous, let alone representative of the rest of the Church, they give us a window into the way early Christianity dealt with the resources of the rich and the needs of the poor.


Letter Writing and Letter Delivery in the Archive of Claudius Tiberianus
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Peter M. Head, Tyndale House (Cambridge)

These letters (perhaps as many as eighteen in the archive), written in Greek and Latin in the early part of the second century, are notable for a number of features: the vulgar Latin, the references to various aspects of life, especially military life, and the interesting lists of goods ('a cloak of beaver skin'?). The letters are also full of references to letter writing and letter delivery. This presentation will include discussion and analysis of: a) the artefacts themselves - their physical form and the style of address used on the verso; b) the references to receiving and writing letters (including Claudius Terentianus' note on the value of letters of recommendation); c) the use of lists of goods alongside shipment of goods with the letter carrier; d) the role of the letter carrier in the communication process; e) the relevance of this to the study of early Christian letters (briefly!).


Textual Criticism and Exegesis in Bengel's Gnomon
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Peter M Head, Tyndale House (Cambridge)

One of the main features of J.A. Bengel's work in NT textual criticism was the integration of textual criticism and exegesis. His 1734 edition was preparatory for his exegetical commentary, the Gnomon Novi Testamenti (1742), which is itself notable for the amount of attention given to textual matters. After explaining his critical principles in the preface to the Gnomon Bengel states that these principles 'are more fully explained hereafter, with the addition of examples, in various parts of the epistle to the Romans, that of St James, and the Apocalypse’. This paper examines his treatment of textual issues in these books (as well as Matthew) to gain a better understanding of Bengel's critical principles and to assess the value of his approach after two hundred and sixty years.


The Syriac Electronic Corpus and the Study of Syriac Literature
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

The BYU-Oxford Syriac Electronic Corpus is conceived as an essential component in the digital infrastructure for the field of Syriac Studies. This paper will present some of the first fruits of this project and illustrate how this electronic corpus will impact the study of Syriac literature. Specifically, the paper will illustrate how the Syriac Electronic Corpus can impact 1. Syriac Manuscript Studies; 2. Text Critical Studies; and 3. Literary Studies.


The Syriac Electronic Corpus and the Future of Syriac Lexicography
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

All lexicography is corpus based. However, contemporary lexicographers have the advantage of deploying sophisticated annotated digital corpora in their research, and in the production of new lexica. Nevertheless, little consideration has been given to the potential benefits of basing the ISLP's proposed Comprehensive Syriac-English Lexicon on an annotated digital corpus of Syriac texts. This paper will address this question, with examples drawn from the BYU-Oxford Syriac Electronic Corpus.


The Growth of Syriac Manuscript Collections in Europe and North America
Program Unit: Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University

This presentation is intended as an historical introduction to the grand collections of Syriac manuscripts in Europe and North America. It serves as both an orientation to the various collections, and a survey of the major periods of western acquisition of Syriac manuscripts. Appropriate attention is given to manuscripts related to biblical studies, and to the practical issue of getting access to manuscripts in various collections.


Genesis 1: Where We've Been, Where We're Going
Program Unit: Genesis
Christopher Heard, Pepperdine University

This paper will survey the history of research on Gen 1, addressing the current state of the question, which will set the stage for the panelists' remarks.


How Wisdom Came into the Canon of the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Raik Heckl, Universität Hamburg

Starting from my monograph (Hiob – vom Gottesfürchtigen zum Repräsentanten Israels, FAT 70) about the last stage of the formation of the Book of Job, this paper is meant to reveal the methods and intentions of the reception of literature from the older Israelite curriculum of texts into the post-exilic Jewish tradition literature. In doing so, this paper will discuss the theses by D. Carr and K. van der Toorn. According to my monograph the composition of the book of Job as poem framed by a prose text has been developed by adding the prose frame to an earlier independent poem. In this earlier poem Job was depicted as a pious pagan, who held onto his relationship to his deity. In the Yahweh Speeches the God of Israel reveals himself to Job. The earlier poem deals exemplarily with the question of God‘s attitude towards suffering. This earlier text can be compared to other Ancient Oriental and Egyptian poetry that puts forward an accusation against God. It goes back to a text which was used for the education of the elites. The prose frame, however, transfers the image of Job from the older poem into a theological concept of history. In the prologue is Job presented as a pious worshipper of Yhwh, and he becomes a representative of Israel‘s fate. His final restoration prefigures the coming restoration of Israel and thus constitutes a contrast to the deuteronomistic theological concept of history of the books of Samuel and Kings. Similar observations can be made with respect to the secondary framing of Achikar and the teachings of Merikare as well as within the bible in the Book of Proverbs. By comparing these four examples (Achikar, Merikare, Job, Proverbs) it will be suggested that post-exilic Jewish literature addresses a wider audience of readers and listeners and is more intentional. The new texts pursue certain theological intentions as will be shown by the examples of Job and Proverbs.


What an Artist Dies in Me: The Generation of Roman Memories of Nero
Program Unit: Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Charles Hedrick, University of California-Santa Cruz

In the second book of his Histories, Tacitus tells of one of the pretenders who sprang up after the death of Nero. He promises to tell of others, presumably in sections of his book that have not survived. The phenomenon is not a manifestation of popular memory of the dead emperor. As Tacitus says, in the wake of Nero’s death different stories had circulated, and for that reason many imagined and believed (pluribus fingentibus credentibusque) that he was alive (Tac. Hist. 2.8.1; cf. 1.4). The appeal of such pretenders does not reflect the persistence of the memory of Nero, but rather the failure to make a memory of him at all. The apparent dysfunction raises the question: how are memories generated? On reflection, present apprehension seems to provide the material of recollection. Although the two are distinguished in mind, the movement from perception of the present to recollection of the past seems so seamless as to defy elucidation. In this paper, using the passage from Tacitus as a springboard for discussion, I pursue three aspects of the problem. First, the distinction of present and past stems from qualities of mind’s representations to itself. Few Romans ever saw the emperor in person. To the vast majority he was, in a concrete way, pretend: a figure apprehended, like the counterfeit Nero, through imagination and belief. The sense of the emperor as in some way “present” was not founded on direct perception, but on attitudes of mind. A fortiori, the transformation and apprehension of an emperor as “past” cannot be grounded in external perception, but must rely on qualities attributed to the figure in consciousness. Second, the production of the perception of present and past are socialized. In the case of the Roman emperor, the community’s knowledge was propagated through a repertoire of representations and practices, many promoted by central political authorities, some flourishing through dispersed local interactions. The mechanisms are many and well explored—sculptures and coins, oaths and invocations, condemnation or divinization. For us (as for Tacitus), the impulse to evaluate such knowledge in terms of the accuracy of its content can be overpowering. Communal knowledge is embodied and we only begin to approach a sympathetic understanding of by asking whose knowledge it is. Tacitus provides the material for such a discussion in his account of the “false Nero.” Third, the confusion attending Nero’s death, far from being an aberration, was intrinsic to the nature of the position of the Roman emperor. Political successions have always been hazardous, and from the beginning of the Principate were carefully managed. The problem posed by Nero’s death is implicit in first Julio-Claudian succession. Tiberius covered up the death of his predecessor, encouraging the people to imagine and believe while he straightened the path for himself to the throne, and for Augustus into memory (Tacitus Ann. 1.5).


Conflicted Commands: Memory and the Former Things in Second Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Katie M. Heffelfinger, Church of Ireland Theological Institute

Second Isaiah is a text filled with tensions and paradoxes. Perhaps most striking among these are the diametrically opposed commands by the divine voice “do not remember the former things” (43:18) and “remember the former things” (48:9). While these commands are fairly typical of Second Isaian modes of thematic cohesion, they nevertheless present a puzzle to the hearer of the text. Which command is to be obeyed? Should the former things be taken to mean the same things in each case or different things? What, if anything, has changed in the relationship between speaker and hearer between the two commands? This paper will explore these questions and will examine the two commands within their immediate poetic contexts, the use of the memory motif in Second Isaiah as a whole, and the broader poetic flow of Second Isaiah. The aim of the paper is to gain some traction in the question of the significance of these two statements.


Worship Field Study in Introductory Theology Courses: A Comparative Approach to the Study of Theology
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Brent Hege, Butler University

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The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Case of the Testament of Abraham
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
K. Martin Heide, Philipps-Universität Marburg

The Testament of Abraham exists in a Greek long recension, a Greek short recension, and there are, besides a Coptic and an Arabian version, two or three different Ethiopian recensions. Nearly every manuscript of the two Greek recensions developed a text of its own. The Coptic, Arabian and Ethiopian versions had the Greek short recension as its Vorlage, but developed the text more in line with certain dogmas viewed as orthodox. In particular, the Oriental versions have a preface which sees their text as canonical, and they added further texts which are regarded as indispensable for obtaining salvation. Amazingly, the Oriental versions were copied with much more care than the Greek versions.


The Distribution of Parallelism in Psalms 11–20
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Knut M. Heim, Trinity College - Bristol

This paper demonstrates that biblical parallelism operates on four different levels: semi-linear (parallelism within one and the same colon, intra-linear (parallelism between the halves of the poetic line), inter-linear (parallelism between adjacent lines), and trans-linear (parallelism between non-adjacent verses). It then analyzes all instances of parallelism in Psalms 11-20, identifies the relative frequency of these levels of parallelism (the majority are intra-linear, but instances of other levels of parallelism are astonishingly high), and analyzes numerous passages in detail to show how attention to the various levels of parallelism enhances our appreciation for and understanding of biblical poetry.


What Motivates Learning in the Book of Proverbs?
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Knut M. Heim, Trinity College - Bristol

The book of Proverbs employs many strategies to motivate its readers to learn. In fact, the number of motivational materials is astonishingly high. This paper surveys all such materials in the book, classifies them into categories, and compares the differences between the various sub-collections. The paper explores how various agents' motivational strategies differ (personified wisdom, the father, mother(s), anonymous speakers, etc.) and analyses the motivational force of proverbial statements about expected learning outcomes. Motivating factors belong to personal and social, emotional and material, spiritual and secular, as well as other kinds of categories. Representative examples of these categories will be examined in detail. A full account of these motivational strategies provides valuable insights into the foundational values underlying the different sub-collections of the book of Proverbs. Finally, the paper will briefly explore motivations for ethical behavior and explore commonalities and differences between the motivational strategies in these two key aspects of the book of Proverbs.


From Codex to Kindle: Reimagining the Book
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Michael Hemenway, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology

There have been many complex twists and turns in the history of book technology. In antiquity, the advent and rise of the codex transformed the way books were made, used and imagined. In particular, the codex offered new possibilities for collecting texts in a single volume and allowing nonlinear access to these texts. The explosion of digital reading has brought us to the threshold of another major transformation in the material and ideological construction of books. Using the technological innovations of collection and nonlinear access, this paper contrasts the birth of the codex with the age of digitization. Both of these technological transitions have real impacts on perceived textual boundaries and atomization, but not necessarily in the same manner. I suggest that the collection capabilities and nonlinear access provided by the codex facilitated a cultural idea of the book as unified, stable, finite and ordered. Pushing both collection and nonlinear access to new extremes, digitization begins to unsettle the boundaries of a text and radicalize textual atomization to such a degree that the book is losing its ordering function. Building upon James O'Donnell's analysis of the technological advantages of the codex, Walter Benjamin's discussion of the impact of technological change on cultural categories, and Timothy Beal's recent exploration of the complex relationship between bible production and biblical literacy, this paper explores the impact of digitization on the Bible as a book and its relationship to the history of the codex. Insofar as the cultural role of the Bible is entangled with technologies of production and reception, the age of digitization will challenge the ideology bound up in the Bible as book.


Shooting at a Moving Target: Writing a Commentary on a Growing Text
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Charlotte Hempel, University of Birmingham

The task of writing a Commentary on a complex textual tradition presents the commentator with a number of challenges which in themselves shed light on our understanding of and approach to growing texts. Scholarship appears to have outlived the death of the author – itself a questionable concept in antiquity. Can we survive the death of the text? In the course of my work on a Commentary on the Qumran Community Rule manuscripts a number of questions must be raised: should I be writing more than one Serekh commentary since there are several Serekh traditions? How do I avoid privileging one manuscript over the others for the wrong reasons such as the (accidental) state of preservation, or (accidental) order of discovery and (not entirely accidental) date of publication? I would like to suggest that scholars have been faced with such phenomena for a long time: textual critics know ‘the text’ is a myth. But where is the line to be drawn between textual criticism of one complex text and the attestation of (alternative or successive?) multiple texts or documents?


Labor Pains: Apocalyptic Suffering as Being in Christ?
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Suzanne Henderson, Queens University of Charlotte

invited paper


The Gospel of Peter as “Rewritten Gospel”: Insights from Second Temple Literature
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Timothy P. Henderson, Marquette University

Is the Gospel of Peter dependent on the canonical gospels or was it composed independently of them? Scholars have long been divided on this matter, but those who have concluded that it is dependent have fallen short in providing a precise description of the nature of this dependence. This gospel contains very few verbal parallels to the NT gospels but resembles them much more closely in its general plot. The relationship between the Gospel of Peter and the NT gospels is thus significantly different from that between, say, Matthew and Mark, which have frequent verbal parallels. In this paper I offer a new proposal about the precise nature of the relationship between the Gospel of Peter and the canonical works. Specifically, I appeal to the category of Second Temple Jewish literature that has come to be identified as “Rewritten Bible.” These texts, though differing in genre, authorship, and date, are united in that they retell portions of the Hebrew Bible in order to address the new situations of their authors and readers. I suggest that the relationship between these Rewritten Bible texts and their biblical antecedents is precisely the type of relationship between the Gospel of Peter and the NT gospels. The paper briefly surveys the ways in which the Rewritten Bible texts have altered, expanded, combined, or omitted source material, often in a manner that appears to be apologetically motivated. Following this, I show how the very same types of redactional work are reflected in the Gospel of Peter’s handling of the canonical gospels. In light of this similarity, the paper concludes with a proposal for a new category of early Christian literature – “rewritten gospel” – and other potential candidates for membership in this genre are suggested.


Two Mothers, Two Nations: Ezekiel the Tragedian's Retelling of the Early Development of Moses
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Jonathan Henry, University of Pennsylvania

Ezekiel the Tragedian’s Exagoge, believed to have been penned in Alexandria between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE, is an important remnant of ancient Jewish artistic expression. It is also an important witness to perspectives on gender, ethnicity, and education from this time and place. The work’s purpose, function and audience are all vigorously contested by scholars who have studied it. The current paper studies the intersection of gender and ethnicity, as well as depictions of education, as a means for illuminating the purpose of the tragedy. The character of Moses is dynamically constructed in way that demonstrates the appropriate identity for a role model to Jews in Hellenistic Egypt. I will discuss the way in which Moses’ dual ethnicity is developed in the first two acts almost entirely by the actions of women, although these women act in the interests of male figures. As a man with two mothers, one Hebrew and the other Egyptian, Moses receives two educations and two values systems. The poetic summation of his childhood contains many overtones of motherhood, to the point that Ezekiel figuratively depicts Moses’ time of nurturing and education by the princess in terminology reminiscent of pregnancy. Upon exiting Pharaoh’s household, Moses chooses the ways of his fathers over those of his adopted mother. His stature grows at this time, when he moves further from feminine forms of paideia toward revelation, a body of information administered by masculine figures. This rapid backgrounding of feminine interests, and foregrounding of androcentric concerns, marks Moses’ development into the consummate Hebrew man. I will posit that, for Ezekiel, masculinity holds priority over feminized concepts, Hebrew identity is superior to Egyptian (or Greek) identity, and revelation is a superior means of instruction compared to paideia. This intersection of gender, ethnic, and educational concerns speaks to the intra-communal function of the play, and provides a key for understanding its audience and purpose.


Daniel's First Readers: "Hazon Gabriel" and "2 Baruch"
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Matthias Henze, Rice University

This paper will examine the reception of Daniel by its earliest readers using texts from Qumran,*Hazon Gabriel*, and 2 Baruch.


The Reception of the Septuagint in the Text of the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Juan Hernández Jr., Bethel University (Minnesota)

Almost every available study of the reception of the Septuagint on the text of the Apocalypse begins with the reconstructed text of NA27. While this approach is useful for tracking the Septuagint’s impact on the Apocalypse’s Ausgangstext, it can only offer piecemeal evidence for the reception of the Septuagint throughout the Apocalypse’s manuscript tradition. Moreover, with the appearance of the Göttingen Septuaginta, it is clear that NA27’s marginalia is also in need of updating and revision. I therefore propose to examine the reception of the Septuagint (and its various versions) in a single manuscript containing the Apocalypse: Codex Sinaiticus. The 13 clearest allusions to the Septuagint in the Apocalypse will be examined against the backdrop of its textual tradition. Two basic questions will be pursued. First, does the wording of the Apocalypse match the wording of the Septuagint in the same manuscript? Second, what accounts for the differences between the wording of the Septuagint and the Apocalypse in the same manuscript? The second question opens the door to an examination of the textual histories of both the Septuagint and the Apocalypse. Special attention will be paid to the role of scribal activity in shaping allusions to the Septuagint. Changes to NA27’s marginalia will also be suggested.


Re-thinking the Date of Isaiah 24–27
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Todd Hibbard, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Dating texts in the book of Isaiah is notoriously difficult. Perhaps no section illustrates this better than Isaiah 24-27. One finds an exceptionally wide span of proposed dates for these chapters in the history of scholarship on this section, ranging from the 8th century BCE all the way to the 2nd century CE (!). The discovery of the complete Isaiah scroll (1QIsaa) among the Dead Sea scrolls suggests a terminus ad quem for the book of no later than the 2nd century BCE, but that still permits a considerable compositional range for Isaiah 24-27. This paper will analyze the arguments made by scholars for dating the text to three periods: the Assyrian period (8th century), the Babylonian period (6th century), and the Persian period (late 6th-5th century). I will conclude by making a renewed argument for dating this text in the Persian period based on historical- and redaction-critical grounds.


Tobit, the Psalms, and the End of Exile
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Jill Hicks-Keeton, Duke University

The book of Tobit, though written much later than its narrative setting and long after the days of Israel's prophets, joins in the prophets' hopes for the end of exile. As a highly literary work, Tobit employs the conventions of narrative to promote this expectation. Yet there is one puzzling feature of the narrative for which scholars have not yet offered a convincing explanation: its sudden shifts in points of view. The story moves from third-person narration (1:1-2) to first-person narration from Tobit's perspective (1:3-3:6), and then back to third-person narration for the remainder of the story (3:6-14:15). After surveying and critiquing leading explanations for this phenomenon, I will offer a new reading of the narration shift. I contend that this interpretive quandary is only intelligible in light of Tobit's use of a literary feature found throughout Israel’s Psalms: the grammatical blurring of boundaries between the individual and the nation (esp. Psalm 28, 62, 77, 137). We shall see that this solution to the problem of Tobit's split narration helps us as readers to understand more readily Tobit's solution to the problem of exile: he interprets his own restoration as evidence that God will soon restore an exiled Israel. The paper concludes with observations on the significance of the author's use of these scriptural elements in his own (third- or second-century BCE) context.


Scribes and Prophets: Reassessing the ANE Evidence
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
John W. Hilber, Dallas Theological Seminary

The notion that prophetic books are scribal artifacts represents only half of the story. This paper reassesses ANE evidence for the relationship between scribes and prophets in the transmission of prophecy. While one does not necessarily expect letters and literary texts to preserve oral prophecy with word for word accuracy, the case for loose transmission is often overstated for these genres, particularly the triad ARM 197/199/202 (water beneath the straw). Evidence from Nineveh and Deir Allah as well as consideration of divine letters and Egyptian royal oracles furnish models whereby scribes worked in concert with authentic prophetic tradition.


The Four Gospel Canon in the Second Century
Program Unit: Extent of Theological Diversity in Earliest Christianity
Charles Hill, Reformed Theological Seminary

To be entered


"Redoublement" and Relationality in Philippians 2:9–11: A Reconsideration of the Function of 2:11b in the Construction of the Christ-Hymn’s Christology
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Wesley A. Hill, University of Durham

Recent interpreters of Philippians 2.6-11 seem agreed that the theological function of the last clause of the hymn’s final strophe, ‘to the glory of God the Father’, is to qualify the exaltation of Jesus (2.9a) and specify the uppermost boundary for what the bestowal of the divine name might entail for his status (2.9b-11a). This way of reading the clause is not limited to those interpreters who advocate a ‘low’ Christology; proponents of a ‘high’ or highly exalted Christology employ nearly identical terminology to describe the function of 2.11b. The purpose of this paper is to present a two-pronged challenge to this construction of a competitive relationship between 2.9-11a and 2.11b. First, it will be argued that Jesus’ exaltation (2.9a) and reception of the name kyrios (2.9b-11a) do not indicate his equality (Gleichsetzung) but instead his identity (Identifizierung) with the subject of Isaiah 45.23 (cf. kyrios in v. 25). Recognizing this distinction will enable a reconfiguration of the question of the ‘degree’ of Jesus’ exaltation. Hence, second, it will be argued that such an identification of Jesus with the kyrios of Isaiah 45 operates on a distinct conceptual plane from that of the ordering of God and Jesus’ relationship to one another as distinguishable agents in Phil 2.6-11, in which Jesus’ action and role is subordinated to God’s in the transition from 2.6-8 to 2.9-11. In this way, it will be argued that specifying a relationship of subordination, as is the function of 2.11b, does not threaten or qualify or otherwise interact with the identification between God and Jesus in 2.9a-11a. These two elements of the text—identification and subordination—remain conceptually distinct and complementary, traversing the same ground twice over (hence, ‘redoublement’) with different conceptual registers.


The Didactic Use of Death in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Vered Hillel, Israel College of the Bible

Death has been called the great equalizer. It surpasses all ethic, economic and educational boundaries; all die. Death evokes myriad reactions, memories and feelings, as well as a multiplicity of meanings and connotations that can be separated into numerous subcategories, e.g. fear of death, rituals of death, death as a mode of life or consequence of a lifestyle, resurrection. Qohelet’s pessimistic view of death as the defining and insurmountable basis of human existence, exemplifies the developing attitudes toward death that took place in the Jewish community in the Second Temple Period. During this time attitudes toward death moved from the background to the foreground. Views of death developed beyond cessation of life to incorporate etiological questions in Wisdom texts such as Wisdom of Solomon and judgment and resurrection in apocalypses such as 4Ezra, and to focus on individuals instead of community as in Qohelet. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs embraces the topic of death with its multifaceted meanings and categories and uses it as a didactic tool to relay the patriarchs’ vices and virtues. Various attitudes toward death are subsumed in order to expound the Testaments intrinsic parenetic and apocalyptic themes. This presentation examines 1) the attitude toward death in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs to discern the document’s concept of death, 2) the manner in which various concepts of death have been adopted and adapted in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and how they teach the document’s theology, and 3) the possible relationships between the view of death in the Testaments and wisdom and apocalyptic literature. It is hoped that this research will provide further understanding about the coherency of the Testaments and insights into the relationship between the Testaments and Second Temple Period literature, as well as perhaps shed a little light on its dating.


Confusing Zacharias
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Lynne Hilton Wilson, LDS Stanford Institute

The books of Chronicles include seven Zachariahs. The most famous, “Zachariah, the son of Berechiah,” was the sixth-century prophet (Zech 1:1). Another famous one, “Zachariah, son of Jehoiada, ” was a priest at the end of the ninth century, who was stoned to death in the courtyard of the Temple (II Chronicles 24:20-21). These two Zachariah’s are confused in Matthew 23:35, but not in the parallel account in Luke 11:50-51. This confusion is further entangled in the apocryphal account, Protevangelium of James where these two Old Testament Zachariahs are mixed up with Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. An apocryphal story developed an elaborate setting for the mix-up—claiming that Herod killed Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father. For the sake of clarification, I will list some of the scriptural references from the Zacharias issue: 1. In Matthew 23:35 The Lord refers to Zacharias son of Barachias. This man is the last of the minor prophets in our Old Testament as is stated in Zech 1:1 “Zechariah the son of Berechiah.” This sixth century prophet is confused with the following Zechariah. 2. II Chronicles 24:20-21 refers to another Zachariah, son of Jehoiada the priest, who was stoned to death in the Temple court at the end of the ninth century. Luke clarifies the reference to him in Luke 11:51 in the parallel passage of Matthew 23:35. 3. Luke 1:5 introduces Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, as a priest of Abia (not the high priest, who was Jesus son of See), living in the days of Herod the king. 4. The Protevangelium of James (23-24) combines these three figures and claims that John the Baptist’s father is also “the son of Barechiah,” and the high priest. The account then winds a whole false story around this misunderstanding and changes John the Baptist’s father to the reigning high priest, killed at the temple. This apocryphal account found its way into early American newspapers and from there into the LDS Times and Seasons. This caused a cascade of LDS publications to broadcast it as a truth, including Joseph Fielding Smith’s, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Sunday School and Seminary manuals. This story of John the Baptist’s youth is now quoted as a historical fact throughout the LDS church by BYU Professors as well as lay Sunday School teachers. I would like to explore it in detail.


The Slander of the Devouring Land in Ezekiel
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Karina Martin Hogan, Fordham University

Scholars of ecological hermeneutics have written about Ezekiel’s preoccupation with the desolation of the land of Israel that will occur when God punishes its human inhabitants for their covenant violations. Ezekiel 36:13-15 deserves more attention, however, because it inverts the pattern of victimization of the land and blame of its inhabitants. Ezekiel lends credence to an “insult” (36:15) against the land of Israel by other nations; namely, that it “devours people” (36:13), by promising the land that it shall “no longer bereave [its] nation of children” (36:14). This charge recalls the “defamation of the land” by the majority of the Israelite spies in Numbers 13:32, that it is “a land that devours its inhabitants.” From a stance of suspicion based on Ezekiel’s tendency to “blame the victim,” I read Ezekiel 36:13-15 as a slander against the land of Israel, intended to justify God’s harsh treatment of the land. I argue that the metaphor of the devouring land is best understood against the background of the covenant curses in Leviticus 26, and in particular as a counterpart to the threat that desperate parents will eat their sons and daughters (Lev 26:29; cf. Deut 28:53-57; Ezek 5:10; Jer 19:9 and Lam 2:20, 4:10). Ezekiel transfers this specter of anti-fertility to the land of Israel, personifying it as a mother who devours her own children. Although the covenant curses in Leviticus describe the desolation of the land in similar terms to Ezekiel’s, the end result of the depopulation is that “the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbath years” (Lev 26:34; cf. 26:43), a personification that encourages an empathetic identification with the land. In an act of retrieval, I find in the covenant curses in Leviticus both context and counter-text for Ezekiel’s slander of the land.


The Dark Underside of the Maternal Land in Ezekiel 36:13–15
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Karina Martin Hogan, Fordham University

In the final pages of Philosophy in the Flesh, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson begin to explore the spiritual dimension of the embodied mind and gesture toward the ethical and ecological implications of an embodied spirituality. Although they contrast the “embodied person” with the “conception of the person assumed in much of Western religion,” the Hebrew Bible offers many examples an embodied spirituality that assumes an intimate connection between the person and the physical world. The etymological relationship between the Hebrew words for human being (’adam) and for ground or land (’adamah) points to a conceptual metaphor that is fundamental to the view of the human person expressed in the myth of Genesis 2–3. In that myth, I argue, the ground is the mother of humankind (and of all living things) via the metaphoric inference pattern “biological resource as parent.” This paper focuses on a disturbing metaphor in Ezek 36:13-15 that upends the classic description of the promised land as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” In an oracle concerning the land of Israel (’admat Yisrael, 36:6), Ezekiel repeats and then lends credence to an “insult” (36:15) against that land by other nations: “You devour human beings (’adam), and you have bereaved your nations of children” (36:13). I argue that the metaphor of the devouring land is best understood against the background of the covenant curses in Leviticus 26, and in particular as a counterpart to the threat that desperate parents will eat their sons and daughters (Lev 26:29; cf. Deut 28:53-57; Ezek 5:10; Jer 19:9 and Lam 2:20, 4:10). Ezekiel evokes the horror of cannibalism via the conceptual metaphor of the maternal land/ground, implied by the juxtaposition of ’adamah and ’adam. Although Ezekiel 36 is an oracle of restoration, the purpose of this metaphor is to emphasize that Israel’s “abominations” have led to a fulfillment of the covenant curses.


Paul and Remnant in Romans 9–11: “Inclusively Exclusive” or “Exclusively Inclusive”?
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Ben Holdsworth, Union College

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Fraud, Ignorance, and Roman Business Ethics
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
David Hollander, Iowa State University

The recent global economic collapse and associated high-profile cases of fraud and negligence have revived interest in business ethics and corporate social responsibility. The Romans were also concerned with such issues. Though he held a rather dim view of trade (Off. 1.151), Cicero nevertheless conceded that one could pursue the occupation honorably (Parad. 46) and, in the De Officiis, even provided a number of case studies in what might be termed ‘business ethics’ to illustrate how this was possible (e.g. Off. 3.50-53). His best-known example asks whether a merchant importing grain to a famine-stricken Rhodes has an obligation to tell his buyers that more ships are on the way, thus reducing his profit. Cicero believed he should but not everyone shared this opinion. Similar discussions appear in Plutarch, Pliny the Younger (Ep. 8.2), and Justinian’s Digest (e.g. 47.10.13.7). This paper examines how the Romans distinguished between legal, illegal, and legal but dishonorable business practices and what their discussions of this issue suggest about the nature of the market in the late Republic and early Empire. I will argue that the Roman discourse on ‘business ethics’ betrays considerable anxiety over information asymmetry in transactions but little concern for dangers associated with entrepreneurial rivalry (i.e., competition among sellers).


“And the Widows of Ashur Are Loud in Their Wail”: Assyria Eyes Judah
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Steven W. Holloway, American Theological Library Association

In this topical overview we will briefly review the role that disinterred Assyria played in western identity construction, and then engage in a thought-experiment by surveying the culture of ancient Judah through the eyes of…Sennacherib.


The Astronomical Diaries and Sennacherib’s Selective Demolition of Babylon, Inside Out
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Steven W. Holloway, American Theological Library Association

The assumptions undergirding a paper delivered in this section last year will be exposed as an exercise in historiographic modeling. What range of options can be legitimately advanced regarding object provenance, temple archives, observational astronomy? To what extent can Sennacherib’s actions, in Babylon and elsewhere, be deduced from the vestiges of his reign?


The Spirit and the Promise: On Becoming Aligned with the Way Things Really Are
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Christopher Holmes, University of Otago

The Spirit is often understood to be Christ’s successor, the One who replaces Christ. In Paul’s account of the Spirit in Galatians, a decidedly different picture emerges. To live and be guided by the Spirit is to be subject to Christ, he whose life is Spirit-filled. Fellowship with the gospel of the crucified Christ is fellowship with his Spirit. Accordingly, the Spirit neither eclipses Jesus’ agency nor our own, but rather guides our lives as we strive to live them in alignment with God’s salutary activity in revelatory proclamation. This paper seeks to advance a generative account of the Spirit as the Abrahamic blessing which grasps us by the gospel of the crucified and so gives rise to forms of life consistent with the promise. Three points follow. First, the Spirit is not subsequent to the Gospel proclamation but ingredient in it: The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, drawing its shape from Christ. To experience the Spirit as Jesus did is to receive his proclamation, the message enacted by God. It is to obey what is being said in Christ suffering crucifixion to set us free from sin. Second, Christian existence is but a matter of experiencing the flesh curbing power of the Spirit. To be informed by Jesus’ faithful reliance upon the Spirit he receives and bestows rather than by a law observant reading of the Scripture, is to be alive to God’s effective action in the here and now over and against the flesh. This is the positive moment as regards the Spirit’s work. The Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians invades but only so as to establish: to be invaded is to be baptized into the Christ who crucifies the Flesh. The Spirit in Galatians denotes the profoundly positive moment in Paul’s apostolic proclamation. Whereas the Teachers privilege the negative moment, what still must be—Law observance—, the Spirit establishes Jews and Gentiles in God’s rectifying deed revealed in his Son’s advent and death. Third, Jesus’ life in the Spirit is one of sowing to the Spirit (Gal 6:8). There is, in short, a teleology to life in the Spirit. By arguing such, the paper advances the notion that to experience the Spirit in a manner analogous to Jesus’ own experience is a matter of being directed to the day when the promise by which God kindles faith will be fully received. Life in the Spirit will simply be of the uninterrupted cry of “‘Abba! Father!’” (4:6). This is the hope of our own rectification for which “we eagerly wait” (5:5).


“Let Us Also Be Guided by the Spirit": The Promise of the Abrahamic Blessing for Human Sexuality Today
Program Unit: Society of Christian Ethics
Christopher Holmes, University of Otago

It is widely assumed that an account of the Spirit has little purchase on pressing ethical issues. An appeal to the work of the Spirit is frequently thought to be compromised by the whims of human subjectivity. St. Paul’s portrait of the Spirit in Galatians emphasizes, however, the concrete work of the Spirit in curbing the Flesh, of aligning humanity to the new reality revealed in the revelatory proclamation of the crucified Christ. In this paper I offer a reading of the work of the Spirit in Galatians as that of God’s invading power, the promised Abrahamic blessing which baptismally grasps women and men with a view to the difference it makes for an account of human sexuality. If such is the case, then, ethical discussions are advanced beyond that of the articulation of principles or rules for conduct in favour of the promise, the effective presence of God’s activity in the Spirit which gives rise to persons capable of living in harmony with the new creation. Three points follow, I argue. First, the identity of the Spirit is that of the wonder-working power who re-contextualizes human activity by aligning it with the way things really are. Life in the Spirit is truly ethical life, a life that yields to Scripture’s proclamation as the means by which Christ brings his people into conformity with ethical reality. Second, the Spirit’s power to overcome the Flesh serves as an important resource for ethical self-criticism. Accordingly, the Spirit disrupts attempts to offer hardened solutions with respect to particular ethical issues. I argue, instead, that Paul’s linking of the Spirit in Galatians as being ingredient in revelatory proclamation rather than Law-observant attention to the Scripture evokes a posture of genuine humility before difficult ethical issues. What needs to be done, before a “do this” is spoken, is to hear ever anew what is being said. Ethics begins and so ends with hearing the message. Third, I bring the cry of the Spirit, the “‘Abba! Father!’” to bear upon matters pertaining to human sexuality (Gal 4:6). By championing a positive (eschatological) orientation to ethics grounded in the Spirit’s own plans for humanity in overcoming the Flesh run-wild, I argue that forms of human sexuality consistent with the proclamation by which God kindles faith, are those in sharp contrast to the law. An approach to human sexuality rooted in the Spirit rather than law aligns us to what is coming to pass, the hope of rectification (Gal 5:5). What is coming to be is bodily life that transcends the divisions of the old. This allows us to frame the debate about the blessing of same-sex unions in a manner that takes more seriously the fruits of the Spirit when it comes to articulation of forms of human sexuality concomitant with the Spirit’s plans for the human race (Gal 5:22).


The Other Side of the Coin
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Else Holt, Aarhus Universitet

The message of the Book of Jeremiah is primarily related to a traumatic perception of the exile. Jer 29:5-9, however, conveys a different message to the exiles; at least for a 70 years period they shall adapt to life in Babylon – what is good for Babylon is good for them. This message is much closer to the message of late books like Esther, Daniel and the Joseph-novella. The presentation will ask for the impact of the optimistic message on its Jeremianic context. How can a message that seems to be so out of place be understood as a part of the overall communication? Moreover, I will compare the ideology of adaptation and of how to be a successful, exiled Judean in Jeremiah, Esther, Daniel and some apocrypha and pseudepigrapha


Preserving Sin as Evidence in Court
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Shalom E. Holtz, Yeshiva University

In the Hebrew Bible's divine courtroom, where God the judge presides over trials of humans, sins serve as the evidence against the people standing trial. The divine legal lexicon refers to sins with the same terminology that is used to describe evidentiary actions in trials between human litigants. Thus, for example, the prophet's prayer in Jeremiah 14:7 speaks of sins "testifying" against ('-n-h b) the community. So, like its counterparts on earth, the divine tribunal must also preserve evidence in order to use it at trial. One way it does this is by "binding" the sin, as in Hos 13:12 and Job 14:17. The proposed paper will consider texts like these in light of parallel procedures for the gathering and preservation of evidence in human courtrooms, both in the Hebrew Bible as well as in trial records from Mesopotamia.


Rethinking Synchrony and Diachrony in Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Koog P. Hong, Claremont Graduate University

While the gap between the historical-critical and the literary-critical camp in biblical scholarship increases, scholars have made various attempts to bridge the breach for the last few decades. Yet, time and again, such a task is proven to be a difficult and complex task. One of the problems resides in the usage of the terms, “synchrony” and “diachrony” among biblical scholars. It has been repeatedly pointed out that the way biblical scholars use the terms differs from the sense Saussure originally employed them. For Saussure, both synchronie and diachronie are historically conditioned terms. The former focuses on the description of a linguistic system in a particular period; the latter, the historical comparison with other periods. When we apply this strict sense of the terms to biblical studies, it opens up a new insight that historical-critical and the literary-critical studies alike include both synchronic and diachronic aspects within their methodological scope. The historical-critical approach may be defined as a synchronic and diachronic analysis of the text and its prehistory. For instance, when Wellhausen examines the religious background of D and P, before he delves into the diachronic relation between the two, he has to first describe the synchronic aspect of each source. Likewise, the literary-critical approach can be defined as a synchronic and diachronic observation of the interaction between the text and its readers. Insofar as readers are historically confined, their readings are put into a diachronic relationship with the implied reader in the text and all the other readers. In the end, a broad hermeneutical scheme arises in which the historical-critical and the literary-critical studies occupy the opposite sides of the interpretive domain, with the text serving as an anchor between the two sides. This depiction provides not only a clarified understanding of the “complementary” nature of the two approaches but also a useful theoretical ground for any future discussion regarding the dialogue between the two main camps in biblical studies.


Interpreting Jesus’ Miracles of Healing as Proof of Divine Agency and Identity in Early Syriac Literature
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Cornelia B. Horn, Saint Louis University

This paper explores some of the early traces of the concern with interpreting miracles of healing as proof of Jesus’s divinity. It is noteworthy that a substantial trajectory for this line of interpretation is located in material associated with late antique Syria and Palestine. The beginnings of this tradition are represented by the Abgar legend, the works of Ephraem the Syrian, and the Pseudo-Clementine literature. The trajectory then reaches to the Acts of Mar Mari and early Syriac and Arabic apocryphal infancy narratives. Identifying, tracing connections, and evaluating this material allows one to reconstruct a historically and theologically important dimension of the late ancient history of the interpretation of Jesus’ miracles. At the same time it lays the necessary groundwork that allows one to discern the ideological and intellectual context in discussion with which later interreligious debates between Christians and Muslims concerning the status of miracles as such and Jesus’ miracles in particular are to be situated.


Healing the Sick and Disabled in the Service of the Future: Intersections between Religion, Gender, Age, and Family Life in Syriac and Greek Texts
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Cornelia B. Horn, Saint Louis University

The works of Theodoret of Cyrrhus, the Acts of Mar Mari, and the History of the Blessed Virgin Mary offer the investigator the opportunity to explore ideologies that were operative in the representation of the sick and disabled in a subset of ancient Christian literature that was produced in or for late antique Syria and/or for those availing themselves of the Syriac language at the time. This paper argues that concerns about the restoration of family life and intergenerational relationships are a core issue of the miracles of healing featured in these texts. While explanations for the origins of diseases and disabilities are often confined to models based on religious presuppositions that involve the realms of the demonic and magic, strategies for healing are more creative. To a considerable extent, the texts bring to the fore and extend the roles and participation of females as those who are healed and as those who heal or mediate healing. The texts also reveal a remarkable preoccupation with cases of sickness and disabilities of children and youth and thus with the relevance of age as a category of investigation. Whereas sickness in old age, in part as a phenomenon accompanying the approach of death, is to be expected, the need to deal with the occurrence of sickness and disability during childhood and youth is more urgent since it threatens the possibility of the continuation of life into the future, from generation to generation, at a more fundamental level. The contextualization of religious ideas about healing over and against the concerns of gender, age, family, and history allows for the formulation of a more integrative, comprehensive, and ultimately more satisfying interpretation of the texts under discussion.


The Economy of Wisdom's World
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Milton P. Horne, William Jewell College

Recent assessments of the social world of biblical wisdom have not included reflection upon the economic realities of that social world. Nevertheless, the collections of proverbial sayings reflect a certain mode of economic thought throughout. Focusing upon the sayings in Prov 10:1-22:16 and 25-27, this paper presents this economic thinking as consisting of the following four modes of reflection upon reality. First, there is a readily apparent “means-ends” instrumentality throughout the collections, whereby it becomes clear that the sages’ advice is not an end in itself. Appeal to YHWH’s authority is itself typically a means to some other end. Second, this instrumentality is defined further by a rationality that is more akin to maintaining proportionality than to reason. Third, value, particularly the value of wealth, is most often expressed in terms of utility. Fourth, and finally, that utility is nevertheless contextualized by an awareness of scarcity that calls for disciplined ways of decision-making, thus the warrant for wisdom itself.


Trans Formations: Judith Butler, David Reimer, and the Dance of King David
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Teresa Hornsby, Drury University

In 2 Samuel 6 (and 1 Chron. 15), David dances, with all his might, unabashedly, in a linen skirt (or, as some have argued, naked) before God. It is in the motion, the movement of dance that occurs between two seemingly static entities – the people of Israel and The Lord, that I am reminded of Butlerian notions regarding transsexuality and intersexuality. Butler’s observations, following the work of Riki Anne Wilchins and Kate Bornstein, find ‘the meaning’ of gender in the transformation itself; the ‘becoming’ is ‘the vehicle for gender itself.’ Butler’s remarks occur in her ruminations on the infamous case study of David Reimer (which you may know as the ‘Joan/John’ case study), in which the ‘social constructionist’ faction squared off against the ‘natural essentialist’ camp. Butler, writing before Reimer’s suicide in 2004, notes that Reimer’s ‘norms’ require a forceful application: gender malleability is violently imposed, and ‘naturalness is artificially induced.’ Butler also observes the absurd irony that there is a political necessity of an ‘essentialist’ (static) understanding and expression of gender in order to render it ‘non-essentialist’ (malleable) and accessible. It is in the interstitial movement between these two fixed notions that we find gender; it is the dance of David. This paper explores the fluidity of gender as it trans/forms, particularly as it is encountered in the transsexual, transgendered, and intersexual communities, where it emerges as a body in motion.


The Exeter project: Towards an Ecotheological Hermeneutic
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
David Horrell, University of Exeter

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Jesus Remembered in 1 Peter? Early Jesus Traditions, Isaiah 53, and 1 Pet 2:21–25
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
David G. Horrell, University of Exeter

Recent studies of the historical Jesus have stressed both the importance of oral transmission in the preservation of Jesus-traditions and the idea that our extant records constitute constructed memories of Jesus’ ‘impact’, both within and beyond his lifetime. This perspective invites a reconsideration of the extent to which such memories of Jesus, encapsulated in tradition, might influence the construction of an ‘image’ of Jesus in texts other than the Gospels. This represents something of a departure from the established approaches to Jesus-tradition in the New Testament Epistles, which have tended to focus on possible echoes of dominical ‘sayings’ in the paraenetic material. In 1 Peter, the passage which most clearly and fully focuses on what we may call the character of Jesus is 2.21-25, with a content and wording heavily drawn from Isaiah 53. Indeed, the passage is significant as the most extensive and developed appropriation of this influential prophetic text within the New Testament. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which this depiction of Jesus also reflects memories of the historical Jesus and/or of Jesus as preserved in early tradition (e.g., Jesus’ ‘goodness’, his refusal to retaliate, and his silence under hostile questioning). Such facets of the character and actions of Jesus as remembered may indeed help to explain why Isaiah 53 was found to be an appropriate scripture to depict the character of Jesus, and not solely because of his death. This exploration will lead to reflections on the methodological implications of this enquiry (e.g., on the extent to which the New Testament Epistles should also be included in the quest for the earliest traditions of Jesus remembered; on the relationship between history and prophecy; and on the blurry distinction between [historical] Jesus traditions and early ‘Christology’).


Jesus’ Focus on the Poor: Deeply Rooted in Israelite Tradition
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Richard Horsley, University of Massachusetts Boston

This presentation will be a broad but focused survey of Jesus speeches and dialogues mainly in Mark and Q as a basis for discussion of issues and texts that this new Consultation might focus on. Jesus offered the blessings of the kingdom of God to the poor, and declared that it would be virtually impossible for the wealthy to enter the kingdom. In focusing his message and mission on the poor, he stands squarely in Israelite tradition, especially of the Mosaic covenant/ the Decalogue and the prophetic indictments of oppressive rulers. Some of the same concerns are reflected in the law-codes of the Judean temple-state. These are the basis on which the speeches of Jesus in the Gospels address the problems of debt, hunger, and disintegrating families and village communities, and indict both the Jerusalem ruling house/high priests and their scribal representatives for draining resources needed for support of families to support of the Temple. Several sorts of questions might be asked of the political-economic-religious situation Jesus addressed and/or of the Gospel presentation of Jesus speeches: Was the impoverishment of the people due mainly to the greed of the Herodians and high priestly families, as attested in Josephus’ histories? Or was it also due to the increasing centralization of economic power in the temple-state and its integration into the Empire-wide economic system and the (multiple layers of rulers and their) demands on the economic base of the peasantry? What role did the massive “development” projects of the Herodian kings (Caesarea, Herod’s Temple, and Antipas’ new capital cities) play in increased demands on the producers? What role did the “deregulation” of the centralization of the Judean economy under the Hellenistic and Roman Empires (and Herod and the new high priestly families) play? Did Luke “water down” Jesus’ pronouncements on poverty? Is Jesus’ covenant-renewal of economic cooperation transferable to communities beyond Galilee and Judea addressed in Matthew? How do the Gospel portrayals of Jesus’ mission focused on poverty counter the individualism of Western interpretation of Jesus’ teachings?


The Whole Story: Rethinking John's Gospel as a Source for Jesus in Its Ancient Media Context
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Richard A. Horsley, University of Massachusetts Boston

This paper calls for a significant reorientation of research into the Gospel of John's value as a source for Jesus. Jesus scholars, working on the basis of modern print-culture assumptions, have tended to treat the Gospels as mere containers of sayings or stories which can be extracted from their present contexts and treated as isolated units of "data." This approach, however, overlooks recent research that calls its essential assumptions into question. Several key themes in this research will be explored here. First, literary criticism has shown that the Gospels are whole stories with plots and agendas, not mere containers of individual sayings and mini-stories. This conclusion is consistent with the fact that Jesus himself must have communicated with people in larger, holistic complexes of words and themes, not in isolated sayings. Second, leading text-critics have concluded that it is likely impossible to “construct” an early (much less original) text of any of the canonical Gospels. Extensive research has shown that, with literacy severely limited in the ancient world, communication was predominantly oral; in such an environment, particular lines and stanzas vary from performance to performance, while the overall story or plot of a given text remains basically stable. This trend would characterize not only the oral stages of the Jesus tradition, but also scribal transmission. Third, in view of the above considerations, the Gospels are useful as historical sources only when viewed as whole stories that were affective for real-life audiences. This being the case, Jesus research should proceed from a careful investigation of the portrayal of Jesus' key activities and aspects of his mission in John (and other Gospels) as indicated by the main plot and agenda of the Gospel. Moreover, since the Gospel of John would have been repeatedly orally performed before communities of Jesus-loyalists, it is utterly inappropriate to treat it as a record of events laid up in an archive. Rather, John's Gospel was a communication between performers and communities that resonated out of the cultural tradition in which both were grounded. Thus, we are looking less for the meaning of the text-in-itself and more for the affect the text had in performances in the community.


When Fast-Held God-Images Fail To Meet Our Needs
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Tiffany Houck-Loomis, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

On the question of, “What practical applications might be made of psychological understandings of the Bible in congregational settings, pastoral counseling, and community work” I will look at the book of Job as a model by which the Church or congregational settings may wrestle with the notion of the idealized projection of perfection versus the ego maturation that is possible as a result of living through the reality of trauma with one another. By excavating the traditional or perhaps “favored” deuteronomistic leanings found within the underlying theology of “the friends” in the book of Job and Job’s not-so subversive aggression in response, I will show how Job is perhaps giving the church permission to re-evaluate and re-imagine fast-held dogma and entrenched god-images that oppress and divide in times of crises. The re-imagining may in fact allow for ego maturation, individually and communally in the life of the congregation, as one challenges the dogma that has perpetuated a state of isolation and inward regression. Using W.R.D Fairbairn and Henry Guntrip, two post-Freudian object-relational psychoanalysts, I will analyze what lies behind the schizoid state of relating we read between Job and his friends and how Job’s persistent aggression and questioning of deeply held beliefs of self, God, and other provides faith communities, congregants, and even academics today with a new way to imagine healing.


Grooves, Moves, and Mozartian Darks
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Sheridan Hough, Colgate University

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Matthew and Luke as Bricoleurs: Social Imagination, Social Interests, and Myth-Making in the Synoptic Tradition
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Natalie K. Houghtby-Haddon, George Washington University

Wendy Doniger, in describing the myth–making process in her book, The Implied Spider, has argued that Levi–Strauss’s concept of myth as bricolage is an apt metaphor, in that an old, old story, that has been told in many situations and for many different people, sometimes seems as if it was “dropped and broken into pieces, then put together again differently–not wrongly, just differently.” The Synoptic Gospels in the Christian canon give us a glimpse into the bricolage of myth–making by early Christian communities. We can see that the gospel authors, at least the authors of Matthew and Luke, used the same set of written texts–e.g., the gospel of Mark, the Septuagint, the hypothesized Q–dropped them, broke them into pieces, and put their “Lives” of Jesus together again differently, in ways that apparently made better sense for their individual community’s experience of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. In my paper, I will explore Matthew and Luke’s use of similar material in light of this theory of myth as bricolage, in conversation with Bruce Lincoln’s theory of myth as discourse that is useful for subordinate classes to use as an instrument of struggle, and on behalf of social change. In addition to looking at how their different arrangements of the same material create different answers to the question, “Who is this Jesus of Nazareth?” I will ask whether these authors are, in fact, arguing for, or against a particular social order, including the structure of their own social formation as followers of Jesus, and the community’s response to the Roman Empire. How do these authors utilize the social, cultural, mythic, and communal imaginative resources available within their audiences to address the social interests of these two, apparently very different, groups? The authors’ use of the stories of Jesus’ encounters with women, particularly those who are unnamed, will serves as specific examples for my discussion.


The Conquest of Canaan as Fantasy of the Colonized: Reading Joshua with Fanon
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Cameron B. R. Howard, Interdenominational Theological Center

In The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon explains psychological states brought on by the phenomenon of colonization. He describes the highly compartmentalized world of the colony, where the realms of settler and native stand as antitheses to each other. This duality incites in the colonized person a desire to become the colonizer in every way. Because colonialism is a system of intractable violence, the colonized person’s desires include a longing to inflict the violence perpetuated by the colonizer. Though Fanon draws his analysis of colonialism from his observations of twentieth-century Algeria, his work provides compelling paradigms for the study of colonial projects across history, including the history of ancient Israel. The book of Joshua recounts ancient Israel’s great colonizing moment. Finalized in the era of Persian (or, perhaps, Babylonian) imperial rule over Judah, Joshua describes ancient Israel’s successful, thoroughly destructive conquest of the land and people of Canaan. Using Fanon’s understanding of violence as the inevitable means of decolonization, this paper reads the conquest narrative as a violent fantasy of the colonized in Persian-period Yehud. The presentation of the conquest of Canaan, including the implementation of the herem, gives voice to the fantasies of violent reversal cultivated by imperial domination. The ethos of assimilation evident in Ezra-Nehemiah gives way in Joshua to a vivid desire to be the colonizer. Thus, even in an imperial context that is ostensibly beneficent, the totalizing effects of empire’s persecutions, both physical and psychological, cannot be suppressed.


Wiles of the Wicked Transvestite: The Queering of Gender and Boundaries in 4Q184
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Melanie A. Howard, Princeton Theological Seminary

Among the more suggestive texts in the collection of documents from Qumran, 4Q184 or the “Wiles of the Wicked Woman” is most ripe for the application of queer hermeneutics insofar as its saucy star flits as freely between the realms of the natural and the supernatural as between the male and the female. This paper argues that a queer reading of 4Q184 reveals an intentionally ambiguous use of gender-charged language which serves the pedagogical function of seducing readers into an uneasy identification with the text’s mister/mistress, and it is primarily by means of this identification that the text achieves the effect of cautioning its readers against transgression of Torah boundaries. Drawing heavily upon the work of Melissa Aubin on gender and Scott Jones on pedagogy in 4Q184, this paper serves as a bridge between these perspectives by suggesting that it is the very queering of gender distinctions that make this text pedagogically and rhetorically effective. In order to support this thesis, the paper compares the (wo)man of 4Q184 to the similar “Strange Woman” in Proverbs 7 so as to illuminate the distinct queerness of the figure here. The results of this comparison reveal that not only is this (wo)man more cosmic in scope than her counterpart in Proverbs, but also, as an original translation of 4Q184 proposed by the paper demonstrates, she is masculinized almost to the point of being unrecognizable as a woman. Ultimately, the paper concludes by asserting that reading this wisdom text with a queer lens is necessary in order to understand the text’s injunction against breaking the clear boundaries set by Torah.


Do Not Weep, O Cross
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Péter Hubai, Museum der Bildenden Künste

The first Interpreter of the Gospel of the Savior pondered on who should not weep (in the lacuna [106],10 of the Editio Princeps), the Editor of the Coptic text suggested “the Cross.” Reconstructing fragmentary texts is always a risky task and clever emendations can seldom be proven. A previously unknown Coptic text — having emerged during the 1965 Salvage Campaign in Nubia and published recently — verified the above hypothesis splendidly. The second document of the Kasr el-Wizz Codex — for want of a better title called “The Dance of the Savior around the Cross” — contains some striking parallels to the Gospel of the Savior. The Savior addresses the Cross as a living creature and claims to be rich (similarly to 5F 19-20). The aim of this paper is to present this little known new Coptic codex and to introduce it to the interpretation of the Gospel of the Savior.


Epigraphic Precursors: The Contribution of Iron IC–IIA Levantine Inscriptions to Rollston’s Theory of Writing and Literacy
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Neal A. Huddleston, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Epigraphic evidence from the tenth century Levant not only corroborates Rollston’s thesis concerning writing and literacy during the Iron Age but also demonstrates its validity a century earlier during Iron IC–IIA. When these inscriptions are analyzed in their archaeological contexts (or lack thereof) they bring an important data-set for understanding literacy during this time period. According to Rollston there are three levels of literacy: literate, semi- (functionally) literate, and illiterate. The ability to read and write during this time period is described by a spectrum which begins with proper names and concludes with the strong possibility of a running text. Each piece appears specifically in the categories of a literate or a functional production. The content of this collection indicates that ‘functionality’ falls into the following three categories: practice exercises, labels, and ownership or destination. Based on the find date the Gezer Calendar provides the first item in the collection which includes provenanced and unprovenanced items, while the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon provides the last in the series. Ironically the Gezer piece covers two categories as an extended literary ‘ditty’ as well as a probable practice exercise. Rollston interprets the epigraphic record from the following periods to indicate that literacy was not confined to the scribal elite, but was a reality for other trained professionals (129). Tenth century data indicates the same situation also existed at an earlier date, providing continuity in the data and a longer time frame for the development of literacy at least on the professional level. In sum, the multilingual and multicultural dimensions of the epigraphic evidence indicate that writing was used primarily for functional reasons in the tenth century. Its employment by both professionals (“literate elites”) and non-professionals (non-elites and “functionalists”) occurs in personal and administrative contexts, all within the linguistic cultural spheres of Phoenician, Philistine, and Hebrew in northern, central, and southern Israel.


Crisis as Opportunity: The Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Sandra Huebenthal, University of Tuebingen

The center of Mark’s Gospel is the experience of an existential crisis: Jesus’ death and the breakup of the disciples suggest that it is all over. But not only is the end dominated by crisis. The whole Gospel is percolated by all sorts of crisis that have to be overcome in the run of the narration: rejection, lack of understanding, betrayal, denial, violent death. Following the Son of Man, the disciples as well as the readers are constantly confronted with new perils. Suffering and distress are foretold again and again. It seems that Mark’s plot is nothing but crisis and not even the end brings ease. Thus, no wonder, the followers on the way – like the women at the tomb – are full of fear (10:32; 16:8). Is there a method to the crisis? Based on the narrative treatment of the different forms and aspects of crisis in the Gospel, my paper explores how far these can be understood as strategies to overcome extra-textual crises and thus are diaphanous for identity constructions of the community of commemoration behind the Gospel of Mark.


The Secrecy of Sacred Writing/Communication: Egypt and Israel
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Herbert B. Huffmon, Drew University

The realm of the sacred is at once both apparent to humans and concealed from them, both known and secret, both public and private, just as access to the presence of the sacred is both public, as in ceremonial divine travel, and private, as in the increasingly restricted access to sacred space as illustrated by temple regulations. Sacred communication, both in written and in oral or visual communication, also has elements of secrecy. This secrecy may be illustrated for Israel by the exclusiveness of God’s secret council (the sod), where the deliberations of God and the numinous associates may involve a prophetic presence as auditor or participant or be taken up by a literary narrator,as in the Book of Job—all of it secretive but important to make known to others. In Egypt, on the other hand, the emphasis in mortuary texts such as the Book of the Dead (i.e., The Book of Going Forth by Day) is not on secret divine deliberations. Rather, the emphasis is on secret divine words and rituals, to judge from the numerous emphatic references to secrecy. There were degrees of secrecy, ranging from knowledge kept strictly by the deceased, to knowledge that could be shared with select friends or family. In some of the exhortations, knowing or hearing the sacred words or seeing the sacred rituals may be forbidden for other persons, even if father or son of the deceased. Those forbidden to know may also include not only foreign slaves who might not understand anything they heard not comprehend what they saw, but even gods themselves who presumably would comprehend the secret. This leads to examining the role and character of such secrecy, secrecy which was important to emphasize or urge in the writings, but yet secret knowledge which had to be communicated. Secrecy is part of the process of negotiating the gulf between the divine realm and the human realm. Total secrecy for sscred writing/communication is not an option.


Christus Victor: Origen, Joshua, and the Matthean Jesus
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Leroy Huizenga, University of Mary

Many interpreters of a modernist or pietist bent assert that the Gospel of Matthew presents its Jesus in service of a sort of mere moral exemplarism, while interpreters of more traditional leanings find a soteriology of substitutionary atonement. Often overlooked are the possibilities afforded by Jesus’ very name, which evokes in attentive readers conquest traditions associated with Joshua. This paper will use contemporary, limited conceptions of intertextuality to read the Gospel of Matthew through the lens of Origen’s commentaries on Joshua and Matthew to demonstrate that the Gospel of Matthew presents a spiritual soteriology of Christus Victor.


"Righteousness to the Nations": Creative Tensions between the Matthean Narrator and Matthean Messiah on the Gentile Question
Program Unit: Matthew
Leroy Huizenga, University of Mary

When one reads the Gospel of Matthew with attention to its narrative dynamics, one observes a remarkable divergence between the character of the Matthean Jesus and the Matthean narrator as regards the question of the Gentiles: the former (Jesus) displays little interest in them whatsoever until after the Resurrection at the very end of the Gospel (Matt 28:16-20), while the latter (the narrator) employs Scripture throughout the Gospel to suggest to the reader that salvation will indeed come to the Gentiles (e.g., the appropriation of the narrative paradigm of the exodus in Matt 2 and the quotations from Isaiah in Matt 4 and 12). This paper will draw on contemporary theories of the concept of intertextuality and ancient categories of kenotic Christology to explore this narrative tension and its ultimate resolution in the Resurrection, at which the Law is fulfilled and all accomplished (cf. Matt 5.17-20), permitting the Gentiles full entry into the people and promises of God.


When Scribes Attack: 1 Samuel 13:1 and the Defamation of Saul
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
W. G. Hulbert, Baylor University

1 Samuel 13:1, the purported regnal years of Saul, includes a notorious text critical problem. The MT reads “Saul was one year old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel two years” (bn šnh š’wl bmlkw wšty šnym mlk ‘l ysr’l). The formula is absent in LXX B and defective in all other witnesses that include it. Most scholars suggest that the problem lies with a corrupt source which scribes preferred to either omit (as in LXX B) or leave uncorrected. What has not been considered is the possibility that the regnal years of Saul were intentionally effaced by Deuteronomistic scribes supportive of the Davidic dynasty. The defacing of depictions of earlier rulers by later rulers was not uncommon in ancient Near Eastern art and there are also examples of the defamation of earlier rulers within ancient Near Eastern literature, often due to religious and/or political distinctions. This paper proposes that the corruption of 1 Sam 13:1 could be attributed to Deuteronomistic scribes rather than a corrupt source text. Initially, it will be imperative to survey the textual variants and note how ancient scribes, translators, and commentators attempted to resolve the difficult nature of 1 Sam 13:1. Numerous examples of defacing and defamation in ancient Near Eastern art and literature will then receive attention, including examples from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and within the biblical text itself, particularly the Deuteronomistic History. This sampling of comparative and biblical materials will serve to bolster my thesis that the text was intentionally corrupted by scribes committed to preserving the memory of the Davidic dynasty while minimizing the memory of Saul’s kingship.


The So-Called "Epistula Anne ad Senecam": A Jewish Pseudepigraphon in Latin?
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Jeremy F. Hultin, Yale University

This paper explores the linguistic and philosophical background of the so-called "Epistula Anne ad Senecam," arguably the only extant Jewish text in Latin prose. In 1984, Bernhard Bischoff published what he believed to be a pseudepigraphical letter from the high priest Annas to the philosopher Seneca. Discovered in a ninth-century manuscript in Cologne, this text bears the superscription "Incipit epistula Anne ad Senecam de superbia et idolis." The latter half of this incipit presents no interpretive problems, for the text, marshalling arguments the Old Testament and other Jewish writings (especially Wisdom of Solomon 13-15 and Sibylline Oracles 3-5), ridicules the arrogance and futility of philosophical inquiry and the absurdity of idolatry. But the first half of the incipit is more problematic. Bischoff and several subsequent scholars understood it to describe the text as a letter from one "Annas"--possibly the high priest--to the philosopher Seneca. As such, the text was understood to be a forth-century Jewish effort to produce something akin to the correspondence between Paul and Seneca. But other scholars have argued that the superscription is merely a textual corruption of "epistula Annaei Senecae," "An Epistle of Annaeus Seneca." Having eliminated any mention of the high priest "Annas," these scholars have also argued that the text is Christian rather than Jewish, noting that parallels to its thought and language can be found in third- and fourth-century Christian authors. This paper re-examines the linguistic and philosophical parallels that may help determine this text's religious and intellectual origins. Of particular interest are its allusions to the Vetus Latina, its etymologies of biblical names, and several peculiar arguments against idolatry and animal sacrifice. Furthermore, prior debates about whether the text is Jewish or Christian must be revisited in light of more recent work on the nature of Jewish and Christian identity in late antiquity.


Mixing Wine with Water: Enjoyment and Expectation through the Style of the Apocalypse
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Edith M. Humphrey, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

This paper focuses on the use of legend and folk-story for artistic, theological and polemical purposes in the Apocalypse. In particular, we will consider the surprising rapture of the infant messiah in Revelation 12 as a pointed appropriation of apotheosis stories, and the surprising shape of chapter 11, where two heroes die and rise again, over against the expectations of readers. These chapters demand readerly participation: the ideal reader has encountered already the standing/slaughtered Lamb (chapter 5), and so must struggle with this narrative lacuna, the absence of Messiah’s death and resurrection, in chapter 12. Similarly, she knows tales concerning the pious who triumph by assumption rather than death and resurrection, and so must ponder chapter 11. Does the text indicate that Revelation 5 is to be read as a direct reflection of the Christian story, whereas chapter 12 serves a more subversive purpose? What are the warrants for the modification in chapter 11, and how might Christians receive this as appropriate within a writing that otherwise shows continuity with traditional stories? In consonance with the envoi of 2 Maccabees, John perhaps mixes water with wine for his readers’ enjoyment, engagement and elucidation. An awareness of the variety of ways in which the Scriptures speak, including the jarring use of Kleinliteratur within a serious work, is important for those who seek to understand their nature as inspired writings. The Bible, and indeed the Apocalypse, is not uniform in style or convention. Because of this, we are called also to discern where there is an appeal to our imagination, and where Scriptures aptly elicit our appreciation of their subtlety and indirectness. Jesus declared “man does not live by bread alone.” It is also true that the children of God are not taught by sober instruction alone. “Wine mixed with water is sweet” (2 Macc. 15:39).


Manifest in the Body: Deeds, Sin, Righteousness, and Glory
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Edith M. Humphrey, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

The startling language of 2 Cor 5:21 has commanded the attention of biblical scholars and theologians alike, and may with profit be used as an indicator of the exegete’s overall understanding of Pauline theology. A major aspect of the ongoing debate over this verse focuses on the identity of Paul’s “we” language as personal, apostolic or general, and therefore what the word dikaiosyne might mean. Especially important to this discussion is whether or not the verse constitutes a Pauline articulation of what comes in Christian tradition to be known as “the great exchange,” and, if so, whether the transformation should be envisaged in terms of soteriology, apostolic privilege, or something more grand. In dealing with these questions, this paper will take note of the prominent language concerning the physical or glorified body in the verses surrounding 2 Cor. 5:21, and consider the importance of outward, visible manifestation in Paul’s description of the righteousness of God. Taking this as a point of departure, I will offer a reading of chapter 5 that comes to a climax in verse 21, where the “righteousness of God” here is portrayed as something tangible and even perhaps physical, displayed not only in the apostolic ministry but also in the community that does not receive the grace of God “in vain.” Where in virtually every other case in the Pauline corpus dikaiosyne theou refers to God’s very own righteousness displayed before Israel and the Gentiles, here it is used exceptionally in order to indicate the outward display of the new creation in human beings.


Mark 6:30–8:21: A Response to David Peabody’s Challenge
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Hugh Humphrey, Fairfield University

David Peabody challenged this Seminar to examine Mark, chapters 6 through 8, to determine whether they provided evidence of dependence upon the Gospel of Matthew. The thesis argued here is that the assumption of such dependence raises multiple questions and is countered by the internal coherence of structure and theme in Mk 6:30-8:21, a coherence not viably drawn from Matthean dependence and probably indicative of an entirely different pre-Markan source, Jewish wisdom writing. The questions the data pose are: Where did Mark derive materials not in Matthew? Why are materials focussed on Peter not retained? Why does Matthew’s positive image of the disciples become a negative image in Mark? Why does Mark employ the “secrecy motif” (e.g. Mk 7:24, Mt 15:21) when it did not exist in Matthew from the beginning of that gospel? Rather than dependence on Matthew, Mark’s material in 6:30 - 8:21 has a clearly concentric structure and employs a metaphorical understanding of artoj emphasized by the concentration of that word in this material (and often not instanced in the Matthean parallels). That the metaphor is deliberate is clearly indicated by Mk 6:52, 8:14, 21. “Bread” indicates that power which Jesus brings both in teaching and in action, a power similar to Moses’ (the “wilderness” background in 6:31, 32, 35, 8:4; the superior knowledge of Jesus about Moses’ Law in 7:8-15). Throughout this material the Reader/Hearer is urged to “understand” something about the “bread” (see 6:52, 8:17-21), and the first time that occurs is after the dramatic scene of Jesus’ walking on the water (6:45-52) set against the allusion to creation in Genesis 1. The interpretative key is Jewish wisdom’s story about Wisdom as that is found in Proverbs 8:22-31; 9:1-5 (!); and Wisdom of Solomon 7:27. The coherence of Mk 6:30-8:21 is clear when seen against those wisdom texts and they constitute the most probable pre-Markan source material here.


Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting? The Dual Nature of the Sacred Tent in the Priestly Texts
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Michael Hundley, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

My presentation examines the expressions 'tent of meeting' (’hl mw‘d) and 'tabernacle' (mškn) with a view toward further elucidating the Priestly perceptions of the sacred tent, YHWH's relationship to it, and the interaction between YHWH and his people in and around it. Many previous studies have focused on the questions of the perceived permanence of the divine presence in the sacred sphere and the origins of the two expressions. While my presentation certainly will address these questions, its primary focus lies in examining the ideological import of the two Priestly designators for the sacred compound. More particularly, it investigates the connotations borne by each designator and, with two options available, the Priestly choice of one at the expense of the other in specific contexts. While the Priestly texts often employ the terms interchangeably, at times their application of terms appears selective, suggesting that it bears rhetorical freight. The Priestly labels 'tent of meeting' and 'tabernacle' indicate the sacred tent's primary functions as both a home and as a meeting point, yet the text is quick to distinguish both functions from mundane analogues. When the text employs one term at the expense of the other, it often seems to be addressing one of the two primary aspects of dwelling or meeting. When read together, the descriptors speak to the dual nature of the sacred tent and its special role as both a divine dwelling place and place of human-divine commerce.


Female Faces in Iron Age II Palestine/Israel
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Regine Hunziker-Rodewald, University of Strasbourg, France

The topic of women’s beauty is addressed several times in the Old Testament, but in a way that indicates almost no details of the aesthetic canon behind the idea of beauty. Therefore, while holding the magnifying glass over the biblical passages, the faces of some Iron Age female figurines found in the Western and Eastern parts of Palestine will be subjected to closer inspection. Even if they are in many cases mould made, they allow recognizing a certain matrix underlying the representations of female faces. The areas of Cis- and Transjordan belong to the same sliver of cultivated land that we name “Palestine”. Nonetheless, they are marked by differences in living conditions, by the distinct cultural identity of their inhabitants and, last but not least, by the big trading routes on both sides of the Jordan valley which constitute sources of, in each case quite specific, cross-cultural influence. This paper shows first steps towards building up a data-base of female figurines which were found in Transjordan.


Saved through Childbearing: The Jewish Context of 1 Timothy 2:15
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Christopher Hutson, Abilene Christian University

Although there is no question that 1 Timothy reflects the context of a Christian community struggling to survive and thrive in the province of Asia, several clues in the text indicate that the letter was deeply influenced by Hellenistic Judaism. The argument in 1 Timothy 2, for example, assumes that readers will catch allusions to Torah, e.g., “God is one” (2:5--Deut 6:4), and, “Adam was formed first, then Eve” (2:12--Gen 2). But in order to follow the argument, the reader must be familiar not only with Torah but also with traditional Jewish interpretations of Torah. The tradition of the sexual seduction of Eve (2:14), while not found explicitly in Genesis, is strongly reflected in Hellenistic Jewish literature (2 Enoch, Philo, 4 Macc, Life of Adam and Eve) and picked up in early Christian thought (2 Cor 11:3. Protev James 13.1). This paper will suggest that 2:15 can best be understood as an allusion to the rabbinic tradition that women die in childbirth because of failure to observe three specific commandments assigned to women.


Matthew’s Use of the Septuagint and Its Implications
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Jin Hwang, Fuller Theological Seminary

It is widely acknowledged, that Matthew is intended for the Jewish Christian readers. Give this, then, it is interesting to observe that Matthew sometimes translates a certain transliterated Hebrew/Aramaic word or phrase into Greek (e.g., Matt 1:21, 23; 27:33, 46; cf. Matt 15:5/Mark 7:11) and that he cites from or alludes to the Septuagint when other Evangelists do not seem to do so (e.g., Matt 13:10-17/Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9-10). In the present paper we will investigate the degree of Matthew’s knowledge of the Septuagint, examine how he consciously uses the Septuagint for his purposes in his Gospel (particularly in Matt 13), and suggest implications on the study of the Synoptic Gospels as well as that of the Septuagint.


Individuated Identity vs. Collective (Minjung) Identity: A Postcolonial Reading of the Body Metaphor in 1 Corinthians
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Sang Soo Hyun, Southern Methodist University

In the last chapter of "Postcolonial Commentary of the New Testament Writings," R. S. Sugirtharajah concludes that “the creative and productive future of postcolonial biblical criticism depends on its ability to reinvent itself and enlarge its scope. It should continue to expose the power-knowledge axis but at the same time move beyond abstract theorization and get involved in the day-to-day messy activites which affect people’s lives.” If this is so, a fundamental question is whether postcolonial discussion of identity of the oppressed really helps them to change or overcome their suffering context. Postcolonial discussion of identity has been heavily influenced by poststructuralism. Noting that colonization has been practiced more through discourse rather than through violence, Edward Said pointed out that the Orient was defined and constructed as a homogenous entity according to the norms of the West in the process of colonization. Essentialism and Eurocentrism played a great role in the West’s construction of the Orient. As Michel Foucault rejected the Enlightenment goal of objective truths because of its oppressive regime, Said also criticized categorization of identity because of its dominating power. This tendency to repudiate construction of a unified and homogeneous group identity of the oppressed is still found in recent postcolonial discussions of identity of Asian and Latino. Namsoon Kang, rejecting a generalized and unified identity of Asian, argues that there is no essential core of Asianness. Michelle Gonzalez opposes categorizing Hispanic as a monolithic race because of diversity of Latinos in terms of race, culture and biology. Both of them strongly reject the search for essentialized group identity of the oppressed but promote diversified and individuated identity of them. However, construction and elevation of individuated and isolated identity in postcolonial discussion of identity of the oppressed does not change the day-to-day suffering realities of the oppressed. The two reasons are (1) the voices of the oppressed, as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak implied, cannot be heard unless they become collective individuals; (2) as Minjung theology and Marxist theories have made clear, it is not isolated individuals but a collective Minjung that shares similar experiences and thus have a unified group identity that can resist dominating powers. Therefore, I contend that postcolonial criticism, instead of only focusing on deconstruction of group identity fearing of its dominating power under the influences of poststructuralism, must seek positive construction of a group identity of the oppressed that is capable of resisting power. In this paper, I will first examine postcolonial discussion of identity of the oppressed in detail by critically evaluating Said’s, Spivak’s and Homi Bhabha’s understandings of the identity of the oppressed and a current tendency to repudiate construction of collective identity of the oppressed. I will then study how current biblical studies on the body metaphor reflect this tendency and argue that the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians is a rhetoric not only for emphasizing diversity in unity but also for imposing a new collective group identity of the believers.


“Who Is a God like You?” God as Plaintiff, Judge, Destroyer, and Restorer in Mic 6–7 as Seen from Metaphorical and Social-Science Perspectives
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Ma. Maricel S. Ibita, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

While recent studies in the Book of Micah have extensively considered its wordplay (Petrotta, 1991), rhetoric (Shaw, 1993), drama (Wood, 2000; Utzschneider, 2005), and poetry (Andersen and Freedman, 2000; Jenson, 2008), very little attention has been devoted to its use of metaphors, especially those that depict God-human relations (only Van Hecke, 2003 on Mic 7:14). This investigation on Mic 6-7 which features God as Plaintiff (Mic 6:1-8), as Judge and Destroyer (6:9-16, 7:1-6) and as Restorer (7:7-20) seeks to fill this academic gap through the following steps. First, it gives an overview of metaphors on the image of God based on the extensive research of DesCamp and Sweetser (2005) which discusses the most important characteristics of God in the Old Testament – the ability to protect and nurture, maintain mutual and asymmetric relationship, exert physical control over an entity or change its essence, capacity for authority and power, and even the capacity to destroy. Second, it expounds on the observation of God’s “capacity to destroy” by looking at the new study of Jindo (2010) on the “destruction model” which conceptually and literarily relates the motifs of “lawsuit”, “destruction”, “lament”, and “prophetic intercession for restoration” in Jeremiah 1-24. Lastly, since DesCamp, Sweetser and Jindo underline the integral part that culture plays in understanding a metaphor yet do not elaborate on the probable cultural values which may have governed such characteristics, this research argues that acknowledged Mediterranean values of patron-client relationship and honor and shame may provide a key to a deeper understanding of these changing metaphors for God in Mic 6-7.


Siblingship: Redressing the Unethical and Loveless Lord's Supper at Corinth (1 Cor 11:17–34)
Program Unit: Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
Ma. Marilou S. Ibita, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Paul’s story of the non-praiseworthy celebration of the Lord’s Supper at Corinth (1 Cor 11:17-34) demonstrates to the church at Corinth their own un-ethical and loveless celebration of the Lord’s Supper (ouk epaino, 11:17, 22 and anaxios, 11:27) in relation to the other (have-nots). Using the narrative-critical and sociological methodology of Norman Petersen, this paper will explore Paul’s strategies to address the issue. It will examine how Paul implicitly taps into the different social relationships that he has with the Corinthians (apostle–church of God; founder/teacher–founded community; father/mother–children) to initially correct the situation. However, for the practical implementation of the changes that needs to be done to redress the situation intra-ecclesially (within the Corinthian church), Paul explicitly relies on siblingship, i.e., both his own sibling relationship with the Corinthians and their own sibling relationship with each other (adelphoi mou( 11:33). However, Paul also employs extra-ecclesial (non-Corinthian Christians) pressure with the same move of maximally using the implicit and explicit social relationships between himself and the Corinthians as well as the relationship of siblingship among Christians. Evidence of this is found in Paul’s self-presentation as somebody who is both inside and outside the Corinthian ekklesia (cf. the promise or warning of his coming visit, 11:34) and in the re-consideration of the often neglected reference to the additional addressees of the letter ( “with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,” 1:2). Hence, with the combination of intra- and extra-ecclesial pressure Paul expects the Corinthians to correct their conduct at the Lord’s Supper so that it will be celebrated in an ethical and loving manner.


“The Beauty That Came to Me in the Books” (NHC VI.6.54): Scribal Cultures in the Nag Hammadi Codices
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Eduard Iricinschi, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

The Coptic codices discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 present the marks of the Egyptian fourth-century book culture on two levels. Internally, the codices include textual clues about the role of books in conveying and shaping revelations and about the function of books as teaching tools in the second- and third-century larger Mediterranean world. Externally, they display a number of colophons that attest to the interaction between the scribes who copied them in the fourth-century Egypt. This paper analyzes the internal and external clues for Egyptian book culture in the Nag Hammadi codices. First, it will discuss those second-century instances in the texts collected in the Nag Hammadi codices that dwell on representations of books. I contend that these representations touch on the paradoxical nature of books at the junction of revelation and education in an ancient oral milieu: books are seen as highly useful, yet not wholly trustworthy, vehicles of either of them. Next, I will investigate what the scribes who copied the Nag Hammadi literature say about books, by looking at their colophons in the codices. This analysis suggests that the ambiguous regime of books as privileged sites of revelation and prime suspects in betraying the meaning of it might have led four-century scribes to keep these texts in circulation through a scribal koinonia, a fourth-century religious network of Upper Egypt, which shared reading interests, teachings and ritual settings.


Is “Righteousness” a Relational Concept in the Hebrew Bible?
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Lee Irons, Fuller Theological Seminary

Most modern lexica and wordbooks of the biblical languages make the claim that “righteousness” (tsedeq/tsedaqah) in the Hebrew Bible is a relational concept, in contrast to “righteousness” (dikaiosyne and iustitia) in Hellenistic contexts, where it is a norm concept. This claim is repeated as an established lexicographical fact in countless Bible dictionaries, commentaries, and works of theology. The relational interpretation is the view that “righteousness” in the Hebrew Bible does not mean conformity to a norm or distributive justice, as it often does in Greek and Latin contexts. Rather, in the biblical/Hebraic thought-world, “righteousness” denotes the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship, since the relationship itself is the norm. Although there were precursors in the 19th-century Ritschlian school, the relational interpretation was first articulated in this form by Hermann Cremer in 1899. On the basis of his relational interpretation of “righteousness,” Cremer argued that “the righteousness of God” is his faithfulness to the covenant expressed in his saving activity toward his people. Cremer’s novel lexical theory has exercised a profound influence in both OT and NT scholarship throughout the 20th century to the present. In this paper, I examine Cremer’s chief arguments for the relational interpretation of “righteousness” and attempt, in the spirit of James Barr, to raise some doubts about this widely-held scholarly assumption.


Spirit, Wind, and Fire: Agents of Divine Presence in Numbers 11
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Rich Israel, Vanguard University of Southern California

Numbers 11 is an important text for understanding the connection between the Spirit of YHWH and prophetic experience. This is especially true for a biblical theology of Pentecostalism. It is nearly irresistible for a Pentecostal hermeneutic not to read this text in direct alignment with Joel 3:1-5 and Acts 2. This investigation will serve as a background study to the discussion of the nature of the intertextuality between these texts dealing with the prophetic spirit by analyzing the structural function and rhetorical connections of varying agents of YHWH’s activity – Spirit, wind and fire - in the etiological narratives of Numbers 11.


The Redemptive Function of Laughter: Performance and the Use of Humor in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Kelly R. Iverson, University of St. Andrews

Humor is rarely a term associated with the gospels. However, laughter is a foundational human emotion that, as Quintilian observed, may be invoked for rhetorical purposes with powerful effect. Not only has the use of humor rarely been pursued in relation to the gospels or historical Jesus, even among performance critics the subject has been largely ignored. Given the immediacy and dynamic interchange between audience and performer, it would not be surprising to find scenes that might be exploited for comedic effect in a live performance. The objective of this paper is to explore this neglected feature of the gospels within the context of performance. In particular, the discussion will focus on the depiction of the disciples in Mark’s gospel. Beyond highlighting the ways in which a performer might invite laughter, the paper will also consider the performative impact of humor, that is, the possible theological and sociological implications of humor in Mark’s gospel.


Reading Haggai from a Postcolonial Perspective: Role Identities and Theo-political Agenda
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Mignon Jacobs, Fuller Theological Seminary

The Book of Haggai portrays the interaction between the Deity and the community engaged in a restoration effort to correct various dimensions of the community’s displacement. Within this portrayal, the goal of the interaction appears to be to benefit the community by restoring its place—i.e., its identity and relational status to the Deity and its geo-political presence and well-being (present and future). The prophet’s portrayal of the Deity’s choices about how to secure the restoration of the community engenders various interpretative nuances. From a postcolonial perspective, the subjugation of the community as manifested in the futility curses and the ensuing frustration to actualize restoration is read as an interplay between a dominant ruler (colonizer and envoy) and a subservient community (colonist). Similarly, the process of “signifying” the community’s experiences is read in light of the theo-political agenda of the restoration effort. Both the interplay and signification are typical within formerly colonized Caribbean countries, where they facilitate the conflicting identities of the colonized and their descendants. In light of the Caribbean identity of the present interpreter, this paper will investigate the Book of Haggai from a postcolonial perspective looking at conflicting role identities—images of the Deity, the prophet, and the community’s response—and the theo-political agenda observed both in the signification of the subordinate’s experiences and in other perspectives used to motivate the community’s behavior in achieving the Deity’s goals.


Beyond Commitment and Loyalty: Exploring the Cost of Migration through the Characters of Ruth and Naomi
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Mignon R. Jacobs, Fuller Theological Seminary

When reading the book of Ruth, migration patterns standout as key to the characters’ identity and transformation. The migration patterns (rationale and practices) among Caribbean people offer insights into the biblical narrative and its noted rationale and characterization of both Ruth and Naomi, two models of migration. These models evidence various dimensions of individuation and community identifiers, including, economic, social status, racial and gender identity, citizenship, and shared un/conscious. To explore the identifiers and related issues of characterization, this paper approaches Ruth and Naomi from the vantage point of a Caribbean expatriate interpreter. The study proposes a dialogical hermeneutical approach and as such incorporates the book of Ruth and Caribbean migratory experiences as texts. Accordingly, this study consists of two sections. First, the textual investigation probes the narrative construction of the characters as essential aspects for understanding the individuation process portrayed therein. Second, the study uses the identifiers to frame the discussion regarding the migration models and related issues of individual and community identity.


Disfiguring Exclusion in Deuteronomic Law
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Sandra Jacobs, University of London

The law in Deuteronomy 23:2 raises the intriguing question of why one form of genital disfigurement warrants exclusion, while another (circumcision) is required for inclusion? This issue will be examined primarily from a legal perspective, but will focus also upon the exclusively metaphorical representation of circumcision in Deuteronomic tradition.


Do Jesus and Paul Truly Matter Judaically?
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Steven Leonard Jacobs, University of Alabama

With the increasing interest in both "Jesus Studies" and "Paul Studies" by acknowledged Jewish academics as well as the American Jewish communities in particular, the question naturally arises as to why this increasing interest (other than intellectual) and whether or not such investigative work has potential benefit for the ongoing conversations between Jews and others, including Christians. This paper/presentation is an attempt both to address and answer such questions.


“Perhaps Yahweh is Sleeping”: Awake (`ûrâ) and Contend (rîb) in the Book of Psalms
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Karl N. Jacobson, Augsburg College

My paper explores the problem of divine rest (thus the need for the cohortative `ûrâ) and the plea for divine representation (rîb) in the psalms, specifically in the prayers for help. The well-known claim of Ps 121:4 is that the God of Israel “neither slumbers nor sleeps,” yet in several cases the psalmist issues a wake-up call, crying out for God’s attention (Pss 7:7; 44:24; 59:5b-6; cf. also 80:3b), with Ps 78:65 even seeming to suggest that God must awake from an alcohol-induced-like stupor. Additionally, several psalms implore God to “plead my case” (rîbâ rîbî; cf. Pss 43:1; 74:22; 103:9; 119:154). Implicit in these prayers for help is the feeling that God must be appealed to, reminded of the state-of-affairs of the psalmist, and perhaps even shaken from slumber; it is God’s apparent inattentiveness which is the theological crux of these psalms. In Psalm 35 (vv. 1 and 23), these two elements of the prayer for help—very much a complaint in these cases—are brought together. God is called upon to, “Contend … to wake up for my cause.” This theologically tendentious intersection of contention and “stirring prayer” reveals—particularly against the backdrop of 1 Kings 18, with an eye on God’s rîb against Israel in the minor prophets, and in comparison with Isa 51:9-11, 22—the counter-petition or counter-cause (rîb)of the psalmist spoken back to God in the prayer for help.


The Future of Psalm Studies
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Rolf Jacobson, Luther Seminary

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Cognitive Structure and Rhetoric of Ezekiel 17:1–24
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
SungGil Jang, Westminster Graduate School of Theology, Rep. of KOREA

Request paper presentation: Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry: Session 2: “Ezekiel’s Rhetoric and Poetry” Text: Ezekiel 17:1-24 Title: The Cognitive Structure and Rhetoric of Ezekiel 17:1-24 The aim of this study is to highlight the difference between the linguistic specificity of poetry and prose in Ezekiel chapter 17. I have chosen chapter 17 as the target passage because it is comprised of poetry (e.g. vv. 1-10) and prose (vv. 11-21) and again poetic style (vv. 22-24). As many scholars note, this chapter represents an oracle of judgment of YHWH. However, a characteristic feature of Ezekiel 17 is that, while its proclamation of judgment is dominant, the speaker draws out the implication of YHWH’s future healing actions in vv. 22-24. This is a distinctive feature of the prophetic oracles in the book of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Rhetorical analysis reveals that the speaker uses diverse rhetorical devices which are introduced by the imagery of two eagles, a branch from a cedar and a vine in the first part (vv. 2-10). In this section the sentence structure is dominated first by qatal and wayyiqtol forms (vv. 3d-7d), before shifting to rhetorical questions in vv. 9-10. Verses 11-21 function as an interpretation of the fables of the two eagles. Here, the distinctive linguistic feature is the argumentative speech-act of the speaker. After the introductory formula of v. 11, the speaker opens a new section with a rhetorical question. In terms of textlinguistics, a significant point is that the verbal system of vv. 12b-16 is dominated by qatal and wayyiqtol forms, while in the following passage (vv. 19-21) and the final poetic section (vv. 22-24), the speaker’s intention is communicated through diverse speech-acts, including the declarative and assertive. Thus, diverse linguistic methodologies (i.e. textlinguistics, cognitive linguistics and rhetorical analysis) help us to deal holistically with the separate structure and functions of poetry and prose in Ezekiel 17:1-14.


The Exegetical Foundations of the Wood and Oil Festivals in 4QReworked Pentateuch (4Q365 23) and the Emergence of Scripture in the Second Temple Period
Program Unit: Qumran
Alex P. Jassen, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

When the set of manuscripts known as 4QReworked Pentateuch (4Q158, 4Q364-367) were first published and analyzed, most scholars characterized them as exegetical amplifications of the Pentateuch and located them under the generic rubric of “Rewritten Bible.” Recent years have witnessed a near complete reversal of scholarly approaches to these manuscripts, whereby they are commonly regarded as expanded versions of the Pentateuch. On the whole, the move away from characterizing 4QReworked Pentateuch as the exegetically motivated “Rewritten Bible” and into the realm of “scripture” has witnessed an attendant drop in interest in exegetical elements in the text. But, this approach obscures the larger lessons that 4QReworked Pentateuch has taught us about exegesis within scriptural traditions. When scholars first encountered 4QReworked Pentateuch, it became clear that this text would contribute to conversations regarding both the development of the scriptural text and the history of scriptural interpretation. Yet, these two areas were continually regarded as distinct fields of inquiry. The growing consensus of 4QReworked Pentateuch as a scriptural text should not diminish the significance of its exegetical elements. On the contrary, renewed interest in the exegetical techniques of the text has potential to frame the emerging sense of what a scriptural text looks like in Second Temple Judaism. This paper examines the exegetical technique of one of the most commonly discussed passages in 4QReworked Pentateuch – the expansion of the festival calendar in 4Q365 23 to include the Wood and Oil Festivals. My treatment of this passage: (1) seeks to uncover the exegetical techniques employed by 4QReworked Pentateuch in its attempt to interpolate these two festivals seamlessly into the Pentateuchal festival calendar and; (2) considers the implications of this analysis for understanding the broader debate about the scriptural identity of the text.


Reconfigured Ideology: Resisting and Reshaping Roman Imperial Power in Colossians
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Roy Jeal, Booth University College

Early Christians in Asia Minor lived in an ideological environment that set the political, military, economic and religious power of the Empire at the centre of thought. This ideology had social, behavioral and religious expectations. On the other hand, the new faith in Jesus as Christ and savior stood ideologically against the imperial power. The ideological situation had changed. God and Christ Jesus are now the genuine imperial and apocalyptic authorities. Colossians aims to elicit a reconfigured ideology among “the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Colossae” where the imperial presence and power has been made irrelevant and is to be resisted. Life is now lived in the “kingdom” of God’s genuine son. Life and ideology are now intertwined with Christ Jesus in a new space where the imperial constructs of human effort, human achievement and human subservience have lost power. It would be difficult for the believers in Christ Jesus in Colossae to miss the implicit empire/imperial allusions in the letter, however oblique they may be. This essay takes up this ideological change, demonstrating that Colossians employs a rhetoric that stands against and reshapes the imperial point of view.


Ezekiel in the Valley of the Dry Bones in Jewish and Early Christian Contexts
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Lee M. Jefferson, Centre College

With the discovery of the Dura synagogue, the long-held belief that Late Antique Jews eschewed artistic portraiture based upon the Second Commandment was visually debunked. Included in the corpus of frescoes at Dura, is a scene evoking the prophetic text of Ezekiel 37:1-14, known as Ezekiel in the Valley of the Dry Bones. The text reinforces the notion of the life-giving power the God of Israel provides, and seemingly insinuates immortality secured by God, an idea that ingrained itself into Judaism following the Hellenization of the Ancient Near East. The same scriptural scene from Ezekiel is represented in an early Christian funerary context, as it appears on numerous Roman sarcophagi fragments of the fourth century. Although the scene is depicted in Jewish and early Christian contexts quite similarly, one unique feature in the early Christian evocations is that the figure of Ezekiel is replaced by Jesus. Jesus as Ezekiel in the Valley of the Dry Bones is an iconographic theme that reiterates the restorative abilities early Christians painted upon their deity. Both Kurt Weitzmann and Herbert Kessler notably argued of the congruity and perhaps overlapping influence that existed between the frescoes of Dura and early Christian representations. Instead of viewing the Dura scene as a response to Christian typological readings of Scripture found in apologetic texts such as Justin Martyr (or fourth-century Christian sarcophagi images as a response to Jewish attitudes), the scenes must be interpreted in their particular context. This paper will examine the Ezekiel painting at Dura and several early Christian examples of the Jesus/Ezekiel scene, and will argue that both harbor several stylistic and contextual differences. However, the scene operates alike for both synagogue and Christian funerary audiences. In both contexts, Ezekiel in the Valley of the Dry Bones was meant to express the immortality secured by the divine.


Ending Enmity: Messianic Salvation as Political Project
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Ted Jennings, Chicago Theological Seminary

invited paper


Conquering a Different Enemy: A Counter-reading of Fourth Century Imperial Iconography Based on an Appropriation of 1 Corinthians 15
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Robin Jensen, Vanderbilt University

This paper will argue, against common art historical interpretations, that imperial iconographic themes in fourth-century visual art were adapted to convey a different message than the supremacy of the earthly ruler, or the power of the Roman state. Juxtaposing a variety of art objects with texts from the same time and place, the author will show that the Pauline emphasis on victory over death and the devil must be considered as equal to (if not more significant than) imperial propaganda in the composition of iconographic programs that included the empty cross, christogram, wreath, and throne.


The Biblical Flood Story: Speaking about Already Spoken About
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Jaeyoung Jeon, Tel Aviv University

The Biblical Flood Story: “Speaking about the Already Spoken about” A century of comparative study between biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts has shown the biblical flood story (Gen 6:5-9.:7) to be one of those most influenced by extra-biblical texts (mainly Atra-hasis and the flood account in Gilgamesh). Using the flood story as a test case, and Bakhtin’s concept of the dialogic text as a hermeneutic, this paper aims to metalinguistically analyze how the biblical writers set themselves in dialogue with similar ANE flood stories. The biblical flood story exhibits various degrees of agreement and disagreement in its very intense, internal dialogic relation with its ANE counterparts. It shows essential agreement concerning the frame of the story, but it disagrees concerning details of the story, such as the role and character of God (gods), the nature of the ark, and the conclusion of the story. The intensity of such dialogization produces even micro-dialogization in terms such as “windows of the heaven” and “the great fountains of the deep” (Gen 7:11; 8:2). Such a dialogic relation appears to be more complicated in the redactional layers, in which not only a dialogic relation with the ANE counterparts but also an additional dialogic relation with the earlier layer(s) can be seen. For instance, some words in the redactional layers, such as the number of the animal pairs—two and seven (Gen. 7.2-3, 8-9), reflect both the voices of the ANE flood stories and the earlier layer(s). These words are thus even triple-voiced. In the redactional layers, therefore, various metalinguistic aspects manifest themselves in a multi-directional dialogicity.


The Liminal Church
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Anne Jeroncic, Andrews University

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Biblical/Ethical Reflections on the Enspirited Life
Program Unit: Society of Christian Ethics
Paul Jersild, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary

Abstract Pending


Reading the Maccabean Literature by the Light of the Stake: Anabaptist Appropriations in the Reformation Period
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Loren L. Johns, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Even though neither Second nor Fourth Maccabees were considered canonical among Anabaptist groups during the period of and surrounding the Protestant Reformation, these texts were perceived to be helpful resources for equipping Anabaptists to face persecution -- often mortal -- during this period. This paper explores specific resonances of 2 and 4 Maccabees in the Anabaptist literature of the period with a view to exposing their role as authoritative witnesses to the value of laying down one's life for the sake of conscience before God, if not as authoritative Scripture.


David Then and Now: Double-Voiced Discourse in 1 Sam. 16:14–23
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Ben Johnson, University of Durham

When Saul's servants suggest David for the job of court musician in 1 Sam. 16:14-23, they seem to "overnominate" him. They describe the young shepherd boy as a "mighty man of valor" and a "man of war," titles clearly unsuitable for this youngest son of Jesse in the present literary context. Scholars have proposed various theories for understanding these enigmatic words: from source-critical reconstruction to chronological disjunction to anticipatory literary strategies. This paper proposes that the difficulties posed by the words of Saul's nameless servants can best be understood as examples of the literary device described by Mikhail Bakhtin as double-voiced discourse. In this strategy Saul's nameless servants speak both in their own voice and from their own perspective about a young shepherd boy but they also speak in another voice from a larger perspective about the shepherd-king, the warrior-poet. Reading the words of Saul's nameless servants as an example of double-voiced discourse not only solves the difficulties of this text but also provides a fruitful literary dialogue between a young shepherd and a man who would become the founder of Israel's monarchy.


Paul’s Damascus Road Experience: A Thrice-Told Tale in Acts
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Lee A. Johnson, East Carolina University

The repetition of Paul’s Damascus Road experience has been a source of puzzlement for biblical scholars who question the literary logic of the iteration of this story in chapters 9, 22, and 26 of Acts, finding the discrepancies between the accounts difficult to reconcile. This work contends that these questions are largely resolved when Acts is envisioned as a literary work composed upon the basis of familiar performance vignettes that had been foundational to the community life of the composer(s) of Luke-Acts. One of the central themes of the two-volume work is the failure by many Jews to recognize the significance of Jesus. Therefore, Paul looms as a heroic figure in Acts; he is the harshly oppositional Jew who transforms to fervent proponent of Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Paul’s dramatic encounter with Christ is re-enacted throughout chapters 9-26 of Acts, each with increasing intensity—from a narrated account (Ac 9), to a trial scene (Ac 22), to a performance within a performance (Ac 26), wherein Paul is presented as acting out his experience (“Paul stretched out his hand” [v. 1]) before King Agrippa. The variations between the three accounts are therefore attributable to the popularity of this drama and attest to the prior history of this vignette’s adaptation for various audiences and settings, as per the instructions of Quintilian to ancient performers. The final literary work of Acts features three such interpretations of the familiar and pivotal drama of Paul on the Damascus Road.


Suffering as Means of Moral Transformation: Hebrews in Philosophical Context
Program Unit: Hebrews
Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University

The importance of suffering in the argument of Hebrews concerning Jesus is broadly if not universally recognized. Likewise widely acknowledged is the connection made by the author between suffering and moral education, most clearly intimated by 5:7-14, with its play on mathein pathein, and in 12:7, with its assurance, eis paideian hypomenete, best translated as, “you are enduring for the sake of an education.” In this regard, scholars have recognized how Hebrews makes use of the rich range of educational/athletic metaphors common to Greco-Roman moral discourse. This paper builds on such work in order to ask about the specific value attached to suffering in Hebrews and a selection of other Hellenistic philosophers (Epictetus, Seneca, Philo). Is the value the same in each author? Does determining the specific value of suffering in moral transformation provide insight into the character of Hebrews as an example of philosophical-religious discourse of the early empire?


The Sepphoris Synagogue Floor Mosaic: Creating a Matrix of Continuity
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Michael Brooks Johnson, Trinity Western University

This paper explores the various ways the Sepphoris synagogue floor mosaic creates continuity between its community and their Torah scroll. The mosaic is a fascinating primary source that provides a visual account of how the community understood its connections to its central texts. While this analysis does not claim to solve the crux of interpreting the zodiac at the center of the mosaic, it offers a way of viewing the combination of mosaic panels as an effort to create continuity for a community far removed from the world of the Torah and the temple cult. The floor of the Sepphoris synagogue is not just a decorative work of mosaic art; it also serves as a spatial, temporal, and theological matrix for creating continuity between the synagogue community and the Torah. The mosaic floor not only creates continuity with the idea of Torah, but specifically with the community’s Torah scroll. The composition juxtaposes a number of motifs that create a spatial and symbolic framework in which the Sepphoris community could see itself as part of the history of the Torah, its festivals, and its cult. As a result, the community is able to see itself as spatially, temporally, and theologically continuous with its sacred texts even though it exists in a time characterized by the absence of the temple, the sacrificial cult, and some of its festivals. Such a visual matrix would have been deeply formative for the people who convened religious and other community activities in this space.


The Virtuous Wife and Facets of Creativity Theory in Proverbs 31
Program Unit: Poster Session
Michael Johnson, The State University of New York College at Buffalo

The creative problem solving (CPS) hermeneutic on which I based posters at three previous SBL meetings is now applied to the poem on the virtuous wife (Proverbs 31:10-31). Underlying the acrostic sequence of the Hebrew text is a grouping of images that is consonant with the four basic concepts of CPS: Press, Person, Process, and Product. While these four concepts (the "4 P's") inform the whole collection in Proverbs, this poster analyzes just one section, showing the the "4 P's" construct a coherent picture of the general value of creativity in and through the poet's depiction of the specific activities of a creative wife. As before, supplementary handouts are available with the poster.


The Ask, Seek, and Knock Motifs in Early Jesus Movement Literature
Program Unit: Q
Steven R. Johnson, Lycoming College

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Mixed Marriage and Ethnic Identity In Paul
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Caroline Johnson Hodge, College of the Holy Cross

This paper will explore the ways that identities are constructed in Paul especially as they relate to the mixed-marriage passage in 1 Corinthians 7:12-16. I will situate this passage within a tradition of discussions of "mixing" in Judaism, which is often constructed along ethnic and racial lines. Paul's passage suggests that holiness is crucial to the identity of the believers in Corinth and that it operates in complex ways at the boundaries between the community of believers and outsiders. I will investigate how this language interacts with other definitions of peoplehood in Paul's letters and consider how the concept of mixing contributes to these definitions.


The Lord's Prayer: From Space to Place and Back Again
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre, Drew University

This paper addresses the place of the Lord's Prayer in Q and in the reconstruction of the historical Jesus.


The Day of YHWH as a Marker of Hybridity in the Book of Malachi
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Barry Jones, Campbell University Divinity School

The book of Malachi was produced during the period of the Persian Empire’s long domination of the Ancient Near East. Unsurprisingly, therefore, examples of absorption of elements of Persian imperial culture are present in the text of Malachi. This paper will focus on three significant examples. First, the use of writing and texts as mechanisms of political control is a noted feature of Persian imperial administration. Adoption of writing as an instrument for political and social influence is evident not only in the production of the book of Malachi itself, but more explicitly in the reference to the “book of remembrance” referred to in Mal 3:16. Second, Malachi’s description of YHWH as “a great king…revered among the nations” (1:15) echoes the self-identification of the Persian king as “the great king, the king of nations” in numerous royal inscriptions that date from the period prior to and inclusive of the dates generally assigned for the composition of Malachi, albeit with significant differences. The third example is the use of the image of the winged sun disk (Mal 3:20), an image widely used to represent both the Persian deity and the emperor in imperial inscriptions and iconography. In each of these three examples, the Israelite topos of the “day of YHWH” introduces a critical dimension of difference between the elements of Persian imperial culture and the duplication of that culture in the textual production of the book of Malachi in the colony of Yehud. The day of YHWH theme thus serves as a marker of a degree of hybridity, a “third space” of community identity and ideological resistance in the Persian province of Yehud.


The KJV, the Scofield Reference Bible, and Dispensationalism in the U.S.
Program Unit: Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars
Brian C. Jones, Wartburg College

Among dispensationalists, the KJV, and especially the Scofield Reference Bible (Oxford) is treated as the one most authoritative translation. My paper looks at the reasons behind the preference for the KJV among this segment of U. S. fundamentalists and among dispensationalists in particular. It also deals with the place of the Scofield study Bible among dispensationalists. Several key points of interpretation in the dispensationalist system of belief are drawn from KJV and motivate the continued preference for the KJV. It's aesthetic qualities are also celebrated, so the preference is not merely doctrinal.


The Message of the Asaphite Collection and Its Role in the Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Christine Jones, Carson-Newman College

A number of thematic and linguistic connections exist between the psalms of the Asaph collection (Psalms 50, 73-83), which give the collection a unified character. These connections, in combination with the arrangement of the collection, work to communicate certain messages to the reader. The purpose of this paper is to look closely at the arrangement of the collection and identify the message(s) being communicated. I will then take a step back from this single collection and look at its role in the Psalter as a whole. The Asaph Psalms are located in a pivotal place in the Psalter. Not only are they the first psalms of Book III, the middle book of the five-book Psalter; they are also located in the numeric middle of the Psalter. They also seem to react to a very critical point in Israel’s history, the exile. Is there, though, any insight to be gained by understanding how these psalms of assorted genre are arranged? Following the example of Wilson who suggests there is purposeful arrangement in the final Psalter (Wilson, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, 1985) and McCann who has begun to look at arrangement within the books themselves (McCann, The Shape and Shaping of the Psalter, 1993), its seems a worthwhile endeavor to look for arrangement within smaller collections, especially a collection that exhibits such unity. Upon close reading, it seems that Psalms 73-83 were purposely selected and arranged. This paper suggests the psalms of the Asaph collection provide an honest reflection of the confusion encountered after the destruction of the Temple and exile, a reflection that seeks to bolster faith of the fragile community by focusing on God’s role as the righteous judge who is still fully capable of deliverance. In its location within the Psalter the collection deals with the loss of king (a dominant figure of Books I and II) and Temple (evident within the collection itself) and the subsequent challenge to remain faithful. Though the purpose of the collection is to provide assurance to the faithful, the collection itself does little to answer the lingering question of “How long?” and it leaves the reader still wondering if the people will in fact choose to remain faithful. It is the witness of Books IV and V that confirms for the reader that the people did heed the message of the collection and maintain their faith.


What Is the Light? Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Isaiah 60
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Chris Jones, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Isaiah 60 was probably written in the late 6th century B.C.E. in the Persian province of Yehud by a Babylonian Jew who had returned from exile. If he came with Deutero-Isaianic hopes of restoration, he would have been disappointed by what he found in Jerusalem: a poor, sparsely populated sacerdotal outpost. In Isaiah 60, he depicts Yahweh metaphorically addressing the city as a woman, commanding her to shine forth her light, showing her carts laden with the “wealth of nations” coming from afar to beautify her. But then the poem drops both the personification of Jerusalem and the symbol of light; instead, it copiously describes the nations bringing tribute to the city. How do these two sections of the poem interrelate? Using Yi-Fu Tuan’s continuum between space and place and Edward Soja’s concept of Thirdspace, I argue that light in Isaiah 60 functions as a means to connect the physical reality of Jerusalem as undifferentiated space to the symbolic conception of Jerusalem as place—as the place in the nascent Jewish imaginary. It transfers the emplacedness of the nations onto Jerusalem, reversing the space/place dynamic to bring it into line with the audience’s conceptual expectations. In Soja’s terms, the poem projects the audience’s Secondspatial conceptions of Jerusalem as place onto the Firstspatial reality of Jerusalem as space, creating a Thirdspace (a lived experience of space) from which it is possible to hope for the city’s renewal. The poem functions rhetorically to sustain the hope that the machinations of history will once again unite its audience’s conceptions of Jerusalem as center with their perception of it as a ruin.


Beroea to Berea: Signposts
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
F. Stanley Jones, California State University-Long Beach

Recent publications on Jewish Christianity are signposts of the state of scholarship. This paper will analyze how the monograph by E. Broadhead fits onto the larger map. Other new contributions are reviewed to lay out prospects for future research.


Know Your Bible: The Underestimated Influence of the Total Corpus on the Single Phrase
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Dirk Jongkind, Tyndale House (Cambridge)

Since the textual criticism of the NT has placed a historically determined emphasis on the four gospels, it is for most scholars self-evident that parallel pericopes exercise influence on the textual transmissions of the individual sections. It is for this reason that a synopsis with text-critical awareness is indispensable for synoptic studies. However, influence on the text to be copied is not restricted to the influence from the text of parallel passages. A scribe who knows the biblical text reasonably well was in danger to be distracted by any text elsewhere in the corpus where a similar sentence structure occurs, a similar phrase is used, or where a similar move in the argument is made. Starting from the Corpus Paulinum it will be demonstrated how frequently this phenomenon happens on the level of individual manuscripts. Text that has just been copied influences following text, but also text immediately following moves in and changes the current wording. This phenomenon happens within a single Pauline letter but also between letters. There may be some examples where the Pauline corpus has even managed to influence the textual transmission of the Greek Old Testament. The influence from the total corpus reveals itself mainly in the form of additions and substitutions, but rarely as an omission of text. It will be argued that the scope of this phenomenon is such that more variants than commonly assumed can be satisfactorily explained by means of this 'mechanical' process.


“The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord”: The Place of Covenant in the Chronicler’s Theology
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
Louis Jonker, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

The phrase “the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord” occurs twelve times in Chronicles, of which six occurrences are in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16. In all the cases where this phrase has a parallel in the Vorlage in 2 Samuel, the word “covenant” has been inserted in the phrase. Sabine van den Eyde (in ZAW 113/3, 2001, pp. 422-30) is of the opinion that the Chronicler’s usage of the phrase is related to the covenantal promises to King David. Ralph Klein (in 1 Chronicles, 2006, p. 356) disagrees with her. His opinion is that the ark functions to demonstrate Yahweh’s presence in the sanctuary. My paper will examine all occurrences of the phrase in Chronicles in order to evaluate the differing views expressed in the mentioned studies, but also to assess the Chronicler’s version of covenant theology within the context of his negotiation of an All-Israelite identity.


Past No Longer Present: Revision of David’s Legacy in Chronicles
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Samantha Joo, Seoul Women's University

In the Deuteronomistic History, David, the archetypal king, and the generic ancestors become the standard by which Judahite kings are measured. The pre-exilic Deuteronomist (Dtr1) compares and contrasts the successors to David, specifically his devotion to God, while the exilic Deuteronomist (Dtr2) looks to the ancestors’ influence over the post-Josiah successors. To differing degrees, the successors are depicted as “stereotypic reproduction” of their ancestors, a replica of the past. Despite the idealized portrayal of David in Chronicles, however, the Chronicler does not reflect on the legacy of his “personality” but primarily on the cultic institutions organized by him. Rather than look to the past in the figure of David or the generic ancestors, the Chronicler defined each generation according to their faithfulness to God. Though scholars have generally attributed the difference in portrayal as determined by the Chronicler’s ideological agenda, the need to legitimate the cult over kingship, this shift from the past to the present in defining the identity of the kings may actually stem from the sociological change arising from exilic community. Without the physical land to transmit the familial traditions and memories, the exiles (first generation of forced migrants) and consequently, the returnees (first and second generation of forced migrants) emphasized their present devotion to past institutions, not to the familial past. The Chronicler and his/her audience were physically removed from the ancestral “personality” to reflect on its impact on the present generation. The Chronicler did not feel culturally compelled to depict the imprint of the ancestors on the Davidic successors; he/she felt alienated from them.


Hebrew Thought and Greek Thought in the Septuagint, Fifty Years after Barr's Semantics?
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Jan Joosten, University of Strasbourg, France

Fifty years after Barr's Semantics of Biblical Language, how do we evaluate Hebrew thought and Greek thought in the Septuagint?


Is There a Place for Conjectures in a Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible? Reflections in Preparation of a Critical Text of 1 Kings
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Jan Joosten, University of Strasbourg, France

Conjectural emendations are reached for when none of the available witnesses to a given passage provides a text that seems to fit the context. Over the centuries, textual critics of the Hebrew Bible have proposed hundreds of emendations. Yet very few of them command general support. Preparatory work on the critical edition of 1 Kings for the Oxford Hebrew Bible has raised the question what policy should be adopted in respect to emendations. Should they be completely eschewed as being too subjective? Should they have a place in the apparatus? Or are there circumstances that justify their adoption in the critical text? On the basis of specific examples, the paper will plead for a modest policy of adoption of conjectural emendations and seek to define the methodological parameters regulating this policy.


"Who is like David?" Was David like David?: "Good" Kings in Kings
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Alison Joseph, University of California-Berkeley

Of the more than forty monarchs who rule the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, only three are said to be like David, the paradigm of the good king. What qualifies one to be “like David”? Would David, as portrayed in Samuel, stack up to these criteria? This paper is a study of the accolades given to few of the kings: those who do what is pleasing to Yahweh, whose hearts are with Yahweh, and the very few who are like David. The regnal formula evaluations, a product of Deuteronomistic composition, are sparing with compliments. By tracking the various elements of the positive judgments, we can derive criteria for what qualifies a king to be so described. In doing this, it is possible to see that the description of the acts of David in Samuel is not similar to the David archetype constructed as the standard for kings’ evaluations. The “David” constructed in Kings reflects deuteronomistic interests and is a literary tool used to measure the other kings. Through this study, we can see the work of the Deuteronomist and the relationship between the deuteronomistic composition in Kings and Samuel.


Senghorian Negritude and African Postcolonial Biblical Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Celucien L. Joseph, University of Texas at Dallas

Leopold Sedar Senghor was the foremost theoretician of the 1930s literary movement known as the Negritude, a postcolonial response to Western hegemony and global dominance. Senghor defines negritude as the sum total of African values, that is to say, the spirit of its civilization. This paper investigates the relationship between Senghor’s theoretical vision and articulation of a negritude politics and African Postcolonial Biblical hermeneutics and theology. It highlights the specificity of Senghor’s interactions with and theorizations of African traditional cultures and values, and how these various dynamics and precisions might advance or enhance the field of African postcolonial biblical interpretation. I will interrogate whether Senghor’s approach to cultural identity can be negotiated for an effective African-indigenous interpretation of the Bible in the twenty-first century.


Toward a Senghorian Negritude and African Postcolonial Theology
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Celucien L. Joseph, University of Texas at Dallas

Leopold Sedar Senghor was the foremost theoretician of the 1930s literary movement known as the Negritude, a postcolonial response to Western hegemony and global dominance. Senghor defines negritude as the sum total of African values, that is to say, the spirit of its civilization. This paper investigates the relationship between Senghor’s theoretical vision and articulation of a negritude politics and African Postcolonial Biblical hermeneutics and theology. It highlights the specificity of Senghor’s interactions with and theorizations of African traditional cultures and values, and how these various dynamics and precisions might advance or enhance the field of African postcolonial theology. I will interrogate whether Senghor’s approach to cultural identity can be negotiated for an effective African-indigenous interpretation of the Bible in the twenty-first century.


Q and the Ebionites: Testing a Conjecture
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Simon J. Joseph, Claremont Graduate University

James M. Robinson has proposed that the Palestinian Jewish “Q movement” may have “faded from history as the heresy of the Ebionites.” Robinson suggests that the people responsible for the composition of Q split into two different factions or groups: a “proto-orthodox” group that merged with the Matthean community and a “proto-heretical” group that ultimately merged with or developed into Jewish Christian Ebionites. Like the group or community responsible for Q, the Ebionites are properly part of the study of “Jewish Christianity,” “Christian Judaism” or “Jewish Believers in Jesus.” Was Q a significant intermediate station along a first-century "Jewish Christian" trajectory? At first sight, there may not seem to be any "Ebionite" elements in Q. There is no explicit rejection of Jesus’ virgin birth or the sacrificial system, elements prominent in heresiological descriptions of the Ebionites. Q does not explicitly criticize Paul nor does it mention James, the “pillars,” or the Jerusalem community. There are also chronological differences between the two groups and traditions. On the other hand, the identification of the author, community and provenance of Q continues to be debated and there does not seem to be any reason why the community responsible for Q could not have developed in a “heretical” direction. Consequently, it seems worthwhile to test Robinson’s conjecture that (at least part of) the Q group eventually separated from “mainline” Christianity to form (or join) the Ebionites. A careful comparative study of Q and the Ebionites may indeed sharpen the picture of early Jewish Christianity and provide us with an intermediary element in its historical trajectory.


Second Maccabees 7 and 4 Maccabees: Textual Reception in Early Medieval Homilaries and Commentaries
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, Church Divinity School of the Pacific

This paper will illustrate the circulation of the narrative of the Maccabean martyrs in 2 Maccabees 7 and 4 Maccabees in early medievalwestern European. In this period Christians were exposed to these texts through two means: liturgical readings in the context of the annual celebration of the feast of the Maccabean martyrs on August 1 and reading 2 Maccabees as part of the medieval biblical canon. These two points of access to the narrative of the Maccabean martyrs reveals different conduits for the textual reception of 2Maccabees 7 and 4 Maccabees. Because 2 Maccabees was deemed canonical, select commentaries on 2 Maccabees emerged in the ninth century, further reinforcing the canonical status of this text. While widely deemed non-canonical, 4 Maccabees was transmitted in an abridged Latin translation from the late fourth century known as the Passio Machabaeorum. This translation served as one of the texts read in the liturgical commemoration of the Maccabean martyrs and appears in many homilaries from this period. The association of 2 Maccabees with learned commentaries and the Latinized 4 Maccabees with liturgical celebrations reinforced a hierarchy of significance between these two textual traditions, ensuring the continued textual preeminence of 2 Maccabees in medieval Western Christian communities.


Neither Here nor There: Black Migrant Workers and “Strangers and Foreigners” in Hebrews
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Jennifer T. Kaalund, Drew University

Hebrews calls its audience to embrace an identity of liminality. Employing stories of the past in order to construct the present and the future, Hebrews 11 describes the faithful ancestors as “strangers and foreigners” (11:13) for whom God has prepared a “better country” (11:16), and promised a heavenly city (11:16). The proper place of the community is with Jesus “outside the camp” (13:13) because they have “no lasting city,” and they “look for a city that is to come” (13:14). This motif resonates deeply in African American hermeneutics: “African American slaves knew what it meant to feel like ‘strangers and foreigners’ and to ‘desire a better country,’ one in which God would be rightly honored and in which they could live in freedom” (Massey, True to Our Native Land, 457). Appealing to the time of slavery claims this motif as an empowering heritage of faith and hope. However, it does not explore the way the text constructs this liminal identity in an urbanized imperial/colonial context where the ambivalent spaces created by legalized forms of belonging (like citizenship) have complex material implications. In this paper I argue that by juxtaposing the situations of contemporary black migrant workers with the text of Hebrews, we can better see how alien identities are always very political in-between spaces, “like gifts from the enemy, precarious – filled with tension and expectation” (Burman, Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, 188). Drawing on postcolonial, race, and empire studies and scholarship on early Christian identity formation, I will examine how thinking with the diverse and changing contexts of people of African descent can further elucidate both the alien motif in early Christianity and the comforting but also dangerous survival game of claiming an identity that is “neither here nor there.”


Is Caesar Not God? Abraham’s Fatherhood and Imperial Religion in Galatians Critically Re-imagined
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

I am noticing (e.g. in response to my book on Galatians) that one of the key issues regarding imperial ideology is the question how much imperial religion really mattered as a contextual determinant for Paul’s letters. The dominant answer is still: Not very much/not really. I want to challenge this notion , using a few images, sources and some textual analysis of Galatians.


Roma, Gaia, and Ekklesia: Iconographic Explorations in Urban Asia Minor
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Roma, Gaia and Ekklesia: Iconographic Explorations in urban Asia Minor


Rethinking the Economic Situation and Relations of the Pauline Assemblies
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

With a focus on Gal 2:10 textual and contextual issues of poverty in Paul’s letters will be addressed, including socio-economic mutuality as a messianic counter-strategy and ecclesiological core practice deeply embedded into the overall web of Paul’s theology.


Religious Experience, Ideology, and the Gospel of Truth
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Michael Kaler, York University

"Gnostic" works such as those found in the Nag Hammadi codices are full of descriptions of transcendent religious experience. Clearly such experiences were important both to the readers and to the authors of these works. Work on these texts has, quite rightly, dealt with these accounts in detail. However, I will argue in this presentation that there has been a tendency in modern scholarship to focus on the social, ideological and doctrinal factors that influenced the way that these experiences were constructed and presented. Going along with this, there has been a linked tendency to overlook the experiential and cognitive aspects, the personal and subjective underpinnings of the experiences. Using the Valentinian Gospel of Truth as a case study, I will discuss these tendencies, linking them to the controversies between the Constructivists and the Neo-Perennialists of the 1980s and 1990s. I will suggest that our understanding of works such as the Gospel of Truth could be expanded through an increased willingness to consider religious experience in its subjective, experiential context, as well as its ideological context.


Kings with Privilege
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Isaac Kalimi, University of Chicago

The paper discusses the origins of the parallel texts between Chronicles and Samuel-Kings while critically reviewing the recent approaches of Auld and Person.


The Prayer of Elijah in the Epistle of James
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Mariam Kamell, Regent College

This paper proposes that James' use of Elijah is much richer than often discussed. While most commentators assume that the main purpose of the example of Elijah in 5:17-18 derives from James' comment that Elijah "was a man like us," there are profound parallels between the story as it is told in 1 Kings 17-18 and both the immediate context in James 5:13-20 and the larger themes of the epistle. James allows this framing of the larger story from 1 Kings by alluding to Elijah's beginning and final prayers and explicitly naming the time period between, thus creating an inclusio of the narrative. Within this three and a half year time period to which James alludes, Elijah enacts a prophetic denunciation of a wandering people (leading to the challenge of Jas 5:19-20); cares for a starving widow's physical needs (cf. Jas. 2); raises a child from the dead (setting a dramatic outer limit to the prayers for healing in Jas. 5:14-16); challenges the double-minded to return to purity (consistent theme in James; cf. Jas. 1:8; 4:4-10); and exemplifies the prayer of faith (Jas 5:16; cf. 1:5-8). By using this one narrative from Elijah’s life, James is able to illustrate the power and use of prayer on a multitude of fronts, and the illustration serves to integrate themes from the whole letter as it is brought to a conclusion. I propose that when the entirety of the narrative of 1 Kings 17 and 18 is examined in relation to its context in James 5:17-18, a fruitful dialogue can be constructed. The example of Elijah is not a secondary illustration, but serves to draw the themes of the epistle to a dramatic, memorable conclusion.


Genesis 1–11: Reflections on the Theological Dimensions of the Opening of Genesis
Program Unit: Genesis
Joel Kaminsky, Smith College

In this paper I will briefly highlight a number of important theological insights raised by the placement, the content, and the style of Genesis 1-11 in hopes of shedding some light on the theological richness of Genesis 1-11, as well as broaching questions about Genesis 1-11’s relationship to the rest of Genesis and to the Torah more broadly.


The Role of Bible Software in Enabling Independent Interpretation
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
J. P. Kang, Japanese Presbyterian Church of Seattle

Bible software is a tool whose value lies, as generally with tools, in how it is introduced, explained, and used. Such software presents texts (biblical texts in original languages, translations, as well as important secondary texts) and tools (lexicons, dictionaries, apparatuses, commentaries, maps, etc.) in a portable and searchable digital format that also makes it convenient to integrate texts and tools for the purpose of study. While a growing number of textbooks are available in digital format, they generally are not designed to be used as self-contained teaching environments for learning the languages, but complement or supplement human instructors and print textbooks. * Introduced too early, Bible software is likely to become a crutch, confounding and short-circuiting the process of learning the ancient languages. Once students have developed a good grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and basic syntax, however, they will be in a much better position to responsibly engage and query the content of the software. And once users have learned how to navigate the software, they can read with greater engagement and increasing control over the language and text. Well-designed software can reduce the friction and frustration of interpreting as well as enable the asking of questions that are virtually impossible to answer with traditional print resources. The rest is up to the interest, imagination, and discipline of the student! * Account will be taken of some of the literature in Computer-Assisted Language Learning and what it might suggest for the use of technology in teaching biblical languages, but I will primarily draw upon my own experiences both as a user and developer of content for Bible software as well as a teacher of Biblical Hebrew and Ugaritic. * To help teachers appraise the value of Bible software, I will also explain the general procedure by which print works become digitized and the pertinent caveats that accompany this process. I will offer an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of Bible software in its current incarnation (as a commercial market, it is about twenty years old) as well as a look at possible trends for its development in mobile formats, and I will demonstrate with live examples of various workflows.


Finding the Elusive Lover: Early Rabbinic Re-reading of the Song of Songs as a Statement of God’s Abiding Presence with Israel
Program Unit: Midrash
Jonathan Kaplan, Yale University

The female protagonist of the Song of Songs famously describes her search for her beloved: “I sought him, but I did not find him” (Song 3:1). As scholars have noted, this and other sections of chapters 3 and 5 of the Song of Songs portray a relationship between the female protagonist and her beloved as one marked by absence and longing for the male beloved. Classical rabbinic interpretation reads the Song of Songs theo-erotically as a tale of God’s loving affair with Israel. A prominent theme in early rabbinic interpretation of the Song of Songs in the Tannaitic midrashim, however, is God’s abiding presence with Israel. In this paper I explore how the early sages sublimate and refocus the themes of absence, longing, and pursuit that characterize much of the descriptions of the interrelationships in the Song of Songs. Instead, the sages focus on verses of the Song of Songs that hint at the permanence of the male character’s presence with the female protagonist. The examples from early rabbinic midrash highlight God’s presence with Israel during the idealized time of the exodus, the Sinai theophany, and the wilderness wanderings as well as the surety of God’s presence with Israel in their future return from exile. This mode of interpretation served to assure the early sages of God’s abiding covenant with the Jewish people following the profound social, cultural, and geographical dislocation of the first centuries of the common era.


Did the Rabbis “Forget” Parallelism? A Reassessment of Biblical Hebrew Parallelism in Tannaitic Midrashim
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Jonathan Kaplan, Yale University

In his seminal work on parallelism in Biblical Hebrew poetry, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History, James L. Kugel argues that rabbis “forget” the feature of biblical style that modern critics have identified and termed parallelism. For Kugel the rabbis consistently read each half of a parallelistic line as having unique significance because of their commitment to the omnisignificance of scripture. As he describes the approach of the rabbis, “B always means something beyond A” (p. 101). Closer examination of the collections of Tannaitic midrashim exposes a number of instances in which the early sages seem to evince an awareness of biblical parallelism as discussed by biblical scholars since Robert Lowth. In this paper, I discuss the evidence for a rabbinic appreciation for biblical parallelism in Tannaitic midrash. In many examples the early sages exploit parallelism for purposes of philological explication, such as clarifying a more obscure term through the presence of a less obscure term in an adjacent clause of a parallelistic line. These examples raise the question of whether or not Kugel was correct in his assessment of the approaches to biblical parallelism by the rabbis. I then explore the implications of this evidence for the broader discussion of early rabbinic approaches to scripture, particularly the notion that the rabbis’ commitment to the omnisignificance of scripture led them to forget this characteristic feature of biblical style.


"Almost a Commentary": Concept and Realisation of the Companion Volume to Septuaginta Deutsch
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Martin Karrer, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel

Septuaginta Deutsch was set in motion in 1999 to provide a translation of the Septuagint into German together with a companion volume that explains the presuppositions and decisions of the project and gives historical, philological and theological information about the translated text and its historical adressees. The translation of LXX.D was published in 2009, the companion volume, with about 3,000 pages is set to appear in summer 2011. This paper will discuss the guidelines of the German translation and the basic achievements of the commentary volume.


The Memory of Hagar’s Talk in Christian and Jewish Texts
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Marianne Kartzow, Universitetet i Oslo

The story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar in Genesis is remembered in a variety of contexts and given a whole range of meanings in Jewish and Christian texts. One specific aspect of Hagar’s role has been central to feminist exegesis: When she is forced into the wilderness with her son, God encounters her at the well; she talks to God’s angel and she is the first one to name God. How did early readers of the Genesis text deal with the fact that the slave girl from Egypt and surrogate mother who was mistreated by her owners, was given this important role of talking and naming? Did the Jewish historians, Church fathers or rabbinic interpreters at all pay attention to this scene? This paper will highlight this speech act and engage with texts that deal with the memory of Hagar.


Traces of Ecclesiastes in the Gospel of John: An Overlooked Background and Theological Dialectic
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Robert C. Kashow, Dallas Theological Seminary

This essay argues that Ecclesiastes is to be included with other Old Testament books and Jewish Wisdom literature as a background which influenced the thought and composition of the Gospel of John, as evidenced by various points of contact between the two books. The implications which arise from this are theological in nature. Namely, the Evangelist engages in a theological dialectic with at least three of Qohelet’s more pointed theological assertions: (1) the basis of one’s epistemological discovery, namely, testimony/tradition vis-à-vis empiricism; (2) belief in the afterlife (this of course is related to [1]); (3) a main focus for living for eternal pleasures vis-à-vis temporary pleasures.


Mary at the Ascension of Christ: Possible Apocryphal Sources for a Popular Early Iconography
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Ally Kateusz, University of Missouri-Kansas City

The unusual iconography that modern art historians call the Syro-Palestinian “Ascension of Christ” depicts Christ in the sky. Mary his mother stands arms-raised below him, flanked by the male apostles. As if to reinforce this depiction of her ecclesial leadership, Mary is sometimes seen larger than the men, with a halo, or with a bishop’s pallium. The earliest exemplars of this iconography are dated fifth century, with sixth- and seventh-century artifacts from Ancient Syria, Palestine, Coptic Egypt, and Italy. Ernest T. Dewald wrote the seminal work on this iconography, and noted that nothing in the canonical accounts of the Ascension explains it. He suggests perhaps an unknown apocryphal text as its underlying source. This paper explores the possibility that two early Christian texts, the Gospel (Questions) of Bartholomew and the Six Book Dormition narrative, underlie this iconography. The original composition of these texts is generally dated to the third and the fourth centuries respectively, and both texts depict Mary the mother of Jesus raising her arms and leading the men in prayer -- just as she is depicted in the iconography of the Syro-Palestinian Ascension of Christ. Manuscripts depicting Mary as the prayer leader of the men are relatively rare, which may explain why these two texts have not previously been identified as possible literary sources for this iconography.


Implications of the Androgyne Christ: Re-reading 1 Corinthians 11:3–16 when Christ Has Long Hair
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Ally Kateusz, University of Missouri-Kansas City

The purpose of this paper is to re-read the last genuine Pauline text with misogynist language -- 1 Cor 11:3-16 -- through the eyes of Paul’s followers who saw Christ as a long-haired androgyne. In his 1974 article, “The Image of the Androgyne,” Wayne A. Meeks enumerates the wide variety of early Christian texts describing Christ as an androgyne. Perhaps explaining a Jewish origin of this myth, some rabbis described God and Adam as androgynous -- both male and female. Corinthians familiar with Plato’s creation myth of the androgyne would have understood Rabbi Paul’s teaching in Gal 3:28 that both male and female are in Christ. Reflecting these early teachings about the Androgyne Christ, fourth-century art depicted Jesus as beardless and long-haired -- sometimes even with breasts. Christ’s long “womanly” hair was such a common trope that it has persisted until today in art. Nonetheless, Paul’s question about long hair on men at 1 Cor 11:14 is today almost uniformly interpreted as patriarchal. Yet how might Paul’s early followers in Corinth have interpreted: “Doesn't Nature herself teach you that long hair on a man is shameful?” New Perspective Pauline scholars Stanley K. Stowers and Neil Elliott say Paul used indicting rhetorical questions like this in his dialectic against his opponents. When Christ is an androgyne, long hair is not shameful, it is Christ-like -- and it is fitting for a woman to prophesy to God with her hair unveiled. With this understanding, 1 Cor 11:3–16 breaks neatly into a classical dialectic in two voices with Paul arguing against a patriarchal opponent. In classical fashion, Paul presents his opponent’s argument first (3-10), then rebuts it with his own egalitarian argument in 11-16. This understanding of Rabbi Paul as egalitarian at 1 Cor 11:3-16 is consistent with Paul's language elsewhere in his genuine letters, which is the most egalitarian and inclusive language of the New Testament. This egalitarian Rabbi Paul is likewise consistent with other egalitarian rabbinical teachings that closely mirror Paul’s. Bereshith 22.2 in the Middrash Rabbah, for example, mirrors 1 Cor 11:11 and Seder Eliyahu Rabba includes a teaching like Gal 3:28. After Paul, however, some Christian scribes -- the faux Pauls -- subverted his egalitarian Jewish teachings. Paul’s astonishing teaching at 1 Cor 9:4, that husband and wife have equal authority over each other’s bodies, for example, was subverted by the later pairings of wives and slaves in Col 3:18 and 22, Eph 5:22 and 6:5, and Tit 2:-4-5 and 9-10. These and other later Church teachings written under Paul's name overshadowed his original teachings about women and slaves.


The Vicissitudes of Apocalyptic Hope as Seen in the Lucan Corpus
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Julius-Kei Kato, King's University College/Univ of Western Ontario

Apocalyptic hope is a feature that increasingly became dominant in the history of ancient Israel beginning from the exilic period onwards. We find it famously showcased for example in the book of Daniel where a vision of the Ancient of Days and his vicegerent, the Son of Man, who triumph over the powers opposed to Israel becomes a rallying point for Israel to hold on to a glorious apocalyptic future for the chosen people. In this study, we will examine in particular the gospel of Luke and see how such an apocalyptic hope morphed and developed, first, in the life and ministry of the historical Jesus, then, in the early Christian communities in the aftermath of Jesus’ death and alleged resurrection where it took the form of the expectation of the Parousia, and, finally, in the crisis of a perceived delay of such a Parousia. Attention will be focused particularly on: the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus, the initial success of Jesus’ ministry and the gradual realization of Jesus that death would play a crucial part in his overall mission, the resurrection and the hope of the Parousia that it brought, finally, the disappointment elicited by the delay of the Parousia and the efforts of Luke to make sense of the delay in his writings. This study will suggest that there is a common pattern present in the above-mentioned stages with regards to apocalyptic hope. They are: 1) a straightforward expectation or hope that God will intervene in history; 2) based on that hope, concrete action to help realize the hoped for divine intervention; 3) a gradual perception that the expected divine action will not be realized; 4) disappointment because of the failed expectation; 5) the springing of new hope in the aftermath of the failed expectation; 6) as a result of the above process, a new vision of life and a new resolution for concrete action. Furthermore, this paper will show that apocalyptic expectation does not have to be seen exclusively as a delusional hope which ancient Jews and Christians cherished and later abandoned when it become clear that the hope was never going to be realized as expected. Apocalyptic expectation can be seen rather as a process consisting of expectation-disappointment-new vision, a process through which ancient people grappled with the harsh realities of their existence and used their faith to survive and flourish despite all odds and, in some cases, moved on to growth in wisdom.


The Qumran Samuel Scrolls and the Proto-Lucianic Problem
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Tuukka Kauhanen, University of Helsinki

The aim of this paper is to examine the evidence from Qumran material that has been presented in support of Frank Moore Cross’s theory of the proto-Lucianic recension in 1–2 Samuel. The main source is the publication of the Samuel fragments from Qumran Cave 4 in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD). I have compiled from the publication all the variation units in which the actual or reconstructed Qumran reading deviates from the MT and both Hebrew readings are suggested to be reflected in two or more different Greek readings. In order to demonstrate through these readings the existence of the proto-Lucianic recension, one needs to find instances of indisputable agreement between 4QSam-a/b and L in secondary readings. No such case can be found. However, a close analysis reveals that there are other coincidences between 4QSam-a/b and L that are highly interesting from the viewpoint of the proto-Lucianic problem and textual criticism of the LXX in general.


A Codicological and Paleographic Analysis of the Two Manuscripts in a Broader Context of Manuscript Production of the Period
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, Independent Scholar

Dr Kavrus-Hoffmann, currently compiling a catalogue of Greek manuscripts in the U.S.A., describes, compares, and analyzes the codicological features (such as format and ruling patterns) and scripts of the two manuscripts and compares them with other manuscripts copied with similar writing style. This can help to date the two manuscripts more precisely and to identify possible regions or circles where the manuscripts might have been produced.


Under the Feet of the Exalted Christ: The Citation of Psalm 8:7 in I Corinthians 15:27 and Eph 1:22
Program Unit: Greek Bible
H. Jim Keener, Baylor University

Two passages in the traditional Pauline corpus cite Pss 8 and 110 (LXX) in strikingly similar ways (I Cor 15:20-28 and Eph 1:15-22). Many commentators ascribe the similarities to an underlying liturgical tradition subsumed in both passages, and see no need for any further exploration. This paper will examine the way that these two passages quote Ps 8:7 (LXX) in order to further elucidate a) the hermeneutical moves made by each passage, and b) the hermeneutical similarities shared by the two passages. The paper will examine each passage in turn, paying special attention to the way in which each passage a) manipulates the language of the Greek Bible to support its broader argument and b) seems to resonate with the broader context of Psalm 8 beyond the simple quotation of Ps 8:7. I Cor 15:20-28 applies the declaration that God has “placed all things under his feet” (I Cor 15:27; Ps 8:7) to Christ for the purpose of convincing the audience that even death must ultimately be vanquished (I Cor 15:26) so that all humanity will experience a future resurrection. The rationale underlying this hermeneutical move, as the study will show, seems to be the identification of Christ as a representative second Adam (I Cor 15:21-22, 45); what Adam and humanity failed to do (i.e., silence God’s enemies, Ps 8:3, and reign as a just vice-gerent, Ps 8:5-9), Jesus has done. Although Eph 1:19-22 does not make this hermeneutical rationale explicit, the passage bears marked similarities to I Cor 15:25-27, and seems to presuppose and build upon the exegetical moves of I Corinthians 15. Eph 1:15-22 differs markedly from I Cor 15:20-27, however, in that the former emphasizes the present exalted state of the Christ over his church, but the latter emphasizes Christ’s future, complete exaltation at the eschatological resurrection.


In Memoriam Apostoli Pauli: Paul and the Body Politic in Galatians
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Jeffrey A. Keiser, McGill University

This paper explores the possible relevance of the Orphic/Platonic view that the body is a tomb (soma sema) for interpreting Paul’s unusually reflexive ‘body language’ in Galatians, especially but not exclusively his claim that “Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Part 1 briefly surveys ancient indications and modern iterations of the thesis that the soma sema metaphor reflects a sharply dualistic and darkly pessimistic Greek view of the body over against Paul’s allegedly more monistic and optimistic Jewish perspective. The results strongly suggest that contemporary commentators and historians of early Christianity have simply followed ancient Christian apologists in setting the soma sema metaphor in opposition to the Jewish and Christian doctrine of a future bodily resurrection. Focusing on the second of Socrates’ four interpretations of the metaphor in Cratylus 400C, I argue that the under-appreciated representation of the body as the means by which the soul signifies in the present reveals a critical gap between the received wisdom concerning Plato’s pessimism and the ancient practice of entombment. This gap is most evident in the ongoing custom of memorializing heroes and civic founders, wherein both the body (or relics) of the hero and the tomb itself serve as markers of civic pride and warnings against trespassers. Part II develops select snapshots of a culture in which Paul could reasonably expect the Galatians to ‘read’ his body language as referring to a tomb in which his psyche is interred, together with the pneuma of Christ, and through which he ‘signifies’ Christ to them. Primary attention is given to literary and archaelogical evidence for tombs of founders (archegetai, oikistai, ktistai) and heroes—individuals who continued to exert influence from beyond the grave, whether through established social mechanisms, ‘mystical’ epiphanies, or last words. The significance accorded to the bodies or relics of such individuals indicates that ancient Greeks held a more optimistic and holistic view of the ‘self’ in practice than in theory, in which case tombs are perhaps better understood less as prison cells holding mute corpses than as tokens or ‘signs’ of life after death.


The Synoptic Debate over Jesus the Synagogue Teacher
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Chris Keith, Lincoln Christian University

This paper will address the accounts of Jesus’ return to his hometown synagogue in the Synoptics, especially the relationship between the identification of Jesus as “the carpenter” in Mark 6.3, “the son of the carpenter” in Matthew 13.55, and “Joseph’s son” in Luke 4.22. Scholars have posited several factors in early Christian social history as explanation for the variants and the differences in the Synoptic portrayals, most prominently concern over Jesus’ status as an artisan. More recently, scholars have argued against this theory by claiming that Jews did not view manual labor as a source of shame. Against this more recent trend, I will defend the theory that the differences between the Synoptic accounts is indeed because some early Christians sought to distance Jesus from the manual-labor class. I will make my argument, however, based on a heretofore overlooked internal debate within the Synoptics concerning whether Jesus was a scribal-literate authority.


"The One Whom the Lord Loves, He Cures": Disability and the Construction of Christian Identity
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Nicole Kelley, Florida State University

In the apocryphal "Dialogue of the Paralytic With Christ," Jesus tells a paralyzed man that "The one whom the Lord loves, he cures." The Dialogue is a complex and ambiguous retelling of John 5.1-5, but this statement aptly summarizes one function of Jesus' healing miracles in late antique Christianity: such stories suggested that proper Christian bodies were well bodies. My paper will explore how Jesus' healing miracles, especially as they were interpreted by his later followers, invited Christians to scrutinize bodies and assign religious significance to their physical conditions.


USDA or YHWH? Pursuing a Divinely Inspired Diet
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Joseph Ryan Kelly, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Food systems provide a center, moral or otherwise, which plays a crucial role in helping shape the physical and spiritual health of a society. With the invention of industrialized agriculture, an unprecedented volume of food is produced in the world, enough to end world hunger (if only it were evenly distributed). Has the humanistic spirit triumphed? In the United States, a growing movement identifies a food system in crisis. The poor are malnourished and live in 'food deserts.' The general populace is increasingly overweight, diabetic, and sick—too often resulting from an unhealthy diet. Farmers barely get by in spite (or because) of government subsidies. The land continues to waste away under the oppression of petro-chemical fertilizers and rivers of super-concentrated antibiotic laden manure. The globe continues to heat up. The USDA and other governmental agencies responsible for the health and well-being of the American society have their solutions, but some among the religious may prefer to look for divine guidance. The books of Leviticus and Numbers contain law and narrative that testify to a divine source of food and dietary advice. How have these texts shaped the American diet, and how might they speak to the American food crisis? Must the one in pursuit of a divinely inspired diet choose between the USDA or YHWH, or is their room for compromise?


Ezekiel 40–48: An Ancient Near Eastern Creation Account
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Mark G. Kenney, Catholic Institute of Sydney

There is basic agreement that Ezekiel 40-48 comprises a single literary unit but determining the precise literary form of this unit has not been easy. No one form has adequately been able to capture the unique composition of this section of the book. At least three distinct literary forms have been attributed to these nine chapters. 40:1-43:12 contain a vision report that describes the temple complex. 43:13-46:24 are a law code establishing the laws that regulate the temple personnel, the sacrificial cult, and the ritual calendar. 47:1-48:35 present the life-giving river that flows from the temple as well as directions for the distribution of the land among the twelve tribes of Israel. This paper proposes that the form of these chapters can best be described as an ancient near eastern creation account. This type of narrative portrays not only the creation of the physical world but also includes the creation of a human society. To maintain this society, certain institutions need to be set up: a temple for the gods, a code of law, a king to govern the people, and land for the development of the society. Creation is not complete until these institutions are in place. All of the elements that characterize an ancient near eastern creation narrative can be found in Ezekiel 40-48; however, the prophet has adapted this literary form in order to communicate his own message regarding the restoration of Israel. The ancient near eastern creation narrative not only accounts for the basic unity of chapters 40-48 but also demonstrates that Ezekiel envisioned the restoration of Israel to be a new creation that God was working in Israel, a theme that originates with the salvation oracles in chapters 34, 36, and 37.


Covenantal Relationships in the Book of Haggai
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
John Kessler, Tyndale University College and Seminary (Ontario)

It is widely acknowledged that Deuteronomistic, Priestly, Davidic, and Zion traditions play a significant role in the of the Book of Haggai. Furthermore, in Israelite thought, each of these traditions is closely related to a broader covenantal framework. But how precisely is the covenant theme understood in Haggai? This paper will focus upon the way in which the Book of Haggai employs covenantal motifs and associations drawn from these traditions in its overall rhetorical and literary configuration. Special attention will be given to Haggai’s perspective on covenantal relationships—that is (1) the relationship of the Sinai covenant, Zion traditions, and Davidic promises to one other and (2) the status of the covenants reflected in the book vis-à-vis the Yehudite community’s religious and socio-political situation in the late 6th C.


The (Missing) Body of Christ in John's Gospel: Gender, Bodies, and Roman Imperial Power
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Matthew James Ketchum, Drew University

The physical body of Jesus is strikingly absent from the Gospel of John. In Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity, Colleen Conway locates this absence of physical descriptions of Jesus' body within the gospel’s overall program of presenting a hyper-masculine Jesus. Following Musa Dube's call for scholars to acknowledge the overlapping ideologies of gender and imperialism, this paper puts Conway's observations into close dialogue with recent empire-critical readings of John. First, I read John's text closely to observe a dialectic of presence and absence with regard to Jesus' body. Indeed, there are little to no physical descriptions of Jesus. However, references to his clothes (John 1:27; 13:4, 12; 19:2-5; 20:6-7) or the holes in his resurrected body (20:25-27) provide subtle hints of his body's presence and his ultimately ambivalent gender identity. This presence-absence dynamic resonates with the imperial ideologies Dube and others have observed in John's gospel. Jesus' body is simultaneously not there, yet everywhere. He exists before the narrative begins (1:1-18), after it ends (20:26-21:25), and beyond the pages of John's gospel (20:30-31; 21:25). Following these observations, I compare this dynamic of presence and absence with the role of the emperor's body in a range of Roman Imperial images and rhetoric. S.R.F. Price and others have observed how various texts, statues, and inscriptions make the absent emperor present throughout the entire empire and cosmos. As gender-critical scholars have shown, the emperor in text and in statue was the paragon of ancient masculinity. The Jesus of John's gospel thus mimics the presence-absence dynamics of the Roman Emperor. However, John's ambivalence around Jesus' physical appearance is telling. In the end, I argue that the Gospel of John presents a Jesus whose simultaneously fragile and transcendent masculinity both resembles and resists Roman Imperial ideologies of power and gender.


Interpreting Didache’s Eucharist: Achievements, Challenges, Puzzles, and New Perspective(s)
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Taras Khomych, Ukrainian Catholic University

The eucharistic passages of the Didache attract increasing scholarly interest today. The lively attention to this topic has been well represented at the sessions of the Didache in Context unit of the SBL. Topics of both the sessions and of individual papers of the past meetings testify that the Eucharist featured as the most broadly discussed, and perhaps also the most disputable issue. This presentation seeks to summarise and critically assess the work of the unit on this topic accomplished thus far. It will distinguish various tendencies, perspectives and approaches already presented and will relate those past contributions to more general currents in contemporary research. This paper will conclude with several observations and suggestions for further investigation in this fascinating and challenging field of research.


Rehabilitating a Witch: The Wise Woman of Endor in 1 Samuel 28
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
J. Kabamba Kiboko, Iliff School of Theology

This paper will address from both African post-colonial and cross-cultural perspectives the woman of Endor in 1 Sam 28: 3-25 and her relationship with King Saul. It argues that the divinatory techniques from the Basanga people, who live primarily in the southeastern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), help us to understand better what is occurring in this passage. The study maintains that the woman of Endor has been defamed by use of the label “witch,” which does not appear in the Hebrew text. Further, such use of the term “witch” is inconsistent with the understanding of witchcraft both in the ancient Near East generally and today on the African continent. Instead of being a witch, the woman of Endor is actually a law-abiding, kind, generous, and extremely wise woman, who assists Saul in facing his demise. I conclude that the origin of this defamation of the woman of Endor rests in early and, especially, medieval Christian ideology. Such a misreading has been perpetrated through missionary colonial and imperialist efforts on the African continent and has contributed to African self-loathing and identification with its colonial perpetrators.


Bakhtin and the Language of Divination in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
J. Kabamba Kiboko, Iliff School of Theology

The HB appears to have a highly conflicted response to divination: in some passages, divination is highly regarded; in others, it is abhorrent. Some people may use it in certain ways. Other people may not use it at all. Even within the Deuteronomic History, we find incongruities. This has produced a conundrum: How do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory texts? Numerous scholars have studied the language and both the literary and sociological contexts of HB divination over the last century. This question has, however, never been adequately resolved, and, unfortunately, an abundance of suggestions tend to see divination as primitive, stemming from foreign uses, and negative. Although in recent years, some scholars have challenged that sharp distinction between divination and prophecy, the bias against divination nevertheless prevails. This paper argues that HB divinatory language is, indeed, conflicted and that the problem is not meant to be resolved. Divination should be understood as both heteroglossic and dialogic, using the concepts developed by Mikhail M. Bakhtin. The words of divination in the biblical text have long histories of inner-biblical usage. In the history and social usage of ANE, and particularly Israelite, divination and its vocabulary, the terms have acquired a range of designative, connotative, emotive, associative, and political-ideological meanings, all of which are reflected in the HB. Yet, few interpreters have paid particular attention to the meanings of divinatory terms beyond their designative meanings. I suggest, consequently, the language of divination, when performed with one eye focused on Bahktin and the other focused beyond the mere designative level of meaning, to other more subtle layers of meaning within each literary context, will reveal the polyglotic nature of the language of divination in the HB.


The Tabernacle and the Theology of Work: Critically Extending Current Research
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Jeremy Kidwell, University of Edinburgh

After a long neglect in modern biblical studies, the tabernacle account (Exodus 25-31 and 35-40) has recently begun to receive due attention. Exegesis of this text has been especially fruitful for theological reflection as an example of morally ordered human work. In recent work in theological ethics (Reed 2010, Brock 2010) one now finds recourse to the association of wisdom with the work of a craftsperson (Ex 28:3; 31:3, 6; 35:26, 31, 35–36:2). There is much more to be found in this text for the theology of work, however. In this paper, I will critically evaluate the recent scholarship on the Tabernacle accounts by Davis (2009) and George (2009) and extend the possibilities for this text in theological reflection on work. In contrast to Davis’ use of the agrarian critique and George’s thorough deployment of Lefebvre, I will reconstruct a moral deployment based on the political force of Hebrew worship, in this case the construction of the place of worship. I will argue that the inherently social account of work for worship presented in the latter Exodus texts carries contours which are amenable to the themes of wisdom and free-work developed by Davis and George, but I will also explore the ways in which this account speaks to work specialisation, the political shape of human participation in work, and the sacral involvement of the quotidian.


The Narration of a Miracle: Literary Features of “Major” and “Minor” Miracles in the Jewish Scriptures and in the Gospels
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Jordash Kiffiak, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The miracles in the Gospels bear the closest similarity in terms of content to the “minor” miracles in the Jewish Scriptures (Hebrew and Greek) of the Second Temple period, especially those performed by Elijah and Elisha. Such miracles focus on meeting the needs of individuals or small groups of people – feeding the hungry, healing a leper, raising a dead child to life etc. However, the Gospels stylize the telling of Jesus' miracles in a way that decidedly draws parallels not with the “minor” but the “major” miracles. As in the parting of the Red Sea or the fire that falls from heaven on Mount Carmel, a description of the onlookers' reaction takes pride of place. In particular, the same cluster of motifs of seeing, fearing/falling, verbal utterance and belief common to these “major” miracles reoccurs with marked frequency in the Gospels. At some point early in the development of the Jesus tradition this approach to the miracles seems to have become standard. Rather than inventing more grandiose traditions about Jesus' miracles, in order to magnify their leader, his followers opted to take existing traditions and tell them in a way that would put Jesus on par with the greatest performers – and the greatest performances – of miracles in their Scriptures: Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah and Elisha. Through their technique of narration, followers of Jesus made a claim to his unique status as the principal prophet of the God of the Jewish people in his generation. But in the Gospels there is also a characteristic variation in this cluster of features. The onlookers' response is usually not one of fear and/or falling, but of surprise and astonishment. Such an emotional reaction is atypical of historical narratives in general in the Jewish Scriptures. An intentional gradation is the result: the emotion of fear and the action of falling are reserved primarily for reactions to the most significant miraculous occurrences in the Jesus tradition – Jesus' calming of the storm, walking on water, transfiguration and own resurrection. It was understood that in these instances the transcendent aspect of Jesus' identity is most clearly revealed and, thus, the more extreme reaction is depicted.


“Can the Just Live by Faith?” An Imperial Critical Reading of the Book of Habakkuk
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Baek Hee Kim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

The book of Habakkuk consists of several literary units, such as dialogues, speeches, oracles, and a psalm. Yet the shortest unit, 2:1-4, determines the overall impression of Habakkuk. While biblical scholars and Christians have emphasized theological connotations such as “faith” and “endurance” as the essential meaning of Habakkuk, readings of Habakkuk have neglected a critical historical context, the Neo-Babylonian colonization of Judah and the Judeans. The Neo-Babylonian control of the Levant was about massive military campaigns, economic exploitation, the suppression of weaker entities, and colonization of the minds of people through cultural superiority. This imperial claim is quite similar to European colonization of Asia and Africa in the modern era and current U.S. imperialism. With regard to the colonial history of Judah as a backdrop to the book of Habakkuk, this paper will define the book of Habakkuk as resistance literature – that is, a text designed to subvert the Neo-Babylonian ideology and its regime. As a hidden transcript and a counter-discourse, the book of Habakkuk criticized and mocked the Neo-Babylonian imperial aspirations in chapters 1 and 2. In chapter 3, utilizing intentional hybridization of Neo-Babylonian meta-narrative and Israel’s own tradition, the book of Habakkuk attempted to undermine the Neo-Babylonian imperial ideology and its authenticity. I, also, will argue that this imperial critical reading is necessary for Asian people who undergo the U.S. imperialism, neo-liberalism, and globalization, which subjugates those the U.S. views as inferior. Reading Habakkuk as a radical resistance against imperialism, rather than a theological literature of “faith” and “endurance,” will present a significant perspective by which Asians may recognize and reflect critically on the neo-imperialism and a new type of colonization in the global era.


YHWH the Dragon: Exploring a Neglected Biblical Metaphor for the Divine Warrior and Its Bearing on the Translation of ’Ap
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Brittany Kim, Wheaton College (Illinois)

In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH is often depicted as a divine warrior, executing vengeance against his enemies, not only those among the foreign nations but also within his own people. Some of these texts also employ the image of YHWH as a dragon-like creature who pours forth smoke from his nostrils and a devouring fire from his mouth. This paper will briefly survey the background of this metaphor by describing the deities and monsters that breathe fire in the literature of ancient Greece (the Chimera), Egypt (the uraei of the Pharaohs in battle), and Mesopotamia (Marduk, Humbaba, Ištar, and a serpentine monster), as well as the dragon-like Leviathan in Job (41:10–13 [Eng. 18–21]). Against this background, the paper will examine the two texts that most clearly exhibit the metaphor (2 Sam 22:9 // Ps 18:9 [Eng. 8]; Isa 30:27, 33) as a basis for identifying it in other passages (e.g., Num 11:1; Deut 32:22; Isa 42:25). After analyzing how the metaphor functions in these passages, the implications of the metaphor on the translation of ’ap will be considered. Although the LXX and modern translations uniformly render ’ap as anger in most of these passages (e.g., bo‘er ’appô in Isa 30:27 as “burning with his anger” [NRSV]), it may be more consonant with the metaphor to translate it as “nose” or “nostrils” (i.e., “the burning of his nostrils”). Finally, a few suggestions will be offered concerning the source of the metaphor.


From Defiant Children to Contented Babes: An Exploration of Relational Metaphors for Israel in the Frame of Isaiah (Chs. 1 and 65–66)
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Brittany Kim, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Several scholars (e.g., Lack, Sweeney, Tomasino) have noted correspondences between Isa 1 and 65–66, suggesting that these chapters form an inclusio around the book as a whole and touch on many of the book’s major themes. These chapters also tap into one of the book’s primary meta-phorical wells—the realm of household relationships—in order to depict the people of Israel and their capital city in relation to YHWH and to one another. This paper will explore how these re-lational metaphors function rhetorically within the book’s framing chapters and observe how they are used to portray the development of both people and city from the beginning of the book to its end. Zion is initially presented as a vulnerable, defenseless daughter (1:8), who is abandoned due to her shameful engagement in harlotry (1:21), but she is ultimately transformed into a radiant and caring mother, miraculously giving birth to her children before the onset of labor pains (66:7–12). Similarly, the people are first introduced as the defiant children of their divine parent (1:2–4) but are eventually rebirthed by Mother Zion to become contented babes nursing at her breast (66:11–12) and receiving YHWH’s maternal comfort (66:13). Yet not all of YHWH’s rebellious children experience this dramatic change—only those who willingly take on the role of servant in YHWH’s household (66:14; cf. 65:8–9, 13–15) experience the satisfaction and delight of Zion’s maternal care and provision.


Coming of Age, Ageism, and Identity Politics in the Book of Esther: A Later-Generation Hermeneutic Approach
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Dong Sung Kim, Drew University

How do we understand the ambiguous character of Esther in the story? Some suggest that there is a gradual development in her character within the course of the narrative. Others insist that she undergoes a kind of ‘conversion’—from objectivity to subjectivity or from passivity to activity. Does such characteristic change in Esther refer to her ‘coming of age?’ What kind of transitions does Esther show in the narrative? I propose an alternative way of reading Esther’s characteristic development— her ‘coming of age,’ so to speak. That is to read her ambiguity as a marker of her identity struggle in the midst of her intersectional and hybridious cultural location. Rather than a linear, transitional, ceremonial, or ritual transition, Esther’s coming-of-age is a field of messy negotiation/construction of identity. Such a reading arises from the interplay between the ancient text and contemporary readers, especially, the second and third generation Asian Americans. Foreshadowed by their complex experiences, I would like to consider Esther’s persona as a representation of the ‘later-generation’ Jewish Diaspora, of those who seek to construct and renegotiate their cultural identity within what Frank M. Yamada calls, “the constantly shifting landscape of identity politics.” Reading Esther’s character as a later-generation Jew who seeks to reconstruct her identity between Jewish and Persian culture, I read Esther as a culturally enmeshed figure—rather than a political heroine. Thus, I would like to explore how gender, age, and ethnicity surround the space of her identity construction. By considering the character Esther not a heroine but a subaltern, who is enmeshed in the double-panoptic surveillances of the Persian Empire and the Mordecaian masculine/ethnic/ageistic group-identity, I attempt in this paper to interrogate the text on how culture, ethnicity, and gender are constructed, scripted, and performed in the Book of Esther.


Reading 'Ruth(-)less' Ruth along with Korean Women's Experience: Cultural Identity, Subordination, and Patriarchal Language
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Dong Sung Kim, Drew University

This paper focuses on the language and the cultural identity of Ruth, especially on the relationship between the language and the social condition (i.e. patriarchal culture) in the narratives. I address this relationship by a two-layered approach to the text. First, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and field is used to offer a way to acknowledge how the social condition (i.e. patriarchy) that surrounds Ruth shapes, re-inscribes, and reinforces the identity-construction and the language of her and other characters in the narrative. Second, I offer Korean women’s experience under the patriarchal tradition and Japanese domination as an intertextual trope to view and understand Ruth and her speeches/acts in a non-classical (non-idyllic) way. The painful collective memory of the Korean Comfort Women pushes readers to resist the redeeming (goel) rhetoric of the patriarchal language in the text. The testimony of the survivors in the Comfort system makes a powerful memory/intertext that can illuminate the structured violence of patriarchy within the narrative of Ruth. In her Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology, Kwok Pui-lan states, “[The comfort women] disrupt national history, mock the identity formation of a people, challenge sexual normativity, and resist any forms of erasure.” She continues to assert, “Memory is a powerful tool in resisting institutionally sanctioned forgetfulness.” Thus, in light of her understanding of ‘memory,’ this paper proposes an intertextual reading that can re-member the testimonies, stories, and languages of silenced women under patriarchy— in our reading of the biblical text on the one hand, and in our actual history on the other.


Secrecy, Rumor, and the Roman Empire: Rereading Mark’s Messianic Secrecy Motif as a Colonial Strategy
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Dong Sung Kim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

Since Wrede has raised the issue of the messianic secrecy in Mark’s Gospel, the secrecy motif has been extensively explored by many scholars from various approaches except socio-political one. It is required for the secrecy idea to be explored in the socio-political framework, the Roman imperial context, in which the Gospel of Mark had been constructed. This paper will propose that the secrecy motif is a skillfully resistant device to Roman imperial power by examining Mark’s secrecy idea and narratives in light of the social secrecy and rumor theory. Secrecy as a socio-political performance controls information by both hiding and revealing, and stimulates a certain group of people to produce rumors and gossip. The more information is controlled in secrecy, the more rumors, which are by nature politically dangerous, are generated. Mark presents Jesus to be a central figure who controls the information about his identity in secrecy. At the same Mark highlights the fragile secret which is so easily broken and violated that it produces rumors about Jesus’ identity. Thus, I will argue that Jesus is strikingly characterized as the source of rumor, which is intrinsically resistant against the imperial power as an anonymous weapon, in that rumor inevitably conveys political characteristics created by arbitrary interpretation, adept elaboration, and rapid diffusion.


Postcolonial Interpretation of Identity and Sophia (Wisdom) in I Cor. 1–2 in the Context of Literary Tradition of Korean Poet Sang Ku’s Works
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Duk Ki Kim, Daejeon Theological University

This paper explores how postcolonial literary criticism construes Paul’s identity politics shaped by his rhetoric of wisdom in I Cor. 1-2 in the dialogue with literary works of Korean poet and journalist Sang Ku (1919-2004) which both reflect and attempt to overcome ideological, cultural, and political conflict around the Korean War. It is convinced that this cross-cultural hermeneutic juxtaposition between two works motivates us to be further advanced to explore how both Paul’s rhetoric of wisdom in I. Cor. 1-2 and Sang Ku’s poetics of wisdom can be reappropriated to create a new mode of Christian identity by overcoming the tragic trauma of ideological, colonial, cultural conflict which has deeply been embedded in Korean people’s collective memory of Japanese colonization and Korean War. For these two ways of hermeneutical dialogue are raised three interrelated questions as follows: (1) How does Paul’s theology of wisdom I Cor. 1-2 suggest new social identity to Gentile Christians in order to solve the issues of discord and dissension shaped not only by ethnic, political conflict, but also by religious conflict based on different ontological mindset ? (2) How can postcolonial literary strategy and rhetoric, such as H. Bahbha’s ‘mimcry’ and B. Ashcroft’s ‘parody’, ‘writing back’, ‘appropriation’, be applied to both Sang Ku’s literary strategy and religious thought in his works such as Wasteland of Fire (1956) and Paul’s rhetorical strategy and political theology in I Cor. 1-2? (3) How can Korean Christians formulate new social identity to foster reconciliatory postcolonial political ethos which can not only transform globalized imperialistic banking capitalism but also create peace movement for reunification in Korean Peninsula, just as Paul’s rhetoric of wisdom attempted to transform Roman colonizing political culture and rhetorical convention? Concerned with text analysis, this paper will interrogate how Paul’s postcolonial rhetoric such as parody and ironic question in I Cor. 1:12-13, 20 and ‘writing back’ in 1:19,31; 2:9, 16, ‘appropriation’ in the usage of ‘wisdom’ and ‘spirit’ in 1:19-2:16 contribute to effectively contesting colonial and imperialistic political culture of Roman Corinth and how Paul's postcolonial rhetoric makes parody of the internal rhetorical convention of Roman Corinth in order to implicitly create new social identity of Gentile Christians. Regarding contextual interpretation, it also asks how Paul's theology of wisdom can enhance Christian social identity in Korean pluralistic political and religious context by virtue of postcolonial interpretation of identity and wisdom in Sang Ku’s literary works. In result, this study is expected to provide us the interstitial third space where both Sang Ku’s poetics of wisdom and Paul’s rhetoric of wisdom can effectively cultivate new Christian social identity for sharpening post-colonial reconciliatory strategy of transforming globalized Neo-Liberalist banking capitalism.


Exodus 34:6–7 in Psalms 86, 103, and 145 in Relation to the Theological Perspectives of Books III, IV, and V of the Psalter
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Hee Suk Kim, Chongshin University

Exodus 34:6-7 is cited in a good number of places in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. This article specifically aims at studying the uses of Exodus 34:6-7 in Psalms 86, 103, and 145 which respectively belong to books III, IV, and V of the Psalter. The main argument is that each use of Exodus 34:6-7 is closely related to the theological theses of a particular book of the Psalter. In other words, the covenantal character reflected in Exodus 34:6-7 is explained in different ways in Psalms 86, 103, and 145, which I argue contributes to different delineations of the Davidic covenant developed in books III, IV, and V of the Psalter. For this purpose, this article first pays attention to the theological implications of Exodus 34:6-7 in the context of the Sinai covenant. Second, it examines the texts of Psalms 86, 103, and 145 with regard to how they respectively utilize the theological implications of Exodus 34:6-7 in their own contexts. Third, having integrated the foregoing points, it attempts to articulate the way the uses of Exodus 34:6-7 make contributions to the construal of the theological positions of books III, IV, and V. Overall, this article purports to argue that the book of Psalter repeatedly puts into use an important concept of the Sinai covenant-the covenantal character of YHWH expressed in Exodus 34, in order to articulate how they readers of the Psalter should understand the Davidic covenant which seems to fail in book III yet to re-develop in a different way in books IV-V with am emphasis upon the kingship of YHWH and the democratized Davidic kingship.


An Inner-Biblical Exegesis of Isaiah 1–2 in Isaiah 54–57
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Hyun Chul Paul Kim, Methodist Theological School in Ohio

Scholars have persuasively presented that Isaiah 1-2 and 65-66 share close linguistic and thematic connections. Brevard Childs in his Isaiah commentary, picking up Claus Westermann’s observations, argues that the initial sections of the so-called Third Isaiah also share close linguistic affinity with Isaiah 1-2. This study intends to examine this claim in further details, paying attention to the intertextual connections between Isaiah 1-2 and 54-57. The study will enlist and investigate the cases of intertextual correlations and subsequently assess as to what kind of inner-biblical exegetical work is evident in these two interrelated units. It is hoped that this analysis may shed further lights not only on the compositional relationship between First Isaiah and Third Isaiah but also on the social and theological reconceptualizations of the pertinent concepts within the book of Isaiah as a whole.


Origins of the Deuteronomic Shemittah Law in Deut. 15:1–11
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Iktae Kim, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Although the seventh-year law is mentioned three times in the Hebrew Bible (Exod. 23:10-11; Lev. 25:1-7; Deut. 15:1-11), the Deuteronomic ???? (Shemittah) law in Deut. 15:1-11 is unique in that it mandates a complete remission of debt in the seventh year. I will argue that the Deuteronomic ???? law appears to have evolved out of the earlier seventh-year laws under the pressure of both external and internal factors. The principal external factor was the ancient Mesopotamian, especially Neo-Assyrian, economic system, that effected Israelite society during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E. This foreign system clashed with traditional Israelite ideology, as reflected in the seventh-year law in Exod. 23:10–11. The clash between the seventh-year law in Exod. 23:10-11 and the Neo-Assyrian economic practices, as evidenced by biblical and extra-biblical texts detailing Neo-Assyrian influence, seems to revolve around the Mesopotamian antichretic pledge. As several extra-biblical texts from the Neo-Assyrian period of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E. demonstrate, the antichretic pledge stipulated that a creditor continue to receive the produce of the field even during the fallow year. This condition came into direct conflict with both the spirit and the letter of the seventh-year law in Exod. 23:10-11, which instructed the owner to abandon the produce of the land during that period for the poor. Furthermore, it threatened to create a cycle of longstanding debt which the poor farmer would never be able to extricate himself from. In order to create a bold counter-program to the Neo-Assyrian antichretic system, the seventh-year law in Exod. 23:10-11 may have been reformulated, allowing for the Deuteronomic ???? law, promulgating a total remission of debt. The most important internal impulse for transforming the law was the shift to a new religious vision, entailing cultic centralization and monotheism, which was uncomfortable with the old seventh-year law practice. The seventh-year law in Exod. 23:10-11 celebrated the natural rhythms of the year and the land’s natural bounty, and thus focused on the holiness of the land and its produce. In contrast, Deuteronomy seems to basically be trying to avoid any suggestion of a mythical relationship between the divinity and the land, or of an unbreakable bond between them that inherently obligates the god to ensure fertility and plenty in the land; for this reason, the Deuteronomic ???? law updates the seventh-year law reconceiving the land and its produce in secular terms, with the economic focus on debt remission law divorced from the land.


Considering Styles and Structures as Significant Factors on the Revision of Bible Translations
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Sang-Hoon Kim, Chongshin University

This paper deals with discourse analysis, particularly in terms of styles and structures, which affect significantly the process of Bible translations and also its results. As we cannot ignore the authorial styles and their structures regarding style-usages in the interpretation of the text, so these factors should not be overlooked on the process of translation of the Bible. Otherwise, we may translate the text based on the misguided assumptions disregarding the frames of the biblical discourses. Linguistics, particularly regarding syntax and semantics, has made an invaluable contribution to the field of Bible translations. Among the various linguistic factors, styles and structures have not been emphasized and considered on actual processes of Bible translations, properly and meaningfully. These are not ones of ‘extra-factors’ but significant ones in translation. Three exemplar texts are presented: Mt 24.42-51, Rom 1.18-31, and Jn 7.18-24. In each analysis of three texts, their structures regarding main styles are demonstrated in terms of how they are designed on purpose. And then, we will discuss them regarding how they can be reflected in the process of translations and its accepted outcomes.


Parallel Features in 1 John as Discourse Markers
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Sang-Hoon Kim, Chongshin University

This paper calls the readers to recognize the Johannine parallel features in 1 John, particularly as discourse markers, for proper understanding of 1 John that show the complexity of interactively-combined parallels, even in every line of the text. This phenomenon appears to be full of repetition, comparison, and contrasts. Without perceiving properly the certain rule of constructing phrases and sentences in terms of parallel (including chiastic or combined) relations in the discourse of 1 John, the readers may fail to evaluate the Johannine text, properly and meaningfully, disregarding its own way of network connection of meaning units. Designations, such as ‘beloved’ or ‘children’, in 1 John, and thematic issues such as ‘children of God’ have been generally considered as the significant factors among discourse markers. Structures of 1 John, however, are not depended upon these factors, but upon the unique designs of parallel features demonstrated over phrases and sentences. If we seriously regard the function of parallel features of 1 John as sectional markers, we may properly grasp its whole structure: A-B-A-C-A and B-C-B-C-B-C that reflects the specific, inter-related thematic arrangements, probably overcoming the controversial issue regarding the structure of 1 John.


The Politics of Othering in the Book of Judges
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Uriah Kim, Hartford Seminary

Engaging specifically with the concept of othering as articulated by Gayatri Spivak and described by Mary Louis Pratt, this paper explores the politics of othering in the book of Judges. Othering is part of colonial discourse in which the colonizer’s self identity/image is confirmed through a construction of its others, in part by using literary-rhetorical strategies in its creation of others. In Judges the process of othering is not straight forward and shows uneasiness in using imperial strategies to construct others as enemies in order to define the identity of Israelites. The paper argues that this reflects the positionality of those who edited Judges, who were victims of the empires. To bring this point to a greater relevancy the paper examines the application of othering in Colonial America where the varied groups of Europeans forged themselves as “Americans” or “Whites” in contrast to the indigenous people whom they constructed as the common enemy. But the European colonizers were also ambivalent about using imperial strategies of othering when they themselves were trying to liberate themselves from the empires. Could it be that ancient Israelites and colonial Americans were in a similar interstitial space, caught between the others and the empires?


Syriac Perspectives on Mixed Marriages
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Marilyn Kincaid, Saint Louis University

This paper examines the evidence derived from a subset of texts from late antique historiography and hagiography in Syriac that speak to mixed marriages between spouses with religious backgrounds either in Judaism, Greco-Roman religions, or Christianity. It offers a quantitative and thematic analysis of the cases. The criteria of investigation include gender, status, class, age, and intensity of religious commitment.


Mystery and Secrecy in the Secret Revelation of John
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Karen L. King, Harvard University

Throughout the Secret Revelation of John, readers encounter numerous cases of hidden beings, references to mysteries, and veiled symbols. What might all this mystery and secrecy portend? Recent scholarship has pointed to the multiple aims and effects of such claims and the practices that presumably accompany them. The paper argues that, on the one hand, SRJ shares aims similar to those of other early Christian literature: to gain prestige (and perhaps profit) for themselves and their teaching; to protect themselves from persecution, ridicule, and denunciation; to promote a new imagination of the world, one whose notions of God’s justice and human piety stood in sharp contrast to those of many of their contemporaries. But it also offers specific uses of themes of secrecy and mystery to establish the plausibility of the “second world” it articulated as Christ’s revelation; to give that teaching substantiality through material artifact and embodied practice; to offer a model for training in a hermeneutics of social critique; and finally for protection both against “the rulers of this world” and fellow Christians who declared its teachings “dangerous heresy.” All these work together to communicate a particular view of human existence in which Christ, the agent of the ineffable God, reveals the saving truth and offers hope to beings caught in a web of dangerous violence and deceit. The strategies employed by SRJ in the name of mystery and secrecy ultimately are aimed not at concealing the truth from other people, but at revealing it.


Mining the Text: An Anthropological Exploration of the Role of Popular Biblical Criticism in Progressive Christianity
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Rebekka King, University of Toronto

Recently, there has been an upsurge in the publication of popular biblical criticisms, as exemplified by the popular works of scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Bart Ehrman and the Jesus Seminar, as well as by theological thinkers such as Bishop John Shelby Spong. My paper draws upon two years of formal anthropological fieldwork conducted at five North American mainline liberal churches that feature reading and discussion groups involved in the study of biblical criticism at a lay or popular level. More specifically I examine the interactions with biblical texts and biblical criticisms conducted by a movement known as progressive Christianity, which upholds intellectual integrity as one of its primary values. In this paper, I argue that progressive Christians hold a textual ideology in which they understand the bible as both an artifact and an obstacle. In doing so, they present the bible as something needs to be mined for data with the tools of biblical criticism. Ultimately they conclude that in most cases the bible should be displaced from its central location in the Christian tradition in order to allow other more relevant narratives to speak. By discussing examples from my fieldwork, I examine how and why progressive Christians assume this position by drawing from popular works that engage biblical criticism while simultaneously retaining their identity as Christians.


You Are the Man! An Analysis of 2 Sam 12:1–15 through Images of Rembrandt and His School
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Sara Kipfer, University of Bern

The depictions of Bathsheba painted by Rembrandt van Rijn and his school have often been discussed in research in recent times, while the drawings showing Nathan admonishing David have been paid little attention. However the latter show a fascinating and ambivalent encounter between prophet and king which is worthy of discussion. Is the sceptre in David’s hand, the majestic robe and crown a reference for a religious-political interpretation of these drawings? Would they have had special appeal to conservative Calvinists in the Netherlands who tended to support William III and also favoured the church over the state? Or do the paintings refer to Rembrandt’s personal situation, especially the conflict with his housekeeper and mistress Geertghe Dircx? Alongside assessment of the relevant historical and biographical context, there remain questions to be asked about how Rembrandt and his school interpret 2 Sam 12:1-14: How are adultery, lies and murder on the one hand and repentance, forgiveness and restart on the other hand shown in these five drawings? I will endeavour to address all these issues in my presentation.


A Graphotactic Model of Syriac Writing
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
George A. Kiraz, Gorgias Press

Graphotactics is the study of the arrangement of graphemes (analogous to phonotactics in phonology and morphotactics in morphology). This paper presents a theoretical model for the description of Syriac graphotactics borrowing from autosegmental phonology theory. The paper argues from independent tiers, each devoted to a specific segmental (e.g., consonantal tier, vocalic tier) or non-segmental (e.g., grammatical tier) representation of the writing system. The elements of the tiers are connect together with association lines and rules which also build on the well-formedness condition in autosegmental phonology.


A Data-base Template for the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP)
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
George Kiraz, Gorgias Press

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The Patriarchal Archive at Mardin
Program Unit: Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
George Kiraz, Gorgias Press

The Patriarchal Archive in Mardin contains 10,000 to 15,000 documents (mostly letters) addressed to the various Syriac patriarchs who resided there. The documents are written in Syriac, Arabic (both Arabic and Syriac scripts), Ottoman Turkish (both Arabic and Syriac scripts), with a lesser number in Malayalam, English, and Armenian. During three trips, the collection was digitized and semi-organized. This paper will give a report on the project.


The Scribe and His Sources: Rediscovering the Q Factor in Matthew’s Markan Transpositions
Program Unit: Q
Alan Kirk, James Madison University

After following Mark’s order to Mark 1:16-20, Matthew reaches ahead to Mark 1:39 to find material for his introduction to the Sermon. This initiates a sudden, concentrated series of transpositions that alternate with returns to his absolute forward position in Mark 1-2, a pattern of utilization that ends just as abruptly as it began, after the Mission Instruction in Matthew 10. Some regard Matthew’s sudden and temporary shift to a completely different utilization practice as so anomalous as to call into question the argument from order and Markan priority as these operate in the 2DH, a skepticism fed not least by less than satisfactory redaction-critical accounts of Matthew’s transpositions. With some exceptions redaction criticism remarkably has defined its problem solely as Matthew’s use of Mark in chapters 8-9 when it can easily be seen that this turbulence in Matthew’s use of Mark correlates with a density of Q sequences in Matthew 5-12. The conception, inherited from the form critics, of Q as a sub-literary collection of sayings doubtless has contributed to its being left aside in analysis. In fact Q is the key to the Markan transpositions. When viewed in the framework of ancient scribal utilization and tradent practices, it emerges that the transpositions are constitutive elements of Matthew’s ingenious and economical solution to the problem of integrating two major sources, more specifically, to the problem of reconciling Mark’s order with Q’s order. This is executed such that Mark’s and Q’s articulations of the tradition continue to fundamentally structure, in their combination, Matthew new composition. At the same time—as the redaction critics have shown—Matthew’s project constitutes a re-enactment, a renewed articulation, of the Mark and Q tradition.


“Abba, Father,” as a Cry of Co-crucifixion in Gal 4:6
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
J. R. Daniel Kirk, Fuller Theological Seminary

The Spirit’s cry in Galatians 4:6, “Abba, Father,” is widely recognized an indication that those who are in Christ share in Jesus’ sonship. Less often explored, however, is how this cry might be particularly tied to Jesus’ own experience of suffering as God’s son. The other two appearances of the Abba prayer (Mark 14:36 and Rom 8:15) situate the cry within the narrative of Jesus’ suffering which, itself, defines what it means to be a “son of God.” Both Mark and Romans 8 also link this suffering sonship with the Spirit. This paper will argue for a similar complex of connections in Galatians 4. In light of both the larger canonical context and Galatians’ own argumentation, the Spirit’s cry of “Abba, Father,” should be read as indicating that believers are participating in Jesus’ experience of suffering sonship, and that this co-crucifixion confirms their identity as God’s children and heirs.


New Country for Old Men: Qoheleth, Job, and Solomon in Coen Brothers Filmography
Program Unit: Bible and Film
J. R. Daniel Kirk, Fuller Theological Seminary

The Hebrew Bible enshrines a variegated wisdom tradition ranging from Proverbs’ tight connection between human righteousness and God’s blessing in the world, to Job’s wrestling with a God whose work in the world is inscrutable, to Qoheleth’s angst that the God in heaven works all too little in the world. Joel and Ethan Coen have presented this very diversity of voices in their recent films. In “No Country for Old Men,” the Coens present a story in which God is real and yet devastatingly unknown “under the sun.” Evoking the world of Qoheleth, this film depicts a reality in which wisdom and righteousness go unrequited and death is the only sure future for people. Job’s world of inscrutable divine activity forms the conversation partner for “A Serious Man.” This dialogue occurs not only in the regular allusions to the biblical text but also in posing the unrelenting and ultimately unanswerable question, “What does it mean that God at work in this world of suffering and loss?” Finally, “True Grit” invites its audience to interpret the film through Proverbs’ more black-and-white lens of retributive justice: grace is free, but everything else is paid for (or rewarded). This paper will first provide some interpretation of each film in conversation with its biblical antecedent and then conclude with some reflection on the three films together as a representation of the polyvocal Biblical wisdom tradition.


Conquest and Liberation Personified: Rahab and Lady Gaga Meet the Press
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Shaw University Divinty School

Godfather of Soul, the late James Brown popularized a classic R&B song, “It’s a Man’s World,” that makes one wonder about the battles of the sexes: “This is a man's world, this is a man's world; but it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.” I grew up believing this was a world for women and men, equally. My awakening occurred during my graduate education in seminary and religious studies. Brownnosing, and privilege based upon dominant culture membership was a bygone conclusion. “This is a man’s world” then and now, in the academy and faith communities continues to be normative. Such mindfulness was personally jarring, because my world did not reflect male or Anglo-Saxon superiority. That I sang my first solo at age four, afraid of no one, and enjoying the notoriety placed me on a path of performance. “This is a Man’s World” identifies the seat of power, yet indicates an emptiness of reality minus women. Juxtaposing an androcentric world and the roster of female characters in Joshua and Judges makes for interesting contemplation. Two named women, Rahab (Joshua 2) and Achsah (Joshua 15), appear in Joshua. About three times that many women appear in Judges: Achsah, Deborah, Jael, Jepthah’s daughter, Delilah, the unnamed woman who kills Abimilech, and the Levite’s concubine. Why does the text name any woman in patriarchal texts about divine action, human response, conquest, land, and tribal life, illumined by national and domestic violence? Who are these women, and who are the men in their lives? Why are so many of the women in Joshua and Judges abused, and battered, some unto death? What roles do these women perform? What lessons must we learn from them? What can performers teach us about our lives? This paper explores the life and performances of Rahab (Joshua 2; 6) in dialogue with Lady Gaga, twenty-first century vocal, performance artist, both products of patriarchal, sexist contexts, as self-defining, embodied leaders. After briefly locating my own context as performer and my methodological strategies, the essay continues with the following: (1) contextual biography of Rahab and Lady Gaga; (2) how Rahab has been portrayed artistically in dialogue with how Lady Gaga portrays herself; (3) how both characters gained their reputations, experience conquest, and liberation; (4) their socio-cultural locations and how they both may deal with oppression or societal bias; (5) how both characters use their bodies, as they transcend marginalization to be at the center; and (6) how Rahab and Lady Gaga symbolize and engage conquest and liberation.


Pre-texts, Orality, and Cultural Memory: Folklorists and Oral Transmission of Biblical Narratives
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Patricia G. Kirkpatrick, McGill University

Using the Jacob narratives of Genesis as examples, this paper will provide a critical analysis of some of the advances made in Folklore Studies with regards to oral transmission and identify the ramifications for biblical studies particularly with regards to the Jacob story. Some time ago the much respected folklorist Alan Dundes wrote a passionate if not compelling book which argued for an understanding of the oral precursors of much of the biblical text. (Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore 1999) Dundes was a non biblical scholar and presumably held to no particular theoretical reconstruction of Ancient Israel, and might therefore have been thought of as impartial when describing the many ways the biblical text could still be seen to betray an essentially oral origin. Unfortunately, he provided no method or technique for differentiating between texts with oral precursors and those without such precursors. Instead he simply reiterated certain generalizations about what he termed were ‘echo texts’ and assumed that this was evidence enough to suggest an oral pre text for much of the bible which itself had had a long history of oral transmission. Transmission of oral narratives is hardly something that can be studied in an historically linear fashion when the only evidence is the final ancient written texts themselves, yet theories still abound in an effort to argue for the antiquity of certain biblical texts on the basis of their having been originally constructed as oral tales. More recently the area of memory studies has attempted to introduce some important distinctions when speaking about memory of historical events and the way it operates especially when conveying national identity. This paper will suggest ways in which memory studies compliment folklore studies in the manner by which it describes oral transmission and the implications this has for biblical studies.


Self-Defense and Identity Formation in the Depiction of Battles in Joshua and Esther
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Paul Kissling, Dallas Christian College

Although most traditional scholarship, situated as it has been in militaristic societies, describes the battles depicted in Joshua as a "conquest," in fact, the two major phases of that "conquest" are self-defense, first against an attack by a coalition of kings from the south of Canaan against the Gibeonites who had recently joined Israel, and then defense against an attack on all Israel by a coalition of kings from the north. The absorption of outsiders preceding an anticipated battle, the hyperbolic languages of total destruction, the rules regarding the spoils of war, the extraordinary (divine) inerventions, and the self-defensive nature of the battles are motifs that Esther shares with Joshua. This essay explores the implicit message of such texts for the Diaspora existence and identity of the Jewish people, whether relatively early, as in the case of the exilic Joshua, or later, as in Esther.


Come, Let Us Cut a Curse
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Anne Marie Kitz, Sacred Heart School of Theology

Throughout the centuries Biblical scholars have long struggled with the meaning of the Hebrew phrase karat berît. The traditional translation “make a covenant” is inferred from its literal meaning “cut a covenant”. Nevertheless, the expression is not unique to Hebrew. It is attested in Sumerian as nam-erim2 … kud, Phoenician as krt ’lh and Greek as ????? teµ?e??. Each of these phrases shares the same meaning: “cut a curse”. It is, therefore, possible that berît functions as a euphemism for “curse” and that its actual meaning may be related to some feature of ancient Near Eastern oath rituals. In order to uncover the social context and meaning of the expression, this paper will examine the use of related terminology in Sumerian and Akkadian oath rituals in which food is consumed. The occurrence of the Akkadian phrase assakku akalum, “eat taboo food” in these rites may provide new support for L. Koehler’s proposal that berît refers to a type of food item, thereby suggesting that the term is derived from vbrh meaning “consume food”.


Hymn and History in Exod 15
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Anja Klein, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Contrary to the long-held opinion, this paper will demonstrate that the Song of the Sea in Exod 15 does not represent an old tradition, but is rather an example of exegetical writing in the Persian Period. The author of Exod 15 drew on both temple theology and the Exodus narrative, and merges them fruitfully. Thus, the poem became a paradigm for the combination of hymn and history that had a great impact on the further literary and theological development in the Hebrew Bible.


Décor, Decorum, and Declamation: The Spatial Setting of Rabbinic Speech
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Gil Klein, Loyola Marymount University

Greek and Roman formulations of rhetoric and dialogue often acknowledged the profound link between speech and space. From the imaginary rooms of mnemonics to the spatial metaphors of Platonic dialogues, the place of speaking shaped both the social conditions of conversation and its content. This paper investigates the link between speech and its setting in the context of rabbinic discourse. By focusing on accounts from the Tosefta and the Palestinian Talmud, it examines how a banquet hall with its hierarchy of status, or the city street with its public exposure, dictated a certain behavior and prompted the rabbis to discuss their mode of discussion. These passages mark self-reflective moments, in which the rabbis reveal the discursive mechanisms of their Oral Torah and the physical conditions of its production. The Graeco-Roman architectural setting of this production is, therefore, crucial and its exploration forms a significant part of this study.


Meal and Theology in Paul
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Matthias Klinghardt, Technische Universität Dresden

This paper will demonstrate how theology develops out of and in interaction with meal practice and meal ideology in Pauline communities.


Hazael on the Defensive: A Reanalysis of Lines 3–4 of the Tel Dan Inscription and Its Impact on Samarian-Damascene Relations
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Andrew Knapp, Johns Hopkins University

This paper examines the relationship of Samaria and Aram-Damascus in the late 840s BCE, the period of Hazael’s enigmatic rise to power. It suggests that Hazael justified his action against Samaria not as an arbitrarily timed response to a Samarian invasion into Aram in a previous generation, but as retaliation for an Israelite (that is, Samarian and Judahite) attempt at exploiting the death of Hazael’s predecessor. Specifically, this paper questions the consensus understanding of the phrase “And the king of I[s]rael had entered previously into the land of my father” (wy‘l . mlky[š]/r’l . qdm . b’rq . aby) in lines 3-4 of the Tel Dan Inscription. A problem arises from the supposed adverb qdm, “previously,” which necessitates translating the waw-consecutive verb wy‘l, “and he entered,” as a pluperfect. However, wherever the waw-consecutive syntagm is attested, it is used to indicate sequential events, never anteriority. Additionally, an investigation of qdm itself reveals that this morpheme is never used adverbially. The paper offers an alternative interpretation of qdm which avoids the temporal and syntactic difficulties with the current consensus interpretation. It then applies the impact of the new reading to our understanding of Hazael’s rise, an understanding that should be modified in light of the common misinterpretation of the Tel Dan Inscription.


Mary Cary: Radical Fifth Monarchist and Inspired Biblical Prophetess
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Robert Knetsch, Wycliffe College

Mary Cary (b. 1620/21, fl. 1647-1653), a prophetess and biblical commentator, was associated with the Fifth Monarchists, an English militant, millenarian sect whose identity was shaped by biblical prophecy. Like other women in the Movement such as Anna Trapnel, she was a leading member because of her intense prophetic writings. Of the numerous writings that commented on biblical prophecy, the most significant and largest two are "The Little Horns Doom and Downfall" and "A New and More Exact Mappe, or Description of New Jerusalems Glory", both published in April of 1651. Cary saw herself as an inspired exegete, and her fellow Fifth Monarchists also honoured her as a prophetess. She used the mantle of prophet to push boundaries which prevented women from having a voice, justifying her role as a prophetess by using Joel 2:28-9.


Babylon and Jerusalem: Foes or Friends in the Persian Period?
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Gary Knoppers, Pennsylvania State University

At first look, the relationship of Babylon and Jerusalem in late literature is unequivocally that of enemies. In some oracles (e.g., Jer 50-51), Babylon is doomed because of its bloody conquests and repeated deportations of Judah. Commensurate with the cruelty with which Nebuchadnezzar devastated the Davidic kingdom and the Jerusalem temple, Yhwh will single out Babylon for an extra measure of divine justice. Ezra-Nehemiah seems to hint at the partial fulfillment of such a future divine intervention. The work highlights a series of Judean returns back to the homeland. Within this larger depiction, Babylon figures prominently as the source both of the returned temple utensils plundered from Jerusalem and of the repatriates themselves (e.g., Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Ezra). Things seem to be coming full circle as the homeland community is gradually restored at Babylon’s expense. This essay explores the changing dynamics of what initially seems to be a binary opposition to suggest a more complex understanding of the relationship between Babylon and Jerusalem within a larger imperial context. From the first return under Cyrus (538 BCE) through the second mission of Nehemiah (432 BCE?), the chronology of Ezra-Nehemiah is extensive, involving a much greater length of time than the period traditionally attributed to the exile itself (598/587–538 BCE). The selective coverage points to a long history of relations between the homeland community and the Diaspora. Indeed, the narratives of return and rebuilding presuppose not only the survival of a Judean community in Babylon, but also its gradual development into a formative center of Judean leadership and learning. Each of the major initiatives undertaken within the work stems from someone or some group living in the Diaspora. The diachronic progression points to the emergence of a much more complex and productive relationship between the two very different centres. Indeed, the portrayal of continuing relations between the Diaspora and the homeland community is critical to grasping the writers’ implicit case that within an immense empire the ongoing existence of a sister community in Babylon has its benefits for Jerusalem.


The Liturgical Canticles and the Text of the Christian Bible
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Jennifer Knust, Boston University

Invested with sacred meaning and read aloud in corporate worship, the liturgical contexts in which New Testament books were read had a discernible impact on their transmission. Traces of liturgical use include doxologies appended to the end of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:13) and the insertion of a concluding “amen” at the close of nearly every New Testament book, among other small changes. Passages like the Lord’s Prayer, the Words of Institution, or catechetical instructions for baptismal candidates, removed from their biblical contexts for the purpose of public worship, could also be invoked apart from their original textual framework, as is clear from their peculiar transmission history. The possible impact of liturgical song on biblical transmission has less often been noted, despite the importance of singing to the lives of believers. This paper proposes to examine the impact of early Christian singing on the transmission of the liturgical canticles as they circulated separately and within their biblical contexts. Sung as part of the liturgies of Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem from early on, the particular importance of these passages to Christian practice and text was guaranteed. Comparing manuscript evidence to patristic citations, the impact of singing on textual transmission will be outlined, with a particular focus on such passages as the Song of the Three Boys (Daniel 3:52-88, LXX), the Prayer of Manasseh, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), the Prayer of Zachariah (Luke 2:68-79), and a morning song based in Luke 2:14. Since the canticles were drawn both from Septuagint and New Testament books, the transmission and reception of these songs in both testaments and in separate collections will be considered.


Forgiveness Short-Circuited: Divine Clementia and the Pressure of Imperial Rule
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Jennifer Knust, Boston University

The statement “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” attributed to Jesus in some copies of the Gospel of Luke, fits within a larger effort among Christian writers to claim a status of hero, gentleman and philosopher for their Messiah. Placed within Luke, the saying gains an added nuance: the forgiveness Jesus extends to some of his murderers at the moment of death is gradually revoked as the full scope of the Lukan narrative progresses such that, by the end of Acts, the blame for killing first Christ and then his followers has been shifted away from Roman authorities toward Jewish critics of the Jesus movement. Situating this unstable Jesus tradition both within the narrative program of Luke-Acts and the changing circumstances of the Jesus movement, this paper compares the Lukan forgiveness motif to Roman notions of clementia. Whether or not the Gospel originally included this saying, its preservation within Christian tradition evinces both a complex attitude toward Roman propaganda and a fraught competition for prestige on the part of Jesus’ followers. The affirmation of the long-suffering patience and compassion of Christ on the cross assumes and depends upon the every-day brutality of imperially sponsored violence. Nevertheless, the transmission of this saying in particular is accompanied by a troubling willingness to deflect imperial brutality away from certain Christ followers by redirecting it toward others, be they “heretics” or (fellow) Jews.


Lot Sat in the Gateway of Sodom” (Gen 19:1): Tall el-Hammam’s Massive Defenses
Program Unit:
Carroll M. Kobs, Trinity Southwest University

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Goddess of the Eastern Kikkar: An Iron Age II Ammonite Figurine from Tall el-Hammam
Program Unit:
Carroll M. Kobs, Trinity Southwest University

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Rhetoric or Reality? The Polemic of Determinism and Its Enduring Association with Philosophical Schools
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Alexander Kocar, Princeton University

In the course of this paper, I will juxtapose the all-too-common trope of so-called Gnostic cosmological and ethical determinism against the conspicuous emphasis on ethical and ritual behavior in the expansive Valentinian text, the Tripartite Tractate. I hope to situate my own treatment of this apparent tension in conversation with the approaches and views of both ancient writers as well as modern commentators. First, I will briefly introduce the rhetorical strategy of patristic writers in the development and use of the polemic of determinism and their indebtedness to comparable philosophical polemics against Stoic determinism. Turning to modern commentators, I will examine how the polemical rhetoric of philosophy has been internalized to such a degree that nearly all scholarly work concerning so-called Gnostic determinism has played out solely in avenues of debate saturated by terminology associated with Stoicism and Stoicized Platonism. In this way, the polemic of determinism against Valentinian or other so-called Gnostic groups is reduced or refuted by drawing upon analogous Stoic rebuttals grounded in concepts such as assent (sugkatathesis) and dispositionalism, i.e., the character of an individual consisting of the aggregate of past action and inclinations towards future action. However, in contrast with the tendency to couch the Tripartite Tractate exclusively within the systematic domain of Greco-Roman philosophical speculation, I advocate broadening our scope of inquiry in order to incorporate strategies of scriptural interpretation. It is my contention that, while it is indisputable that the Tripartite Tractate draws upon Greco-Roman philosophy, core issues in the text, such as salvation history, begin from a tradition of exegetical engagement with the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. In the end, I conclude that the problem of cosmological determinism in the Tripartite Tractate can best be resolved by recognizing that it emerged exegetically as a justification for and reiteration of existing soteriological commitments and ethical practices among its early Christian audience.


Stalking Those Elusive Hermetists
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Alexander Kocar, Princeton University

In the majority of scholarship on the Hermetica, scholars have constructed or relied upon an abstracted system of belief from the texts, Hermetism, and assumed that underlying this system is a historical community of practicing Hermetists. One of the most recent and certainly the most influential instance of such an approach to the Hermetica is that of Garth Fowden contained his 1986 book "The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Antique Pagan Mind." During this paper, I will critique the well-worn quest for Hermetic origins aimed at glimpsing inside the “Lodge” and documenting the practicing Hermetists therein. To this end and drawing upon Frederick Wisse’s critique of the category of Sethianism, I will contend that there is insufficient evidence to argue that the authors, editors, and readers of Late Antique Hermetica constituted a unique and circumscribed community influenced by but essentially distinct from all external forms of religious or philosophical belief and practice in Late Antiquity. In this way, I will highlight the methodological divide between phenomenological and socio-historical approaches by examining the lack of evidence for claims to social exclusivity, concrete and distinct ritual practice, and finally unique doctrine or mythology in the Hermetica. In particular, I will concentrate on the relatively late manuscript evidence and the frequent citation of Hermetic works among early Christian authors, such as Cyril of Alexandria, to further deconstruct two problematic contentions concerning Hermetica, i.e., the Corpus Hermeticum as a collection existed in antiquity as well as that practicing Hermetists were a highly secretive and socially circumscribed, conventicle organization. Furthermore, in responding to allegations of unique ritual practice, I will reexamine NHC VI, 6-8 and argue against interpretations that these Nag Hammadi tractates contain an account of or instructions for distinctly Hermetic rituals. Ultimately, it is my contention that it is best to envision Hermetic texts as containing no indication of exclusive association with ritually initiated and doctrinally coherent Hermetists, but instead as texts emerging from the dynamic world of late antiquity in which pseudepigraphy and revelation were common strategies for increasing the persuasiveness of one’s specific perspective through a “manipulation of conventions.”


The Threefold Composition of Micah 1:2–16
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Ido Koch, Tel Aviv University

Micah 1:2-16, in its current (late) form, is a prophecy for Samaria and Judah. However, various problems in the vocabulary, grammar, and narrative have caused major differences in the interpretation of text, alongside various opinions regarding its date and composition process. Scholars have noted three stages in the composition of the prophecy: the pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic, with a particular thematic division devoted to each stage. In this paper I accept the traditional three-stage composition process, but suggest a different thematic division of the text. I propose that rather than a dooms-day prophecy against the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the original pre-exilic text was a lament over the destroyed cities of the Judahite Lowland. Jerusalem and yhwh were added only during the exilic period, when literary components integrated the lament into the Book of Micah, an act also meant to connect the book with the editing of the 'Book of the Four'. Thus, with the addition of the newly written prophecy of doom, the prophet who had focused on social issues became a prophet of doom who focused on the cultic sins of Judah. This prophecy of doom underwent further redaction during the post-exilic period, when an eschatological opening was added, including a summons to the nations to hear and a theophany. This third stage of composition was also part of the on-going redaction of the Book of Micah, in which the editor incorporated most of Chapters 4-5 into the book; this was part of a wider redaction, the aim of which was to reinforce the interrelations of the Book of Micah within the growing corpus of the Minor Prophets.


Israel's Epic Identity: Constructing Selfhood in the Post-Exilic World
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Sara Malmin Koenig, Seattle Pacific University

Israel as a nation seems to want to exist within the genre of epic, as Bakhtin defines it—in a world characterized by its wholeness and clarity. At first glance, it appears as if the text itself is subversive of this desire. For example, one of the reasons the Israelites request a king is so they can be “like the other nations” (1 Sam 8:20), but the king they are given is crowned and then decrowned. Carnivalistic laughter is more appropriate at Saul’s first public appearance (or not), when he is found hiding among the baggage, than hushed reverence and awe. In fact, throughout the Deuteronomistic history, Israel’s kings are presented as people who are deeply human and flawed, far away from the idealized and whitewashed heroes of the epic. But as Israel returns to the land after the exile, they also return to their desire to live in the mode of epic, where the past is valorized and monochronic. In the epic, there is no place for openendedness, indecision or indeterminacy. Such a world would be wildly seductive to those returning from the uncertainty of exile, and various texts show the lengths to which the Israelites will go to get there. This paper will consider how Bakhtin’s insights about epic are worked out within Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, Haggai and Zechariah. These insights are also strikingly relevant for our current world, and the identities we construct within it.


"As if It Were the Word of Your God": Maternal Education and Proverbs 31:1–9
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Laurel W. Koepf, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Although the book of Proverbs repeatedly names mothers in parallel with fathers as a source of wisdom instruction, the students receiving instruction in Proverbs are called “my son” and hence assumed to be male. This assumption, however does not account for the source of maternal wisdom instruction. All mothers were once daughters and if mothers teach, they must in turn have been taught. The superscription and structure of Proverbs 31:1-9 counter the reduction of maternal wisdom to feminine intuition, rendering ancient maternal teaching and learning visible within the biblical text. The superscription in the first verse of Proverbs 31 attributes the instruction that follows in verses 2-9 to the mother of Lemuel, king of Massa’. Although the content of this instruction is mundane, its superscription is noteworthy; it renders these verses the only known ancient Near Eastern wisdom text attributed to a woman. Within the context of the Hebrew Bible, the Proverbs 31:1 superscription expressly attributes these verses to a foreign woman in that Massa’ is an ancient North Arabian tribe. The use of staircase parallelism throughout Proverbs 31:1-9 reflects a memorized maternal wisdom teaching, not a mere instruction in passing. Attention to this remarkable superscription and the beautifully structured text it introduces highlights mothers’ participation in wisdom instruction across ancient cultures and literatures, calling into question the assumption that wisdom instruction was directed solely to male children. This paper examines Proverbs 31:1-9 within the structure of the book of Proverbs and in its hybrid ancient context, drawing attention to the differences in the gendering of political authority in ancient Israel and Massa’ and their implications for ancient maternal education.


Modeling Source Criticism: An Embodied Three-Dimensional Multisensory Approach
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Laurel W. Koepf, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Source criticism is often among the greatest challenges for students in an introductory Biblical Studies course. Its intellectual challenges are compounded by spiritual struggles for students coming from a variety of religious backgrounds. When introducing multiple models for the formation of ancient texts, as with the formation of the Pentateuch, the already difficult task of introducing students to source criticism becomes all the more complex. To address the many pedagogical concerns around this important element within an introductory Bible course, this paper proposes an embodied three-dimensional, multisensory approach for introducing source criticism to students. By using several colors of modeling dough to construct color-coded source critical “models” in the classroom, a teacher and/or teaching assistants can lead students in learning interactively, using their bodies, and engaging multiple senses so as to develop a fuller understanding of the material “at hand.” The familiar and playful associations many students have with modeling dough and bright colors have a calming influence on the heightened anxiety in the classroom caused by the intellectual and spiritual challenges of the subject matter. This paper models the method as applied to the formation of the Pentateuch, discusses the educational research supporting the use of such a method, and presents the results of the author’s experiences using it with first year seminarians over the course of several years.


Early Christianity Is Israel
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Helmut Koester, Harvard University

This paper will argue that early Christianity is notinfluenced by the tradition of Israel or by “Judaism.” Rather, early Christians understood themselves as being the legitimate continuation of the history and the promises of Israel. Those who called themselves “Judeans” were considered to be outsiders. In this way Jesus and the first “Christians” stood in the succession of the prophetic tradition of Israel, whereas the Judeans emphasized a fresh interpretation of the Law.


A Contested Covenant: Construction a Christian Ethnic Identity in the Epistle of Barnabas
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Michael Kok, University of Sheffield

There was no abstract conception of religion in antiquity, but religious beliefs and practices were closely intertwined with ethnicity in the Greco-Roman period. Building on the groundbreaking studies of Denise Kimber Buell, I investigate the use of ethnic reasoning in Christian identity formation with the epistle of Barnabas as a specific case study. In contrast to some scholars who insist on a sharp “parting of the ways” between Christianity and Judaism in the late first or early second century, the author of Barnabas seems to directly respond to a concern that the socially-constructed boundaries between the two communities remained quite fluid and permeable at the ground level. Barnabas utilizes ethnic reasoning to create a distinct Christian ethnic identity and to manufacture sharp differences between Christian and Jewish social praxis. In order to promote the idea of a homogenous Christian ethnic identity with pure origins, Barnabas re-appropriates the legacy of Israel while representing the Ioudaios (“Jew” or “Judean”) as an adversarial foil.


The Flawed Evangelist (John) Mark: Reading Luke-Acts in Light of Papias
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Michael Kok, University of Sheffield

Due to the popularity of the name Marcus in the Greco-Roman period, there is no necessary identity between John Mark in Acts and the various figures named Mark who appear in the Pauline corpus (Phlm 24; Col 4:10; 2 Tim 4:11), the first epistle of Peter (1 Pet 5:13) or the fragments of Papias (H.E. 3.39.15). However, in line with recent scholarly efforts to re-date the book of Acts to the first quarter of the second century (Richard Pervo, Joseph Tyson, Dennis MacDonald), this paper will propose that the author of Luke-Acts was not only aware of Mark’s connection with Paul and Barnabas from the Pauline epistles, but, more importantly, was familiar with the developing association of Mark with Peter and the second Gospel found in Papias’s five-volume Exposition of the Logia of the Lord (ca. 110 CE). If the author of Luke-Acts was ambivalent towards Mark’s Gospel as well as the tradition regarding the evangelist Mark that is represented by Papias, this could provide a plausible explanation for the ambivalent portrait of John Mark in the narrative of Acts. John Mark is depicted in a privileged position as a younger contemporary of both Peter and Paul (Acts 12:12, 25), yet also as a deeply flawed character who fades into obscurity (13:13; 15:27-29). In a similar way, Mark’s Gospel is among Luke’s many predecessors that attempted to compile an account of the matters passed on from the earliest witnesses, but it is also judged by the author to be a flawed work that must be supplanted by a more “orderly” account (Luke 1:1-4).


Semantics of "Coming" and "Going" in Ancient Hebrew: Synchronic and Diachronic Analyses
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Aaron Koller, Yeshiva University

The semantics of verbs of “coming” and “going” have been studied in many languages. To account for seemingly simple differences between English sentences such as “Shira came home already” and “Shira went home already,” studies by Charles Fillmore (1966, 1971, 1983) focused attention on deixis, arguing that the acceptable uses of “to come” and “to go” depend on complex interactions between variables of time, space, and social location. Fillmore discussed more complicated examples such as “Jack came to the bank early,” which I could say to you if either I or you were at the bank now, or had been there when Jack got there. Building on the early work of Fillmore, who pointed out some differences between the semantics of English “come” and its closest parallels in other languages, other linguists studied verbs of “coming and going” in languages from around the world (e.g., Gathercole 1977, 1978), and the study of deixis has become a major sub-field within linguistics (e.g., Levinson 2004). Some researchers have turned their attention to the interaction between languages with regard to such verbs; studies have found that learners of a second language tend to impose the semantic structure of their native language on the language they are learning (Stringer 2007). Within Biblical Hebrew, it is obvious that the roots hlk and bw’ do not correspond neatly to English “go” and “come,” from sentences like bo’ el Par‘oh “go to Pharaoh.” The lexicons even claim that BH bw’ has multiple meanings, among them “to come” and “to go.” Clearly this is not a case of polysemy, but a question of defining with more precision the semantics of the Hebrew word, much as Fillmore and others have done for the English words. Some comments on the semantics of bw’ and hlk are found in biblical commentaries and other types of scholarship, but no study has been devoted to clarifying these issues. This paper aims to fill that lacuna. Additionally, it will be argued that the semantics of hlk and (especially) bw’ change over the history of ancient Hebrew. Plausibly, this can be related to interference from other languages in the minds of multilingual speakers. The semantics of the parallel verbs in other languages in contact with Hebrew, therefore, will be briefly discussed and a hypothesis will be offered regarding the history of the verbs within Hebrew.


Jewish Aramaic Literature of Achaemenid Times
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Aaron Koller, Yeshiva University

The finds at Dead Sea Scrolls have yielded not only texts of particular importance to the sectarian community at Qumran, but also remains of what once must have been an impressive body of Jewish literature. It is not always easy to tell whether texts found at Qumran are sectarian and which are not, and this debate has reached the shores of Aramaic studies in the form of a disagreement between Dimant and García-Martínez regarding some of the Aramaic texts found in the caves. According to Dimant, the sectarians did not write in Aramaic, and so all Aramaic texts had broader circulation; García-Martínez argues that in fact some of the Aramaic texts found at Qumran were unique to that site. All agree, however, that many of the Aramaic texts were not specifically sectarian. This paper will try to contribute to this discussion in two interrelated ways. First, it will explore possible ways of adjudicating between Dimant and García-Martínez, and to determine if in fact the sect of Qumran did write some of its texts in Aramaic (and if so, which ones). This has important implications for the linguistic theory and consciousness of the sect, which Schniedewind, Weitzman, and Rendsburg have argued, was a highly developed belief of the transcendence of the Hebrew language. As a result, some comments of the attitude towards Aramaic among the Qumran sect may be possible. Second, the paper will bring the texts that, it can be safely concluded, were not Qumran compositions, into dialogue with the rest of the Jewish Aramaic literature of the Second Temple, with a particular emphasis on those plausibly datable to the Achaemenid Period. Schattner-Rieser, among others, has offered a chronological taxonomy of the Qumran Aramaic texts based on linguistic evidence, and some, such as 4Q246 (the Prayer of Nabonidus) and 4Q550 (the fragments originally identified as Proto-Esther but since re-classified), are plausibly pre-Hellenistic on other grounds, as well. An attempt will be made to ground these questions on firmer arguments. There is, of course, other Jewish Aramaic literature of the period, including the stories in the book of Daniel (at least 2-6). Tawny Holm has recently offered an insightful analysis of this collection of stories, but a synthetic study of all the Jewish Aramaic literature is yet to be written. This paper will analyze this body of literature from the perspective of politics: what the texts have to say about Jewish life under the dominion of a foreign empire. It will be argued that the Daniel stories and some of the other texts share similar basic views, but that disagreements can be detected, as well.


The System of Holiness in Ezekiel’s Vision of the New Temple (Ezek 40–48)
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Michael Konkel, Faculty of Theology Paderborn, Germany

Ezekiel is often called the ‘priestly prophet’. The theology of the book that bears his name is focused on the temple, its sanctity and purity. However, the label ‘priestly’ comprises yet another moment: The book of Ezekiel shows some intriguing parallels in language and phraseology to the so-called Priestly source in the Pentateuch. Nevertheless the relationship of Ezekiel and P is a matter of dispute: scholarship after Wellhausen, which assumes an exilic-postexilic origin of P, usually sees Ezekiel as a predecessor of P (e.g. the comprehensive commentary of W. Zimmerli). In contrast, the Kaufmann-school, which argues for a preexilic dating of P, makes Ezekiel the creative recipient of P (e.g. M. Greenberg, D. I. Block). Finally, recent research has added a third option: An exilic-postexilic date of P is assumed, but at the same time the final shape of Ezekiel is classified as post P by dating the book in the postexilic era. However, the question of the relationship between Ezekiel and P consists of more than just determining the direction of literary dependency. If two texts use the same language and phraseology, this by no means implies that they share the same theology. Therefore with regard to holiness and purity the question has to be raised whether the concept in Ezekiel is in accordance with its parallels in P or if we can determine different concepts of ‘priestly theology’. I would like to follow this path by analyzing the concept of holiness as it is found in the second temple vision (Ezek 40–48). Here an elaborate system of holiness can be determined, which can be compared with its parallels in the Pentateuch. The text presupposes an amount of tradition that comprises not only of elements usually assigned to P, but also includes tradition from the late Deuteronomy. The cultic laws for the priests in Eye 44 nearly cover the complete Pentateuchal legislation that refers to the priests. Even though the rules in Ezekiel differ in many ways from their parallels, it cannot simply be said, that they are “in direct conflict with P” (J. Milgrom). Things are more complicated. Rather it seems, that Ezek 40–48 should be named a ‘Zadokite Halacha’, that interprets Pentateuchal legal traditions from a specific point of view, namely the monopolistic claim of the Zadokites, which itself can be understood as an exclusive interpretation of the covenant with Phinehas in Num 25:12–13. Thus Ezek 40–48 can work as a critique of the cultic practice at the second temple in Jerusalem not by opposing the Pentateuch, but rather by interpreting and extending its legal traditions.


Divinity as Excess
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Maia Kotrosits, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

In _On Balance_, Freudian analyst Adam Phillips writes, “Perhaps ‘excess’ is a word we use to reassure ourselves that we can be something other than excessive.” Following this, he makes the almost offhanded suggestion that when we are too much for ourselves, sometimes our only recourse is to find a god we are not too much for. What happens if this proposal is taken seriously as a psycho-social analytic for understanding notions of divinity? That is, what if “divinity” is entertained not as a taken-for-granted ontological category, but rather a negotiation of subjective boundaries? What if “divinity” is understood as a category that contains our affective excesses (our grief, our pain, our ecstatic joy), and allows us to entertain and understand both our excessive power and our excessive powerlessness? Along with its expansion of Phillips’ work in _On Balance_, this presentation will also incorporate Jessica Benjamin’s work on transference in her essay “What Angel Would Hear Me?” as well as recent developments in affect theory. It will then make suggestions on how this theoretical reorientation might indeed have ancient historical intersections, and how it might be used in interpretations of "divinity" in the New Testament.


Paul against Ascetics and Libertines: Clement of Alexandria’s Miscellanies, Book 3
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Judith L. Kovacs, University of Virginia

Saint Paul’s views on marriage do not appear to be entirely consistent, and the history of early Christian interpretation highlights the ambiguity in his letters. Clement of Alexandria devotes the third book of his Miscellanies to a consideration of marriage and sex, in which he takes strong exception to Christians such as Tatian and Marcion who depreciate marriage but also to advocates of sexual license such as Prodicus and Epiphanes, whose On Righteousness Henry Chadwick described as “the scribblings of an intelligent but nasty-minded adolescent of somewhat pornographic tendencies.” Clement’s argument against these positions takes the form of a wide-ranging exegetical debate: he quotes his opponents’ exegeses of specific biblical verses, disputes their interpretations, and adduces other passages to buttress his argument. This paper argues that Paul’s letters are of central importance in this discussion and shows how Clement construes Paul as staking out a via media between radical asceticism and sexual freedom. Of particular interest is the great variety of Pauline texts that figure in the debate. These include, in addition to 1 Corinthians 7: 2 Cor 6:16-18 (“Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them.”), Gal 3:28 (“There is no male and female.”), Rom 6:14 (“Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”), and Rom 8:8 (“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”). Clement is one of the few patristic voices to praise marriage, although he sees sexual desire as a threat to the spiritual life and advocates continence within marriage. To defend marriage he points out that Peter and Philip were married and suggests, on the basis of Paul’s reference to his “loyal companion” in Phil 4:3, that Paul himself was married. The nineteenth-century translators for the Ante-Nicene Fathers, apparently worried about “pornographic ravings” of Epiphanes and others, sought to shield Miscellanies 3 from public view by translating it into Latin, not English. This paper argues that this early debate about exegesis of Paul deserves wider attention.


Transformation, Change, and Pauline Thought
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Steven Kraftchick, Emory University

The goal of this paper is to assess the relative weight of 2 Cor 5: 14-17 for Paul’s theological constructions, specifically in 2 Cor but also for his overall “theology.” Scholars vary in their understanding of the passage and in the importance they place on it for understanding Paul. As a result, the text has enjoyed a fascinating history of critical interpretation, especially since the 1950’s when it served as a touch point for debates about Paul’s knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth. Since then it has been understood as a consideration of Paul’s apocalyptic epistemology, a rebuttal of his Corinthian opposition, as part of an apology for his ministry, and even as a key element for Tillich’s systematic theology. As J. Louis Martyn has noted in regard to the passage, “experience in the reading of Paul’s letters teaches us, however, that the apostle’s most important statements often present the greatest ambiguity: and that is nowhere more obviously true than in 2 Cor 5:16.” (Epistemology at the Turn of the Ages, 89) This passage is also interesting because it allows us to observe Paul in “the act of theological interpretation” on at least three fronts: 1) Paul’s reflection on and adaptation of traditional material (vv. 14-15), 2) Paul’s refraction of the tradition (and its interpretation) in the practice of shaping the boundaries of his ministerial efforts, and 3) his understanding of Christ’s death on Christological, soteriological and ethical grounds. Recently earlier hermeneutical debates have receded to be replaced by more historical and social studies interpretations of the passage. Thus, some exegetes focus on how the pericope functions in light of Paul’s self-defense and definition of his ministry (5:11-21), others move in an opposite direction to interpret it in light of his statements about reconciliation (5:18-19) to construct a portrait of the Corinthian congregation. Still others broaden the contextual studies and compare Paul’s exclamation about kaine ktisis to similar language found in Gal 6:15, and Romans 8:19-22, while others take into consideration the idea’s origins in Second Isaiah. In this paper, I consider the prior scholarship, but I also propose that another manner of contextualization can be of equal benefit for determining Paul’s theological constructions. Whatever else one might make of this text, it clearly focuses on transformation, whether of knowledge, of personal existence, of time, or of the cosmos itself. Paul’s particular emphasis here is on the immediate nature of this change, but he also discusses transformation elsewhere in the letter, albeit with different terms (e.g. 2:16; 3: 18 and 6:2). This suggests that a proper context for 2 Cor 5 arises when we compare and contrast our text to Paul’s other references to transformation. As a corollary we can then ask if 2 Cor 5:14-17 is consonant with these passages, is an outcome of their thought, or is in stark contrast to them. This allows us to ‘weigh’ 2 Cor 5:14-17 for Paul’s theological construction in this letter and to expand our inquiry into Paul’s conceptions of transformation overall.


The Folly of Conjecture? Baljon’s Novum Testamentum Graece of 1898
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Jan Krans, VU University Amsterdam

J.M.S. Baljon’s 1898 Greek New Testament contains more conjectures in its text and apparatus than any other edition before or after. The paper will put the edition in its intellectual context and evaluate Baljon’s use of conjectural emendation. It will also trace the influence of Baljon on the Nestle editions.


Rewriting within and outside the Bible
Program Unit: Qumran
Reinhard G. Kratz, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

This paper will be concerned with the phenomenon of "rewriting" in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. After discussing the methodological prerequisites and different approaches, the paper will concentrate on two examples: the literary relationship between the Covenant Code and the Book of Deuteronomy as a "biblical" example and between Serekh ha-Yachad and Damascus Document as a "non-biblical" example of rewriting. The comparison aims to overcome the barriers between the two areas of scholarship dealing with these textual corpora and to demonstrate a surprising analogy or even a continuity of tradition within and outside the Bible.


“Remember the Things We Read”: Texts and Cultural Memory in the White Monastery
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Rebecca Krawiec, Canisius College

Besa’s reputation as a writer has long suffered in comparison to Shenoute. This judgment results in part because Besa relies on extensive quotations from the Bible and writings by monastic leaders. These passages are often strung together, interrupting the flow of his argument and accompanied by little direct interpretation. I will use both William Johnson’s concept of a “reading culture” and cultural memory theory to argue for a new view of Besa’s use of authoritative texts, both the Bible and Shenoute’s. Johnson has argued that reading cultures are formed through the particular reading and writing practices of a group in a way that contributes to their social identity as members of the group. Here the reading culture of Besa’s White Monastery has been created by Shenoute, both in his application of the Bible to defining monasticism and in his collation of his nine _Canons_. These _Canons_ preserve in textual form Shenoute’s performance as a prophet. Because these works continue to be formative, the “textual Shenoute” continued to exert spiritual leadership in the community. While all monks in late antiquity read and recited the Bible, the monks of the White Monastery are “monks of Shenoute” because they also read the works of Shenoute. Besa thus uses a distinct monastic corpus through which he instructs the monks under his care. Cultural memory theory allows examination of the relationship between Shenoute’s ‘canonical’ texts and Besa’s ‘cultural’ ones. Besa repeatedly castigates the monks for not remembering what they have read. Besa’s lists of biblical quotations, far from being literarily under-developed, serve a pedagogical purpose: to remind monks of the relationship they have with the foundational texts for their community. Recognition of how Besa performs both the Bible and Shenoute’s texts, and for what purposes, reveals what makes his texts a distinctive form of monastic literature.


“He Began to Be Sorrowful and Troubled” (Mark 14:33): Emotions of Grief and Sorrow in the Passion Narratives and in Documentary Papyri
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Christina M. Kreinecker, University of Salzburg

On the one hand, it seems quite surprising that only a few emotions of sorrow are explicitly expressed in the Passion Narratives. Among these Peter crying at a rooster’s crow and the crying women following Jesus in Luke 23:27–28 may be the most famous ones. Although Jesus is rarely seen showing emotions of grief and sorrow within the gospels the strong absence of emotions during his passion is striking. By this observation, the few passages in which Jesus is shown distressed gain center stage. But what do two emotions like the broadly used “lupein” and the specific and hardly to find “ademonein” (two observations that are true in both, the New Testament and the documentary papyri) tell us about the suffering of Jesus? For an answer to this, within the presentation examples of directly expressed emotions like “lupein” and “ademonein” in documents of ancient everyday life and their context will be compared to Jesus’ suffering. Furthermore, passages that at a first glance seem emotional can be interpreted differently: the phrase “my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:34; Matt. 26:38), for example, can be taken as a theological motif from the Old Testament. But even if emotions are expressed only marginally within the passion narratives, they are of importance in as far as they affect all relevant groups within the narratives: Jesus’ opponents, Jesus’ disciples and followers, the Romans and Jesus himself. On this methodological level the presentation will deal with the question of expressing emotions in written texts in the ancient world by giving examples of how and when emotions are (not) expressed in documentary papyri.


The Book as Artifact in the Gospel of Truth
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Anne Kreps, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

The second century witnessed a semantic shift in the meaning of the term euaggelion from designating an oral preaching to a word referring to sacred written texts. Valentinus’ Gospel of Truth is generally thought to be a written meditation on the earlier definition and not considered a written gospel text. However, the ubiquitous references to the sacred book as an object within the Gospel of Truth suggest that Valentinus’ idea of gospel was not strictly oral or written. Instead, the polyvalent symbol of the book in Gospel of Truth reflected the term’s elasticity, a growing awareness of gospel as a material entity and Valentinus’ own position on the media of divine revelation. Valentinus embraced the idea of a multiform gospel and suggested that his own composition, the Gospel of Truth, be regarded as one of them. The Gospel of Truth’s passion narratives exemplify Valentinus’ gospel concept. Valentinus described the Son as a “living book,” who imparted the good news of the knowledge of the Father on the cross. The gospel was delivered orally as the crucified Jesus privately instructed the elect and then recited his teaching publically. However, gospel was also presented as a written document, a fact Valentinus emphasized through his dramatic depiction of Jesus as a crucified scroll. Subsequently, the elect were transformed into embodied gospels, each receiving a book “inscribed on their hearts,” which they were instructed to “speak forth” to humanity. A fragment from a lost writing of Valentinus indicated that he thought about the book of the heart in terms of physical books. In it, he noted that many published books were all literary glimmers of the heavenly book. This fragment linked actual published texts of Greco-Roman authors to the concept of the book of the heart and indicated that Valentinus’ notion of gospel was one of “living scripture.” Because each member the spiritual class possessed a book written upon his heart, he was eligible to publish his book of the heart, just as Jesus did. Anyone who possessed a book written in the heart had the authority to disseminate its contents in written or oral form. Valentinus’ passion scenes were a call for all spiritual Christians to read the living book, distribute it, and develop it with their own writings. The many ways Valentinus conceptualized the book as an object—as an oral text, book of heart, embodied scroll, written document—suggest that Valentinus’ Gospel of Truth should be thought of not just as a sermon but as one of these expanded books.


A Complete List of the Conjectures in the Goettingen and the Rahlfs Edition
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Siegfried Kreuzer, Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel

Conjectures are an important tool for understanding and reconstructing the text of the Septuagint. Probably the translators already made some conjectures to solve textual problems. In the modern era, an enormous number of conjectures have been suggested and recorded in the printed editions. Both the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition and especially the Göttingen edition record hundreds of conjectures and - even more important - at many places decided for a conjecture in their critical text. But nobody knows at which places one would find the conjectures. There are no records of the conjectures used in the main text or recorded in the apparatus, either in Stuttgart or in Göttingen or in the literature. Now, in the commentary volume of Septuaginta-Deutsch there will for the first time be such a list. It records all the conjectures given in those two editions, and with them most of the conjectures referred to or made in older editions like Grabe or Swete. Together with the conjectures, all the reasons given for them by the editors are recorded. In this paper this list of conjectures will be presented and interpreted.


In Search of a Personal Philosophy: Some Reflections on Lost Intimacy in American Thought
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Sharon Krishek, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

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Oil, Vine, and Grain: Crop Plants as Images in Hosea and the Book of the Twelve
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Jutta Krispenz, Philipps-Universität Marburg

In the writing of Hosea we can find many images and metaphors. Among these also plant images are used in different contexts and with different intent. Especially the vine turns up with different meanings and different wording (young vine, vine, grapevine, grape). The paper will explore the word-field used to refer to oil, vine and grain and to the respective crop plants, in order to find out whether Hosea uses these images in a consistent way and whether Hosea's use of the images is merely conventional. After this, the imagery will be traced in the other writings in the Book of the Twelve, asking whether the images are used independently from Hosea’s use.


Eusebius and Lactantius: Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Christian Theology
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Kristina Meinking, Elon University

Historians of antiquity and religion have long noted the importance of Greek rhetoric and philosophy as most influential to the development of proto-orthodox Christian theology in the second through fourth centuries. Central to this theology is the tenet that the attributes of the Christian God correspond to those of the supreme god of (so-called) pagan monotheism. Given the evidence of Greek-writing Christian intellectuals - Eusebius perhaps foremost among them - this theory seems to hold; the consensus agrees that the Christian God must be immaterial, immoveable, and impassible. Philo of Alexandria was a proponent of this view, as were many Greek Christian theologians (e.g. Origen and John Chrysostom). Despite differences in argumentation among these individuals, the basic premise remains: the inherent frailty of human language and understanding obfuscate one’s ability to grasp the true nature of God. Yet scholars thus far have neglected to question whether these opinions were maintained by other Christian intellectuals. The evidence of fourth-century Latin-writing Christians shows that the range of opinions about God’s emotions and the interpretations of representations of the Christian God varied remarkably. In this paper, I examine Lactantius’ De ira Dei as indicative of the sorts of counter-arguments made by Eusebius’ contemporaries. Lactantius relies on cleverly veiled allusions to the Hebrew Bible to argue, in a Ciceronian fashion heavily reliant on rhetoric and rhetorical theory, that God’s anger is necessary for (though not equal to) divine justice. I will suggest that Lactantius’ argument in support of divine emotions, although using the same general rubrics as those employed by Eusebius, is thoroughly distinct for its privileging of the Latin and Ciceronian rhetorical and philosophical traditions. I will also suggest that the current narratives about intellectual traditions in late antiquity merit reconsideration.


The Date and Content of P. Antinoopolis 12 (0232)
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Michael J. Kruger, Reformed Theological Seminary

P.Antinoopolis 12 (Aland 0232), a miniature codex containing the remnants of 2 John, was considered by C.H. Roberts to be our earliest copy of this short epistle (3rd century) and also evidence of an early Johannine corpus. Since that time, scholars have regularly appealed to the work of Roberts while reiterating these claims. However, upon closer examination, both of these claims appear to be problematic. This paper will argue that P.Ant. 12 is most likely a fifth century codex (not third) and was far too small to have carried the entire Johannine corpus. Although there is no combination of books that perfectly fits into this codex, the most plausible suggestion seems to be that P.Ant. 12 originally held the book of Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles.


Theurgy and Its Discontents: Ritual and Self-Definition in Late Platonism
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Todd Krulak, Tulane University

This statement made by the philosopher Damascius (late fifth – early sixth centuries C.E.) in his commentary on the Phaedo regarding the disparate approaches to the divine is well known to scholars of Late Platonism: “To some philosophy is primary, like Porphyry and Plotinus and many other philosophers; to others hieratic practice, as it is to Iamblichus, Syrianus, Proclus, and the hieratic school in general.” Infrequently, however, is the succeeding line cited: “Plato, however, recognizing that strong arguments can be advanced from both sides, has united the two into a single truth by calling the philosopher a ‘Bacchus’” (In Phaed. i.172 Westerink). The Hegelian-esque scheme posited by Damascius, in which the synthesis is found in the chronologically prior term (Plato) and the thesis and antithesis in the philosophical luminaries of his own era (Porphyry and Plotinus, and Iamblichus, Syrianus, and Proclus, respectively) is an irenic and ecumenical solution to a dispute over the proper role of the theurgy in the Platonic tradition. The towering prestige of Iamblichus (~245 – ~325 C.E.) and of Proclus (412 – 485 C.E.), two luminaries of Late Platonism and advocates of the hieratic regimen, ensured that theurgy would become a vital and, for some, a defining component of the philosophical way of life, but it would seem that not all favored the insertion of theurgic rites into the Platonic curriculum. The friction between the two opposing views was not merely about personal preferences but was rooted in issues of self-definition, i.e., what did it mean to be a “Platonist”? Was a “Platonist” defined primarily by either a commitment to the hieratic lifestyle or by a dedication to theoretical philosophy? Was there a middle ground of a sort not apparent in Damascius’ description? This paper will take up these questions, but also will evaluate Damascius’ statement in the context of the contemporaneous pressures and issues he was attempting to negotiate. It will be argued that his Hegelian-esque construct served multiple purposes - to buttress his own position on the relationship of philosophy and hieratic praxis against competing claims which, in turn, allowed him to formulate his own definition of the term, "Platonist," and, finally, to reform the Athenian Academy in such a way that its products would be philosophers who conformed to this definition.


Philippe Ariès and Death in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
James L. Kugel, Harvard University

The French historian Philippe Ariès has studied the evolution of ideas about death from the European Middle Ages to the present. In this paper I wish to examine material from the biblical pseudepigrapha, and in particular the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, to determine the extent to which they conform to Ariès’s analysis.


Rethinking the People of the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Case of Ethnic Conflict?
Program Unit: Qumran
Rob Kugler, Lewis & Clark College

With few exceptions scholars have understood the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls in purely religious terms: they evince one form of early Judaism among others. I offer a thought experiment determined by a different perspective altogether, one informed by theoretical perspectives on ethnicity, nationalism, and hegemonic states (Jonathan Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge, 1997; David Goodblatt, Elements of Jewish Nationalism, Cambridge, 2006; and James Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, New Haven, 2009). What happens when we read the scrolls as the works of competitors in a vital battle to define Judean ethnicity in an era when emergent nationalism challenged ethnic self-definition? After clarifying the theoretical framework I complete the thought experiment by offering a fresh reading of 4QMMT. I conclude with observations on how this approach contributes to the debate over the nature of the “Qumran community” opened up recently by the contributions, among others, of John Collins and Alison Schofield.


Black but Beautiful: A Postcolonial Reading of Song of Songs 1:5–7
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Robert Kuloba, University of Glasgow

This paper critically examines the Eurocentric translation and interpretation of Song of Songs 1:5-7-- a text which is usually romanticized, leaving out the relevant political and social-economic aspects. It also offers an original postcolonial reading, with my own translation. The woman speaks defiantly and defensively about her blackness and presents herself as the tender of the vineyards of others, without giving reasons why they (her mother’s sons) forced her to leave her own vineyard to tender theirs. The following questions are vital: Who are my mother’s sons?; What is their vineyard?; What was my vineyard and what happened to it?; Who is that ‘one I love’ or the ‘lover of my soul’?; and, most importantly, as an African postcolonial reader, what is that I want from this lover of mine-- the lover being God, the Bible and the audience being addressed by the woman, the woman who has been disparaged and tormented, but now has some freedom to air her predicament, without being sure that her situation will change. I hear the woman’s defiant and defensive sense of her own blackness in the light of the dark history of blackness in Europe and America. I look at some of the dynamics that have prevented her from tending her own vineyard from slavery and the machinery of empire, to more subtle economic systems that have prevented her from developing her vineyard, such as the mechanisms of ‘fair trade’. The history of fair trade is built on colonial European nations’ refusal to grant technology and industrialization to Africa (examples of which are discussed in this paper). It encourages the export of agricultural products--mainly bananas, coffee, cotton, cocoa, sugar, tea, fruits and flowers--and imagines the Africa as a pre-industrial ‘vineyard’.


“New Creation” and the Jews: Some Aspects of the Use of the Pauline Concept in Early Christian Discourse
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

The term “new creation” (kaine ktisis) was introduced by Paul in his letters to underscore the radical newness of the condition in which believers in Christ found themselves. Modern scholars tend to neutralize the radicalism of this concept by focusing on the Jewish background of the idea. Early Christian interpreters, by contrast, often referred to 2 Cor 5:17 and, albeit less frequently, Gal 6:15, in polemical passages, directed either against Jews or those whose views were judged “heretical” – or both at the same time, since the two categories tended to intermingle in early Christian discourse. Polemical elements, primarily with regard to Judaism, are especially forceful in Cyril of Alexandria’s writings, yet a number of themes raised in this context by Cyril surface already in earlier authors. In this paper I discuss the references to 2 Cor 5:17 and Gal 6:15 in select early Christian texts of the first four centuries (thus prior to Cyril), in which the concept of “new creation” is employed to demonstrate Christian superiority in relation to Judaism. I begin with Tertullian’s Adversus Marcionem, where 2 Cor 5:17 is quoted and alluded to several times, mostly in combination with Is 43:18, which supplied the prophetic “justification” for the rejection of Judaism. This writing is of interest with regard to how anti-Jewish and anti-“heretical” polemics are interrelated as it shows how the God of the Hebrew Bible needed to be “defended” against Marcion’s charges at the cost of the Jews. Outside of the anti-Marcionite debates, the understanding of new creation as necessitating the rejection of the Law and Jewish customs and practices recurs in different contexts in patristic literature, often supported by allusions and quotations to other places in the Pauline letters, as well as to what the authors considered to be Paul's scriptural hermeneutics. In the second part of my presentation I focus mostly on the homilies of Origen, but I also consider briefly some examples from the fourth century, including Didymus the Blind and, among the Latin writers, commentaries on Paul's letters by Ambrosiaster.


Performing Jesus Crucified: Gal 3:1 and 6:17 as Glimpses of Paul’s Embodied Proclamation of the Passion Narrative
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Performance criticism of the Corpus Paulinum has thus far focused predominantly on the issues related to the oral performance of the letters. Yet the concept of performance can shed light also on other aspects of Paul’s apostolic activity. It is often observed that in Paul’s letters there is little evidence of his interest in, or even familiarity with, the details of the passion narrative. Yet scarce textual evidence does not necessarily imply that the story of Jesus’ passion was not an integral part of Paul’s proclamation. Verses such as Gal 3:1 suggest that Paul could have preached rather graphically about the details of the crucifixion. Furthermore, there are a number of passages, in which Paul portrays his own sufferings and everyday existence in terms usually associated with Jesus’ passion. I suggest that we regard such passages, which have traditionally bewildered exegetes, as a reflection of the “embodied proclamation” of the good news, including the story of Jesus’ suffering and death, performed, rather than merely recounted. While historical-critical exegesis can already point us in the direction of such an interpretation, it can be further developed if combined with the insights offered by performance studies. In the present paper I focus primarily on Gal 3:1 and 6:17, and the relationship between these two verses. It cannot be excluded that 'proegraphe' in 3:1 implies that some sort of theatrical demonstration was involved. Yet even if this was not the case, I argue that what commentators refer to as a 'vivid description' was not limited to a verbal account, at most accompanied by pictorial representation. Rather, this depiction included the interpretation of Paul’s afflictions in terms of the story of Jesus’ passion. Likewise Paul’s claim in Gal 6:17 that he bears the ‘stigmata of Jesus’ in his body serves as a stern reminder for his addressees that Paul’s proclamation is not limited to verbal communication.


Phoebe Palmer: From Prophecy to Preaching
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Renee Kwan Monkman, University of Toronto

Like many women who felt called to a vocation of preaching, renowned revivalist preacher of the Holiness Movement Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874) confronted tradition and Scripture in order to justify her own call to ministry. Palmer bases the argument of her central work, The Promise of the Father, on her reading of Joel 2:28-29, interpreting the promise of the Father as being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit, who is being poured out upon God's daughters, enabling them to prophesy. In effect, Palmer comes to the understanding that to preach is essentially to prophesy, as God had promised in Scripture. Palmer understood her life's work of preaching, teaching, and writing as obedience to God's call to be his instrument. Palmer’s influence was far-reaching; the pamphlet “Female Teaching: or the Rev. A. A. Rees versus Mrs. Palmer, Being a Reply to a Pamphlet by the Above Named Gentleman on the Sunderland Revival“ written by Salvation Army’s co-founder Catherine Booth popularized her argument for women’s preaching well into the twentieth century.


Job and Isaiah 40–55: Intertextualities in Dialogue
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Will Kynes, University of Cambridge

The intertextual connections between Isa 40–55 and texts across the Hebrew Bible are well documented (Willey 1997, Sommer 1998, Schultz 1999). However, none of these studies deal with the parallels between Isaiah and Job, which is surprising because the two articles to deal explicitly with the subject (Pfeiffer 1927 and Terrien 1966) both suggest that Isaiah is dependent on Job, based on parallels such as Isa 41:20 and Job 12:9, Isa 40:4 and Job 21:22, Isa 51:17, 22 and Job 21:2, and Isa 51:15 and Job 26:12. Though the current consensus on Job’s date (fifth to third century BCE) would put the book after Isa 40–55, several scholars still follow Pfeiffer and Terrien and date it before (e.g. Pope 1973, Hartley 1998). So far the discussion has hinged primarily on which book’s message is perceived to be a later development in the evolution of Israel’s religious thought. This paper will use the recent development of intertextuality to approach the issue from a different perspective. Acknowledging the diachronic impasse on attempts to date the book of Job definitively, I will approach the intertextual connections between the texts from a synchronic, literary perspective, asking in particular, which direction of dependence makes better sense of the text alluded to in its original context, and then what effect the allusion would have in the alluding context. Thus, I will draw into dialogue both diachronic and synchronic approaches, which divide most intertextual studies. My hope is not merely to push beyond the current standstill on the relative dates of Job and Isa 40–55, but also to better understand what the author of Job, whom I will argue is the later writer, is doing hermeneutically with his allusions to Isaiah.


Explicating Josephus
Program Unit: Josephus
David Ladouceur, University of Notre Dame

Modern scholars view Josephus in a more complex and nuanced way than their predecessors. Weber’s notion of the historian as a Flavian propagandist appears to be inattentive to ambiguities and contradictions in the War, especially if one adopts a post-colonial sensibility. Similarly, Hoelscher’s conception of Josephus as an unimaginative Vielschreiber subject to his sources has yielded to the late twentieth- century portrait of the historian as a conscious, though inconsistent, literary artist. These complexities pose challenges for the contemporary commentator. Also, given the progress of social-scientific criticism, a traditional historical-critical commentary like Walbank’s on Polybius would not suffice. This paper will exemplify one approach to designing a modern commentary. It will closely analyze a short section of Book 3 to demonstrate how newer forms of criticism , literary as well as social-scientific, may complement traditional criticism and furnish a deeper understanding of the historian. As in the case of Mark and the Greek novelists, even such minute details as repetition and sound effects may be calculated to affect an audience in a recitatio.


Roles and Responsibilities for Older Women in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Mona Tokarek LaFosse, Huron University College

In Titus 2:3-5, pseudo-Paul directs older women to be “good teachers” (kalodidaskaloi) of younger women. Whereas Early Christian scholars have often been interested in the content of the teaching, I consider why the author assumes that the older women had such authority over younger women, and who these older women may be in relation to the younger women. By the late first century, early Christian communities seem to have functioned (or least perceived themselves to function) as fictive kin groups, which included elements of age hierarchy among women who may or may not have had familial connections. In modern traditional Mediterranean cultures, a woman’s role changes as she ages and gains influence and power over her juniors through her life course. Post-marital residence, whether a bride lives near or with her mother-in-law or her mother, or both, makes a difference in the kinds of hierarchical relationships that develop among women. In the ancient Mediterranean, patrilocal (and/or neolocal) arrangements were probably most common, yet papyrological evidence suggests that Roman women in urban areas retained contact with their natal family after marriage. Comparable evidence suggests that in growing urban areas, women may have lived near their natal families (matrivicinal arrangement) and/or relied on support from fictive kin. As an urban phenomenon, early Christian communities provide evidence of the nature of non-elite female relationships in urban contexts. The second century Acts of Paul and Thecla reveals how a young woman named Thecla negotiates relationships with two older women, her (probably) widowed mother and a woman who functions as a fictive mother and patron. The evidence suggests that expected roles for older non-elite women, such as those referred to in Titus 2:3-5, included modeling, teaching, guidance, matchmaking and patronage for younger women.


Age Hierarchy, Honorable Reputation, and Widows in 1 Timothy 5:3–16
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Mona Tokarek LaFosse, Huron University College

In ancient Roman society, the “normal” role for women was that of a wife and mother. Although widowhood was a common occurrence, widows were socially anomalous. Yet they were curiously visible in early Christian communities. Indeed, there may have been proportionally more widows in these communities than in society at large. In 1 Timothy 5:3-16, the author devotes an extended discussion on several groups of widows. Scholars often comment on the difficulty of this text. By looking at the text from the perspective of age structure and women’s life course in the ancient Mediterranean world, I argue that the author perceived a problem with the functioning of age hierarchy in the community. Evidence in Mediterranean ethnographies suggests that the cultural value of honour has important connections with age: public behaviour that violates age norms compromises familial honour. For the author of 1 Timothy, when people in the “household of God” (3:15) did not behave properly according to age norms, it put the whole community at risk of being perceived as dishonourable. For example, the author suggests that some members were not caring for their mothers and grandmothers properly (5:4, 8). Such neglect would be evident to outsiders, and risked compromising the community’s reputation. I propose that the author was even more troubled by a group of middle-aged women who were supposed to take care of the younger women, including younger widows. Represented by the “believing woman who has widows” (5:16), the author perceived middle-aged women as shirking their responsibility to get the younger widows remarried. The author’s enigmatic statements about the younger widows were really directed at these middle-aged women. He contrasts them with the ideal old widow who had proven her virtue over a life-time of modesty, self-control and virtue (5:9-10).


Building on the Promises of God: The Role of Ezra 3 in Constructing Ethnic Boundaries
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Donna Laird, Drew University

The book of Ezra wrestles with a rift in the historical continuity of the community and with a local population at odds over ethnic or cultural boundaries. The author composes an account that authorizes a particular (re)construction of the community that involves a renewed construction of ethnic identity. Denise Buell states that discourses of race and ethnicity rely upon the notion of fixity or primordiality even while they are also always under negotiation and flux and Manning Nash delineates five basic building blocks invoked to construct ethnic categories: the body, language, shared history and origins, religion, and nationality (or territorial rights). Boundary markers that are most pervasive include kinship, commensality, and a common cult. When these basic symbols are less available or visible, other ‘surface’ markers can be employed as stand-ins. Political and historical circumstances constrain which building blocks are invoked and the boundary markers deemed significant. This paper will explore the construction and boundaries of ethnicity symbolized in the account of the rebuilding of the temple foundations. It identifies concepts of identity the author deems ‘fixed’ and the symbols employed to reconstitute the community. It explores the construction of difference in Ezra 3:1-4:5 and what accommodations are made to social change and political realities in its rhetoric of restoration. This paper will argue that Ezra 3, often noted for its themes of continuity and unity around the cult, simultaneously develops distinctions that create the community and non-members. The self-presentation of the worshiping community deemed legitimate in Ezra 3 presupposes excluded alternatives. Pierre Bourdieu’s social theories of field and symbolic language will enable an analysis of the categories and logic employed in the text. This may allow us to elucidate the excluded alternative constructions as well as the limitations on community identity imposed by Persian rule and economic realities.


Current Research and Reflections on Metaphor
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
George Lakoff, University of California, Berkeley

The work of George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and distinguished scholar of metaphor, is widely cited by biblical scholars. This session is dedicated to his influence on biblical studies. Professor Lakoff will deliver the key note address, highlighting current trends in metaphor research. Later, he will respond to papers given by three biblical scholars (Marc Brettler, Pierre Van Hecke, and Karina Hogan) who will reflect on Lakoff's contribution to the field of Bible.


The LXX of Amos 9:12: Misreading, Theologically-Motivated Translation, or Preferred Reading?
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Joseph Lam, University of Chicago

One of the persistent issues in the text-critical analysis of the Book of Amos is the LXX rendering of 9:12. While the MT mentions the nation of Israel "dispossessing" (Heb. yyršw) of the "remnant of Edom" (Heb. š’ryt ’dwm), the LXX declares that it is the "remnant of humanity" (Gk. kataloipoi ton anthropon) who would "seek" (Gk. ekzetesosin) – presumably the LORD, though no direct object is found in context. The importance of this verse is highlighted by the fact that it is quoted as part of Peter’s speech in Acts 15:17, which (for the most part) follows the LXX reading. In contrast to many commentators who would argue that the MT is primary, explaining the LXX as either a plain misreading of the Hebrew or a theologically-motivated translation, this paper contends that it is in fact the LXX which represents a witness to a more original text, based on a careful scrutiny of the grammar and syntax of the various versions. Moreover, having argued for the priority of the LXX, remarks will be offered on the significance of this reading for the interpretation of the Book of Amos as a whole, especially the "epilogue" of 9:11-15.


Metaphor, Lexicalization, and Diachronic Change: The Case of Biblical Hebrew Nasa’
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Joseph Lam, University of Chicago

As scholars have long recognized, the Biblical Hebrew verb nasa’, when used with a noun for sin as its direct object (such as ?awon, ?a??a’t, or peša?), can denote either the ‘forgiving’ of sin or the ‘bearing’ of the consequences thereof, two ostensibly divergent notions. Recent studies (particularly by Baruch Schwartz, and picked up by Gary Anderson) have rightly pointed out that these two notions have their unity in a single idea – namely, the metaphor of sin as a physical burden that weighs upon the sinner. However, the emphasis on a single metaphor behind these two senses of nasa’, while valid as an explanation of the origin of such expressions, has tended to result in the glossing over of important functional and structural differences in their usages in context. This paper will take a fresh look at the relevant occurrences of nasa’ in light of recent theoretical work on metaphor within the philosophy of language. In particular, the phenomenon of “lexicalization,” or the literalization of a metaphor over time, is especially germane to the metaphorical semantics of nasa’, for the use of the verb to denote ‘forgiveness’ shows evidence of having been highly idiomatic in most if not all of its contexts of occurrence. Furthermore, the distribution of the two usages (with the sense of ‘bearing’ sin being limited to the Priestly source, Ezekiel, and Isaiah 53:12) suggests the possibility of a dialectical, if not diachronic, explanation for the development of these expressions. The relationship between these metaphorical senses and the usage of the Akkadian cognate našû(m), which like its Hebrew counterpart is found in legal formulations denoting the ‘bearing’ of sin’s consequences, will also be discussed.


Job's "Repentance"
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
David Lambert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In a recent article and SBL presentation, Michael V. Fox has argued for the essential unity of the book of Job. Apparent discrepancies between its introduction and conclusion are a function of Job and Job’s readers having different vantage points. Job is not privy to the real reason for God’s actions and is forced to confess his ignorance and repent. The current paper aims to extend the basic force of Fox’s argument regarding the structure of the book but does so by challenging his reading of Job 42:6, Job’s so-called “repentance.” While I accept the view of the work as essentially pietist, reading the repudiation in Job 42:6 as penitential, as directed within, is anachronistic, and much more appropriate to a post-biblical context. Neither a general idea of “repentance” nor the terms used in the verse for “repudiate/recant/relent” figure as positive ideals in wisdom literature or biblical literature as a whole. Instead, the repudiation found in Job 42:6 should be understood in the context of ritual mourning as indicating a relinquishing or giving up of the mourning period. In fact, the entire book should be understood against this ritual backdrop, with Job’s friends initially charged with compelling Job to end his ritual state. God alone, through the force of his words, finally succeeds in doing so, which results in Job’s final declaration: “I repudiate and change course with respect to [my current state of] dust and ashes.” What challenges the modern reader is recognizing the ways in which mourning in the Hebrew Bible entail an element of protest. Thus, Job’s stance against God is one with his mourning over his condition. Ultimately, a ritual, as opposed to contrition-based, reading of the line provides further support for Fox’s overall position.


Refreshing Philology: James Barr and the Semantics of Biblical Language
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
David Lambert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In contemporary academic inquiry, fifty years is a long time to be reading a book. Ideally, we would no longer need to read James Barr’s _The Semantics of Biblical Language_: his criticisms of theology’s use of philology would have been incorporated and submerged within the field, and their author only dimly remembered. But biblical scholars have not yet heard Barr. Many philological discussions today, including updated theological dictionaries, may be traced still to Kittel’s _Theological Dictionary of the New Testament_. As fluency in biblical languages continues to decline, the kinds of abuses that Barr so clearly identified and critiqued only appear to be on the rise; indeed, non-specialists frequently expand upon old or invent new forms when they turn to words to buttress their arguments. As a way of exploring the current state of the field, the first half of the current paper takes up the case of _metanoia_, its meaning and use in the New Testament and related literature. The second half of the paper, however, goes on to consider the ways in which Barr or, at least, a certain reading of Barr may be responsible for the failure of philology—with the exclusion of a number of recent, intriguing studies—to develop apace other forms of inquiry into biblical literature over the past fifty years. Barr’s thoroughgoing critique of its specious appropriation for theology has left many justifiably skittish about employing it to any significant effect and has contributed, perhaps, to the sense that ongoing engagement with the original languages of biblical literature is not a necessity and, certainly, not an avenue to creative scholarship. The paper will conclude with a few examples of how we might approach a study of language as a way of arriving at critical insight into the cultural particularities of, among other topics, ancient Israelite thinking about “mind” and “emotions.”


"The Poor Will Always Be with You": Another Look at Suspicion and Identification in Ecological Hermeneutics
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

At last year's meeting of SBL, Norman Habel's book, An Inconvenient Text, was reviewed by several scholars. Two reviewers made poignant observations about the book in particular and about the enterprise of ecological hermeneutics in general. One reviewer noted that perhaps anthropocentric bias is not only unavoidable in addressing ecological concerns, both within the Bible and with interpreters themselves, but that perhaps it might play a constructive role in reading the Bible ecologically. Another reviewer brought out the importance of hearing from the poor and oppressed as they cry out in the face of environmental degradation. In light of these two observations, it is perhaps possible that the criteria employed in ecological hermeneutics might benefit from a strategic reorientation in their application. On the one hand, the hermeneutic proceeds from the perspective that the Bible is written by human beings who often display an anthropocentric bias over against Earth, yet the hermeneutic seeks to find points of identification with Earth so that human beings might empathize with Earth. But is there a limitation for those framed as so fundamentally separated from Earth as to exhibit a scriptural bias against Earth to empathize with, that is, to enter into or co-experience with, the plight of Earth? It seems that what the hermeneutic suggests is more like sympathy, to understand imaginatively and show compassion for Earth. This paper will suggest that one way to empathize with Earth is to empathize with the poor and oppressed in the world, who suffer directly as Earth suffers environmental degradation. The field of environmental justice offers ways to address environmental degradation as part of a redress of the injustice experienced by the poor. So the hermeneutic might capitalize on anthropocentric bias as a starting point for identification with Earth by helping those not so dramatically affected by ecological degradation to identify with those who are, and by extension, with the suffering Earth that is so intimately bound up with the poor and oppressed.


Of Gods and Demons at Corinth
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
John R. Lanci, Stonehill College

“Of Gods and Demons at Corinth” Proposal for the SAMR Session “The Book and the Rock” John R. Lanci Stonehill College In chapters eight and ten of 1 Corinthians, Paul appears to address a situation in which the first followers of Jesus at Corinth are being tempted to worship idols in temples and at the homes of their differently-believing neighbors. Particularly in 1 Corinthians 10, he comes down hard against partnering with “demons” (daimonia) when eating and drinking. Paul’s articulation of the situation—worshipping either God or evil demons—has stood the test of time and framed our understanding of the “Christians” at Corinth to this day. However, in this paper I suggest that archaeological excavations of private homes in first century Roman cities such as Corinth yields a different picture and a different way of framing the Corinthians’ situation. For gentiles, daimonia were not necessarily bad entities to venerate; indeed, these “lesser gods” were a fundamental component of the rich mix that constituted Greco-Roman popular religion. It is possible that Paul’s letter offers evidence of a Corinthian attempt to honor their ancestral household deities while at the same time incorporating beliefs in Christ into traditional domestic life. After a brief discussion of the various meanings of the words we translate as “idol” and “demon,” I will quickly survey archaeological material from Corinth and elsewhere that points to the positive role that daimonia played in the domestic sphere. I will conclude, using methods developed by those who practice “history from below,” that 1 Corinthians displays evidence for on-going negotiation between Paul and his correspondents that led not to conversion—probably an inappropriate religious concept to consider in the first century anyway—but to accommodation of old and new religious rituals and beliefs in Corinth.


Mystical Practice and Experience in the Syriac Revelation of the Magi
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Brent Landau, University of Oklahoma

This paper examines the Revelation of the Magi, an apocryphal Christian text preserved in Syriac, with an eye to better understanding the unusual phenomena described in this document—purportedly narrated by the Magi of Matthew’s Gospel. Its first aim is to assess whether the experiences of the Magi in this text actually represent the lived experiences of some early Christians, a methodological challenge familiar to interpreters of pseudepigraphical Jewish and Christian literature. This paper argues that there is indeed sufficient evidence to regard these textualized events as derivatives of a “real world” religious experience. Its second aim is, then, to determine whether any known Christian communities may have experienced the events found in this text. Its third and final aim is to consider in more detail several of the stranger and more distinctive practices and experiences in the Revelation of the Magi: the Magi’s practice of silent prayer; their ingesting of a substance that leads to polymorphic visions of Christ; and Christ’s manifestation to them in the oddly-described form of “a small and humble human being.”


“Jesus Never Existed”: An Intellectual History of the Jesus-Myth Thesis
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Brent Landau, University of Oklahoma

At approximately the same time as the initiation of Leben-Jesu-Forschung in the late eighteenth century, the French Enlightenment thinkers Dupuis and Volney first advanced the theory that the historical Jesus, in fact, never existed. Since then, the so-called “Jesus-Myth Thesis” has been articulated by numerous authors, with wildly varying degrees of sophistication. Although such a theory has never commanded much of a following within the guild of professional biblical scholars, the writings of some proponents attracted the attention of such figures as Napoleon, Engels, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and even Lenin. Recent versions of this thesis exercise a small but noticeable impact on understandings of Jesus in popular culture, and in some cases manage to be more influential than mainstream historical Jesus research. This paper seeks to trace the evolution of the Jesus-Myth Thesis over the past two hundred years. Its primary aim is to describe and understand a movement that is generally ignored by contemporary New Testament scholars. Furthermore, it suggests that although this theory has very little to commend to it in terms of plausibility, its continued viability should engender more reflection and concern among biblical scholars than it does at present.


Spatial Relations: Representing Sites of Conflict and Conquest in Late Roman North Africa
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Shira Lander, Rice University

(For the joint session with the Religious World of Late Antiquity on "Material Remains of Violence") North Africa witnessed several violent clashes throughout the fourth and early fifth centuries caused by religious, political, and/or ethnic conflict. Such violence sometimes targeted sacred sites, which were vandalized or destroyed and then reused or rebuilt by victors to commemorate their triumph. Although the violence was sometimes memorialized specifically through physical objects, church leaders also used liturgical narratives and processions that represented the site as the product of violent conquest as a way to create the image of a triumphant church. In contrast to traditional martyrological images of Christians as objects of violence, which attempted to invert power relations by portraying martyrs as champions whose triumph over death was rewarded in the afterlife, this new rhetoric of violence located Christian power in the here-and-now, construing earth as well as heaven as domains falling under Christian dominion. The power dynamic is further complicated by the alliance of Roman authorities with North African Catholics. This paper will explore how North African Christians employed rhetoric and objects to represent and commemorate violent triumphalism for the different communities who used them.


Is Phaedrus Also among the Prophets?
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Francis Landy, University of Alberta

In two parallel scenes in Isaiah, 7.9-25 and 8.1-18, the conception and birth of a child is a sign of the imminent end of the Syro-Ephraimite threat and the advent of the Assyrians. The child is a sign of the future, as are all children, and of the immemorial past; the birth of Immanuel, in particular, has Mosaic, patriarchal and edenic echoes, and promises a reunification of the Davidic kingdom. Maher-Shallal-Hash-Baz is preinscribed, the progeny of prophetic witness. His birth evokes the intimacy between prophet and prophetess, who may represent two kinds of prophetic speech, and a supplementarity that cannot be contained by the sign or the message. We do not know what Immanuel will be; if, for instance, he is the son of Ahaz, he may be a success or failure. Maher-Shallal-Hash-Baz, likewise, learns to say “Daddy, Mummy”, independent of the great events he signifies. In the story of Maher-Shallal-Hash-Baz the child is paralleled to writing. As a sign, he does not need witnesses, but embodies his message. Similarly, Isaiah and his sons are signs (8.18), whose meaning is sealed, testimony to divine concealment. We will read Isaiah 7.9-8.18 in conjunction with Derrida’s discussion of Plato’s Phaedrus. Plato argues that writing is inferior to living speech, since it is an orphaned son, ever adrift from its original author. However, the metaphor Socrates uses to describe living speech is that of writing, an inscription on the soul etched more deeply than any grapheme. Isaiah’s children exist only on the page and our imagination; they are bearers of the fate of Israel and the promise of the new age. But they are also themselves, with an unknown destiny, resistant to any meaning ascribed to them.


Reading, Writing, and the Parable of the Book
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Francis Landy, University of Alberta

In Isaiah 29.11-12 there is a strange parable in which the vision of everything is compared to a sealed book, which the literate person cannot read, because it is sealed, and the illiterate one cannot read, he says, because he cannot read. The parable raises questions about the nature of reading, writing, interpretation and esotericism, in antiquity and in the present, which I hope to explore with the help of Derrida, Levinas, and Robert Gibbs. The vision of all suggests a totality, as well as clarity, in which nothing impedes the gaze; however, the vision can only be of the invisible, since it is the prophetic vision of that which is not manifest. The context, with its torpid seers and its allusions to Isaiah's commission in 6.9-10, in which he is commanded to instil incomprehension, and the people to see not to see, indicates that the parable is emblematic of the Isaiah book and of literature in general. It is connected to many other references to the book in the book of Isaiah, a book which is both open and closed, coterminous with the history of the world and surpassing it. Derrida has been fascinated by the metaphor of the world as a book from his earliest writings; the book, however, is the trace of that which is beyond the book (writer, reader, death), and the refusal to admit to that death (as one refuses to admit Derrida’s). In Levinas, and Gibbs, this becomes a question of ethics; writing and reading as an inscription, a retracing, of all that has been said (Le Dit) and an opening to the responsibility before all reading and writing, the call to attentiveness to the entreaty of the other. If I have time, I would like to turn to the image of the weariness of the flesh in Qohelet, to suggest the relationship of writing, scepticism, and the body.


“Where the Body Is, There Also the Eagles Will Be Gathered”: Luke 17:37 and the Arrest of Jesus
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
T.J. Lang, Duke University

This paper presents a new reading of the Lukan eagle logion (17:37). My interpretation depends on three primary exegetical commitments. 1) I want to respect the Lukan redaction and, thus, resist the temptation to harmonize Luke’s version of the logion with its Matthean counterpart (Mt. 24:28). Matthew places this saying within his apocalyptic discourse in ch.24, in the immediate context of the Son of Man’s sudden parousia, and has the eagles gathering around a corpse (t? pt?µa). Luke, by contrast, locates the saying within his so-called “travel narrative,” in the immediate context of a direct address by Jesus to his disciples, and places the eagles around a body (t? s?µa). 2) Since regarding Lukan redaction requires a reader to appreciate the narrative context of the saying, it is necessary to respect that the logion occurs in an address by Jesus to his disciples and as an answer to their question. One should assume that Jesus’ answer is directly relevant to those disciples in that narrative and not subsequent followers of Jesus, as most interpreters conclude or imply. 3) As several recent studies have shown, it is now imperative that interpreters take seriously the identity of the ?et?? in this saying as “eagles” and not “vultures.” My thesis is that the “eagles” correspond to hostile, capturing forces—as they are represented on numerous occasions in Jewish literature—and that the “body” corresponds to Jesus himself—as in the five occurrences of the term following ch.17. According to this reading, Jesus warns his disciples of an impending division among them. When they ask where this division will occur (v.36), Jesus answers with a parabolic prophecy that foreshadows the night of his arrest (ch.22), when enemy forces gather and divide him from the disciples and the disciples from each other.


1 Corinthians 2 and the Deuteropauline Development of a “Mystery Schema” of Revelation
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
T. J. Lang, Duke University

This paper explores the origin and reception history of what I term the deuteropauline “mystery schema” of revelation. My primary thesis is that the deuteropauline adoption of Pauline mystery material and the second century adoption of deuteropauline mystery material represent similar instances of the creative adaptation of precursor tradition. I first demonstrate how in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Thessalonians µ?st?????/µ?st???a appears in various unlike ways. In the deuteropauline letters of Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, and the Romans 16:25-27 interpolation, however, the term begins to be used in a consistent manner to express a particular understanding of divine revelation and the significance of this revelation for the Gentiles. I argue that 1 Corinthians 2 is the archetype for the deuteropauline mystery schema, supplying the key cluster of terms and the basic hidden/revealed binary. There are, nonetheless, important and often unrecognized differences between 1 Corinthians 2 and the deuteropauline texts. Rather than describing the mystery as something that divides ages, the mystery in 1 Corinthians 2 is something that divides coexisting groups into those who do and do not possess God’s spirit. Such a construal of revelation is absent—and even contradicted—in the deuteropauline versions. Also lacking in 1 Corinthians 2 is the special focus on the Gentiles in relation to God’s eternal mystery, an essential feature of the deuteropauline mystery passages. I next examine the subsequent reception history of Paul’s mystery terminology. I contend that it is primarily the deuteropauline codification of the mystery schema—and not the usages found within the undisputed Paulines—that is adopted by second century figures like Ignatius, the author of the Epistle to Diognetus, Melito, and Justin Martyr. Though the deuteropauline codification was a successful one, however, these theologians faced different theological problems and thus their employments of the mystery schema do different theological work. But this is true of the deuteropauline use of Pauline material as well.


The Jeremiah Septuagint in Light of the Greek Text of Ben Sira
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Armin Lange, Universität Wien

The Book of Ben Sira includes several allusions to and quotations of the Book of Jeremiah. The extant Hebrew text leaves little doubt that Ben Sira himself based these employments on a Jeremiah text which was close to the MT version of this book. In his Greek translation, the grandson renders his grandfather’s Jeremiah allusions and quotations mostly without regress to the Jeremiah Septuagint. The only exception to this rule is Jeremiah’s description in the Praise of the Fathers. In Sir 49:7, the grandson bases his rendition of the allusions to Jer 1:5, 10 on the Septuagint although the Hebrew text of Ben Sira employed in both cases the MT text of Jeremiah. That Ben Sira’s grandson knew hence the Jeremiah-LXX and employed it, is further corroborated by allusions to Jer 5:31 (Sir 12:18) and Jer 21:12 (Sir 4:9) which the grandson added to the Greek text of Ben Sira. Both allusions are taken from the Jeremiah-LXX. The Greek translation of Ben Sira establishes thus a terminus ante quem for the Greek translation of Jeremiah before the year 117 B.C.E.


The Date of the Proto-Masoretic Text of Jeremiah in Light of Its Quotations
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Armin Lange, Universität Wien

When the proto-Masoretic text of Jeremiah came into being is one of the more debated questions in the study of the Book of Jeremiah. While some scholars suggest early Hasmonean times (e.g. A. Schenker, ETL 70 [1994]: 281-93) others argue for a third century B.C.E. date (e.g. P.-M. Bogaert, BETL 54, 168-73.430-32). Although the proto-Masoretic manuscript 4QJera (4Q70) dates paleographically to the years 225-175 B.C.E. the debate about the date of the proto-Masoretic text of Jeremiah remained undecided as textual damages destroyed most of the additional long texts of proto-MT-Jer in this manuscript. Six allusions to the proto-Masoretic text of Jeremiah in 4QInstructiond (4Q418) 8 12 (Jer 17:9); Aramaic Levi Document 13:11 (Jer 20:5); Neh 9:36 (Jer 2:7); Zech 14:11 (Jer 33:16); Est 9:22 (Jer 31[38]:13); and Plea for Deliverance (11QPsa [11Q11] XIX:13; Jer 33[40]:8) support a third century B.C.E. date and provide thus important corroborative evidence for a Ptolemaic setting of the proto-Masoretic text of Jeremiah.


The Severus Scroll in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Qumran
Armin Lange, Universität Wien

Medieval Biblical manuscripts and the late Rabbinic Midrash Bereshit Rabbati by Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan of Narbonne preserve lists of variants recorded from a Torah-Scroll that the Roman emperor Severus – probably Alexander Severus (222-35 C.E.) – donated to a synagogue in Rome. The variants recorded in this list have been the object of several studies. Partly due to the delayed publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, to date, the Torah Scrolls from the Dead Sea, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the textcritical evidence of biblical quotations and allusions from Second Temple Jewish literature have not been taken into full consideration in the study of the Severus Scroll variant lists. A comparison with the textcritical evidence from the Second Temple period finds some of the Severus Scroll variants also attested in textual witnesses from the Second Temple period and confirms thus earlier claims by Siegel as to the antiquity of the Severus Scroll readings (J. P. Siegel, The Severus Scroll and 1QIsaa). Contrary to the classification of the Severus Scroll as a vulgar manuscript by Siegel and others, comparison with the biblical manuscripts from the Dead Sea shows that it was part of the protomasoretic textual tradition of the Pentateuch. As other texts from that textual tradition, the Severus Scroll attested to a few exceptional readings against the consonantal text of MT. Some of the Severus Scroll variants can even be found in medieval Masoretic manuscripts of the Pentateuch. That several hundred years after the destruction of the Second Temple Jewish scholars found the variant readings of the Severus Scroll worth recording points to the progress in the textual standardization achieved since the Second Temple Period.


Weeping Shouts of Joy: Restoration and Separation in Ezra-Nehemiah
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Tim Langille, University of Toronto

For some mnemonic communities, restoration and recovery from traumatic events require processes of cleansing or eliminating outsiders or the impure part of the self. Moreover, representations of ruptures and watershed events provide a venue for identity formation in that they mark transitions between periods and breaks between collective identities (Zerubavel 2003). These notions of pure beginnings and collective intactness, which exclude identifiable outsiders from a uniform way of life, may emerge out of responses to trauma (LaCapra 2001). The intimately related and intertwined phenomena of collective trauma, collective memory, and collective identity have the potential to unite or divide (Erikson 1994; Smelser 2004). In instances of division, fault lines in collectivities result in a bifurcation of the collective self that separates the pure self from the spoiled, contaminated, and polluted elements of the social body (Erikson 1994; LaCapra 1994). This paper will analyze the ways in which Ezra and Nehemiah construct an exclusive collective identity through sites of traumatic memory—namely, the Exodus, the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple, and the Exile. More specifically, I will argue that both texts revisit these sites of memory in creating a bifurcation of the collective self that separates the pure from the impure, or the returned exiles from the people of the land. In doing so, Ezra and Nehemiah use empty land narratives, telescoped time, and the notion of a pure remnant emerging out of exile after the destruction of the first temple to authorize their claims to the land and the priesthood. First, this paper will focus on the ways in which Ezra and Nehemiah separate their communities from the ‘impure Other’ geographically with the Exile and physically with the building projects of the temple and the wall (Janzen 2008)—thereby creating the space necessary for identity dissociation and construction (Ezra 1–6; Nehemiah 1–7:72a). Second, I will focus on the ways in which the repetitive temporality of traumatic memory triggers and collapses the distinctions between the past and present in the texts—events and figures—so that the desires of the present are imposed on the past and historical figures are used to authorize the discourse of the text (Ezra 3; 7; Nehemiah 8–9). As such, Ezra and Nehemiah model the process of restoration on the Exodus—thereby linking their communities to Moses, Aaron, and Sinai—and establish Torah as the community constitution (Ezra 7; Nehemiah 8) that separates the pure from the impure (Ezra 9–10; Nehemiah 9:2-4; 10:29-40; 13).


Old Memories, New Identities: Memory, Exile, and Identity Formation in Damascus Document and Pesher Habakkuk
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Tim Langille, University of Toronto

The malleable and active processes of memory work in such a way that more recent events are constantly combined and integrated with earlier sites of memory to form flexible mental schemas. As such, memories of real and imagined events flow back and forth in time, from past to present, and vice versa. Cultural memories of trauma are intergenerational sites of memory that may be revisited by later groups with new causes and extended into their social worlds. For instance, the analogy between the Exodus from Egypt and the return from the Babylonian Exile established in Jeremiah, Second Isaiah, and Ezra-Nehemiah was appropriated by later mnemonic communities, such as those that produced Damascus Document and Pesher Habakkuk. This paper will look at the ways in which the traumatic memories of the destruction of the first temple and the subsequent exile are revisited as sites of memory that are used for identity formation in Damascus Document and Pesher Habakkuk. More specifically, I will argue that both texts revisit these sites of memory in creating a bifurcation of the collective self that separates the elect from the traitors, or the pure from the impure. In other words, I will consider the ways in which Damascus Document and Pesher Habakkuk represent restoration and recovery from destruction and exile as processes of cleansing or eliminating impure elements from the collective self. In this paper, I will focus on the following: 1) the ways in which the repetitive temporality of traumatic memory triggers and collapses the distinctions between the past and present—events and figures—so that the desires of the present are imposed on the past and historical figures are used to authorize the discourse of the text; 2) the roles of spatial exile and temporal continuity and discontinuity in separating the elect from the traitors; 3) the role of memories of exile and return in imagining the desired end of a restoration of Jerusalem and the temple.


“Zealots for Good Works”: The Polemical Repercussions of the Word Zelotes in Titus 2:14
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Benjamin J. Lappenga, Fuller Theological Seminary

Although zelotes can be used to convey the sense “eager,” translating zeloten kalon ergon in Titus 2:14 as “eager for good works” masks the rhetorical significance of the word zelotes and the way the “hymn” in 2:11-14 contributes to the polemical concerns of the letter as a whole. When attention is given to several thematic elements that link this passage with the overtly polemical sections of the letter, it can be demonstrated that the textually and culturally grounded effect of the word zelotes in 2:14 is primarily to reinforce the polemic against the opponents more explicitly stated in 1:10-16 and 3:3, 9-11. This polemic operates on two levels. First, zelotes, because it is used with a genitive object to be “emulated” in a way that is widely attested in Greek literature and inscriptions, sharply contrasts with specific terminology applied to the opponents in the overtly polemical sections of the letter. Second, the cotext sets up the word zelotes in a way that interacts with widely recognized Jewish applications of the term and clashes with the Jewish nature of the opposition by replacing “zelos for the law” with “zelos for good works.” These observations sharpen our understanding of the rhetorical strategy in the letter of Titus, but also raise questions about the use of “zeal” as an identity marker in Titus, the undisputed Pauline corpus, and other first-century Jewish writings that may prove illuminating for historical and theological concerns alike.


Johannine Scholarship Today: The Nordic Contribution
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Kasper B. Larsen, Aarhus University, Denmark

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The Iconic Gospel as Monument: Gospel Books as Imperialized Sites of Memory in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Jason T. Larson, Bates College

When Constantine the Great wrote to Eusebius, the chief librarian and scholar-in-residence at Caesarea sometime around 322 instructing him to produce fifty copies of the Christian Scriptures for use in the new imperial churches in Constantinople, he fused Roman and Christian technologies of memory with conventional book production to create a new image of imperial power. Constantine's Bible was more than what we might today call a “pew Bible” in the ancient churches of Constantinople. It was the prototype for the spectacular monumental Bibles that came to signify both the presence of Christ and the power of Roman imperium in late ancient orthodox Christianity. As Gregory of Tours notes in the Gloria Confessorum, Gospel books were used as gifts to and from emperors. They filled the empty throne of Christ as surrogates for the absent Christ during imperial trials and ecclesiastical councils, as Caroline Humfress and Claudia Rapp have demonstrated, and according to Isidore of Seville, they signified that “the Lord himself is present” when the Gospels were ritually opened during church services. This paper considers the intersection of Christian and Imperial memory at the site of the physical Gospel book. Besides describing the function of gospel books in the post-Constantine Roman Empire, it examines the connection between the Roman construction and production of sites of memory that established Roman imperium in the Mediterranean and the development of the Christian Gospel codex as a site of memory within Christianity. It also explores the related issues of imperial and divine power as manifest through material things and the rhetoric of seeing and iconicity. The article shows that the Christian Gospels and Roman sites of memory, despite a vast difference in their intended functions and original uses, bear striking similarity to each other in that the Gospel books became Roman sites of memory that established imperium. It maintains that the creation of the Gospels' imperial iconicity was not based on their function as texts of spiritual enlightenment in late ancient Christianity, but on the fact that the production of Gospels as material cultural objects was analogous to iconic Roman cultural exemplars and ideological rhetoric.


“Go in Peace” or “Go to Hell”? Elisha, Naaman, and the Meaning of Monotheism in 2 Kings 5
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Stuart Lasine, Wichita State University

In 2 Kings 5 Naaman's skin disease is healed after he follows Elisha's advice and washes himself in the Jordan river. Naaman immediately declares that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Shortly thereafter he asks Elisha for Yahweh's pardon when he bows down in the temple of Rimmon with his lord, the Aramean king. Elisha's only reply is "?? ?????"("Go in/to peace"). Does this mean that the prophet has granted Naaman permission to claim exclusive devotion to Yahweh and nevertheless bow down to another god? Most modern commentators believe that it does. Among the remainder, most conclude that Elisha's reply is too laconic to justify such a conclusion. However, a few believe that Elisha’s words are an ironic way of refusing Naaman's plea. In the blunt assessment of one such critic, Elisha's "'Go in peace!' is a kind of 'Go to hell!'" Much seems to be at stake, considering how often this story has been used to justify—or condemn—the practice of "bowing down in the house of Rimmon." To what extent are our interpretations of Elisha's reply influenced by our own assumptions about the appropriate way to profess and show loyalty to the biblical God? After addressing this issue I will examine Elisha's general attitude toward worship of other gods. Does Elisha really have any interest in stamping out worship of foreign gods in Israel, as do the zealous Elijah and Jehu? Is Naaman really espousing an "absolute" monotheistic faith, as some scholars contend? After examining the narrator's attitude toward syncretistic religious practices in other biblical texts, I conclude by deciding whether it is more likely that Elisha's words are meant as a heartfelt "go in peace," as an expression of indifference, or as a harshly dismissive "go to hell!"


The Roman and the Foreign: Metroac Subculture at Rome and Ostia
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Jacob A. Latham, University of California-Santa Barbara

According to Dick Hebdige’s now classical formulation of the relationship between dominant groups and subcultures argues that “the tensions between dominant and subordinate groups can be found reflected in the surfaces of subculture … style is the area in which [they] clash…” (Hebdige, Subculture 2-3) Style defines a subculture. Hebdige’s conceptualization certainly illuminates certain aspects of the cult of Magna Mater at Rome. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Phrygian-styled “fabulous clap-trap” was carefully segregated from the pious Roman games. On the one hand, the Phrygians dressed wildly, cavorted with their goddess in the street, and begged abjectly for alms. While, on the other, the Roman praetors offered sacrifices and games. By law, again according to Dionyius of Halicarnassus, no native born Roman could participate in the foreign rites of the Great Mother. The scornful treatment of the galli in contrast the pious considerations of the goddess herself well illustrates this division at the heart of the Roman cult of Magna Mater. Roman authors of the late republic and early empire consistently construed the galli, castrated devotees of the great mother, as flamboyantly dressed religious zealots, whose dress and devotion both violated Roman norms. Magna Mater, however, was deemed chaste and pious—a protector of Rome as signaled by her mural crown. Thus, the galli, in particular, or adherents to the Metroac cult, in general, were imagined by Roman literary sources as a subculture—their differentiation from Roman-ness largely indicated by the style of garb and cult. Subcultural style is more than group definition however. It is also rebellion. Style, according to Hebdige, becomes a form of refusal, “a gesture of defiance or contempt.” (Hebdige, 3) This defiance may be best seen in the self-representations of the adherents to this cult. In the early empire, the devotees of Magna Mater represented and celebrated themselves in the very ways that Roman literary sources criticized them (dress and ritual accoutrement in particular). In imagery and inscriptions, members of the Metroac cult reveled in and took ownership of their imagined alterity—seemingly as a source of pride. In particular, a funerary relief from Ostia represents a flamboyantly dressed gallus with long hair, ornate headdress, earrings, and a necklace—all the stereotypical signs of effeminacy proudly displayed. Stylistic distinction fashioned group identity even though the style was despised by the dominant culture. Of course, with Magna Mater, we must remember that her cult was officially imported to Rome, housed within the pomerium, and patronized by aristocrats, emperors, and empresses. More than that, Lynn Roller has recently argued that most of the supposedly foreign, Phrygian, traits were actually Roman inventions. The cult of Magna Mater at Rome was purposively manufactured as “foreign.” In the end, the outrageous and seemingly wildly un-Roman subculture of devotees of Magna Mater were part of, even constituent of, normative romanitas. Cultures and subcultures need each other in order to define themselves.


The Use of War Rhetoric in Finnish History during the Second World War
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Kari Latvus, University of Helsinki

In the Winter War (1939-1940) Finland lost part of its territory to the Soviet Union. In The Continuation War Finland joined the German attack against the Soviet Union in 1941. Part of the national motivation was connected to the wish to reoccupy the lost land but, also, wishes to occupy other areas in East Karelia were expressed. For many the attack in 1941 was a “crusade” and holy war. The paper examines the war rhetoric during the years 1941-1942. The paper analyses how the terminology used in the book of Joshua was reinterpreted in the Finnish wartime context. After the analysis of Finnish context, the paper will also return to the book of Joshua to explore its ideological motivation. Postcolonial analysis will be used in the study of book of Joshua.


Trajectories in the Hebrew Bible Poverty Research
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Kari Latvus, Helsingin Yliopisto - Helsingfors Universitet

Including the current quest, Hebrew Bible poverty studies have experienced at least three major waves during the last century. At the end of 19th century, the first wave was introduced by A. Rahlfs who argued that large number of psalms were written by the ‘anawim, a group of pious but not so poor people. The debate about the party of the poor were continued by W.W.G. Baudissin, J. Van der Ploeg and summed up by A. Gelin. While Rahlfs represented strictly philological approach, Gelin prepared the way to a new theological orientation. In 1960s, a new interest was triggered by social-scientific approach and the growing awareness of the poverty issues. Especially the impetus of liberation theology (G. Gutierrez; N. Gottwald; later also L. Hoppe) was obvious. The third major trend was introduced by D. Pleins, and followed among others by W. Domeris, J. Berman. These approaches grew from the soil prepared by liberation theology but they developed new entries. Current issues of the study focus on polyphonic nature of Hebrew Bible poverty texts, role of the poor (behind the text and in the text), and application of new methods, like intercontextual study, ideological and postcolonial criticism. All these trends have been connected to their own cultural backgrounds. The studies reflect the attitudes of the writers and also exegetical, political and social values of each period.


The Pattern of Deuteronomy 30:1–10 in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Benjamin Laugelli, University of Virginia

In the paper I argue that the Gospel of Mark patterns its plot after the schema for Israel's restoration from exile adumbrated in Deut 30.1-10 in order to construct for its readers an innovative narrative identity centered on the figure of Jesus. Deut 30.1-10 contains a schema, placed on Moses' lips, that outlines Israel's restoration from exile in four successive stages: (1) Israel's exile from its ancestral land, v. 1a; (2) Israel's turn to its god, Yahweh, in renewed allegiance, vv. 1b-2, 10; (3) Yahweh's turn to Israel to restore the exiles to their homeland, vv. 3-5; and (4) Yahweh's renewal of Israel's collective heart and covenantal blessings, vv. 6-9. This schema is a literary construct designed to imbue Israel's history with meaning by giving it a narrative configuration. Deut 30.1-10 represents one attempt to refigure Israel's identity in the wake of the national crisis precipitated by Judah's defeat and exile in the early sixth century BCE. I argue that the Gospel of Mark engages Deuteronomy 30.1-10 as a canonical script awaiting performance. Mark has appropriated Deuteronomy's schema for Israel's restoration to structure the plot of its narrative about Jesus of Nazareth. The amalgamated scriptural quotations that commence the Gospel align the narrative with stage 1 of the Deuteronomic plot. These quotations presume both that Israel's exile persists into the first century CE and that Israel's god is about to bring it to an end. The first episode in Mark, John the Baptizer's summons to national repentance, corresponds to stage 2 of Deuteronomy's schema, Israel's turn to Yahweh in renewed obedience. John's activity at the Jordan River functions to presage and catalyze Israel's eschatological restoration. The rest of the narrative in Mark concerns stages 3 and 4 in Deut 30.1-10. Jesus functions both as the agent of Yahweh's compassionate turn to repentant Israel and as the embodiment of restored Israel itself. To facilitate narrative identity formation the Gospel of Mark has replicated and adapted the sequence for Israel's restoration set out in Deut 30.1-10. The act of replication lends authority to Mark since the Gospel implements the pattern of the Mosaic exemplar. At the same time, the act of adaptation brings the schema set out in Deut 30.1-10 into alignment with Mark's innovative ideological program for Israel's restoration centered on the figure of Jesus. This enables the Gospel to claim the privileged identity of restored Israel for readers who affirm with the Roman centurion that the crucified Jesus is God's son.


The Indwelling Spirit of Ezek 36:26–27 in the Ezekielian Tradition
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Dale Launderville, Saint John's University

The theological richness of the concept of the indwelling Spirit in Ezek 36:26-27 calls for an explanation of the status of this passage in the textual history and structure of the Book of Ezekiel. This paper will examine the uses of the term ruah in the Book of Ezekiel to make the case that the indwelling Spirit of Ezek 36:26-27 is integral to the Book of Ezekiel. This view is challenged by the claim that P967, which omits Ezek 36:23c-38, is based on a Hebrew Vorlage closer to the Hebrew Urtext than that of the MT and LXX. This paper will argue that the MT of Ezekiel 36-39 has an equal, if not greater claim to priority , but will entertain the option of the possible priority of P967 in order to explain in such a scenario how Ezek 36:26-27 might have come to be included in the MT in the Ezekelian tradition.


Sensing the Mediterranean
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Louise Lawrence, University of Exeter

Criticisms of the Mediterranean as a discrete cultural area need little rehearsal here. The conflation of cultural diversity (Herzfeld 1984), the forced isolation of characteristic themes as the ‘quintessential and dominant questions of interest in the region’ (Appadurai 1986, [honour and shame, gendered division of labour, atomistic kinship, evil eye etc]) along with a suspicion that a political agenda is at play to distance Anglo-American anthropologists from dwellers of the Mediterranean region (Pina Carbral 1989) have all featured prominently in the literature. Others have purposefully focused on how the socially marginal and muted agents (particularly females) often under-represented in the ethnographic record do not neatly enact or support the constructed social systems of which they are assumed to be a part (see Abu-Lughod 1993 and Papataxiarchis 2001). Here, adopting a rather different tact, a review of sensory studies of southern Europe and the Middle East will be conducted. Sensory anthropology is a relatively new discipline which explores the ways in which particular contexts and cultures use and value ‘senses’ differently. One can start to perceive a sensory profile evidenced in elements such as language, material objects, the body, values, cosmology the built environment etc. One particularly important contribution of this discipline has been to raise the profile of the sensory impaired, the blind and deaf etc., and how they differently negotiate the cultural contexts of which they are a part. Shlomo Deshen’s 1992 ethnography, Blind People: The Private and Public Lives of Sightless Israelis for example, documents the experience of visual impairment and the resulting reconfiguration of identity and family ties. Such studies offer different ideas of belonging to [so-called] ‘Mediterranean’ cultures, offer alternative perspectives from which to construct ‘Mediterranean’ identities and, as will be seen, provide new heuristic perspectives from which to approach a variety of Gospel traditions.


A Nation without a State: Constituting the People of God in the Synoptic Gospels
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Donn Leatherman, Southern Adventist University

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A Digital New Testament for Sound and Performance
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Margaret E. Lee, Tulsa Community College

Electronic editions of the New Testament respond to many needs of contemporary scholars. By keying grammatical and syntactical tools to the Greek text and including libraries of standard reference sources, digital versions of the New Testament facilitate study by accommodating a growing preference for electronic media. But existing electronic New Testaments preserve the traditional organization of the New Testament into chapters and verses, a convention devised to accommodate a culture of printed books. Traditional versification of New Testament compositions obscures their structural integrity as performances. Sound, not logic or semantics, organizes the compositions of the New Testament because its original audiences heard this literature spoken aloud and comprehended it by attending to its auditory signals. The dynamic environment of electronic media creates opportunities not available in the medium of print to recapture the sounded quality of New Testament compositions in their original contexts as spoken, public performances. This paper will propose a digital version of the Greek New Testament that restores the organic, auditory structures that organized its performance for its original audiences. The presentation will include a mock-up of desirable features of a digital New Testament for sound and performance, including graphic display of its auditory signals and the connections among interpretive clues that emerge from sound analysis. The demonstration will exhibit possibilities for the dynamic presentation of aural structures and for hyperlinks to translations and performances inspired by the New Testament’s characteristics as spoken sound. The digital New Testament demonstration will be created and presented by student interns in Tulsa Community College’s Digital Media Associate in Applied Science degree program.


Does Yahweh Come to Recapture the Old Davidic Kingdom? An Intertextual Analysis of Zech 9:1–8
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Suk Yee (Anna) Lee,  None

The abundance of place names in the oracles of Zech 9:1–8 has attracted great attention from biblical scholars. In examining the toponyms mentioned in these eight verses, many have at-tempted to relate them to historical manoeuvres, generating a wide diversity of interpretation. Dissatisfied with the divergent results, recent scholars tend to relate the corpus with the Davidic traditions, claiming that these cities were the traditional enemies of the old Davidic kingdom. However, not all the toponyms mentioned in the schema were once foes of Israel, such as Had-rach and Hamath; nor all of them had been included within the Davidic kingdom, such as Sidon and Tyre. Since the re-use of earlier traditions is a notable phenomenon in Second Zechariah, this paper offers an intertextual analysis of Zech 9:1–8, investigating to what biblical materials the text alludes and what impact such intertextual insights might make upon the prophetic com-munity. The work is divided into three sections: (1) the ???? of Yahweh (Zech 9:1a); (2) the terri-torial claim of Yahweh (Zech 9:1b–7); and (3) the enthronement of Yahweh (Zech 9:8). The the-sis is that the ultimate restoration envisioned in Zech 9:1–8 includes the formation of an ideal remnant settling in an ideal homeland. At that time, even those nations which were formerly ex-tra-territorial to Israel will be among those with which peace will be proclaimed, under the reign of Yahweh. Even those peoples which had once posed grave threads to Israel will be absorbed into the transformed community, living together in harmony. Even those outcasts who had once been excluded from the covenantal blessings will become part of the new community, restoring the brotherhood of humankind.


Bakhtinian Analysis on Eliab and Sociolinguistic Turn
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Woo Min Lee, Drew University

Eliab’s word to David, his youngest brother in 1 Sam 17:28 seems to have at least two literary functions: it characterizes himself and David, and it has the ‘double-voiced’ rebuke/warning against David. With the literary functions, the character also seems to allude to the Deuteronomistic ideology of the exilic community. Eliab is first introduced in 1 Sam 16:6-7 which describes David’s anointing by Samuel and then he appears in 1 Sam. 17:28. 1 Sam 17:28—30 describes a dialogue between Eliab, the firstborn of Jesse, and his youngest brother, David. The character of Eliab seems to be related to the Joseph’s story in Gen. 39 in that he can be jealous of his youngest brother. Keith Bodner suggests that the character of the Eliab characterizes David through the dialogue in 1 Sam. 7:28-29 (Keith Bodner, “Eliab and the Deuteronomist.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 28, no. 1 (2003): 55-71.). In the narrative, it is Eliab that rebukes David, but it is also the voice of the author/redactor, which is Deuteronomist, that alludes to the future evil deed done by David. Therefore, in the narrative of 1 Sam 16 and 17, the character of Eliab seems to play a role in at least two dimensions: characterization of David and the ‘double voiced’ warning against him. Especially, the second feature of the double-voiced discourse can be considered as containing dominant or acceptable theological ideology of the Deuteronomist during the period of Babylonian exile. Their theological reflection on David can be related to their imminent historical situation of exile after the fall of Jerusalem. The Deuteronomistic voice is spoken through Eliab’s character and his warning against David could resound to the readers of the Babylonian exile as a tool of understanding or reflection upon their situation. Therefore, Eliab in the discourse of 1 Sam. 17:28-30 seems to reinforce the dominant ideology of the Deuteronomist in the exilic or the post-exilic community.


"I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel" (Rom 1:16): Paul's Allusion to the Early Church Tradition in Mark 8:38
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Yongbom Lee, University of Bristol

Paul begins his letter to Romans by proclaiming, ‘For I am not ashamed [epaischunomai] of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek’ (Rom 1:16). Paul uses the verb epaischunomai in his public defense of the gospel (cf. Rom 1:14-15). Rebuking Peter, Jesus speaks to his disciples in Mark 8:34-38, ‘If any want to become my followers… Those who are ashamed of [epaischunomai] me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed [epaischunomai] when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’ Jesus also uses the verb epaischunomai in the context of publicly defending the gospel. Is it a mere coincidence that both Jesus and Paul use the same verb in the context of publicly defending the gospel? I argue that Paul in Rom 1:16 alludes to the Early Church tradition behind Mark 8:38 (cf. Matt 10:32-33/Luke 12:8-9), using epaischunomai in the context of publicly defending the gospel. Mark 8:38 most likely is authentic to the Early Church, considering its parallel with Matt 10:32-33/Luke 12:8-9. Reconstructing Mark 8:38 in Aramaic, Maurice Casey convincingly shows that it is a variation of the original saying in Q, which he identifies as one of “authentic” Son of Man sayings spoken by the historical Jesus himself. Barnabas Lindars rightly recognizes the Semitism in Q in using the verb homologeou (‘to confess’) with the preposition en as well as that in the structural parallelism typical of Semitic proverbial sentences. Lindars aptly proposes that Mark 8:38 and Matt 10:33-34/Luke 12:8-9 are two independent versions of the same saying and the similarity in sound between the Aramaic verb chafar (‘to be ashamed of’) and kafar (‘to deny’) resulted in ‘two different Greek translations’ ‘at the oral stage.’ Lindars further suggests that at one point of the transmission of the original saying in Q, the second half was detached from the first half and, when that happened, kafar was misheard as chafar; the second half was translated into Greek as the present form of Mark 8:38. Considering the multiple correspondences between Mark 8:38 and Matt 10:32-33/Luke 12:8-9, both of them most likely share a common Aramaic Vorlage in the Early Church tradition. I contend that Paul in Rom 1:16 alludes to the Early Church tradition behind Mark 8:38, basing my argument on his use of the unique and relational verb epaischunomai in the context of public defense of the gospel. Although Paul does not describe the Parousia in Rom 1:16 as in Mark 8:38, he is using the verb epaischunomai in close relation to public defense of the gospel as in the case of Mark 8:38. Likewise, ‘those who are ashamed of me and of my words’ in Mark 8:38 refer to those who fail to publicly acknowledge their Christian faith (in fear of persecution) in association with Jesus’ teaching on discipleship in Mark 8:34-35.


Christ as Creator: Implications for an Ecotheological Reading of Paul
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
J. J. Johnson Leese, University of Durham

This essay proposes to contribute to the eco-ethic discussion by broadening the horizon from a few well-discussed texts from the Pauline corpus (most notable are Romans 8:19-23 and Colossians 1:15-10) to other texts; especially the texts where Paul draws a correlation between Christ and the creation. The majority of scholarship acknowledges the christocentric foundation of Pauline ethics and thus, the hope is that new terrain for ascertaining a moral imperative for caring for the earth might be explored further. It is the intent of this paper to explore how Paul’s carefully crafted theological statements about Christ in 1 Cor 8:6, which typically are studied in regard to Paul’s theology of Christ’s relationship to God, might also provide insight into Paul’s emerging view of the centrality of Christ’s relationship to creation; both the human and non-human realm. By extension, focused consideration will be given to how the directives provided to the Corinthians betray an emerging Pauline ethic informing how those in Christ are to relate to the created realm within the new eschatological age. The importance of this particular text lies in that it is one of the only Pauline texts which comments on the relationship of humanity with elements of the created realm; in this case food/meat. Establishing a creator role for Christ seems to be central to Paul’s directives. This following questions will guide this study: What does 1 Cor 8.6 articulate about the relationship between Christ and creation, both cosmological origins and the ongoing creative process? What is the relationship between Christ, God, all things, and us? How might Paul’s specific directives concerning meat/food provide new terrain for ascertaining ethical principles for contemporary questions about the human relationship to the created realm?


Image of Christ as a New Paradigm for Community and Creation
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
J. J. Johnson Leese, University of Durham

This paper will explore the Pauline use of the phrase "image of God" as it applies to Christ (2 Cor 4:4; cf. Phil 2:5-11, Col 1:15) and further to the distinctive claim that those in Christ are being renewed into the imago Christi (2 Cor 3:18; cf. Rom 8:28-30; 1 Cor 15:49; Phil 2:15). Questions explored include: What might Paul’s notion of the image of God, now equated with Christ reveal about his interpretation of Gen 1:27 and also about the ongoing creative work of God in Christ? Through a careful study of Paul’s selective use of this phrase and through an analysis of other Second Temple Jewish contemporary authors use of the phrase, several preliminary observations will be made in this presentation. First, in agreement with Gen 1:27 and Ps 8, Paul seems to affirm that from the beginning Adam had a share in the image and glory of God (cf. 1 Cor 11:7), yet he spends no time reflecting on this claim nor on the creation narrative in general. In other texts Paul seems to affirm that sin, unfolding in Gen 3 as the abuse of free will, mars the original reflected image/glory which Paul suggests is no longer attainable apart from Christ. This is in sharp contrast to some of his Jewish contemporaries who employ Genesis 1-3 as fertile soil for commentary, embellishment and speculation. In contrast, Paul seems to have a different agenda. Second, through a new interpretation of 1 Cor 11:2-16, it will be suggested that Paul’s heremenutical gerrymandering of Gen 1-2 in that text reveals alot about his approach to the first creation account. His development of thought and exegesis effectively results in the eclipsing of the original creation narrative (vv. 8-9) in light of Christ (vv. 11-12). As elsewhere in this letter and in keeping with the Genesis culminating declaration (Gen 1:31, LXX), Paul concludes that “all things have their origin in God” 1 Cor 11:12b; see also 1 Cor 1:30; 3:21b-23; 8:6; 10:10-26). When discussing Paul’s use of the Old Testament material, numerous scholars have affirmed for example, that Paul reinterprets the Law through the lens of Christ. In an analogous way, this text demonstrates that Paul reinterprets the original creation account through the lens of Christ; here drawing emphasize to the new creative work of God in Christ. Both of these first two observations suggest that Paul is far less concerned with the original creation of humanity in the imago Dei as he is with the new creation of the church in the imago Christi.


The Biography of Light: Nonnos' Symbolic Reading of the Gospel of St. John
Program Unit:
Anna Lefteratou, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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“Is Thecla Stronger Than All the Governors of the Land?” Thecla and Her Mother in the Ethiopic Book of Thecla
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Outi Lehtipuu, University of Helsinki

One of the early versions of the Acts of Paul and Thecla has survived in Ge’ez. The text, entitled simply the Book of Thecla, was already published in 1901 but has received very little scholarly attention. The version differs significantly from the Greek original and probably represents a free retelling of the story. For example, the second martyrdom of Thecla is told very briefly; there is no mention of the seducer Alexander or Thecla’s patron, queen Tryphanae. The differences are particularly intriguing from a gender perspective. Compared to the Greek text that barely reports Thecla’s speech, the Ethiopic version characterizes her as a powerful preacher. On the other hand, there is no mention of Thecla’s self-baptism and she refuses to act as an independent healer. In the lack of other malevolent figures, Thecla’s mother (who does not have a name in Ge’ez) becomes the major villain of the story, initiating both trials of her daughter. The relationship of the mother and the daughter is dramatized more vividly in the Ethiopic version. This paper discusses the Ge’ez version of Thecla’s story, paying special attention to the characterization of Thecla, her mother and other female figures in the story .


In the Glory of His Father: Intertextuality and the Apocalyptic Son of Man in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Joshua Leim, Duke University

While still a relatively new area of exploration, recent work on Mark’s Christology has argued that Mark cryptically, but nonetheless consistently, identifies Jesus with YHWH in striking ways throughout his narrative. One can observe such identification both through Mark’s application of OT YHWH texts/concepts to Jesus (such as Rikk Watts has argued), and his ambiguous use of kyrios for both Jesus and God (as Johannson has argued). However, other scholars, noting that God clearly has an identity distinct from that of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, argue that Jesus is best understood as God’s “chief agent” (Yarbro Collins), royal son (Kingsbury), or quasi-divine royal son (Marcus). This impasse suggests that scholars have yet to articulate a coherent “grammar” through which to understand the paradox that Jesus is somehow “identified” with YHWH yet clearly distinct from him in Mark’s gospel. This paper attempts to find a way through that impasse by examining three passages often neglected in the study of Mark’s narrative Christology. Through detailed exegesis of the three apocalyptic Son of Man passages (8.38, 13.24-31, 14.62), with special focus on Mark’s intertextuality with the OT (and through comparison with contemporary Jewish literature such as The Similitudes of Ethiopian Enoch and The Psalms of Solomon), I argue that it is precisely through Jesus’ divine-filial identity that Mark successfully identifies Jesus with YHWH and yet distinguishes Jesus from him. Jesus is the bearer of YHWH’s glory (8.38), the one who acts and speaks as YHWH acts and speaks (13.24-27, 31), and the one who sits on YHWH’s throne (14.62). Yet, Jesus does all of this not as the Father, but as the Son, something which each of these three passages emphasizes. These passages (and others) strongly suggest that Jesus’ divine-filial identity is the locus at which he can be “identified” with YHWH and yet distinct from him. Mark’s narrative “pressures” the reader to see Jesus’ sonship as far transcending human, royal sonship, yet also as that which situates Jesus in a position of obedience to the Father.


Scripture as Talisman, Specimen, and Dragoman in Africa: Some Uses of the Book of Psalms and 1 Corinthians 12–14
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Grant LeMarquand, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

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"Masking the Blow": Representations of Violence in the Psalms and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Joel M. LeMon, Emory University

This paper explores the ways that ancient Near Eastern art encodes images of divine and kingly violence, particularly the tendency for artists to obscure direct representations of kings killing foes. A similar tendency obtains in certain representations of violence against enemies in the book of Psalms. This paper suggests the reasons for these similarities and the hermeneutical implications for the Psalms.


Exploring David’s Heart through Music
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Helen Leneman, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Humanizing David has been a goal of artists, librettists and composers. Sensing the lack of demonstrative emotion in the portrait of the biblical David, they tried to remedy that image by re-telling parts of his story. King David’s heart has remained a mystery to readers of his story for over two millennia. The fact that the topic is still of such burning interest to so many--scholars and non-scholars alike--speaks to the brilliance of the writer of the books of Samuel. In many commentaries, David is variably called heartless and calculating, or caring and pious. I believe the one adjective applicable to David that no one can argue with is ‘complex.’ There is also no doubt that David was ruthless, ambitious, cunning, and brilliant. Yet traditionally his image has been softened, and he has been praised (at least in the non-scholarly world) as the great and noble king David. It is this softer image that appealed to artists and composers, who perpetuated the myth in their creations. In this paper, I will explore David’s feelings towards the two principal male and female figures in his life: Saul and Jonathan, Michal and Bathsheba; and towards his son Absalom. Based on the text, are we to think David loved any of these five people? The answer is at best ambiguous, but in the numerous operas and oratorios based on his story, the answer is decidedly less so. I will highlight passages in librettos and music that specifically relate to David’s feelings for these people, in three 20th century musical retellings: Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s 1903 opera Saul and David; French Jewish Darius Milhaud’s monumental 1954 opera David; and Italian composer Flavio Testi’s Saul of 1976. Musical examples will be offered.


Disability in Ancient Egypt: Late Kingdom to Hellenistic Period
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Stephen J. Lennox, Indiana Wesleyan University

Although ancient Egyptians in the Early to New Kingdom periods recognized the debilitating effects of physical impairment, their attitudes toward impairment ranged from stigmatization in some cases, to full acceptance in other cases, and even to veneration in yet others; this range of reactions was influenced by Egyptian theology. During the Late Kingdom, Persian, and Hellenistic periods (1069-30 BCE), Egypt experienced significant changes as it became more internationally exposed. This project explores Egyptian views of disability during this time period, considering how earlier views may or may not have changed and why.


Opening the “Abyss of Scripture”: Bede on Psalm 2
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Stephen J. Lennox, Indiana Wesleyan University

Although a prolific and highly influential early medieval commentator on Scripture, the monk known as the Venerable Bede did not leave us a commentary on the Psalter. One Bede scholar opines that such a commentary could be developed based on the numerous references to the psalms that appear in his other works. Such a commentary, this scholar suggests, would demonstrate Bede’s uses of the psalms: liturgical, scholarly, and devotional. This paper explores Bede’s uses of Psalm 2 and develops implications for an early medieval use of the Bible.


The Psalmist as Historian: The Use of Inner-Biblical Allusion in the Historical Psalms
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Jeffery M. Leonard, Samford University

No less than their prose counterparts, the authors of Israel’s historical psalms used the tools of the ancient historiographer to produce their accounts of the nation’s past. A fascinating window of research is opened onto the historiographic techniques of these psalms when attention is paid to their use of inner-biblical allusion. Through study of these psalmists’ use of inner-biblical allusion, we are able to discover not only information about the state of Israel’s historical traditions at the time of the psalms’ composition, but also how the psalmists themselves interpreted these traditions and marshaled them to guide the minds of their readers. In this study, I will focus primarily on the use of inner-biblical allusion by the author of Psalm 78. While due attention will be paid to the sources underlying this important psalm, the key focus of this study will fall upon the interpretive techniques used by the psalmist in dealing with these sources and on the psalmist’s use of these inner-biblical allusions to shape the larger argument of the psalm. Here, it will be evident that the author of Psalm 78, just like Israel’s prose historians, does more than simply repeat earlier traditions. On the contrary, the psalmist carefully evaluates, reorders, and explains these traditions as he directs them toward the psalm’s overarching goal, namely a call for Judah’s estranged neighbors to the north to turn away from the rebellious path charted by their ancestors and once again embrace Jerusalem and the Davidic monarchy.


The Centrality of Israel in the David Story
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, New York University

Besides the Tel Dan Inscription, the Bible is our only source of information about the early 10th century and David’s rule in particular. When discussing historical questions pertaining to this time, historians, archeologists and biblical scholars accept a two-stage process through which David becomes king, first over Judah and then Israel. This is the dominant historical framework for interpreting David’s kingdom, taken for granted in historical and archeological reconstructions. Thus, it is widely assumed that David’s rule over Judah is a core element of the biblical account of David. Yet when read carefully, the Bible itself may point away from this assumption and towards the centrality of Israel, which opens the question of whether David really ruled Judah first before becoming king of Israel. My goal is to review the biblical material in order to rediscover the historical value of seeing the David account as defined by rule of Israel, not Judah. In fact, Judah’s active role in the David narrative is restricted to 2 Samuel 2:1-4, with the notion that David is first anointed over Judah, and 2 Samuel 19, in response to Absalom’s revolt. Meanwhile, Israel is the consistent focus of David’s rule, from the final struggle between the House of Saul and the House of David in 2 Sam 2-5:5, through the so-called Succession Narrative. In relation to Israel, sudden references to Judah are often viewed as secondary to the core material. This includes Judah’s first anointing of David in 2 Sam 2, which I will examine as potentially dependent on the second anointing by Israel in 2 Sam 5. While the history of Israel has become the responsibility of archeologists, who have the most secure evidence for the period, the biblical narrative is still relied upon for historical reconstructions. Thus, these historical questions, focused through the lens of the Bible, are important to reconsider for all involved in the study of early Israel.


The KJV and the Rapid Growth of English in the Elizabethan-Jacobean Era
Program Unit:
Seth Lerer, University of California-San Diego

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Yahweh versus Marduk: Creation Theology in Isaiah 40–55
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Reed Lessing, Concordia Seminary

Joseph Blenkinsopp argues that Isaiah 40-55 is a “mirror image” that polemicizes Babylonian ideology (Isaiah 40–55: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [New York: Doubleday, 2005], 107). Though some may consider the debate pitting Israel’s God against Babylon’s pantheon to be a subtext of Isaiah 40-55, this essay builds upon Blenkinsopp’s observations to understand the prophet’s monumental creational theology in light the differences between Yahweh and Marduk. Second Isaiah’s soaring creational theology does not take place in a vacuum. He employs it to convince Babylonian exiles that Yahweh is the King and Creator. One important repercussion of the prophet’s argument is the proper concern and conservation of the environment. By comparing the Enuma Eliš and Isaiah 40–55 this study considers how adherents of Marduk rape and pillage creation, while those who worship Yahweh value and respect the world. Since violence permeates the creation epic of the Enuma Eliš, those who worship Marduk treat creation violently. To get some context of how thoroughly Babylonians wreaked havoc upon ecosystems, this study compares their tactics with those of the neo-Assyrians. In chapters 40–55, though, Second Isaiah offers a different version of creation, based upon Yahweh’s concern, control, and care for the entire world. Those who worship Yahweh are empowered to treasure and value people, soil, lakes, animals, rivers, indeed, everything on this magnificent planet.


Preaching Like Amos: Upending the Status Quo
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Reed Lessing, Concordia Seminary

By the first half of the eighth century BC, Israel had become deaf to its theological language. Faced with this situation, the prophet Amos employed homiletical inversions so as to upset the equilibrium of his listeners and move beyond the familiar, the expected, and what had become clichés for his audience. Throughout his book, the prophet takes Israel’s theological premises and reshapes them to awaken his listeners from their spiritual lethargy. He cites assumptions that his audience believed could not be contradicted and contradicts them. Amos peppers the nation’s leaders with challenging “in your face” questions. What if Israel is just like the other nations (1:3-2:16)? What if the election of Israel means the people’s judgment (3:1-2)? What if their worship is a crime (4:4-5)? What if the nation is not alive at all, but dead (5:1-17)? What if the Passover happened again, but this time Israel is the firstborn of Egypt (5:17)? What if the Day of Yahweh turns out to be the night of Yahweh (5:18-20)? And what if Yahweh had accomplished an exodus for other nations (9:7)? By relentlessly posing these unsettling inversions, Amos takes the people’s language and turns it against them. In this paper, these texts are considered in greater detail to suggest that Amos offers not only a rhetoric of preaching, but also a theology of preaching.


Yahweh and Personified Wisdom
Program Unit: Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms
Martin Leuenberger, Universität Münster

The question of the divine presence in the world arises for ‚the‘ postexilic monotheism tending to separate the (one) God and the world in a formerly unknown sharpness. The problem is discussed intensively in the wisdom literature, as can be shown on the basis of Prov 8:23-31 and related texts: In the pluralistic situ-ation of the early Hellenistic era a new perspective results with the personi-fication of wisdom embodying the divine presence in a new, outstanding way. Due to her traditional relation to creation and world order, wisdom unquestionably possesses universal validity; now however, the principle ,wisdom‘ is transformed into the attractive lady Wisdom: As the first-created intermediary, she represents the divine presence in the human lifeworld par excellence. Thus, within the late (and post) biblical wisdom literature an internal differentiation of monotheism becomes visible, which proves to be most consequential in later Jewish and Christian literature.


On Appropriation: Reading Daniel as a Survival Manual
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Barbara M. Leung Lai, Tyndale University College and Seminary (Ontario)


Textual Growth within the Priestly Code: Genesis 17 as a Test Case
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Christoph Levin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Being the later one of the two Pentateuchal sources of the documentary hypothesis (besides the older J-source), the Priestly code is by no way a literary unity. Its original shape which can be uncovered by literary (=source) criticism was enlarged again and again for to meet the changing religious needs of the Jewish community in the course of the second temple period. This is especially true of the large speech compositions. It can be shown e.g. that the promise to Abraham in Genesis 17 was enlarged in a number of steps. To the original text the theme of the circumcision was later added as well as the promise to Ishmael and the dating-system. While some additions still belong to the separate P-source, others presuppose the combination with the J-source, presumably also parts of the late legal material of the Pentateuch. From this follows that the shape of the P document itself will be submitted to debate.


The Identification and Function of Khirbet Qeiyafa: A New Suggestion
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan University

One of the more intriguing archaeological sites to be excavated in Israel in recent years is that of Khirbet Qeiyafa, a small, more-or-less single-period early Iron Age fortified site in the Judean Shephelah, situated on a low hill overlooking the Elah Valley, at approximately the place described in 1 Sam. 17 as the site if the duel between David and Goliath. The site has been excavated since 2007, and it seems to have been occupied only during the Iron I/Iron IIa transition. Various scholars have suggested different identifications, most notably Shaaraim and Netaim. However Khirbet Qeiyafa is not a city, but rather a fortified military installation. This paper refutes previous suggestions while proposing that this site be identified with the ma‘agal, Saul’s fortified camp at which David leaves his pack according to verse 20, or at least the site that the author of the story, who obviously knew the area well, identified as Saul’s camp. However the real value of the site is not its biblical identity but its position, on both the geographic frontier between Iron-Age Judah and Philistia and the chronological transition from Iron Age I to Iron Age IIa.


The Character of Joab in the Book of Chronicles
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan University

Much has been written about the way in which the Chronicler re-shaped the “important” characters of previously-existing narratives, especially in Samuel and Kings, in order to make those characters fit the themes that the Chronicler wished to convey. This is also true for several “minor” characters, of which Joab, chief or David’s army, is one. This paper compares the way Joab is pictured in Samuel-Kings to his character in Chronicles, beginning with his mention in the genealogies and in the conquest of Jerusalem, and his not being mentioned in the civil war between David and Ish-bosheth, which the Chronicler skips. These and other additions and deletions picture Joab very differently than in Samuel-Kings. The final part of the paper then suggests that the Chronicler had specific source-material on which he based his depiction of Joab.


Philistine Balance Weights and Iron Age Economies
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Ely Levine, Luther College

Much is known about the economics of the Kingdom of Judah, especially based on its distinctive system of balance weights. Despite the prominence of the Philistines as the enemy par excellence in the Bible and as the intrusive cultural group of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant, little has been done toward illuminating their economies. Instead, relying on problematic Biblical texts such as 1 Samuel 13:21, we have seen gross speculation about Philistine economic dominance over Israel; thankfully, these have generally been debunked. Recently, there has been some work on Philistine commerce by identifying foreign material culture in Philistine contexts. Here, we will explore the use of balance weights to identify units of mass that served as the basis of the economies of the several Philistine cities. Once these are identified, we may discuss and identify their trading partners.


The Emergence of the Patriarchate: A Third or Fourth Century Phenomenon?
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Lee Levine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Scholarly opinion has been divided over the past century with regard to dating the emergence of the Patriarchate as a recognized and prominent institution in Jewish society. A maximalist position posits its rise in the first century CE, before or, more usually, after, Jerusalem’s destruction in 70, while a more critical, minimalist, suggestion, preferred by many of late, dates its ascendancy only to the latter part of the fourth century. A middle-of-the-road approach assumes that the era of Rabbi Judah I, editor of the Mishnah, marked this office’s rise to importance at the turn of the third century. A major cause for this disagreement lies in the assumed reliability of the sources at hand. Those who presume that rabbinic traditions reflect a high degree of historical accuracy tend to posit an early date for Patriarchal prominence, while those harboring serious doubts about the reliability of such traditions prefer to base their conclusions on the non-Jewish sources of the fourth century, especially the Theodosian Code. The case for the appearance of the Patriarchate in the third century relies largely on the reliability, in whole or in part, of a number of rabbinic traditions dating to this era, but it also rests upon a variety of other sources—epigraphical, archaeological, and artistic, as well as an enigmatic statement made by Origen. This lecture will examine the last-noted body of evidence. Paying close attention to the implications of the most reliable of the rabbinic traditions, we will argue that, despite its limitations, third-century evidence already reflects the existence of a powerful and influential office by that time and that the fuller, more compelling, documentation of the fourth century attests not to the creation of this office, but to its continued development.


The Revolutionary Impact of Art on the Study of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Lee Levine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Art has made significant contributions to our knowledge of Jewish history, culture, and religion throughout antiquity, but its importance for Late Antiquity (late fourth to seventh centuries) is second to none. Not only is the sheer quantity of artistic material unmatched in earlier periods, but the range of motifs available is equally unprecedented. Indeed, artistic remains offer a fresh perspective regarding this heretofore marginal dimension of Jewish cultural creativity. Usually, the image of Late Antiquity has been shaped by and large by extant literary sources that focus on the suffering, discrimination, and occasional persecution of the Jews, as well as on ecclesiastical tirades and Imperial edicts aimed at humiliating and delegitimizing them. Consequently, the impression gained is a defensive posture, wherein the Jews tended toward withdrawal and insularity from the surrounding world. However, the archaeological remains from this era, and especially its art, reflect a rather different reality: 1)For the first time, Jews made widespread use of artistic motifs that only on rare occasion beforehand appeared in a Jewish context, i.e., religious symbols (e.g., the menorah) and biblical themes; 2)The material remains from synagogues, particularly mosaic floors and their decorations, exhibit a remarkable similarity to contemporary Christian architectural and artistic models; 3)Artistic and architectural remains, at times of monumental proportions and impressive execution, reflect a community proud of and steadfast in its identity. The synagogues of Sardis, Hammat Tiberias, and Capernaum are particularly representative of this phenomenon; 4)Archaeological remains from synagogues are strikingly multifaceted in their art no less so than in their architecture and epigraphy. The half-dozen synagogues in the sixth-century Bet Shean region clearly reflect this diversity; 5)The primary reason for the extraordinarily diverse expressions in Jewish art seems to be rooted in the fact that each community was essentially autonomous and each determined how its central institution would look and function; this apparently applied to the liturgical realm as well. It is this last-noted feature that accords the archaeological evidence, and particularly the artistic remains, a singular importance in the construction of Jewish life in Late Antiquity, providing a corrective to the bleak picture presented by the literary remains. It is only when all the evidence of this period is taken into consideration, the artistic and archaeological no less than the literary, that one can gain the fullest possible understanding of the Jewish past, affording an appreciation of the religious and cultural preferences among wide swaths of society, i.e., the vox populi or, more accurately, voces populi, of contemporary Jewry.


"Therefore' or "Wherefore": What’s the Difference?
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Stephen Levinsohn, SIL International

This paper argues that the inferential connectives of New Testament Greek are best differentiated not ‘according to emphasis’ (Westfall), but in terms of the unique constraint on interpretation (Blakemore) that each conveys. Oun constrains what follows to be interpreted as an advancement of a theme line, whether the current one or an earlier one that is being resumed following intervening material (+Development). This constraint applies even to passages in which some have assigned an adversative ‘sense’ to oun. Ara is marked as +Consequence, so ara oun is +Consequence +Development. In contrast, dio constrains what follows to be interpreted as inferential material that does not advance the theme line (unmarked for development). When dia touto is used anaphorically, it constrains what follows to be related inferentially to a specific referent (+Specific). When hoste introduces an independent clause or sentence, it constrains it to be interpreted as the conclusion of a section or sub-section (+Conclusion). The differences between oun, dio and dia touto are illustrated with reference to Rom 15. Consideration of 2 Cor 4:16-5:21 then allows contrasts with ara and hoste to be added. The paper concludes with suggestions as to the constraints associated with other inferential connectives (toigarnun, toinun, dioper, plus dioti in Acts 13:35 and 20:26, together with hothen in non-locative contexts).


Reception History as a Window into Composition History: Deuteronomy’s Law of Vows, Qoheleth, and the Temple Scroll
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Bernard M. Levinson, University of Minnesota

The historical-critical method that characterizes academic biblical studies remains often separate from approaches that stress the history of interpretation, which are employed most frequently in the area of Second Temple or Dead Sea Scrolls research. This paper examines a test-case where the two methods mutually reinforce one another. The law of vows in Deuteronomy 23:22-24 is difficult both in its syntax and in its legal content. The difficulty is resolved once it is recognized that the law contains a previously unrecognized interpolation that disrupts the original coherence of the law. However, once that interpolation was added and became accepted as part of the textual tradition, it created a “ripple effect” whereby Second Temple readers were forced to resolve the disruption in order to make sense of the text’s content and syntax. The divergent reformulations of the law by Qoheleth 5:4–7, on the one hand, and 11QTemple 53:11–14, on the other, suggest that each of these independent witnesses sensed the textual disruption and sought to compensate for it. The fact that each did so in a different way, while seeming to respond to the same textual “trigger,” appears to confirm the hypothesis of the interpolation. In that way, the history of interpretation offers a window into the composition history of Deuteronomy’s law of vows.


Hostility and the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
John R. (Jack) Levison, Seattle Pacific University

The gospel of Mark contains three clusters of references to the holy spirit, each bound to the others by the force of hostility. (1) On the heels of its gentle advent, the holy spirit enters into Jesus and casts him out—like a demon cast out—into the desert, an arena rife with hostility (Mark 1:10-12). (2) Hostility arises subsequently, not in the isolated reaches of the desert, but in Galilean villages, where Jesus, charged with an alliance with Beelzebul, charges back, “whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit can never have forgiveness” (3:28-29). (3) In Jesus’ sole instance of teaching about the holy spirit in the gospel of Mark, hostility is once again the holy spirit’s inevitable companion: “When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand … for it is not you who speak, but the holy spirit” (13:9-13). And what will the spirit speak? Not a word of rescue or foreshortened salvation but of fidelity that will lead the faithful to “endure to the end.” In all three of these texts, hostility provides the context for understanding the holy spirit in the life of Jesus, according to the gospel of Mark.


Objects as Agents: The Social Role of Inanimate Objects in Israelite Warfare
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Nathaniel Levtow, University of Montana

This paper will examine the instrumental role of material objects in the ritualized environment of Israelite warfare. Attention will be given to the construction and destruction of memorial stelae, and to the way these and other cultural products (including cult images, the ark of the covenant, temples, weapons and armor) were ritually imbued with social agency in contexts of military conflict. The paper will discuss the ritualized social roles of these objects as they are depicted in biblical conquest narratives and related textual and iconographic artifacts from the Northwest and East Semitic cultural spheres.


The Literary Legacy of the KJV in the Poetry of Herbert, Vaughan and Others
Program Unit:
Barbara Lewalski, Harvard University

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The Double-Voiced Discourse of Bildad the Shuhite in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Andrew Zack Lewis, University of St. Andrews

Early in the dialogues of the book of Job, Job's friend Bildad the Shuhite responds to Job by calling Job's words a mighty wind (ruah kabir) (8:1) and suggesting that Job's children paid the penalty for their sins. (8:4) He also posits the theory that if Job seeks God and is pure and upright (yashar) God will restore Job's fortunes, (8:6) for God does not reject the blameless (tam). (8:20) Close readers of the book of Job will notice that Bildad uses some of the same vocabulary as the narrator of the prologue. Job's children died from a mighty wind (ruah gedolah), for instance. Also consider that God will eventually speak from a tempest, offering words from a mighty wind. On top of all of this, the reader will recall that the narrator has already described Job as a blameless and upright (tam weyashar) man (1:1). This paper will explore irony in the speeches of Bildad, viewing it as double-voiced discourse on the part of the narrator. Bildad, while presenting a coherent theology, gives voice to the narrator's very different worldview by pointing back to earlier comments that problematize Bildad's speech. Job's children die from a mighty wind, not because of their sins but because of Job's uprightness and blamelessness. Bildad also clearly does not believe that Job speaks in a way that God will reward with restoration of his fortunes. Yet the book ends with Job continuing with his rhetoric and God restoring his fortunes. Also in the epilogue, Bildad becomes like one of Job's deceased children, for God requires of him a sacrifice and a prayer from Job, mirroring Job's sacrifices and prayers for his children in 1:5. Bildad's words, therefore, reflect his own intentions and highlight the competing intentions of the narrator of the book of Job.


Preaching John: The Word Made Flesh as Theological and Interpretive Method
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Karoline M. Lewis, Luther Seminary

Preaching the Fourth Gospel has consistently been a challenge for preachers, especially within the parameters of the Revised Common Lectionary in which the Gospel of John appears as supplemental and even subsidiary to the theological and structural concentration on the Synoptic Gospels. It has been almost ten years since Robert Kysar’s seminal monograph, Preaching John, was published and while the recent contribution to preaching the Fourth Gospel, Preaching John’s Gospel: The World it Imagines, edited by David Fleer and Dave Bland, offers a critical array of perspectives on John and the preaching of John, the collection cannot provide a sustained argument for and treatment of the Fourth Gospel and the preaching challenges it presents. This paper will explore the theological, literary, and practical issues when preaching John, drawing from interpretive issues on the forefront of Johannine scholarship within the last ten years and giving specific attention to the Gospel’s own homiletical aspirations. The paper will argue for a specific theological framework from which to engage the Fourth Gospel for preaching and suggest an interpretive strategy so as to engage more fully John’s imaginative world.


“Keep Me, Lord, as the Apple of Your Eyes”: An Early Christian Child’s Amulet
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Blake Leyerle, University of Notre Dame

Among the Greek Papyri in the John Rylands Library, is a small fragment of papyrus, inscribed on both sides with a series of scriptural texts. Most of these are drawn from the Psalms, but one quotation comes from the Gospels. Arthur S. Hunt, who catalogued this portion of the collection, dated the item to the fifth century and described it as a “liturgical fragment” designed for “private devotional purposes.” The papyrus, however, shows signs that it was folded. In this paper, I suggest that it is, in fact, an amulet. More specifically, I argue on the basis of the scriptural verses that it was an amulet designed to be worn by children. In order to substantiate this claim, I adduce contemporary evidence for the Christian use of amulets. Theodoret, for example, describes women tying amulets on children to ward off sickness and John Chrysostom specifically mentions the practice of women and children wearing scripture (euangelia) around their necks. This paper thus contributes to our understanding of one of the ways in which texts functioned as material objects in Late Antiquity. The fact that this textual amulet was specifically designed for use on children heightens its interest. Because children were especially vulnerable to sickness and death, homilists faced enhanced resistance when preaching against traditional apotropaic measures. A rich catalogue of these contested measures may be found in the writings of Chrysostom. Thus the manufacture and use of specifically Christian amulets, such as this one, may represent a compromise position. In any case, an analysis of the social context of this intriguing fragment promises to shed further light on domestic ritual practices.


What Has Marxism to Do with Chinese Bible Translation?
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Chun Li, Bethel Bible Seminary Hong Kong

The current paper investigates how ideological positions influenced the revision and translation of the Protestant Bible. Since its release in 1919, the Chinese Union Version (CUV) has become the most widely-read translation of the Bible among Chinese Protestant believers around the globe. In the later half of the 20th century, while Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were under different political regimes, the believers in these three places all read the CUV and saw it as the canon. The present paper will first look into the history of separate attempts to revise CUV in Taiwan and Hong Kong in 1960s and 1970s. It is found that these attempts were driven by ideological concerns. Although the Hong Kong Bible Society started a revision project while the Taiwan church rejected any revision attempts, both decisions aimed at preventing Marxism regime in Mainland China from influencing Christian believers among Chinese. During the revising process, ideological factors played an important role in the use of the language, the appointment of translators and the planning of publication time. Second, the current paper will compare the texts of new translations of the Bible from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. It will be shown that the translation of proper names, the use of punctuations, the layout of the texts as well as the translation of important verses all reflected the way a translation committee understand its relationship with the Communist regime. No matter it is about the revisions or new translations of the Bible, ideological standpoint and political alignment are influencing the translation process. More than often, a translation will present itself as a faithful manifestation of the source text. The present paper intends to show that ideological factors are too important to miss in the process of translation.


Authoritative at Easter Sunday and at the Sunday of the Departed? The Sometimes-Authoritative Status of 2 Baruch in West Syrian Monasticism
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Liv Ingeborg Lied, MF Norwegian School of Theology

Two passages (scholars would commonly recognize as excerpts) from the Jewish pseudepigraphon, 2 (Syriac Apocalypse of) Baruch, are attested in three West Syrian lectionary manuscripts dating from the 13th and the 15th centuries. These lectionary manuscripts show that 2 Bar. 44:9-15 and 72:1-73:2 have probably been read at Easter Sunday and at the Sunday of the Departed. Hence, these manuscripts illustrate how assumedly unorthodox texts have been applied in orthodox textual practices. Does this mean that 2 Baruch has been regarded an authoritative text, or is scriptural authority rather to be seen as a ritually produced and situated phenomenon, limited to a few Sundays of the church year?


Paul's Apostleship: An Inversion of Values
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Vrije Universiteit

At many points in his letters, Paul presents himself as a suffering servant of Christ. Time and again he refers to Jesus’ death as the crucial element in the identity formation of the members of the Christ movement. Paul considers them to take part in Christ’s sufferings and death. Along this line, he discusses the identity of the members of the groups he addresses as defined by the paradigm of suffering, surrendering, and dying for others. Thus, Paul elaborates a model that was found in both pagan and Jewish circles: the model of the suffering righteous who, by means of their fate, achieve justice and reconciliation. Unlike the examples found in pagan texts, however, Paul idealizes this suffering and counts weakness as an indication of strength. This paper will argue that Paul not only describes Christ and his followers by means of this model, but also presents himself as its champion. The beatings he took, the imprisonments he experienced, and the opposition he had to face are all presented are proof that Paul is a genuine envoy of Christ. The main point is therefore that Paul both uses and inverts the traditional value system of pagan antiquity (which focuses on honor and shame, riches and glory), and describes his own problems in a way that puts him in a position of authority over against his readers. [Key texts: Rom. 5:8; 6:1-11; 1 Cor. 8:11; 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 11:23-29; 12:7-1]


Early Rabbinic Rhetoric: An Introductory Catalogue
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Jack N. Lightstone, Brock Universtiy

In attempting to shed light on the patterns of rhetoric in the New Testament, students of early Christian literature have long looked to normative rhetorical patterns of the Greco-Roman world as a context for, and source of influence on, early Christian authors. More recently in the Rhetoric of the NT Section of the SBL’s annual meetings, interest has arisen in looking to Ancient Judaisms and their literatures, including that of the early Rabbinic movement, as another, complementary source for understanding the formal patterns of argumentation in use in the New Testament. In service of this interest, this paper proffers an indicative sampling of the dominant rhetorical patterns in evidence in principal corpora of early rabbinic literature from the late 2nd and the subsequent several centuries CE, specifically in Mishnah, Tosefta, the Halakic Midrashim, and Palestinian Talmud. While scholars have identified in early Rabbinic texts patterns comparable to the formal canons of Greco-Roman rhetoric, the purpose of this paper is to present early Rabbinic literature’s rhetorical patterns in their own right. While we do not have evidence that would permit us confidently to date the formal literary traits that characterize the early rabbinic corpus to the period of the New Testament authors, early Rabbinic literature’s dominant rhetorical traits provide another comparator for understanding the particular rhetorical patterns of the New Testament in context.


Corpses and Rewriting the Bones: Ezekiel 37 in Papyrus 967, MT, Pseudo-Ezekiel, and Comparable Variant Editions
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Ingrid E. Lilly, Western Kentucky University

The variant sequences of Ezekiel 37 and 38-39 in papyrus 967 (p967) and MT have already received significant scholarly attention. In these discussions, scholars have pointed out that Pseudo-Ezekiel, which contains a rewritten form of Ezekiel 37 and alludes to Ezekiel 38, supports the Masoretic sequence of chapters and its text-type. Hence, it would seem that Pseudo-Ezekiel knew MT and moreover, that the edition reflected in p967 was simply not in wide enough circulation to have influenced the pseudonymous scribe. However, closer inspection of p967 and Pseudo-Ezekiel reveals a more dynamic literary relationship among the three scrolls of Ezekiel. Additionally, drawing on comparable variant editions about corpses and bones reveals a dynamic scribal interest in literary representations of corpses, one scribal response to which was the rewriting of the bones in various biblical texts.


Rhetography and Intertextuality: A Way of Sensing Jesus in Gethsemane (Mt 26:36–46) in the Shadow of Isaac on Moriah (Gen 22:1–14)
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Sung Uk Lim, Vanderbilt University

This study explores the sensory imagery of Jesus in Gethsemane (Mt 26:36-46) in comparison with Isaac on Moriah (Gen 22:1-14) through the lens of rhetography. I claim that rhetographical similarities and differences between Gethsemane and the Akedah stimulate the reader to discover the tension between life and death, between hope and despair. That is to say, rhetography as a literary device serves to culminate in the dramatic tension between Jesus’ life and death rightly before his crucifixion, while comparing him with Isaac. The reader discovers the despair in the Gethsemane story in sharp contrast to the hope in the Akedah. At the same time, the reader anticipates that the Passion narrative ultimately ends with hope with the Akedah story in mind. In doing so, I will make use of the notion of rhetography coined by Vernon Robbins. He notes: “Rhetography refers to the graphic images people create in their minds as a result of the visual texture of a text.” According to Robbins, spoken and written words intentionally or unintentionally compose a means of communication with a view to evoking visual images in the mind of the hearer and reader such that they in turn conjure up meanings in connection with mental imagery. Greg Carey, however, redefines rhetography as the “rhetoric of the senses,” or more precisely, of the “imagery of senses-sight, sound, taste, texture, and smell.” Alongside Carey, my paper focuses on the ways the words evoke sensory images to the mind of the reader or hearer. Evidently, rhetography, namely, sensory rhetoric is a new way of reading the text with our eyes, with our ears, with our mouth, with our hands, and with our nose.


Classification, Genealogy, and Contamination: The Racialization of Texts in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Yii-Jan Lin, Yale University

On the surface, it seems quite natural to call a text from which a scribe has copied another text a "parent" and its copy an "offspring," and to develop family trees of such texts. However, it has yet to be asked how the use of biological discourse has shaped textual criticism, its underlying assumptions and goals. My paper discusses the use of classification and genealogical stemmata by textual critics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, beginning with Bengel and ending with Westcott and Hort. More specifically, I demonstrate how Bengel's classification of New Testament manuscripts (into the African and Asiatic "nations") parallels the racial classification of human beings by Linnaeus and other natural scientists. I further show how the racialization of texts – the description of codices as having "textual physiognomies" and "textual complexions," and the separation of manuscripts into groups descended from different "stock" – develops into text critical concerns with an original, pure archetype and the equation of variants with contamination and corruption. These notions of purity, corruption, and "mixture" between different "races" of manuscripts parallel the race ideology of the day, based upon the scientific work of men such as Buffon and Blumenbach, who argued that the human species can degenerate from its original, pure form through interbreeding between the races. I focus particularly on Lachmann, whose development of tracing the genealogy of texts for the New Testament introduced the attainment of the uncontaminated and ancestral "original text" as the goal of textual criticism.


Elements of Biblical Poetic Style: Distinctive Characteristics of Biblical Verse over against Prose
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Tod Linafelt, Georgetown University

Although a great deal of interesting and important work has been done on biblical Hebrew poetry in recent decades, there remains a need for a comprehensive statement on its defining elements. We believe that one can only come to such a statement via an-depth comparison with biblical Hebrew prose. Such a comparison yields the following list of distinctive elements of Hebrew verse style, over against prose: (1) Line structure: Two or, occasionally, three matched lines, often though not invariably set in a relation traditionally known as “parallelism.” Where parallelism is present, the first line is often heightened, intensified, or made more concrete by the second or third line. (2) Concision: Hebrew verse is much more concise than prose, with a sort of collapsed syntax that tends to drop particles, etc., in order to shorten the clauses and sentences, allowing not only for the articulation of line structure but also the semantic saturation more generally associated with poetry. (3) More “verbally inventive” (to use Eagleton’s description of poetry in general). That is, verse is more likely to use rare words, metaphors and figures of speech, heightened diction, etc. Also refers more readily to mythological contexts and explicit divine action. (4) Non-narrative: Biblical poetry is virtually never used for narratives, though we do find what might be called “pseudo-narrative,” that is, the employing of narrative-like elements for more traditionally lyric ends, e.g., Song of Songs 3:1-5 and 5:2-8. (5) Direct discourse: Poetry seems to be always presented as direct discourse, or the words of a speaking self as opposed to a narrator. This aspect is grammatically marked by first- and second-person pronouns, expressive constructions that call attention to the presence of a speaker (“indeed,” “look,” “just,” “surely”), and spatial and temporal deictics (“now,” “here,” “there”). (6) Access to inner lives: Poetry is much more likely to provide access to the thoughts and feelings of the speaker, typically left unstated or understated in prose narrative. Attention to, and disagreement over, the nature of the line has tended to eclipse other considerations in recent scholarship. We propose here to not only nail down questions of the line, but also to make the case for the importance of these other characteristics, both formal and functional, as defining elements of biblical poetic style. Recognizing this array of characteristics allows one to not only more properly distinguish verse from prose, but also to take interpretive advantage of the distinctive literary resources of biblical poetry, which are very different from biblical prose.


Following “The Walking Bible” to the End of the World in 2012: The Van Impe Ministries’ Shifting Standards of Credibility
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Benjamin Lindquist, Yale Divinity School

For more than thirty years, Jack “The Walking Bible” and Rexella Van Impe have used their television pulpit to forcefully repeat their indefatigable hope that the apocalypse is thrillingly near. Despite the failures of his past predictions, Jack Van Impe maintains a rigidly premillennial interpretation of the Bible. Jack’s reluctance to modify the content of his message forces the program to re-contextualize his prophesies in order to buttress his recent predictions concerning 2012. I hope to demonstrate that the introduction of “Van Impe Presents” has visually repackaged Jack and Rexella as a television talk program in the mold of “The View” or “Live with Regis and Kelly.” This shift represents an abandonment of the earlier effort to present the pair as co-anchors of the nightly news. This ingenious and tacit shift allows the program to surreptitiously evade the evaluative criteria of the nightly news without performing the onerous task of alerting its viewers to these shifting standards of credibility. Rexella’s evolving role highlights this schematic shift. Formerly her role consisted primarily of reverent nodding, as Jack would knowingly expound on the innumerable connections between biblical prophecies and current events. Rexella (who seems to model the desired audience response) now acts more like the fundamentalist equivalent of Kelly Ripa, who when not bantering cheerfully, lovingly allows an endearing old man to indulge in his eschatological hobby. Despite ubiquitous jokes about the perennial inaccuracy of the weatherman’s predictions on the local news, undoubtedly these forecasts are far more perspicacious than the insight offered by Regis Philbin, or the ladies on “The View.” It seems that “Van Impe Ministries” discovered this double standard, and chose to capitalize on that discovery by subtly shifting the interpretive framework though which viewers absorb “Van Impe Presents.” Under the rubric of this new paradigm Jack fares well, and is placed in a propitious position to market his newest video “December 21st, 2012: History's Final Day?”


A Well of Living Water or a Pit of Death: Female Sexuality and Water Metaphors in the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Maria Lindquist, Harvard University

The Song of Songs is a dialogic hymn that extols the simple sweetness and grandeur of love through an abundance of metaphors. The primary speakers of the poem revel in lovemaking, which they compare to the sensual pleasures of luxurious liquids such as wine, milk, honey, oils, and juices. The fluidity of love is also expressed throughout the poem in images of water, which are often associated with the beloved female, the Shulammite. After a detailed description of his darling’s many charms in chapter 4, the male lover praises the Shulammite by referring to her as ma‘yan hatum, “a fountain sealed” (4:12) and be‘er mayim hayyim, a “well of living water” (4:15). In order to fully appreciate the significance of the metaphors, it is useful to consider the symbolic and concrete value of these water sources within their literary and historical context. In the arid climate of the Eastern Mediterranean, potable water was a precious commodity. Securing a sufficient water supply represented a constant concern for ancient Near Eastern civilizations and often required the manipulation of limited natural resources. Water from a spring, called “living water” in the Hebrew Bible, was most highly prized, as it was the cleanest and most constant, as opposed to the stagnant water collected in cisterns, for example (cf. Jer 2:13). For a woman to be like a “well of living water,” then, was to be a source of pleasure and sustenance, ripe with the promise of fertility. In contrast, Proverbs warns about the prostitute, who is not a well of life, but rather a “deep pit” who “destroys the unfaithful among men” (23:27-8). A pit and a well are both holes in the ground; however, wells were generally covered to prevent passersby from falling in whereas open dry pits invited destruction. This paper explores what these water-related metaphors reveal about the vital and sometimes threatening role of female sexuality as conceived in the Bible and ancient Near East.


Ramat Rahel and Other Indications for the Administration in Judah during the "Exilic" Period
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Oded Lipschits, Tel Aviv University

The Administrative Center at Ramat Rahel continued to function during the 6th century BCE, when the Kingdom of Judah became a Babylonian province, and further on, when the Achemenides took over, and Judah became a Persian Province. Other indications for the administrative continuation, like the Stamped Jar Handles, the continued production of the same pottery types in the same production centers, are all indications for the continuation in Judahite economy and administration during the so called "Exilic Period". In this paper I will present these new finds and observations, and will discuss its meaning and implication on our understanding of the 6th century BCE history, and on our understanding of the Biblical descriptions of the Babylonian rule in Judah.


Aseneth and the Sublime Turn
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
B. Diane Lipsett, Wake Forest University

Joseph and Aseneth tells in often extravagantly figurative language how the beautiful but arrogant virgin, Aseneth, came to be the God-venerating, virtuous, radiant wife of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph. Virginity in this narrative has distinct symbolic resonance, as its instability and liminal status suggest the mutability of piety and cultural identity. Aseneth is likened to heavenly Metanoia—a pure virgin, image of divinely mediated transformation. Aseneth as bride and wife, then, becomes a walled city of refuge, stabilizing conflict by resisting anger and refusing retaliatory violence, yet still suggesting the ongoing malleability of cultural difference. The ancient literary critic, Longinus, provides a critical lexicon and a literary-rhetorical exploration of sublimity, threat, mimesis, and cultural transformation that may be placed alongside Joseph and Aseneth to generate reciprocal insights.


Not at First Sight: Gender Love in Jubilees
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Atar Livneh, University of Haifa

While some biblical stories suggest that looking at a woman may lead to love (e.g., Gen 29:17-18; Judg 14), such visual perception is also depicted as leading to various wrongdoings (e.g., Gen 34:1-2; 2 Sam 11; cf. Gen 39:6-20). The Jubilean author represents this varied data as constituting a threefold process: eyeing a wo/man stirs up love, leading to a violation of the law. Jacob and Rachel, Reuben and Bilhah – and Potiphar’s wife and Joseph – all fall into this category, the description of each pair following the triple scheme of initial observation, subsequent love, and eventual transgression of the law. Love of this type, which is based on outward appearance, carries a negative valence. This interpretation is reinforced by other Jubilean explications of the Jacob-Leah-Rachel triangle, including the implication that Jacob’s love for Rachel not only almost led to an infringement of the law but also proved to be an imprudent and ill-suited criterion for choosing a bride, Rachel subsequently acting disrespectfully towards her husband. The Jubilean narrative finally culminates with an extra-biblical addition which attributes Jacob’s love for Leah to her qualities and conduct. The fact that Jacob “loved her very much because she was perfect and right in all her behavior and honored him” indicates that the patriarch ultimately understood that which his example is intended to teach the readers of Jubilees, namely, that love based on beholding is insalubrious and will most likely lead astray the person who follows after his eyesight.


Process of Filtering in Post-Christian Women's Biblical Reading Practices
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Dawn Llewellyn, University of Chester

This paper challenges the assumption, found in feminist theology's relationship to literature, that self-identifying post-Christian women who have rejected Christianity, have also rejected the Bible as a spiritual resource. Across debates arguing for biblical rejection or reform (Lancaster, 2002; Osiek, 1985), literature has been called upon as an imaginative counter-point to scripture (Christ, 1995; Ostricker, 1993). Feminist theologians seeking to derive new narratives that speak of the sacred in ways that resonate with women's lives have turned to women's literatures. However, feminist literary theology has too readily presumed an either/or distinction between sacred and secular. This has not only set the Bible and women's writing apart, but opposes women's sacred and secular reading practices and processes. Furthermore, it takes for granted that a new textual based must evolve by refusing scripture (Ruether, 1985) in order to find alternative 'sacred texts' for a new spiritual perception (Goldenberg, 1979). The textual focus on women writers to substitute and/or supplement the canon has dominated feminist theology's relationship to literature to the extent that feminist theologians have interpreted on behalf of 'implied' rather than actual woman readers. As a result, 'it is highly likely that we know more about the concerns of researchers than we do about the actual practices' (Hermes, 1995:19) of readers who comprise the greater part of users of reading. Therefore feminist theology and literature has been unaware that post-Christian women's actual spiritual reading practices cross the boundaries of sacred and secular literatures. However, by using a reader-centred qualitative methodology to dramatise the meaning of the activity of reading for women's religious involvement, and to listen to actual readers' experiences, biblical reading emerges as a spiritual practice amongst women identifying against the Christian tradition. Post-Christian readers are critical of the Bible's hierarchy and authority, but continue to engage with it as a sacred text and spiritual resource. In particular, this paper will explore how post-Christian women, from a range of spiritual identities, engage in “filtering” strategies that “screen in” and “screen out” elements of the Bible. Rather than read according to feminist theology's literary spiritual canon, the embodied practices of women's spiritual reading form “reader-centred-canons” in relation to their post-Christian identities. This approach comprises filtering through rejecting, and resisting and reading the biblical texts. These are choices that are made in accord with what best fits women's individual spiritual journeys, rather than an adherence to a particular kind of sacred or secular text.


"Let the little children come to me" and the Realities of a Slave Childhood in the Roman Empire
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Stephen Llewelyn, Macquarie University

This paper examines the social reality of child slavery in the Graeco-Roman world across the documentary evidence of sale, notices of flight and manumission in the light of the New Testament's restrained criticism of slavery more generally. To the modern audience slavery is a difficult enough issue to understand, let alone the practice of child slavery. In part different conceptions of childhood and the ages at which it was thought to finish need to be considered. Starting with contracts of sale (child slaves were often sold at approx. 10 years of age or when they were perceived to be capable of work), the incidence of flight (and less so manumission) will be used to assess their thinking or feeling about the situation in which they found themselves. In addition, comparative material in antebellum America will be drawn upon to explore the personal feelings of the child slave in the hope of better critiquing Judaea-Christian responses to slavery.


"Baptized for the Dead" as an Identity Marker of Early Christianity
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Lung-kwong LO, Divinity School of Chung Chi College, CUHK

I Cor 15:29 remains one of the most controversial verses in the Pauline letters. Since its earliest extant interpretation by Tertullian until today, it has confounded exegetes. While Catholics have rejected vicarious baptism as an herectic practice since the second century A.D., Protestants are vehemently opposed to it because of the radical effectiveness it betokens for baptism in general. The most difficult interpretation of this verse lies on the understanding of the phrase: "baptized for the dead". Most of the Bible translations translate the phrase "baptized for the dead" as vicarious baptism (RSV, NEB, JB, NRSV; except KJV & NIV). This translation is unacceptable, for it does not only suggesting Paul endorsing herectic practice, but also overlooks the significance of this phrase. If we study carefully in the context of this verse (vv. 1-32), we could find that important issues of resurrection, baptism, dead, persecution into death (martyrdom) are raised. The belief of resurrection of the dead is the essence of the gospel (vv. 1-19). For Paul, baptism is directly related to the belief of resurrection (Rm 6: 3-4) and those who died are just fallen asleep (vv. 18, 20; I Thess 4: 13-16). Death is the last enemy to be destroyed by Christ's resurrection from the dead as the first fruits of those who have died (vv. 20-28). Paul endangered himself of death every hour and fought wild beast in Ephesus, because he believed the resurrection of the dead (vv. 30-32). According to this belief and Paul's courage to facing death as a martyr, "baptized for the dead" in v. 29 should be understood as ordinary baptism for those who died as martyrs before they got chance to be baptized alive. "Baptized for the dead" would be a very strong symbol to show their belief in resurrection of the dead in the early Christianity. For those who were killed as martyrs, "baptized for the dead (martyr)" would be a strong assurance and comfort to those survived. For Paul, those who died are just fallen asleep, so the one slept still alive. Thus, "baptized for the dead" is not a vicarious baptism, but rather a strong identity marker among the early Christians to indicate their essence of belief that these martyrs had expressed their belief of resurrection of the dead by their willingness to facing death. Baptized of the dead is a confirmation of their faith and also to show to the survived that Church accept these martyrs’ death by baptizing them as ordinary baptism. Thus, "baptized for the dead" was an identity marker of early Christians to express their essence of belief in facing a hostile environment which may bring death to all believers.


Greek and Early Christian Emotions: An Exploration
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Hermut Loehr, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany

Terms and concepts referring to emotions play an important role in early Christian paraenesis. It appears, however, that present scholarship on early Christian moral thought is not fully aware of the significance of the issue. By way of an initial exploration, the paper tries to bridge the gap and focusses especially on the relation between Early Christian (first and early second century) and Hellenistic Greek emotions in moral exhortation.


Solomon’s Trade in Horses: A Case Study in the Reshaping of Cultural Memory
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Dale Loepp, University of California-Berkeley

At the death of a prominent political leader, commentators often remark that history will be the ultimate judge of a leader’s stature—and quite understandably, historiographical texts often play a pivotal role in this shaping of cultural memory. The life of one of Israel’s best-known rulers, King Solomon, provides an interesting case study of this phenomenon as his reputation unfolds in subsequent biblical literature and other religious and historical texts. While Solomon’s initial portrait in the Deuteronomic tradition is ambivalent: he is on one hand hailed as a material and intellectual success and on the other as a religious failure; Solomon becomes the ultimate cultic leader and perfect ruler in the subsequent Book of Chronicles. And even though this reshaping of the Solomonic tradition has at times been dismissively dubbed a “whitewash” by some biblical commentators, the rehabilitation of Solomon’s reputation is actually a fairly sophisticated reworking of the Chronicler’s source materials found in the Deuteronomistic History. This recycling of a malleable historiographical tradition specifically addressed a time when the temple cult was being re-established in Jerusalem after a period of destruction, neglect, and active competition from other cultic centers. As one aspect of the Chronicler’s broader project of re-formulating his received tradition for a new audience, this paper will specifically focus on Solomon’s accumulation of horses, a royal act explicitly condemned in Deuteronomy (Dt. 17:16). Through astute editing and a re-ordering of the source materials, I will argue that the Chronicler successfully undermines the earlier Deuteronomic condemnation of Solomon by providing cultic justification for Solomon’s trade in horses.


"The God of This Age" (2 Cor 4:4) and Paul's Empire-Resisting Gospel
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Fred Long, Asbury Theological Seminary

This paper will explore the intertextual possibilities of 2 Cor 4:4 "the god of this age" as a veiled referent to the Roman Emperor, who is called "god" in inscriptions. The network of imperial topoi present in 4:5-6--namely, gospel, image (eikon) of God, proclamation, and Lord--would support such a conclusion. Additionally, the language of illumination, light, and shining (4:4,6) may reflect mystery cult language and practice of using lamps to illuminate the image (eikon) of the god; Imperial mysteries were in existence. If 2 Cor 4:4-6 does point to Paul's presentation of Jesus Christ as true Lord versus the blinding false god/lord of Roman emperor, then Paul's reference to Christ's triumph at 2:14 may take on more significance, especially in a discourse that culminates with a vision of God the Pantokrator's temple (6:18), not unlike the final destination of the Roman Triumph arriving at Jupiter's Capitoline Temple.


“A Net of Points”: The Challenge of Working with Syriac Educational Manuscripts
Program Unit: Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
Jonathan Loopstra, Capital University

Among the Syriac manuscripts in the British Library is BL Add. 12138, a unique handbook to the pronunciation and accentuation of readings from the Syriac bible. Writing in 899 CE, the compiler of BL Add. 12138 claimed to have preserved the traditions of the maqryane, or “teachers of reading,” which were passed down in the East Syriac schools beginning from the time of Narsai. This manuscript, therefore, is a valuable witness to the transmission of East Syriac school reading traditions. It is also one of the earliest examples for the systematic use of Syriac vowels and diacritics. The compiler of BL Add. 12138, however, did more than just pass down the reading traditions found in the “books of the maqryane.” By means of systematic, color-coded signs and letters he simultaneously presents the reader with a critique and commentary on these traditional readings by the later East Syriac scribe Rabban Ramišo‘. Thus, by means of this highly-creative system, two types of biblical readings can be distinguished in this manuscript – the traditional readings of the maqryane and the readings from Ramišo‘. Moreover, from abundant glosses, erasures, and liturgical markings it is clear that this manuscript functioned over its lifetime as a type of “school textbook,” helping students to read and comment on the East Syriac exegetical traditions. The changes and additions brought about by years of use present distinct challenges to the modern reader who aims to reconstruct the original reading traditions passed down uniquely in this manuscript. This presentation will introduce students and scholars alike to the challenges involved in working with a highly-complex, pedagogical manuscript such as BL Add. 12138. It is not without reason that the compiler of BL Add. 12138 labeled his diacritically-marked and vocalized text “a net of points.” The presentation will include a number of high-quality, color images of the manuscript.


The Counter-colonization of the Imagination: Isaianic Intertextures and Imperial Contexts in the Christology of 1 Corinthians 15 and Philippians 2–3
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Matthew Forrest Lowe, McMaster Divinity College

How did Paul’s reading of Isaiah in imperial context affect his image of who Christ was? The intertextual shape of Pauline Christology was governed in part by theopolitical contingencies — those of the world shared by Paul and his audiences, and those of Isaiah’s own discursive world, from both of which the apostle borrowed images. The proposed paper suggests that Isaiah’s prophetic response to exile and the empires that shaped the (post)exilic experience informed the way in which Paul’s christological and soteriological imagery responded to the presence of imperial Rome. This suggestion entails three principal points. First, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul’s characterization of Christ as reigning over and dismantling rival powers is indebted to Greco-Roman concepts of lordship, but grounded in the imagery of Isaiah 22–29, in which Yhwh is the Lord who delivers his people from death and uses other nations as his agents. Second, in Philippians 2–3, the apostle’s portrayal of Christ’s exclusive status as "Lord" and "Savior" echoes the counter-imperial polemic of Isaiah 43–45, but it also critically engages the dominant discursive claims of Paul’s own imperial setting; the polemic against other potential lords and saviours is as intertextual as it is soteriological. The third point integrates the findings of the previous two, as these re-readings of Paul’s use of Isaiah reveal his subtle re-contextualization of the prophet’s themes. Those in the apostle’s audiences who were able and willing to recognize the counter-imperial inflection of his Isaianic Christology would have found themselves called to renewed allegiance as witnesses of Christ’s lordship. This missional call was vital to Paul’s strategy of counter-colonization: he used the prophetic tradition of engagement with empires, as well as his audience’s own familiarity with Rome’s ideological imperative, to question their understanding of their Lord and their commitment to him.


Pleading and Power: The Missional Theopolitics of Paul's Ambassadorial Soteriology in 2 Corinthians 5:16–21
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Matthew Forrest Lowe, McMaster Divinity College

What does Paul's portrayal of himself, Timothy, and Titus as "ambassadors" reveal about the missional workings of his soteriology and the character of the deity for whom they claimed to speak, and how does this self-portrayal reflect Paul's understanding of the strategic role of the ekklesia vis-a-vis rival theopolitical powers? This proposed paper opens in critical engagement with recent perspectives on Paul's use of ambassadorial imagery in 2 Corinthians 5, notably Anthony Bash's emphasis (in Ambassadors for Christ, 1997) on the scandalous implications of presenting God, Christ, and the "ambassadors" themselves as suppliants, and Michael Knowles' attention (in We Preach Not Ourselves, 2008) to Paul's mission of reconciliation as sanctioned by a peacemaking God, despite the murder of God’s messianic emissary. The paper then turns to the question of how the apostolic self-portrayal functioned concerning the early church and its relationship to Rome and other nations. Paul and his fellow envoys were deliberately casting themselves and the deity they represented as occupying a position of weakness, as plenipotentiaries without apparent potens. Insofar as it invited the Corinthians to join a similarly powerless community, this depiction was not merely scandalous; it undermined the very nature and structure of imperial power and patronage upon which Corinth's society was based. Finally, the paper considers the problem of reading Paul's ambassadorial language in North America today. Postmodern theopolitics pose significant difficulties for Christ-followers who would attempt to "ambassador" on Christ's behalf as the Pauline envoys claimed to do. Here the paper enlists the help of Yoder, whose call (in The Politics of Jesus, 1972, 1994) to "respect and be subject" not just to those in power but "to the historical process in which the sword continues to be wielded" offers a challenging path forward for the hermeneutics and praxis of Paul’s ambassadorial metaphor.


Facing the Digital Avalanche: Run, Hide, or Ski?
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Kirk Lowery, The Groves Center

Most biblical scholars no longer spend days in dusty stacks, with note cards, chasing down references. Vast biblical resources are available electronically and more appear every year. But the convenience of access brings its own issues. How can the modern biblical scholar: Emend read-only texts or analysis of texts with their analysis? Use their emendations or those of others in analysis/searching? Make their emendations/analysis available to others? All questions have been answered for print media, but what mechanisms should we use for digital media? Mechanisms that preserve the integrity of the original texts and the analysis added to them? This presentation offers some solutions to the problem of integrating heterogeneous data and visualizing that data.


Gendered Genealogies in Response to Trauma: Inquiring Processes of Othering in 1 Chronicle 1–9 from a German Perspective
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Ingeborg Löwisch, Utrecht University

Reflecting about gendered genealogies in response to trauma in the German context necessarily includes reflecting on Holocaust and Nazi regime. One example is the documentary film 'My Life Part 2' by Berlin filmmaker Angelika Levi. Levi documents the life story of her mother in Nazi Germany and beyond. In the center of the film emerges the lineage of Levi women as a Jewish 'gynealogy'. The film stems from a context both similar and contrary to my own. I share with the filmmaker the same German urban, lesbian-feminist culture and a bourgeois background. Still, the difference in family history is significant: Levi is from a Jewish background, while I come from a Christian family, actively involved in the Nazi regime. I am used to think this difference as a criterion of absolute difference. And indeed, how similar actual contexts may be, different genealogies can lead to quite different awarenesses of life. Nevertheless, setting the difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish descent in Germany as absolute also provides a lens that brings about an extreme form of othering and easily represses complexity and ambiguity. The latter thoughts arise from working in a second context, the Netherlands. I feel them to bring me on grounds that are slippery but productive. These observations will serve as starting point for investigating processes of othering in the gendered genealogies of Judah (1 Chronicles 2:3-4:23). Othering here refers to establishing ethnic, social, geographical, and cultural difference. References to women are central to the process. E.g., segmentation through wives—as opposed to sons and brothers—regularly affiliates distinct ethnic groups and territories to Judah; sisters such as Zeruiah and Shelomith appear at the centre of the Davidic lineage; and a references to Tamar inserts ambiguity to the memory of the ancestors. Central questions will be, How do historical events and discourses, which serve as lenses for forging postexilic identities function in the process of othering (e.g. exile and return, the Davidic monarchy, the memory of the ancestral period)? How does the ethnic, social, and gendered complexity typical for 1 Chronicles 2:3-4:23 interact with hierarchies and repression of complexity? Which functions do references to women have in enacting power related to segmentation, depth, and fluidity? Finally, how can differences (and similarities?) in performing genealogies in response to the post-state/post-exilic context on the one hand, and in response to the Holocaust and its recall in the German post-war society on the other, inform each other?


Hebrew my’mn = Egyptian mrj amûn A Name? A Title? An Order? An Alternate Look at a Group of Ancient Pre-exilic Hebrew Seals
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Meir Lubetski, City University of New York

Biblical scholars are indebted to compilers of a variety of collections of ancient Hebrew seals from the pre-exilic era. The definitive explanation of the inscriptions on the seals, nevertheless, is the consequence of a long process involving contributions by many scholars. This is indeed true of many of the artifacts. Yet, when an inscription and an icon were prepared for a client undoubtedly specifics were requested from the expert seal cutter. My paper will address the unique requests embedded in iconic and aniconic seals with the inscription my’mn. It will demonstrate that the seals or bullae under discussion were most likely adapted in order to address a particular need of the patrons or circumstances of a certain event experienced by them. Thus, the paper will add alternate salient dimensions lacking in the current research of ancient Hebrew seals and a vital brush stroke to their meanings.


Assessing Porter’s Objections to Hays’s Seven Criteria for Discerning Metalepsis
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Alec J. Lucas, Loyola University of Chicago

Although Porter’s objections to Hays’s seven criteria for discerning metalepsis have been repeated in three publications (1997, 2006, 2008), they have been either insufficiently addressed (Wagner 2003; Merz 2004) or ignored entirely (Beetham 2008) by advocates of Hays’s criteria. This paper assesses Porter’s objections through a comparative application of Hays’s criteria to the use of Job 13:16 in Phil 1:19 (a use on which both Hays and Porter agree) and my own claim that Deut 9:1–10:22 is evoked throughout Rom 2:5–11. This comparative application illustrates the qualitative nature of metaleptic determination, since the particular blend of criteria, including the strength of each one, that coalesce to justify metaleptic judgment varies. Fundamentally, Porter’s objections fail to account for this qualitative aspect of applying the criteria. More particularly, neglecting the diachronic function of “Availability,” Porter improperly associates this criterion with the audience-centered approach of Stanley, an association that is valid for echoes but not for allusions; Porter’s charge that “Volume” tries to define one metaphor (echo) with another (volume) ignores Hays’s 1998 elaboration in which he identifies “Volume” with the more or less concrete factors of verbal/syntactical repetition, prominence, and rhetorical stress; and Porter’s claim that “Recurrence” seems capable of determining the frequency of echoes/allusions, but not the presence of a particular instance, is countered by the importance of this criterion to the Deut 9:1–10:22—Rom 2:5–11 evocation. Positively, however, Porter’s concern with definition exposes the weakness of Hay’s failure to distinguish systematically between “echoes” and “allusions.” This paper concludes by differentiating between echoes, allusions, and quotations, suggesting, for example, that echoes and allusions are divided by authorial intention but united by the broader scope of their referentiality (i.e. to a particular passage/place/person/theme/action/event) in comparison to quotations, which can only refer to a text, whether oral or written.


Memory between Church and Cell: Transforming the Egyptian Desert through Eucharist and Prayer
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Christine Luckritz Marquis, Duke University

The performance of memory-acts alters both the performers themselves and the space(s) they inhabit. As we shall see, memory was foundational to daily ascetic life in the northwestern desert of Egypt. The memory-acts integral to celebrations of the Eucharist and to 1 Thess 5:17’s injunction to “pray without ceasing” were mimetic ritual activities meant to transform an ascetic into a worthy participant in the heavenly host and the desert into a paradisiacal space. Although, undoubtedly, some ascetics understood themselves as having produced such physical alterations, most ascetics did not expect to achieve such transformations on earth. Thus, memory-acts during Eucharist and prayer were also meant to induce “holy ones” to intercede on behalf of participants and to incur “future rewards” for them. Little is known about the desert Eucharist; here, we rely primarily on texts that prescribe liturgies for a broader Egyptian Christian community. Prayer activities appear more frequently in the extant textual materials. We need only think of the writings of John Cassian, Evagrius, and perhaps even Isaiah of Scetis. The Eucharist and daily prayer are especially fruitful to compare, as the Eucharist was a communal activity based primarily on shared memories (performed in a church), whereas daily prayer was often a solitary task, though sometimes done in small groups, based on negotiating between shared and individual memories (enacted in a cell). While ascetic texts often distinguish between private prayer and communal Eucharist, attention to memory — common to both practices — blurs such a sharp distinction. An examination of memory as it relates to the mutually reinforcing practices of Eucharist and daily prayer illustrates how memory-acts functioned (or sometimes failed) to transform ascetics and the desert, in the process highlighting the complex, interconnected relationship between memory and space.


Sent after the Messiah: Jesus, John the Baptist, Itinerancy, and the Cruciform Alternative in Mark
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Timothy Luckritz Marquis, Moravian Theological Seminary

Scholars have puzzled over the apparent yet enigmatic connections yielded by the Markan intercalation of the commissioning of the disciples and the death of John the Baptist (6:6b-30). This paper argues that the narrative complex juxtaposes itinerant discipleship with death in order to define apostolic identity in light of the Crucifixion. A connection between itinerancy and the deaths of John and Jesus (seemingly evoked by John’s death) brings into focus the suffering nature of apostleship, while the political situation under which John and Jesus are executed emphasizes the counter-cultural nature of the Jesus movement’s mission. If itinerancy is associated with the Crucifixion, the apostolic lifestyle becomes defined as an alternative to cultural regimes of domination. The narrative sequence of the Gospel sequentially reinforces the link. Just as Jesus’ preaching picks up from John’s upon his arrest, the mission of the disciples in Mark 6 occurs apart from Jesus. The literary phenomenon of disciples preaching in place of Jesus also allows Mark’s Gospel—famous for its abrupt ending—to foreshadow apostolic activity after the empty tomb, resulting in a narrative pattern of presence replacing absence. The post-resurrection disciples fill in not just for the risen Jesus but also for the heraldic function of John-as-Elijah—in this case, preparing the way for the second coming of the Messiah. Moreover, evocations of Elijah cast a scriptural background for the wanderings of Jesus and his followers in a situation of political oppression. Reinforcing the identity of itinerant apostleship is a crucial project around 70 C.E., as Mark seeks to extend the intermediate eschatological period beyond the deaths of the disciples; tying itinerancy to death paradoxically helps sustain second-generation leaders of the alternative society of Christ-believers.


Interpreting Biblical Allusions in a Coptic Divinatory Text
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University

I propose to present a paper on biblical quotations and allusions in a fifth- or sixth-century Coptic divinatory text, entitled “The Gospel of the Lots of Mary.” A detailed analysis of the text shows that it is composed of biblical phrases that are alternated and interspersed with traditional divinatory expressions. In my paper, I will investigate how such biblical language functions in the rhetoric of the oracular text and compare the text’s use of scripture with that of Egyptian monastics such as Horsiesius and Shenoute. With this paper, I contribute to larger discussions about monastic education, concepts of living texts and the orality of biblical language, and Egyptian Christianity in Late Antiquity.


Covenant and Sacred History in the Qur’an
Program Unit: Institute on Religion and Civic Values
Joseph Lumbard, Brandeis University

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Speech-Ethics in the New Testament
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Susanne Luther, University of Mainz, Germany

This paper presents the findings of my PhD dissertation on “Speech-ethics in the NT.” The term speech-ethics covers ethical paradigms and moral advice concerning speech in interpersonal relationships, including the anthropological and theological consequences. The NT writings, especially James, Matthew, 1 Peter and the Pastorals, reveal a distinctive interest in the transmission of speech-ethical topics in explicit and implicit form, i.e., reflections on moral norms, paraenesis, argumentation, narration, etc. Using discourse analysis as the methodological approach, this study (1) is interested in the early Christian discourse of speech-ethics, especially in describing and distinguishing the discourse positions of individual NT authors, as well as their interrelatedness and interaction with the wider discourse on speech-ethics as found in other ancient literature (Greco-Roman; OT; Early Jewish); (2) analyzes the application of the ethical norms in the diction and narration of the canonical NT writings, i.e., the language in which the discourse is conducted and (3) focuses on the effects of speech, i.e., its potential to initiate and direct discourses. The results of the analysis show that the NT discourse of speech-ethics is set apart as a separate strand of ancient ethics and is shaped individually by each NT author partaking in this ancient discourse. Speech-ethical admonitions are closely linked to the discourses on character formation (protreptic ethics) and ethical perfection, i.e., the intention of speech acquires a central position. The study seeks to disclose possible lines of development within the NT discourse and to position the early-Christian discourse within its contemporary philosophical-ethical context, thereby revealing the extent of the NT involvement with ancient ethics and philosophy. Moreover, the historical context (dating; setting) of the NT writings as well as the question of NT intertextual relatedness are addressed.


“What If”: John Calvin and the Parliamentarians’ Shedding of Royalist Blood in the English Civil War (1642–51)
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
William John Lyons, University of Bristol

In his Political Grace: The Revolutionary Theology of John Calvin (2009), Roland Boer contemplates Calvin’s struggle with the “radical and reactionary elements of the Bible and his theological system” and asks “what if…?” This paper pursues that question by examining one concrete example, Calvin’s treatment of Jer. 48.10 (“Cursed be he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that holds back his sword from bloodshed”). The careful closed historical exegesis provided for Jeremiah’s “Chaldeans” is contrasted with what happened when Calvin introduced that text into his discussion of the “Persians” of Psalm 137.9 (“Happy is he who takes and dashes your little ones upon the stones”). Calvin’s publications were freely available in England by 1600, and his juxtaposition of the two texts was echoed by the puritan Presbyterian minister Stephen Marshall in his fast sermon, “Cursed be Meroz (Jud. 5)”, delivered to Parliament on February 23rd 1642 and intended to encourage the Parliamentarians to execute the Earl of Strafford, counsellor to King Charles I, without delay. Marshall’s sermon illustrates both how such texts supported radical, even revolutionary, activities, and how, after it had failed to achieve its task, they also provided rallying points for further expositions; here, that of Achan (Josh. 7) in Samuel Fairclough’s sermon, “A Call for Blood”, delivered on April 4th and the final nail in Stafford’s coffin. Little wonder then that Robert South’s sermon on the martyrdom of Charles 1, delivered after the Restoration of 1660, did not hesitate to link the seditious nature of the Civil War’s “Meroz” sermons with the “Let princes hear and be afraid” of Calvin’s Institutes (Bk 4, Ch. 20, Sect. 31), and to ignore its immediate continuation: “let us at the same time guard most carefully against spurning or violating the venerable and majestic authority of rulers…”


The Problem of Herem: A Review of Jewish Hermeneutics across the Centuries
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
William L. Lyons, Regent University

The problem of warfare, violence, and ?erem in the Bible has occupied the minds of biblical readers millennia, and Jewish scholars are no exception. How should one interpret holy writ when it commands: “No go, attack Amalek, and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses” (1 Sam 15:1 [JPS]). In modern parlance, this mandate constitutes a clear violation of international law; it is a crime against humanity. What kind of god would command the faithful to commit such heinous acts? What kind of people would follow the directive? How can we teach this or other “litanies of violence” to our communities? For centuries Jewish scholars have confronted this biblical conundrum trying to make sense of an ancient military convention. This paper, the first of a two-part exercise on the history of interpretation on ?erem (the second is Christian interpretation), begins with early biblical interpretation (the LXX, Maccabees, Philo, and Josephus), proceeds to later Jewish interpretation (Rashi and Maimonides), and then concludes with a review of modern biblical hermeneuts. Each scholar was or is currently reading these most difficult of biblical passages and interpreting them within both the academy and their confessional communities. Following a summary of the diverse ways of interpreting the passages of ?erem, the paper compares and contrasts their work to discover unifying themes, divergent motifs, strategies for interpreting ?erem, or unique proposals for the ongoing discussion of ?erem. The work of these scholars demonstrates that although they clearly share a common interpretative tradition, each represents a distinctive way of negotiating the simultaneous demands of scholarly criticism of the Bible and contemporary sensibilities when reading the sacred text.


A Theology of Modesty in the Words of Agur (Prov 30:1–9)
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Sun Myung Lyu, Korean Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor

Proverbs 30:1-9 provides an intriguing challenge for interpreters as both the confession of ignorance (30:1-3) and the prayer for modesty (30:7-9) find no close parallel in wisdom literature, either biblical or extra-biblical. Thus in its current canonical locus the words of Agur is often regarded as an appendix to the main collection of Proverbs either in the sense of an afterthought (an unintended result of its editorial process) or in the sense of a corrective (an intended touch by the editorial hand). Interpreting the text is also complicated by the wide disagreements among scholars in demarcating the boundaries of subunits that constitute Prov 30. In this paper I will first argue that Prov 30:1-9 is best handled as a literary unit separate from other miscellaneous sayings, and that it offers a unique data for the construal of a theology of Proverbs. Agur’s confession and prayer demonstrate both humility and piety rooted in the tradition of exalting divine revelation over human erudition. Moreover, Agur’s prayer, the only specimen of actual prayer found in the book of Proverbs, is indispensible for the outlook of a theology of wealth and poverty. Agur’s piety reverberates with several wisdom psalms, notably Ps 73, and to a less extent with the revelatory theology found throughout the HB/OT. Far from being marginal to the wisdom theology, the words of Agur is very valuable for a richer and more balanced wisdom theology of Proverbs.


Island Fisherman/Fisherwoman Reading of Luke 5:1–11
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Mosese Ma'ilo, Piula Theological College

The presence of fishing, fishermen, fishing net, and fishing boats in Luke 5:1-11 invites an island tautai’s (fisherman/fisherwoman) reading of the text. Such reading is fundamental to Oceania by bringing island experiences of its fragile environment into a biblical interpretation that takes real people’s need for survival (not biblical people’s values) as priority. Fishing is island life. It is the islander’s everyday language. The sea (preferred reading over lake), with such names as vasa, moana, and sami is not just liquid space for fish and other sea creatures; it is home, central to human survival, and a sacred space. Unfortunately, the text doesn’t affirm such island values and codes of ethics that regulate the fisherman/fisherwoman’s liaison with the ocean. Jesus’ call to launch the net into the deep does not only affirm his Lordship, but obliquely disqualifies indigenous ways and beliefs concerning the sea, the people, and the Sacred. From an islander’s perspective, deep sea fishing in Luke 5:1-11 verifies accumulative inhuman use of marine resources whether Jesus (as the Messiah) was aware of it or not. In such retrospect, this paper argues for the inadequacy of Luke 5:1-11 as a biblical model for Christian mission. Luke’s Jesus instigates a model of mission that promotes schemes of subjugating indigenous values and cultures, indicated by the representation of Peter as the unproductive tautai in the text. Luke 5:1-11 reopens the wounds of colonial mission history. As model for discipleship, a tautai leaving his family and career to be fisherman/fisherwoman for the Church authorizes a mistaken impression of following Jesus that is exclusively based on acquiring a new identity; one that is superior and more valuable to indigenous identity. First, the paper addresses the life context of the reader, Oceania, one of the successful fields for colonial mission Christianity in early nineteenth century. Secondly, the paper locates the travel narrative of Luke in the context of the Roman Empire, where Jesus’ travels (portrayed by Luke as part of His universal saving mission) are assimilated to the role played by travel writing in the 19th century ideology of colonial and cultural expansion. Thirdly, an alternative interpretation of the text is provided with reference to the concerns of islanders.


Sanctus and Sanctification: Grounding Holiness on the Temple's Cornerstone
Program Unit: Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Grant MacAskill, University of St. Andrews

This paper will examine the significance of the New Testament's portrayal of the church as eschatological temple to the ethics developed therein. This covenant image, when properly informed by relevant backgrounds, emphasises the real presence of God with and in his people, a presence centered on the person of Jesus and actualised by the Holy Spirit. The image heightens the significance of the widespread language of holiness in the New Testament and informs this with themes of restored creation. It plays a key role, then, in the integration of ethics, ecclesiology, eschatology and cosmology.


Worthy Is the Lamb: The Christology of Revelation in the Context of Christian Worship and Dogma
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Frank D. Macchia, Vanguard University

The Lamb in Revelation functions as both the object and the pattern of Christian worship and adoration, thus influencing either directly or indirectly centuries of Christian worship and dogma. The Christology of Revelation is distinguished by the role of the Lamb as the object of worship (1:17; 5:12-13), which distinguishes him from other heavenly beings who refuse such adoration and direct it to God instead (19:10; 22:8-9). The cultic devotion to Jesus occurs elsewhere in the New Testament and down through the early centuries of the church. In the second and third centuries hymns of praise were increasingly addressed to Christ. Most importantly, this practice of worshipping Christ played a significant role in the rejection of Arianism. When Arius assumed that the Logos was a creature created in time rather than an eternally-generated deity (which Arius saw as an impossibility, since he saw God as by nature “unoriginate” or not derivative from another), the common counter claim was that Arius had advocated the worship of a mere creature. In fact, the evidence suggests that prayers or worship directed to Christ proliferated after Nicea, a trend that had the adverse effect of distancing Christ from worshippers. Revelation implicitly counterbalances this distancing, however, by also depicting the Lamb as the pattern of true adoration to God. As the sacrificial Lamb, Christ is the offering for the redemption of the world. As Babylon advocated the purchase of people as slaves (18:13), Christ redeemed people from the earth by his spilled blood so that they may reign as kings (5:9-10). The saints are the thus the “firstfruits” to the glory of God precisely in following the Lamb wherever he goes (14:4) and they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb in praise to God (15:3). The Lamb of God in Revelation is thus the one who is adored and the one who provides the means and pattern by which the saints adore. This combination of elements in the Christology of Revelation would help to provide the raw materials for centuries of both worship and dogma.


Johannine Parallels with Homeric Epic via Mark (or Matthew)
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Dennis R. MacDonald, Claremont School of Theology

This paper investigates John 6:1-21 (the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on water) and argues that its parallels with Nestor's feast in Odyssey 3 and Hermes' walking on water in Iliad 24 are mediated through a redaction of Mark (or Matthew's redaction of Mark). The implications of this history of tradition are enormous both for understanding the connection between the Fourth Gospel and the Synoptics, but also for how the Johannine evangelist inherited tale types from classical Greek literature.


Mark 6–8 and the Synoptic Problem
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Dennis MacDonald, Claremont School of Theology

In my book The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark I propose several imitations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Mark's originality requires Marcan priority to Matthew and Luke. Furthermore, these chapters display evidence of Q in the following ways: (1) Matthew occasionally displays inverted priority to both Mark and Luke, and (2) Luke displays inverted priority to both Mark and Matthew, even though it is likely that Luke knew both of the other Synoptics. These data support the Q+/Papias Hypothesis to the Synoptic Problem.


Foreigners, Levites, and Zadokite Priests: Reconsidering the Relationship between Ezek 44 and Isa 56
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Nathan MacDonald, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

This paper will reconsider the relationship between Ezek 44 and Isa 56. The scholarly consensus (Schaper, Fishbane, Tuell) is that Isa 56 is a polemical response to Ezek 44. This argument has sometimes been made on broad assumptions about the relative dating of Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah. There are good grounds for thinking that both Isa 56.1-8 and Ezek 44.6-31 are relatively late inclusions in their relative textual contexts. Consequently, it is necessary to examine the relationship between these two passages on the basis of internal textual data, and not on other grounds. Such an analysis shows that the consensus is quite mistaken and that it is Ezek 44 that is a response to a particular (and probably erroneous) reading of Isa 56. The possible implications this has for understanding Levites and Zadokites in the post-exilic period will be considered.


Ritual Innovation: The Feast of Weeks from the Covenant Code to the Temple Scroll
Program Unit:
Nathan MacDonald, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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Mesopotamian and Biblical Historiography: Comparisons, Models, Reflections
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Peter Machinist, Harvard University

If we mean by historiography the self-conscious recording of the past as past, with or without consideration of its impact on the present and future, then Mesopotamia furnishes us with a large quantity and wide variety of evidence in texts and art. Already early in the modern recovery and publication of this material, its relevance for the understanding of the Hebrew Bible and the history of ancient Israel became clear. So among the first scholarly editions of cuneiform texts, at the beginning of the 1870's, were those of the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, and they were quickly put to use, among others by none other than Julius Wellhausen, to explain in tandem or in opposition to the Hebrew Bible the chronology and events of the Divided Monarchy period in Israel. Subsequent scholarship has continued this line, and among the notable practitioners have been such names as Albrecht Alt, William Foxwell Albright, Manfred Weippert, and Hayim Tadmor. But as these and other scholars have recognized, the materials of Mesopotamian historiography have value for Biblical studies not only as sources on the events and institutions of ancient Israelite history. They have also served, and continue to serve, as models or counter-models for the Biblical texts in regard to the style and genre of history-writing and to the ways of understanding of the past and its relevance to the present and future. The present paper will review and extend some of the scholarship done on the comparison of Mesopotamian and Biblical historiography in these two directions: as historical sources and as historiographical art and perspective.


Empire Building as Perceived in the Neo-Assyrian Prophetic Corpus and Zephaniah
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
R. Russell Mack, Cincinnati Christian University

The Assyrian gods grant universal dominion to Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, who rule over the totality of the four regions and all the kings of the lands. In the book of Zephaniah, universal dominion is not the prerogative of the king, but YHWH. His universal dominion is what entitles him to execute judgment against the nations. Ashurbanipal receives authority to establish frontiers and set the roads the kings of the lands would take. Exercising control of fortresses and roads is an important aspect of administering an empire. Control of roadways was an important part of imperial administration. In addition to facilitating trade, control of roads also ensured the rapid dispatch of messages throughout the empire as well as the means of moving large military formations to needed hot spots. In Zephaniah, YHWH cuts off nations, demolishes strongholds, and leaves the streets deserted with no one passing through. This reference to fortresses and roads suggests that YHWH is envisioned as administering a universal empire. The kings of Assyria were able to summon vassals to Nineveh to witness Esarhaddon’s coronation. Once assembled, they were required to swear loyalty oaths that threatened divine judgment upon any who violated those oaths. YHWH will assemble the nations to witness his judgment on Jerusalem. Afterwards, YHWH will purify the lips of his people so they can worship him in unity. The book of Zephaniah presents YHWH as exercising the same prerogatives as the kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This has implications for identifying the socio-political locus of the writing of this book.


The Passion of Eve and the Ecstasy of Hannah: An Attempted Rehabilitation of Philo of Alexandria’s Misogyny
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Scott D. Mackie, Independent Scholar

As is well known, Philo of Alexandria has a fairly negative view of women; he has even been accused, perhaps not unjustly, of espousing a “virulent misogyny.” His negative attitude is especially evident in his recurring feminine characterization of sense perception. According to Philo’s reasoning, the senses resemble women in a number of ways: they are passive, prone to deception, and the source of debilitating passions and sinful pleasures (Opif. 165–166; Leg. 2.6, 50; QG 1.46). And just as the masculine mind must control the feminine senses for a person to function properly, so also women, if they wish to advance in virtue and wisdom, must be controlled and led by men into a figurative transformation of their femininity, one involving the suppression of the feminine senses and the acquisition of masculine “reasoning power” (Ebr. 59–60; Legat. 319–320). A notable exception to this thoroughgoing androcentrism is found in Philo’s allegorical interpretation of the biblical account of Hannah’s prayer for a son, in Ebr. 145–152. In this text Hannah almost entirely escapes the grasp of Philo’s presuppositions; only momentarily does he reign in her femininity, as he attributes her life-long sobriety to the use of “reasoning power . . . which no passion inebriates.” Throughout the remainder of the text, however, she remains wholly a woman. Firmly standing outside the control of male figures she assertively rebuffs the servant of Eli’s erroneous interpretation of her actions. Even more striking is the fact that Philo not only accords her his two most profound spiritual experiences, “sober intoxication” and the vision of God, but in the process he deliberately portrays her as an impassioned and adept female mystic. And while a vision of “the Existent One” typically results in the impartation of divine stability (i.e., freedom from the “wild horses” of the passions), in Hannah’s case we encounter an uncharacteristic approval and embrace of a fully embodied and passionate mystical experience. Nearly the whole sensorium finds employment as the “spirit of grace” enters Hannah, leading her to “rejoice, smile, and dance.” “Possessed, inspired and ecstatic,” her “sober inebriation” ultimately issues in an ascent into the noetic realm, where she “touches the bounds of the All, and presses on towards that most beautiful and illustrious of visions: the vision of the Uncreated.” This exceptional text therefore affords us a rare opportunity to mitigate, and perhaps even rehabilitate Philo’s misogyny, and along with it his largely negative attitude towards the senses, emotions, and embodied existence.


Integrating Versional and Patristic Evidence into the Apparatus of the ECM John: Technical Aspects
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Rosalind MacLachlan, University of Birmingham

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Exilic Trauma and the Need for an Interpreter
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Heather Macumber, University of Toronto

An increased interest in the heavenly world and angelic activity marks Second Temple Judaism. One particular angelic being, known as the angelus interpres, becomes a prominent feature of Jewish and Christian apocalypses. This angel’s main role is to interpret the meaning of the visionaries’ symbolic dreams and to provide a correct understanding of it. The angelus interpres first appears in the visions of Zechariah 1-8 but it is unclear what prompts the creation and subsequent reuse of this angelic being in later Jewish and Christian texts. This paper proposes that the trauma of the Babylonian exile creates a situation in the post-exilic period in which the ability to access divine revelation is reconceived. The traditional pre-exilic offices of prophet and priest become insufficient in providing visionaries a sense of legitimacy for their visions especially those centered on the reestablishment of Israel following the exile. The need for a legitimate and authoritative interpretation of scripture in the post-exilic period is imperative for a community recovering from displacement and seeking to reestablish themselves and their institutions. Thus, the angelus interpres, fills this need by acting as an intermediary between the heavenly and earthly worlds in mediating divine revelation. This paper will examine the role of the angelus interpres in Zechariah 1 and Daniel 9 in reinterpreting Jeremiah’s older seventy-year prophecy of domination by Babylon. Jeremiah’s earlier prophecy concerning the Babylonian exile is reapplied and reinterpreted by the angelic mediators, first in the immediate post-exilic world of Zechariah and later in the Hellenistic milieu of Daniel resulting in the creation of new revelatory texts.


Tell es-Safi/Gath in the 8th Century BCE: Between Judah, Philistia, and the Global Powers
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University

In this paper I will discuss the role of Tell es-Safi/Gath in the geopolitics of the Shephelah and Philistia during the 8th cent. BCE, focusing particularly on the Judahite stage at Gath during the 2nd half of the 8th cent., and the aftermath of the destruction of Gath by Hazael in the 2nd half of the 9th cent. BCE. The role of Gath will be discussed in relationship to the Judahite expansion to, and then contraction from, this region, the rise and/or fall of other cities/polities in the region (such as Ekron, Ashdod, Ashkelon, etc.), and the power play of the other, larger polities (e.g., Assyria and Egypt) in the region. The paper will relate to finds from the recent excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath and neighboring sites, including those from the recent seasons.


The Manumission Contracts of Slaves Consecrated to Shirkutu Status in the Neo-Babylonian Period and the So-Called Paramone
Program Unit: Biblical Law
F. Rachel Magdalene, Universität Leipzig

A major scholarly problems arises in situations in which a slave is released from slave status and concurrently oblated. The removal of slave status normally is indicated by the verb zukku. Once the act of “cleansing” is performed the individual is released from slave status. It is noteworthy that, in some cases of dedication, the vocabulary of manumission is employed over and above the use of zukku, by declaring that the person has received mar banuti status. This transaction is usually combined with the obligation on the part of the manumittee to serve his former master until his master’s death, at which point the former slave will become part of the temple’s household. Thus, we find that the slave has been made free and dedicated to the temple, while the condition of future work for his former master has also been somehow imposed. This situation is typified in OIP 122 38. Such a scenario produces the scholarly problem that this paper addresses: How can someone who has received mar banuti status, nevertheless be dedicated to the temple by his or her former owner and forced to work for this same individual? Two primary solutions to the conundrum have been proposed. Roth has argued that mar banuti status may not involve complete freedom (what may be called qualified freedom). Westbrook, followed by Ragen, has maintained that the manumission may not have been full (what may be termed qualified manumission). Westbrook relied upon a Greek concept, the paramone. Unfortunately, the documentary evidence supports neither solution nor do these solutions hold legal muster. This paper argues that a basic facet of ancient contract law, that is, the distinction between conditional and unconditional contracts, assists in the solution of the conundrum and that the use of the concept of paramone is unhelpful.


Sweet Memory: Archaeological Evidence of Jesus in Jerusalem
Program Unit: Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

To what extent can archaeology verify the canonical Gospel accounts about Jesus' final days in Jerusalem, including the events surrounding his death and burial? Do these accounts preserve authentic traditions about Jesus in Jerusalem, or do they stem from traditions that developed after Jesus' death? This paper considers different traditions about Jesus in Jerusalem in light of the canonical Gospel accounts and archaeological evidence.


After the “One-Man Show”: Multi-authored and Multi-voiced Commentary Writing
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Christl M. Maier, Philipps-Universität Marburg

In any existing commentary on Jeremiah, a reader would first encounter the voice of the scholarly expert who is narrating his (rarely her) interpretation of the ancient texts. The reader expects, however, to hear the voice of the prophet, if only in reconstructed form, and of the many other authors who, according to Jer 36:32, wrote Jeremiah’s words and their own deliberations into the book. This polyphony of voices is usually controlled by the commentator, yet both feminist and postcolonial approaches would dismiss such a master narrative and argue for multi-voiced readings of a given passage. A feminist commentary would not only address issues of gender, but also those of authority, ethnicity, and classism which all intersect. The paper explores the potential effects of a feminist approach to Jeremiah on the genre of commentary and argues that there will be different and even conflicting interpretations of the same passage, which challenge both the authority of the commentator and the confidence of the reader.


Picturing "Paul" in Empire: Rhetography, Imperial Iconography, and Persuasion in the Epistle to the Ephesians
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Harry Maier, Vancouver School of Theology

This essay takes up the promises and challenges of rhetography in the examination of the disputed letter to the Ephesians by particular attention to its overarching uses of imperial metaphor and image. It shows how its author drew on a repertoire of imagery from Flavian imperial iconography and the imperial cult in order to enliven the imaginations of its audience(s) and so to make its doxological and panegyric christological claims persuasive. The essay shows how attention to vivid imperial language and imagery in Ephesians brings an exciting new dimension to the study of Ephesians that earlier studies that have restricted their attention to more lexicographical and purely textual examinations pass over. Ephesians invited its audience to consider themselves as inhabiting what Edward Soja calls a "third space" of imagined place and identity practices and as embodying a universal civic space alongside that universalism celebrated by the Flavian dynasty and governing civic elites of cities in the environs of western Asia Minor where Ephesians most probably originated. What unfolds then is highly evocative imagery drawn from an imperial register in order to confirm Ephesians' listeners as the beneficiaries of a christological imperial rule and to persuade them to pursue behaviours worthy of their reformulated imperial citizenship. Particular attention will be given to local imagery to argue for a practice of rhetography located in time and space closest to texts under investigation and to show how picturing Paul against the backdrop of imperial iconography helps to cast into relief the persuasive strategies of Ephesians and the Pauline corpus more generally.


Balancing Archaeology, Faith, and Jordan’s National Economy
Program Unit:
David Maltsberger, Baptist University of the Americas

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Writing and Magic at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud: Votive Inscriptions and the Epistolary Genre
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Alice Mandell, University of California-Los Angeles

The inscriptions associated with the shrine area at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud have provoked intense debate about the nature of popular Israelite religion in particular, regarding the role (or lack thereof) of the goddess Asherah. However, these inscriptions have not adequately been studied in their own right, as some of the earliest attested Iron Age magical texts. This study attempts to fill this lacuna by analyzing KAjr 18 and 19 from a form-critical perspective as votive graffiti, and by situating these inscriptions within the larger framework of Iron Age magical texts. In particular, I analyze the relationship between the stock votive formula used in these and other NWS inscriptions, and the standard NWS epistolary greeting, from which this formula appears to have evolved. This study also draws upon Phoenician and Egyptian votive inscriptions, which share a similar form and function. I further argue that the inscriptions at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud are a local manifestation of a more widespread phenomenon in ancient Israel, whereby writing was used as a numinous technology. Magical texts such as KAjr 18 and 19 shed light upon the interconnection between scribalism and magic in Israel—Israelite scribes fulfilled a similar role to their Phoenician and Egyptian counterparts, harnessing this numinous technology on behalf of non-literate clients. In addition, inscriptions such as KAjr 18 and 19 elucidate references to writing in biblical literature that depict the act of writing as having numinous power e.g., Numbers 5:21-4.


Not for Women Only: Feminist Interpretation of the Psalms
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Carleen Mandolfo, Claremont School of Theology

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The Early Church and the Textual Battle against Montanist Martyrdom
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
T Scott Manor, University of Edinburgh

The relationship between the New Prophecy and the early ‘catholic’ church is a tenuous and complicated one. The Montanists claimed to belong to the church, but their acceptance within this religious community was not always warmly received. The portrait that emerges from the surviving evidence is one of tension and struggle with adherents of this New Prophecy. The battle lines were often drawn on matters of Scriptural support and apostolic heritage from which both sides claimed legitimacy and authority. In addition to the issues of hermeneutics and history, however, the Montanists also claimed authority for their theology and pneumatology from their martyrs. Martyrdom, according to the extant evidence, was the final proof offered by the New Prophets for the legitimacy of their position (e.g. Eusebius, HE 5.17.20-21). From both sides, Martyrs were seen as venerated examples of the true faith, yet while those opposed to Montanism pointed to their own martyrs as examples of true Godliness, those from the New Prophecy were denigrated as eager to die for a lie. What is the real reason for delineating proper and improper reasons for martyrdom? This paper will argue that while both of these groups claimed the high status accorded to martyrdom, its significance was substantiated on the grounds of textual authority. This is seen clearly when one compares the testimonies of the anti-Montanist “Anonymous” (in Eusebius HE 5.17.12, 20-21) to that of Tertullian (De Anima 55). The authority accorded to martyrdom, therefore, was not ultimately located in the practice itself, but in the issue of the authoritative texts (or oracles) used to support the reasons for martyrdom. It is for this reason that the Montanist appeals for a recognized status within the church on the basis of martyrdom were not successful.


Tampering with Tradition: How Eusebius Manipulated the Tradition of Papias
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
T. Scott Manor, University of Edinburgh

Eusebius records a written account of the origins of the Fourth Gospel (HE 3.24.5-13), which he claims to have derived from a previous record. C. E. Hill and R. Bauckham have argued that the information Eusebius presents originated from Papias. In agreement with these scholars I will argue that Papias lies behind Eusebius’ account of the origins of the Fourth Gospel, but the latter has clearly manipulated his source to answer objections to the Gospel of John raised by Origen. In his Commentary on the Gospel of John (10.2) Origen argues that John’s Gospel is historically unreliable because it omits the story of Jesus’ temptation. Origen demands an explanation for this contradicting evidence in the Fourth Gospel as compared to the Synoptic Gospels. Otherwise, he maintains there are only two options: either do away with John’s Gospel altogether or interpret it spiritually. This paper will demonstrate that Eusebius provides a response to this criticism of Origen (HE 3.24.8b-13), and that he has interwoven his response with the tradition the Papian tradition such that his own opinions appear to be indistinguishable from his source. By looking at the way in which Eusebius handles the testimony of Papias in this passage, and elsewhere (HE 3.39), a clearer view Eusebius’ role as an historian emerges as one that is at times willing to modify and redact earlier sources to serve his own theological purposes.


The Exceptional Proves Who Rules: Imperial Sexual Exceptionalism in and around Paul’s Letters
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Joseph A. Marchal, Ball State University

Though there has been a recent spike of scholarship on “Paul and empire,” there is still a remarkable gap in considering the imperial and colonial politics of sexuality in Pauline epistles and interpretation. Yet, as postcolonial scholars and theorists (like Jasbir Puar and M. Jacqui Alexander) have shown, sexual and gender norms interact profoundly with racial, ethnic, national, and colonial formations, including in the dynamics of “sexual exceptionalism.” Though most postcolonial theorists are reflecting upon more recent imperial and colonial formations, such conceptualizations are also helpful for identifying similar imperial-erotic echoes in the Roman empire (and the literature it influences, like Paul’s letters). Rulers in these imperial-colonial contexts depict themselves as “exceptional” in the dual sense of distinction (they are unlike the subject peoples) and excellence (they are superior to them because of this distinction). The imperial regime requires, but also constructs and adapts, the definitions of sexual propriety used to demonstrate this exceptionalism: superior status is justified because members of the ruling groups only do the proper erotic things with their own and others’ bodies. Certainly, Paul is disputing and attempting to displace elements of the Roman imperial worldview, such as their claims of ethnic and religious superiority. Nevertheless, he operates out of an only slightly altered vantage point, as his arguments repeat and reinscribe many aspects of the Roman imperial sexual exceptionalism, including the links between illegitimate modes of erotic conduct and illegitimate forms of worship (as in Rom 1). His arguments partake of ethnic stereotypes about such practices, attributing sexual impropriety to other peoples who lack control and practice “idolatry” as depraved “pagans.” Paul both claims this sexual exceptionalism for himself and attempts to reinforce a constrained form of communal boundaries and behavior through exceptionalist arguments (by narrating the decline of other people’s civilization(s), for instance). For Paul, these situations demonstrate both the regressive inferiority of these others and the necessity of his bringing a saving and civilizing message to these peoples. Such connections, provoked by postcolonial studies, can not only reformulate feminist, queer, and (of course) postcolonial approaches to biblical texts, but it can also complicate contemporary claims about finding Paul’s “stance” on topics like homosexuality and empire.


Bis repetita placent: Some Reflections on Repetitions, Orality, and John 18:36
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Hellen Mardaga, Catholic University of America

The paper focusses on repetition, orality and Johnn 18:36. After a short presentation of C.F. Burney's comments on John the presentation will treat three issues: a) repetition. The definition of "repetition" will be discussed, the parallelism in John 18:36 as an example of repetition and Quintilian's comments on repetition and rhetoric; b) orality.The question will be raised which effect the written text of John 18:36 has on a listening audience, by means of the works of W. Ong and Quintilian; c) Orality and memory. Was Jesus remebered as saying something about his own kingdom?


Moses’ Political Rhetoric in Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Dominik Markl, S.J., Heythrop College

Aristotle was the first philosopher to describe the close relationship between rhetoric and politics. Against the backdrop of the modern theory of political rhetoric developed by Uwe Pörksen and others, this paper analyses the literary?rhetorical construction of the book of Deuteronomy. In this book, Moses aims to form Israel as a political entity. Through this book, the authors aim to re-establish a political and theological identity for the post exilic, early Jewish community. The means employed to achieve this complex pragmatic goal are manifold. First of all, Dt consists mainly of the speeches of Moses delivered to Israel as direct discourse. Through the use of the second person to address the people and the first person plural to create collective identification, and emphasising the urgency of the present moment (“today” and “now”), Moses’s rhetoric maximises reader identification. This is particularly true at the conclusion of his main speeches in Dt 29f; speaking prophetically about the future, Moses steps, as it were, partially out of the framework of the narrated world of Dt into the present reality of his postexilic listeners. Dt covers a wide range of political rhetoric, not only with regard to literary and stylistic devices, but also to content. Moses forms an historical identity by means of narration and provides moral identity through praise and reprimand. He establishes Israel as a political entity through a legal constitution. Through prophecy and warning he gives directions for the future. Therefore, Dt combines three aspects, which Uwe Pörksen calls the three areas of political speech. Dt offers the most extensive example of political rhetoric in the Bible and one of the most complex examples of literary political rhetoric from antiquity.


Caused and Effective: Ephesians and Early Pauline Effective-History
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Read Marlatte, University of Oxford

The Epistle to the Ephesians, widely considered pseudonymous in modern scholarship, is attested by some of the earliest witnesses to Paul and played a formative role both in early Christianity and its interpretation of the apostle. The aim of this paper is to examine the role Ephesians played within the early effective-history (Wirkungsgeschichte) of the Pauline corpus. In doing so we intend to investigate what light current the debates on the hermeneutical theory of effective-history can shed on our understanding of Pauline pseudonymity. Following a brief discussion of effective-history, both in its philosophical roots and in its application to New Testament studies, we shall use the idea of effective-history as a means of examining the relationship between Ephesians and the undisputed epistles. We shall see whether we can observe an internal effective-history within the Pauline corpus and how particular verses and theological concepts can be seen to have been “effected” or “caused” by Paul’s own letters. Next, we examine how the epistle to the Ephesians continued to influence or be “effective” in the reception of Paul’s letters and the interpretation of his theology. Passages from both the mainstream Christian tradition and other more marginal sources will be examined in order to see how Ephesians shaped the earliest understandings of Paul. The paper will argue against the tendency to excise Ephesians and focus only on the authentic letters of Paul when examining Pauline reception. The aim of examining effective-history is for us to become aware of our own hermeneutical presuppositions, from where they originated and how we have received them. Thus, it would be artificial to disregard a segment of that reception which has been integral. An awareness of the effects of Ephesians, even if our interest lies only in the reception of the undisputed epistles, is still essential for this task. Having observed how Ephesians can be seen as both caused by Paul’s epistles and effective in their reception, we shall conclude by examining what implications this might have for our conception of pseudonymity and the role the disputed Paulines might yet play in our interpretation of the apostle himself.


Deconstructing the Wall Builder: Social-Psychological Development in Nehemiah 13:23–31
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Noah M. Marsh, Iliff School of Theology

Large sections of Ezra-Nehemiah are taken as they are presented—first person accounts of the post-exilic period. As eyewitness accounts, scholars believe they reflect the conflict stages of social-psychological group development Moreland and Levine label Storming and Norming. However, having developed over several generations, Ezra-Nehemiah's final form captures the perspective of generations reflecting upon Ezra and Nehemiah’s time period. Therefore, the final stages of Ezra-Nehemiah reflect a late stage, Adjourning, in Moreland and Levine’s model of social-psychological group development. During the Adjourning stage of individual members, the group and the individual both form how they will remember the individual’s membership in the group. From this later generation’s reflection on Ezra-Nehemiah, it becomes clear that the group responsible for Ezra-Nehemiah’s final form eschews Nehemiah’s exclusion of the foreigner. At points the tension between Nehemiah’s vilification of foreigners and the later reflections rises to the foreground of the work. In fact, despite the first person account dominating scholarly discussions, the later redactions undermine, contradict, and even reject the first person accounts' disgust of foreigners. One such example is Nehemiah 13:23-31. Nehemiah’s first person speech and actions in Nehemiah 13:23-31 are inconsistent with the larger narrative setting. The tension between the narrative framework and Nehemiah’s speech and actions forces a critical choice upon the reader: Should the reader reject the need to separate from foreigners as absurd? This reading challenges the scholarly reconstruction of the post-exilic attitude toward foreigners. Instead of post-exilic Judah excluding foreigners, those responsible for Ezra-Nehemiah’s final form combatted such attitudes and memories.


An Analysis of the Function of HOUTOS in Some Passages of the Book of Acts
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Phillip S Marshall, Houston Baptist University

The demonstrative pronouns HOUTOS and EKEINOS are commonly used in the Greek New Testament as deictic markers for entities and/or situations that are near or remote to the speaker in terms of space or time. As well, one detects their use in textual deixis, that is, to refer to a more recently mentioned referent in the text compared to one mentioned earlier. However, in a number of places in the Greek New Testament one finds the so-called “near demonstrative” HOUTOS used for items that are remote, and the so-called “far demonstrative” EKEINOS for items that are near. In this paper, we will analyze four sections of the book of Acts where the near demonstrative occurs in clusters: 4:10-11 (where the referent of HOUTOS alternates between Jesus and the lame man), 7:35-38 (where the referent of HOUTOS is Moses throughout, but Moses is thematic throughout as well, which situation invites us to ask why HOUTOS is used anaphorically to refer to a participant who is already thematic in the speech), 9:20-22 (where the referent of HOUTOS alternates between Jesus and Paul), and 10:36-43 (where anaphoric references to Jesus alternate between HOUTOS and AUTOS). We will investigate the pragmatic function of the use of HOUTOS to refer to different participants in narrative proximity and attempt to discern what the writer is communicating by using HOUTOS where the personal pronoun AUTOS might have been used.


Origen's Allegory of the Tower of Babel
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Peter Martens, Saint Louis University

The central focus of this paper is Origen's oft-overlooked interpretation of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9). I will direct particular attention to his extensive allegory of this episode in Against Celsus (5.29-33). As will become clear, there are several important facets of his complex allegory. While it serves most notably as a rebuttal of several of Celsus' criticisms of Christianity, it also links well to several of Origen's other doctrinal commitments. It develops in new directions, for instance, his account of the pre-existent state of souls and their primordial fall, first articulated several decades earlier in On First Principles. Genesis 11, in conjunction with several other scriptural passages, also becomes an opportunity to explain the chosen status of Israel, its subsequent demise, and the emergence of a Christian faith that reprises the idyllic phase that preceded the construction of the tower. In the final section of this paper I will explore one other perspective on Origen's allegory of the tower: to what extent (if at all) it reflects Philo's reflections on Gen 11 in De Confusione Linguarum.


Texting, Twitter, and Other Technologies in the Biblical Studies Classroom
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Erica L. Martin, Seattle University

Our students swim daily in a sea of technology: cell phones, video games, email and social media create alternative communities. As educators, we are challenged in the classroom to be more responsive and proactive to student based learning approaches. Meeting the students “where they live” is essential to fostering active learning and engaging students. Adopting technology as a teaching and learning tool can be a transformational experience for both teacher and student. This presentation will demonstrate some the ways in which technology can be used to change the learning environment, including: 1. bringing cell phones and text messaging into the classroom (if they are doing it anyway, we can re-direct the behavior toward our goals!) by using Poll Everywhere and Twitter feeds for questions and answers both during and outside of class time; 2. using Facebook to foster collaboration and community; 3. using music as a teaching tool; 4. Discussion on what use of technology is working, and not working, in our classrooms.


Out of Egypt: Hagar’s Biblical Potential Realized in Qur’an and Tafsir
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Erica L. Martin, Seattle University

Traditions regarding the piety, bravery and strength of Hagar, hinted at in the Qur’an and elaborated in hadith, are well known. The current paper begins from the perspective of inner-biblical exegesis, analyzing evidence linking Moses and Hagar as parallel prophetic and salvific characters in the text of the Hebrew Bible. Although a few Rabbinic voices continue this biblical correlation between the characters of Moses and Hagar (such as assertion in Gen. Rab. 45:1 that Hagar was Pharaoh’s daughter), this theme remains largely dormant in Jewish sources. We will explore the way which Muslim approaches to Hagar, in some respects, do more justice to the latent Moses-Hagar connection in the Hebrew Bible, explicitly realizing the theme in tafsir.


Playing "Devil's Advocate": Cursing as Black Magic or Social Fact in Antiquity
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Heidi Marx-Wolf, University of Manitoba

This is a prepared response to Ronald Stroud's paper, Ancient Magic and Social Context: New Evidence from the Sanctuary of Demeter in Corinth.


The Broken “Treaty” of Isaiah 33: The Isaiah Apocalypse Refashioned?
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Steven D. Mason, LeTourneau University

The intent of the paper is to offer a close exegetical analysis of the broken “treaty/covenant” in Isaiah 33:8 and compare its meaning and referent to the broken berit olam of Isaiah 24:5, in particular. There is significant discussion regarding the intertextuality of Isaiah 33, but few scholars procure the text of Isaiah 24 as a tool for understanding Isaiah 33 in general, the referent of the covenant in 33:8 in particular, and other debatable issues in that chapter (e.g. Who is the “treacherous one” of v.1? Who are the covenant parties in view? Etc.). There are several ways that Isaiah 24 and 33 connect semantically (e.g. beged, berit) and also functionally within the final form of First Isaiah. It is also possible that the broken covenant in Isaiah 33 is that which is referred to in Hosea 6 (depending upon how one takes “Adam” in 6:7 and the LXX translation there as “anthropos”, etc.) which also may shed light on both Isaiah 24 and 33. While it is likely that Isaiah 33 serves as a sort of “closure” text for Isa 1-33, and may continue a pattern of communal laments in Isaiah after woe oracles (e.g. 26, 59 and 63-64), in what way is it distinctive? In what ways does Isaiah 33 serve as a “mirror text” (Beuken) in the final form of Isaiah as a whole, particularly with its use of covenant? These literary and exegetical questions of Isaiah 33, especially with respect to covenant and Isaiah 24, serve as the foundation of the paper. This paper will reflect some of my current work toward a monograph on covenant in Isaiah which is under contract with Wipf & Stock publishers, and will build upon my previous work in Isaiah 24 (see “Another Flood? Genesis 9 and Isaiah’s Broken Eternal Covenant” JSOT 32 (2007): 177-98.) and covenant righteousness in Isaiah (i.e. a paper I gave at SBL in 2009 in the Formation of Isaiah Group entitled, “Eternal Covenant in Trito Isaiah: A Concentric Call Upon the Servants of the Servant.”). My initial interest in covenant studies stems from my book, “’Eternal Covenant’ in the Pentateuch: The Contours of an Elusive Phrase” LHBOTS 494 (T&T Clark, 2008). Thanks for the consideration! Steven D. Mason


An Ecological Reading of Habakkuk
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Jeanette Mathews, Charles Sturt University

This paper presents some reflections resulting from an ecological reading of the prophetic book of Habakkuk. A survey of recent scholarship evidences little interest in the book as a resource in the light of the current global environmental crisis. Yet the Earth (’erets) is a key actor in the book, both as an object of violation (2:17) and a subject offering praise (2:14; 2:20; 3:3). Earth is not the only actor in the drama - other non-human entities speak and act (e.g. stone and rafter in 2:11; Deep and Sun in 3:10). The third chapter of Habakkuk incorporates a theophany in which natural and military imagery is merged in the portrayal of Yahweh as a warrior. The environmental realm is explored to find appropriate descriptors of the presence of Yahweh, utilising such elements as sunlight, thunderstorms, lightning shafts. At times the natural elements can be understood as deities and are best translated as such: Dabar (Pestilence) and Reshef (Plague) in 3:5; N?harim (Rivers) and Yam (Sea) in 3:8; Tahom (Deep) in 3:10; Shemesh (Sun) and Yareach (Moon) in 3:11. These entities are actors on the stage with Yahweh in the poem. Whilst the natural world is especially engaged and active in the third chapter of Habakkuk, the first two chapters also make extensive metaphorical use of natural imagery to describe the crisis within which the prophet finds himself immersed and as it explores responses to the crisis on the part of both Yahweh and the prophet. This paper will explore the use of nature as integral to the message of Habakkuk and the paradox of portraying natural elements as actors alongside the prophet and Yahweh while at the same time subsuming their power to the sovereignty of Yahweh.


Rethinking Repetition in the Book of the Twelve as Examples of “Ready-Mades” in Improvised Performance
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Jeanette Mathews, Charles Sturt University

Much recent research in the Book of the Twelve has focussed on the book as an edited whole, with attention given to intertextual devices as evidence of deliberate editorial work in order to bring the books together. Some such devices include repetition of themes or motifs, catchwords, quotations and allusions. This paper suggests that when the Book of the Twelve is read through the lens of biblical performance criticism, repetition of words, themes and motifs might be understood as “ready-mades” in improvised performance. The term “ready-made” originates in linguistics where constructed discourse makes use of memorised clauses and clause-sequences that come “ready-made.” It is also recognised in musical forms that highlight improvisation, such as Irish jigs or many forms of jazz. Even when musicians depart from a set score, they frequently make use of stock patterns already in their repertoire. In improvised stage performance, the success of the performance depends on the actors making use of cultural knowledge and references that are shared with other actors and the audience as the scenario unfolds. It can be argued that even written literary composition relies on a store of institutionalised utterances which may be replicated or deliberately altered for dramatic or humorous effect. By re-naming such instances of intertexuality in the Book of the Twelve as ready-mades, this paper suggests that the intention of the redactor goes beyond that of editorial linkage between books to a deliberate transformation of meaning via improvisation. By drawing on ready-mades that evoke memory, emotion or expectation, new meanings would be suggested when new settings are given to the familiar terms. Their innovative use might cause the audience to re-assess their understanding of the prophetic word in the given situation.


The "Community Problem" through a Lukan Glass (Darkly?)
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Christopher Matthews, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

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Memory Lingers: Definition and Redefinition of Space in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Victor H. Matthews, Missouri State University

Once space has been produced and defined through repetition of social practice to serve its domestic, sacred, or official role the collective memory of the community that perpetuates that spatial conception and gives it substance continues to function even after that discretely identified space has been redefined by new construction, destruction, and the reshaping of its social role. For example, the threshing floor upon which the gate of the city of Samaria was constructed originally functioned as an agricultural installation (1 Kgs 22:10). Its material aspects revolved on its physical characteristics (a fairly broad, flat area with prevailing winds to blow away the chaff), but there is also an ideological aspect as well that allows for the variety of social acts that can be conceived to occur within that space. Then, as farmers, businessmen, elders, and others come to the threshing floor to conduct their various tasks or to come to consensus on a commercial transaction or a legal matter they add the lived dimension to the space that has been produced through this social process. With that said, it is unlikely that that particular space was chosen for the gate area of the city of Samaria simply because of its physical characteristics. Instead, it is the memory of the social activities that took place there that remain in the collective memory of the inhabitants. Plus, the association of the threshing floor with business and legal matters in the village culture provides yet another reason (ideological rather than architecturally practical) for placing the city gate there. In that way, the social activities that had produced discretely defined space in that particular place are translated into its new function as the gate area of a city. Its former function as a place for social gathering, business transactions, and legal proceedings continues on with only minor shifts in the way that it is conceived. The memory of what that space had been for the village culture is redefined into a newly conceived spatial understanding as the city displaces the village. It is unlikely that there would be any effort to extinguish the remembered dimensions of the space since its formerly perceived, conceived, and lived characteristics would add authority and legitimacy to the newly established function for that space. In this study I will be employing Henri Lefebvre’s conceptual triad on the production of space (along with Stuart Elden's use of Lefebvre’s work) as well as Edward Soja’s trialectics to discuss how the biblical writer makes use of collective memory by incorporating subtle and not so subtle references to the past use of space.


Revisiting Jesus’ Capernaum: A Village of Only Subsistence-Level Fishers and Farmers?
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Sharon Lea Mattila, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

In this paper I subject the published archaeological data from Capernaum to close analysis, with the goal of refuting misleading characterizations of Jesus’ Capernaum that have been put forward by a number of influential New Testament scholars. It is surely self-evident that Capernaum was never in the same league as the major cities of Judea, the Decapolis, and the Galilee. But this does not mean that the 1,000 inhabitants of the village in Jesus’ time enjoyed no prosperity beyond subsistence. First, assertions that no luxury items of any kind appear at the site prior to the Byzantine period are simply mistaken. Second, the Byzantine fine wares recovered at Capernaum do not indicate a sudden increase in the village’s prosperity, but instead reflect an important shift in trade patterns in Palestine at large between the Byzantine and earlier periods. Third, Capernaum’s best preserved and fully excavated houses compared favorably in size to the roughly contemporaneous Upper Galilean Meron “Patrician House,” usually designated as belonging to “modestly wealthy” individuals. All these houses date to well after Jesus’ time, but diachronically the houses of Capernaum seem to have been larger in the early Roman period than in later times. Finally, the evidence from Egyptian Karanis shows how villagers living in houses constructed out of humble local materials could and did take pride in decorating their homes with mud plaster and other perishable items that would not have survived the climate of Capernaum. While this Egyptian evidence cannot be directly applied to Capernaum, it does alert us to keep our historical imaginations alive to the possibility that the extant walls of Capernaum’s houses are merely the bare bones of the homes that once were.


Education, Public Speaking, and Heresy in Late Antique Church Historians
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Jaclyn Maxwell, Ohio University Main Campus

Although they considered themselves to be the successors of tentmakers and fishermen, Christian leaders in Late Antiquity still held long-standing cultural prejudices against such low status people. Contradictions between certain Christian teachings that leveled social distinctions and the elevated social status of most patristic authors emerge most significantly in their depictions of rival teachers (heresiarchs) and the laity. This paper will examine the role of public speaking and education in the church historians’ accounts of sectarian conflicts. I will argue that a “discourse about how to talk” was central to their understanding of the driving forces of Church History. Too much education falling into the wrong hands (i.e. members of social groups that would not normally have engaged in philosophical or theological discussions) was at the root of heretical sects; the heresiarchs gained their followings due to the vulnerability of the masses to persuasive speech. Throughout the Church Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Rufinus, the laity appears in divergent ways. Depending on the speaker they responded to, the Christian masses are depicted as either mindless and weak, or faithful and brave. The Christian masses are portrayed positively when they stick to simple ideas, but in negative terms when they follow the “overly-complicated” reasoning and rhetoric of an unauthorized speaker. Likewise, unschooled teachers appear in two different guises: on one side, lowborn heretics who deceive the crowd with overly complicated arguments (e.g. the semi-Arians Aetius and Eunomius), and on the other, humble believers are celebrated for articulating their simple faith in simple terms. The different depictions of uneducated speakers and listeners reflect the desire by Christian elites to preserve traditional social roles: they expected theologians to have proper credentials; self-educated upstart teachers should not be trusted. Perhaps most importantly, they expected the laity to play its role as simple people and avoid involvement in complicated theological discussions.


An Analysis of the Evangelist Portraits in the Two Manuscripts
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Kathleen Maxwell, Santa Clara University

Dr Maxwell will focus on the evangelist portraits of both manuscripts, placing them in their late 9th/early 10th century Byzantine context.


Perception, Imperception, and Misperception: Three Cases from Late Antique Antioch
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Wendy Mayer, Australian Catholic University

A recent reappraisal of the Christian worship sites of late antique Antioch, in which we drew together archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence, offers several curious examples of the relationship between power and perception in regard to relics. In the last decades of the fourth century CE, while the Antiochene schism was still operative, we observe a bishop physically reconfiguring burials in a local martyrium in order to visually suppress ‘heterodox’ relics and empower ‘orthodox’ relics through the erasure of their competitors’ memory. In another example, a church with no visible relics is built in memory of Jewish martyrs (honouring virtual relics) in order to disassociate the Christian cult from the Jewish healing shrine that was believed to hold (but may not have) the actual relics. In the sixth century there is popular objection to the translation of martyrial remains into a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael (an invisible entity) precisely because the relics are earthly and perceptible. These three examples offer the opportunity to view the relationship between perception and power operating in different ways. Out of sight might successfully put the unapproved relics out of mind in one instance, but in another an alternative set of values can be seen to operate. In this paper the valency of relics in relation to their visibility at Antioch is explored through these three examples, drawing out a variety of political, social, and popular-theological dimensions and demonstrating in two of the instances the difficulty faced by ecclesiastical authority in dealing with the resistance posed by popular religious sensibility.


“If You Should Know Him, ‘Un–know’ Him”: ‘(Un–) Knowing’ the Unknowable Deity in Allogenes (NHC XI,3) and the Paradox of Transcendental Epistemology in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Zeke Mazur, Université Laval

Among the mechanisms by which the eponymous aspirant is said to attain the ultimate apprehension of the Unknowable deity in Allogenes (NHC XI,3), we find mention of the paradoxical act of “un–knowing”; thus, for instance, at 59.30–31: “If you should know him, un–know him” (eshôpe ekshaneime erof ariateime erof), and elsewhere, at 60.10–12, 61.12, 17–18, and 64.11–14. This remarkable expression–– a prime example of what has come to be called “learned ignorance”–– situates Allogenes at a crucial moment in the history of negative–theological discourse. Similar exhortations to a supra–intellectual ‘un–knowing’ may be found among the first generation of Neoplatonists–– e.g., Plotinus (VI.9[9].7.17–21), Porphyry (Sententiae 25), and the Anonymous Turin Commentary on Plato’s Parmenides (2.14–31)–– whence the concept reached later Neoplatonically–influenced Christian authors such as Pseudo–Dionysius. Since the chronology of the extant Platonizing Sethian corpus relative to Plotinus and Porphyry has been the subject of some controversy, the intention of this paper is to demonstrate that the concept of mystical ‘un–knowing’ in Allogenes derives not from Plotinus, Porphyry or their successors, but rather vice versa, i.e., that intellectual priority must be granted to Allogenes. The argument is that Allogenes’ transcendental epistemology must be understood not only in connection with the themes evident in the closely related Platonizing Sethian tractate Zostrianos (NHC VIII,1) and with pre–Plotinian Platonist thought (such as that of Clement of Alexandria and the Chaldaean Oracles), but also must be seen as a development of certain topoi that already had a long history in Gnostic speculation on transcendental ontogenesis. These topoi include [1] the self–apprehension of the absolutely transcendent deity, who is frequently said to be unknowable and yet nevertheless paradoxically to know itself, albeit through some extraordinary reflexive faculty superior to intellection (e.g., Ap. John NHC III,1 6.24–7.4; Eug. NHC III,3 72.6–13, 19–21), and [2] the introduction of principles mediating the transcendent deity to the human intellect, principles which are themselves understood as the reflexive manifestation of the unmanifest deity and described with paradoxical terms that juxtapose positive and negative elements in tension with each other. Thus, for example, according to Hippolytus (Refutatio VI.44.3.3), Marcus’ Tetraktus is “a mouth of taciturn Silence”; the eponymous savior of the Trim. Prot. (NHC XIII,1) is simultaneously hidden and revealed within humans (35.8–10); and the aspirant of the Gos. Eg. (NHC III,2) addresses the indwelling deity, “I see you, you who are invisible before everyone” (66.25–26). In the case of ‘un–knowing knowing’–– just as with other Sethian mechanisms of transcendental apprehension, such as “first thought” (prôtê ennoia or protennoia) and “primary manifestation” (mntshrp ouônh ebol)–– the human aspirant was thought to be able to apprehend the unknowable deity only through the replication of that deity’s own, supra–intellectual self–apprehension. This thesis supports the working hypothesis that a substantial number of apparent innovations in Neoplatonism are in fact tacitly dependent on the profoundly unfettered creativity inherent in contemporaneous Gnostic thought.


Jesus the Woman: Wisdom’s Gender-Bender in the Patristic and Medieval Interpretation of Luke 15:8–10
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Shannon McAlister, Catholic University of America

Patristic and medieval thinkers actively employed Wisdom Literature motifs in order to interpret Jesus Christ as the woman with the lost coin in Luke 15:8-10—at times noting and defending this gender-bending imagery based on the identification of Jesus Christ with the Sophia of the Wisdom Literature. This gender-blurring interpretation of Luke 15:8-10 played a prominent role in the Middle Ages of the Latin West. A close reading of these patristic and medieval texts can challenge today’s prevalent belief that the early church identified Jesus Christ with the female figure of Wisdom/Sophia, but that the subsequent tradition suppressed this connection. Such a position has been embraced in one form or another by thinkers as diverse and as influential as Elaine Pagels; Joan Chamberlain Engelsman; Susan Cady, Marian Ronan, and Hal Taussig; Elizabeth Johnson; Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos; Rosemary Radford Ruether; Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza; Louis Bouyer; and Joseph Ratzinger. The gender-bending imagery employed by Patristic and Medieval theologians in their application of the Wisdom Literature to Luke 15:8-10 challenges this current model of thought, and it opens the door to exploring more fully the nuances of gender-bending Christology in the theology of the Latin West.


Harlots and Assyriologists: Unraveling the Special Relationship
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Kate McCaffrey, Independent Scholar

Specialists of Mesopotamian culture have disagreed in recent years over the nature of the Sumero-Akkadian kar-kid/harimtu, a category of women exemplified by Shamhat in the Gilgamesh Epic. Following the lead of Julia Assante, gender specialists have maintained that harimtus were independent women rather than common prostitutes. But the tradition of translating kar-kid/harimtu with terms such as “harlot” or “Hure” endures because most Assyriologists remain unconvinced. My paper examines the origins of the “harlot” translation and why this translation has seemed intuitively satisfying. Bringing queer theory to the task, I revisit the encounter between the harimtu and Gilgamesh. Queer theory allows us to study the Mesopotamian texts and visual evidence with possibilities in mind that are foreign to the Western taxonomy of gender. I argue that, although this ancient conceptual category was invested with connotations of sexual impropriety and personal autonomy, kar-kid/harimtu did not designate a prostitute or an independent woman. Within Mesopotamia, kar-kid/harimtu was the official designation of a distinct category of gender, a collective classification of women who were gender variant due to rank, profession, age, and/or behavioral preference.


Reflections on the Impact of the Editing of The Hebrew Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
J. Clinton McCann, Eden Theological Seminary

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Psalm 82 within the Psalms of Asaph
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Daniel O. McClellan, Trinity Western University

The unique mythological themes in Psalm 82 have long compelled scholars to consider it apart from the other psalms of the Asaph collection. The interaction with other divine beings, the implied distinction between Yahweh and Elyon, and the affinities with the northern tradition suggest a very early date of composition. This sets the psalm apart from the exilic dating of Pss 74 and 79, which explicitly mention the destruction of the temple. On the other hand, Psalm 82 aligns well with the theme of the collection, and the language of the psalm closely parallels that of the other Asaphite psalms. Building on the work of Erich Zenger, this paper will show that the composition of Psalm 82 is closely tied to the thematic progression of the Psalms of Asaph. In fact, it will be argued that Psalm 82 marks the turning point in the collection’s main narrative arc. Close affinities with the God-laments and petitions of Pss 74, 76, and 79 will also be highlighted. These observations have significant implications for dating the composition of the psalm, and it will be concluded that while the psalm draws upon archaic themes (as do other Asaphite psalms), its composition should be dated to the 6th century BCE.


Psalm 82 in the Modern Latter-day Saint Tradition
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Daniel O. McClellan, Trinity Western University

Within the Christian and Jewish traditions, Psalm 82 has long been read as a metaphoric judgment against negligent human beings. This dates back to traditions current at the turn of the Era that primarily read the text as a reference to the Israelites at Sinai. Similar readings were common within the academy until the early 20th century, when scholars began to uncover a better context for understanding the psalm’s themes, namely the divine council imagery found in Syro-Palestinian and Mesopotamian literature. Most scholars today view the text as a judgment against the gods of the nations. The Latter-day Saint interpretation of Psalm 82 has long aligned with the traditional reading, although Latter-day Saints recognize a genetic link between humanity and divinity that removes the theological necessity of reading the references to “gods” as metaphorical. The most comprehensive expression of the contemporary Latter-day Saint reading of Psalm 82 is found in Daniel Peterson’s 2000 article, “‘Ye are Gods’: Psalm 82 and John 10 as Witnesses to the Divine Nature of Humankind.” As with most conservative Christians, Peterson appeals to Jesus’ use of the psalm in John 10:34–36 as a key to harmonizing the two texts. He departs from the conservative Christian position in proposing that the division between the human and the divine was in both texts rather porous. After discussing the Latter-day Saint position, this paper will examine both Psalm 82 and John 10:34–36, but not with an eye specifically to reconciling the two. Rather it will highlight those places where the texts differ. It will suggest that Psalm 82 represents a condemnation of the gods of the nations, and that the tradition underlying John 10’s reading of the psalm is an innovation of the Greco-Roman period which reinterpreted the psalm in light of recently developed ideas of divinity. This will illuminate the role of developing monotheism in shaping early Jewish and Christian themes of humanity’s participation in the divine. The paper will conclude with implications for Latter-day Saint exegesis of the Bible.


Space and Sacrifice in Leviticus: Implications for Sacrificial Theory
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Kathryn McClymond, Georgia State University

Despite careful and extensive research on Hebrew Bible sacrificial material, biblical sacrifice is still largely imagined in terms of the violent death of an innocent animal victim. However, biblical sacrifice (as in other rich sacrificial traditions) is a much more complex, nuanced phenomenon, involving multiple activities that collaborate to create rich ritual events that play out on multiple levels. Thus to reduce biblical sacrifice to an animal victim’s death is to transform a complex phenomenon into a flat, one-note theological moment. The proposed paper focuses on discussions of sacrifice in Leviticus as complex literary orientations toward sacred and social space. The description of the manipulation of the offering – which involves several activities, only one of which is killing – orients the text’s reader toward ritual, cosmic, social, and cultural worlds. The ritual play in which the reader participates is dynamic, elastic, and complex, involving sacrificial actors, elements, and the reader herself. Such an approach to the biblical sacrifice from this point of view has implications for sacrificial theory more broadly.


Prolegomena to a New Edition of Eliya of Nisibis’ Kitab al-turjuman fi ta‘lim lughat al-suryan
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Adam C. McCollum, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

Eliya of Nisibis (975-1046), Patriarch of the Church of the East, has earned a noteworthy position among both Syriac and Arabic writers for his works in grammar, lexicography, historiography, and theology. His Kitab Al-Turjuman, a topically classified (i.e. non-alphabetic) Syriac-Arabic (Garshuni) glossary, serves as an important monument to both Syriac and Arabic in a Christian and philosophical setting at an important juncture for both of these languages. In this work, Eliya lists vocabulary in both languages for general topics, as well as theological and philosophico-scientific terms, and at the end he offers a long list of colors, verbs, and various phrases. Eliya’s book is relatively well-attested in manuscripts from both the western and eastern Syriac traditions, but there has been some confusion on the manuscripts that actually contain the work. In 1636 a version of the work appeared with a Latin translation, but without naming Eliya at all, and in 1879 the industrious Paul de Lagarde published the first real edition of the Kitab, though with some shortcomings (a not insignificant one being that the Syriac was printed in Hebrew square script and the Garshuni in Arabic script, instead of the whole work being in Syriac script as Eliya almost certainly composed it and as it is in all known manuscripts). Eliya’s work has recently been discussed in a brief paper, but only cursorily. The aim of this study is to provide a fuller introduction and analysis of the work and its extant manuscripts; this goal is made the more possible by the recent discovery from a collection in Aleppo of what is apparently the earliest dated (1523/4) manuscript of the work, two more manuscripts from Mardin perhaps also of the 16th century, as well as some details about the oldest (undated, perhaps 11th century) manuscript, which resides at St. Catherine’s Monastery. The prospects for a new edition of Eliya’s important lexicographical work are discussed, as well as some comparative lines of investigation with the somewhat contemporary lexica of Bar Ali and Bar Bahlul.


Towards a Typology of Translation Technique from Greek to Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA)
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Adam C. McCollum, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

The state of research on Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA), which began in the late 19th century, has (relatively) recently been endowed with a number of new or newly edited texts in the editions by Michael Sokoloff and Christa Müller-Kessler. But while most of the extant texts in this dialect were translated from Greek, there has been no attempt at analyzing the translation technique evident from this material, at least neither in a detailed way nor on a multi-text basis. This paper’s aim is a beginning for such a study, and will advance the relevant questions far beyond the typical bald description of Greek-CPA translation technique as “slavish” or “literal”. This kind of research may take many cues from the much more developed research in this area for Syriac texts, among which both biblical and non-biblical works have been studied. In this paper, I will examine a selection of CPA materials, both biblical and non-biblical, alongside their Greek Vorlagen from the point of view of translation technique. Specific items of analysis will include lexicon (word choice), word order, proper names, definiteness, particles, prepositions, comparative and superlative adjectives, Greek compound words, doublets, and questions of syntax (types of clauses, etc.). The goal will be to show some first steps toward detecting and describing patterns for certain lexical and morphosyntactical features, and some comparison will also be made with the Hellenizing Syriac translations of the seventh century (especially the Syro-Hexapla and ?arqlean New Testament). Such a study has the likely potential to impact and improve our knowledge of grammar and lexicon, not only for CPA alone, but for Aramaic dialectology as a whole.


Galations as a Thesis and Paul's Application of the Topos of Authority
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
James McConnell, Gardner-Webb University

Past scholarship which has focused on rhetorical criticism of Paul’s letter to the Galatians has failed to reach a consensus. Scholars are divided as to the type of rhetoric Paul is employing; i.e., is Paul writing an apologetic letter in which he uses forensic rhetoric (H. D. Betz) or is Paul using deliberative rhetoric (G. Kennedy)? There is equally little agreement as to the structure of the letter and how it should be sub-divided into the categories for speeches as described by the rhetorical handbooks. This paper seeks to simplify the approach to the structure of Galatians by reading the letter in light of Theon’s description of the elementary exercise of thesis as found in the Progymnasmata. After demonstrating that Galatians can be read as a thesis, the paper then moves into the area of proofs that Paul has employed in arguing his thesis, the most important of which is the proof from divine testimony. It is with this proof, which was considered to be of the highest value by the authors of the rhetorical handbooks, that Paul begins his argument; he then draws other arguments from authority which are based on this initial proof.


The Psalmist as Persona: The Concept of Human Flourishing in the Psalms
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
J. Gordon McConville, University of Gloucestershire

The paper considers the concept of human flourishing in the Psalms, in dialogue with modern discourses concerning human flourishing and wellbeing, particularly in philosophy and the healthcare disciplines. To this end, the paper examines the individual ‘persona’ who is implicitly present in the Psalms, both as speaker and as the character who emerges in various ways, including ‘righteous one’, Torah-keeper, worshipper, king, sufferer. The examination of the ‘I’ who speaks is thus different from questions about the identity of the speaker as such, or about their roles or representative functions. In view is what is implied as constituting a fullness of human experience by means of the diversity of expression in the book as a whole. It is argued that the concept of flourishing takes an important place in the ‘imaginary’ of the Psalms alongside notions of ‘salvation’. Ideas of happiness and fulfilment are considered, together with notions of freedom and justice, the use of language relating to the self, especially the Psalmist’s address to his/her nephesh, and the nature of Torah-devotion. Trajectories within the book of Psalms, on small and large scales, are also examined for their contribution to the picture of human growth, with some attention to the culmination of the book in praise.


The Eloquent Blood of Abel: How Does Abel Speak in the Epistle to the Hebrews?
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Kevin B. McCruden, Gonzaga University

The Epistle to the Hebrews represents a particularly rich appropriation of Jewish Scripture. In addition to figuring in the exhortatory sections of the letter, Jewish Scripture serves as one of the primary means by which the author of Hebrews elaborates the complex Christology of the epistle. A key hermeneutical stance adopted by Hebrews is the conviction that Scripture "speaks" to the contemporary auditors of the author’s first century audience. A compelling example of such scriptural speech appears in Hebrews’ enigmatic references to the biblical figure of Abel. Twice in Hebrews the author refers to the “speech” of Abel. In Hebrews 11:4 it is Abel's faith that speaks, while in Hebrews 12:24 Jesus' blood is understood to speak "better than the blood of Abel." While it seems clear that the figure of Abel connects in some way with Hebrews’ overall sacrificial assessment of Christ, the precise manner in which Abel’s faith and sacrifice “speaks” remains a crux of interpretation. Commentators frequently attempt to resolve this exegetical problem by recourse to a theory of superior atonement achieved by Christ’s high priestly sacrifice in comparison with Abel’s sacrifice. By contrast, this paper will demonstrate that the references to Abel encountered in Hebrews cohere both with the figure of a righteous Abel treated in various second temple Jewish texts as well as with the epistle’s frequent references to the faithful response of Jesus. Of particular importance in this regard is Hebrews 5:7, where Hebrews affirms that Jesus was “heard” on account of his reverence or piety.


What Does the Haustafel Have to Do with the Eschaton? An Exploration of Apocalyptic Identity Formation in First Peter
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Patrick George McCullough, University of California, Los Angeles

This paper uses social-scientific identity studies, particularly Social Identity Theory, in order to examine the apparent tension between apocalyptic discourse and the Haustafel found within 1 Peter. If the early Christ-confessing movement believed that the final judgment was imminent, why would they bother outlining social relationships as we find in the household codes? Dibelius notably, but incorrectly, argued that waning expectation of the parousia motivated the writing of New Testament Haustafeln. The fact that 1 Peter includes both a domestic code and apocalyptic expectation is itself enough to counter this claim. In this paper, I seek to demonstrate how the social functions of the Haustafel and the domestic code were complementary. I argue that the existence of these two concepts in friction stems from the author’s attempt to negotiate multiple dynamic social identities among the letter’s audience. We need not resolve the tension because the social boundaries of the Christ-confessing movement were themselves in tension. Therefore, 1 Peter attempts a complex endeavor in social identity construction, demarcating a firm social boundary between a holy ingroup and an unholy outgroup, while simultaneously seeking to diminish the visibility of this boundary to potentially hostile surroundings by upholding culturally acceptable social practices. Apocalyptic discourse speaks to the first program, while the Haustafel falls in the second category. This proposal may be viewed more broadly as speaking to the Balch–Elliott debate as well. Rather than imagine an impassable conflict between sectarianism and acculturation, social identity studies offer us a means by which we begin to see a more nuanced scenario where multiple constructions of identity live in tension. Indeed, such dynamic identities constituted the nature of the early Christ-confessing movement.


Promise and Threat: The “Rewritten Scripture” of 4QExposition on the Patriarchs
Program Unit: Qumran
Joseph McDonald, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

Exposition on the Patriarchs (4Q464) is an intriguing if frustratingly fragmentary example of what Sidnie White Crawford has called the “Rewritten Scripture” texts found at Qumran. Much of the research on 4Q464 to date has been atomistic, treating the rendering of difficult biblical words illuminated by the document, or discussing the interesting note of Abraham’s role in the restoration of the “holy tongue” after the fall of the Tower of Babel. Attempts to describe the character of the fuller document, however, have not been convincing. Eshel and Stone, in their initial publication of the text in 1992, argued that the fragments exhibit “a sustained eschatological interest,” but seemingly based this contention on a single passage. This interpretation was forcefully refuted by Poirier in 2002, but his alternate reading of 4Q464 as a pesher on Jubilees that justifies the latter’s expansions of the Genesis narrative likewise fails to consider any part of the document beyond this same passage. In distinction, I suggest that there is a simple and powerful theme—that of the Abrahamic promise, and the various threats to this promise that lend so much intrinsic narrative interest to the traditions reflected in Genesis and Jubilees—that provides a fruitful structure for the evaluation of 4Q464. The working out of the promise to Abraham and his line very plausibly binds most of the extant fragments with identifiable content, and the recognition of this theme also makes a case for a reconsideration of the exclusion of the document Narrative E (4Q464a), the so-called “midwives to Pharaoh fragment,” from 4Q464 proper. The motif of endangered promise not only provides some coherence to the selection of traditions preserved in 4Q464, but also helps explain the exegetical strategies employed in the reworking of the Scripture beneath its text.


Debating Canon Formation: Why and Where Scholars Disagree
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Lee McDonald, Acadia Divinity College

This paper will identify some of the most important canon formation issues that biblical scholars continue to debate, including definitions, interpretations of key ancient texts, theological orientations, and the importance of the ancient artifacts such as the discoveries from Judean Desert, the content and text of ancient manuscripts and translations, and the possible Greco-Roman models for canonization such as those in the pinakes in the famous Alexandrian library and other Greco-Roman literary canons. Scholars regularly focus on the importance and implications of these subjects in contemporary biblical canon inquiry.


Portraits of a Mature God: What Would a Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures Look Like if the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah Were at the Center of the Discussion?
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Mark McEntire, Belmont University

One way of defining the contemporary task of a theology of the Hebrew Scriptures is to describe the nature of the divine character presented in these texts, including that character’s relationship to creation. A number of efforts in recent years fit within this definition, but one approach that has received too little attention is the consideration of God as a narrative character who grows and develops within the biblical story. One of the implications of such a development would be a more intense and deliberate examination of how the character of God is presented in the books that form the end of this story, namely Ezra and Nehemiah. The kind of God presented in these books would reflect more closely the religious experience of those who were producing the Hebrew Scriptures in their final form. The divine character to which biblical theology has traditionally paid much more attention, the one found in the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic History, is a God recollected in and relegated to the distant past. While some attention has been given to this narrative development of God’s character within the Jewish canon, these studies have remained primarily within the area of literary criticism and have not found their way into the mainstream of theology of the Hebrew Scriptures. This study will attempt to explore the implications of letting the books of Ezra and Nehemiah play a primary role in the development of a narrative theology, understood as a presentation of the character of God in the Hebrew canon.


Negotiating the Real and the Hyperreal: Nineteenth Century Experiences of the Bible in the Context of Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Kevin McGeough, University of Lethbridge

The emergence of Near Eastern archaeological explorations by European nations in the 19th century led to a new impulse to contextualize the Bible within an Egyptian and Mesopotamian setting. As people became more familiar with the visual culture of the ancient Near East, a concomitant rise in literacy, rise in transportation technologies, and rise in theologies privileging personal experience of the Bible compelled people to situate the Bible in an historical framework of world progress and decline, in which world-historical cultures were situated in relational hierarchies to contemporary European societies. Beyond the obvious justifications for European imperialist programs, these ventures allowed Europeans to experience the Near East and indirectly experience the Biblical world. Despite the positivist trappings of academic contextualization attempts, for non-specialists, this experience of Biblical lands was a personal and potentially destabilizing experience. Through text, image, and object, Nineteenth century educators, showmen, and evangelists created novel methods for experiencing the Bible in its “authentic” setting. Yet closer examination of these attempts show that many of these experiences were designed to minimize the “otherness” of certain elements of Biblical culture and structure new understandings of difference. For example, Old Testament landscapes in 19th century popular art were created using Orientalist tropes, New Testament landscapes retained their "English-ness". Similarly, esoteric approaches to the Bible, inspired by archaeological evidence (but not ‘limited’ by scholarly interpretation) were used by groups such as the Freemasons and Theosophists to create collective group memories, integral to the construction of their identities. This paper shall explore some of the ways that Nineteenth century European identities were reified and challenged by popular encounters of the Near East, how collective “memories” were created in response to these popular encounters, and some of the material manifestations of the memory of these encounters (such as tourist souvenirs, photographs, and artwork).


Food and Identity in Early Eucharistic Meals
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Andrew McGowan, Trinity College, The University of Melbourne/Melbourne College of Divinity

Food and drink were employed as a fundamental medium for reflecting and creating identity and expressing belief in early Christian communities. Such use of food and drink not only reflects existing values and meanings attributed to those elements in wider Greco-Roman meal culture as well as in biblical tradition, but also creates new understandings of those meal elements and their ritual function. The emergence of what can be called "sacramental" understandings of bread and wine among the wider array of culinary possibilities is not an immediate or obvious development, nor merely a straightforward appropriation of earlier cultic ideas and images, but involves complex recasting of cultic and sympotic conventions and traditions.


Rehashing the Leftovers of Idols: Cyprian and Early Christian Constructions of Sacrifice
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Andrew McGowan, Trinity College, The University of Melbourne/Melbourne College of Divinity

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258) wrote during a period of intense conflict over the nature and propriety of religious belief and observance, particularly concerning sacrificial cultus. Although the universal sacrifice required under the regime of Decius (248-51) was a mechanism of persecuting Christians, Cyprian among other contemporaries uses cultic language and imagery very freely in his writings. While ideas and practices from Judaism as reflected in scripture are an obvious source, Cyprian also contests with imperial Roman cultus on its own terms and using aspects of its own logic. Christianity is this presented as the authentic cultic practice.


The Satirical Use of Christian Material in the Mandaean Book of John
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
James F. McGrath, Butler University

Gnosticism is well known for its satirical treatment of texts from the Jewish Scriptures. Mandaean texts, written in a dialect of Aramaic, offer a similarly ambivalent use of material deriving not only from Jewish sources, but also from early Christian texts. This paper will look at the Mandaean Book of John’s satirical reworking of material known from the New Testament, such as its account of John the Baptist’s reluctance to baptize Jesus (for reasons other than those indicated in the Gospel of Matthew). The Mandaean Book of John appears to include material that has undergone an extended history of transmission and reworking, and this material has been shaped by Mandaean interaction with Jews, Christians and eventually Muslims. This paper will seek to tease out clues from allusions to and intertextual echoes of stories and sayings found in Christian sources, in order to piece together the context of the Mandaeans’ polemical engagement with other Aramaic-speaking religious communities in their environment. Particular attention will be paid to deliberate inversions and parodies of well-known Christian material, which presuppose an environment in which the New Testament Gospels were familiar.


Second Isaiah at Qumran: The Limits and Language of Variation
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Matthew J. McIntosh, University of Manchester

Since the recovery of mss in the Judean Desert over sixty years ago, our understanding of the textual development of the Hebrew Scriptures has been revolutionized. The recovery confirmed what had long been suspected, that there was greater scribal freedom reflected in the biblical writings than had often been assumed. Unexpected, though, was the range of variation and the coexistence of variant textual forms in antiquity. The vocabulary utilized in the earliest mss analysis was lacking for it had been developed to study medieval mss with the goal being the discovery of a putative original. The language of ‘fluid,’ though widely used, is painfully unhelpful within the field of the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. While the situation has improved, there is room for improvement. In this paper I will examine an extended section of Isaiah, chapters 40-55, an authoritative work for which there is a relatively large number of witnesses. While the variation reflected in Isaiah is not to the degree of a separate literary edition, the types and frequency of variation is significant. Isaiah is the third best represented biblical writing at Qumran with 21 witnesses (9 contain readings from chapters 40-55) and is one of only 7 writings for which pesher mss were recovered. I will incorporate readings not only from these 9 biblical scrolls and the 2 pesher scrolls which quote from these chapters, but I will incorporate quotes and direct allusions from non-biblical and sectarian mss in my analysis. As a result I will identify and categorize the types and frequency of variations in order to describe and define the acceptable boundaries of variation. It is necessary to continue the dialogue with regard to this issue, proposing more specific terminology to explain the acceptable boundaries of scribal freedom reflected in authoritative writings.


The Hidden Sabbath: Jews Keep Their Sabbath Practice Quiet in First-Century Rome
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Heather McKay, Edge Hill University

The evidence for Jewish sabbath practice in first-century Rome is elusive and tantalising. Up till then, Roman writers had represented Jews as a colourful group on the fringes of Roman society whose custom of foreswearing working on their sabbaths was well known. However, during the first century, some Jews had risen in society, beginning to adopt roles and status previously reserved for Romans themselves. This change produced some acerbic writings about Jewish life and practice and it is there that we can glean what little was made apparent to Romans of what went on behind closed doors in homes and in proseuchae during the Jewish sabbath.


Singing the Lord's Song in a Really Strange Land or "Deep" Conversations in Jonah 2
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Cameron S. McKenzie, Providence College and Theological Seminary (Manitoba)

Commentators have frequently puzzled over the “psalm” in Jonah 2. On the level of the plot of the book of Jonah the hallmarks of thanksgiving in the song seem at odds with the obvious predicament in which Jonah finds himself. At the literary level the exquisite structure of the song seems to separate it from the rest of the story’s narrative form. Likewise, when considering compositional and redactional questions, the song again appears to be a later insertion, perhaps meant to ameliorate some of the more questionable behaviours of this very unprophet-like prophet. Beginning with Bakhtin’s notion of the unfinalizability of dialogic truth, this paper will examine the psalm in Jonah 2 with attention to the polyphonies inherent in the dissonances that the psalm creates for the reader of Jonah. Specifically, this paper will propose that the song has the effect of injecting a moment of dialogic truth into the story of Jonah by serving as a vehicle in which the voices of Jonah, the mariners, and the people of Nineveh combine and compete for the attention of the reader.


Good Women/Bad Women: Is There a Problem?
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Judith McKinlay, University of Otago

Feminist postcolonial criticism is a profoundly ethical undertaking. For those of us living in postcolonial societies, whether we are the descendents of the colonized, colonizers or later settlers, we find unsettling narratives in the bible that mirror our own realities. What is further unsettling is that women characters seen as standing tall when viewed through a particular feminist lens, may appear overpowered and even complicit in a damaging political order when the postcolonial lens is further attached. It is indeed the “the intricate relationship between colonialism and patriarchy” that sets the task for feminist postcolonial critics, in that “the analysis of one without the other is incomplete” as Kwok Pui-lan reminds us. Does this leave us with a problem of competing views? Must we choose? Is this difference a gift rather than a problem? Do possible datings of texts change the perceptions and analyses? Who decides and on what grounds? The simplistic, and even naïve, binary of the title highlights the problem. This paper looks again at the complexities of gendered representations and political realities in postcolonial biblical criticism.


Spying the Land: Scrutinizing the Text
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Judith McKinlay, University of Otago

Spy stories typically thrill with adventure, but spying in other people’s land as a preparation for its appropriation and conquest of its people is a disturbing reality in postcolonial history. Reading spy narratives in the Hebrew Bible alongside accounts of spying expeditions in the history of one’s own country’s colonial past highlights the ways of empire. This paper, therefore, employs a contrapuntal reading in considering some of the spy accounts in the biblical conquest narratives in light of the spying activities carried out by the Crown and its militia in the land of the Tuhoe people in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this it draws heavily on the postcolonial historical work of Judith Binney, Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820-1921 (2009). The paper also raises the question of whether such biblical stories are to be read differently depending on their dating, i.e. are they different stories, even a resistance literature, if viewed as originating in the time of Israel’s exile or Yehud’s incorporation into the Persian empire?


The Depiction of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian in Jewish War 7
Program Unit: Josephus
James McLaren, Australian Catholic University

The nature of the relationship between Josephus and the Flavian family is regularly cited in the context of discussing the political outlook of Josephus. It is understandable that detailed comment about the account of the role of Titus in the capture of the Temple has acted as a barometer for how Josephus viewed the Flavians. There are, however, a number of other important passages that feature members of the Flavian family. This paper will examine the various references to them in Book 7 of Jewish War. Two factors make these references particularly notable: all three Flavian rulers feature as participants in the narrative; and, Vespasian and Domitian are named in relation to events that have no direct connection to the war of 66-70 C.E. What significance should be given to the depiction of the Flavians in Book 7 in the broader context of how Josephus portrays the family? How are we to account for the discrepancies between Josephus and Tacitus regarding the role of Domitian? What light, if any, do these references shed on Josephus’ political outlook? These and other pertinent questions will be addressed in the broader context of considering the function Book 7 fulfills in Jewish War.


The 'Enunciative Function' of the Foundation Inscriptions of Voluntary Religions Associations in Antiquity
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Bradley H. McLean, Knox College, University of Toronto

This paper will study the foundation of eight Hellenistic voluntary religious associations, as attested in the following Greek inscriptions: IG II2 1365-1366, IG X/2, 255, IG XII/3 330, IG X/4 1299, LSCG 171, IDelos 1520, SIG3 985, SIG3 1106. Such religious associations in antiquity are conventionally studied in terms of the typologies of historical positivism. This paper will model an alternative interpretive strategy by analyzing the foundation of such cultic associations with respect to two, interrelated, critical frameworks, derived from the philosophical program of Michel Foucault, namely ‘archaeology’ and ‘genealogy.’ To interpret a foundation inscription ‘archeologically’ is to describe the discursive conditions under which it could emerge. This is accomplished by examining the ‘rules’ that governed the formation of foundation inscriptions and which legitimated them as ‘knowledge’ or as being ‘true.’ These ‘rules’ pertain to a) the ‘surfaces of emergence’; b) ‘authorities of delimination’; c) ‘the dispositif,’ and d) the associated field of related texts. To interpret a discourse ‘genealogically’ is to examine the discursive conditions under which such true ‘knowledge’ was effective in terms of concrete strategies of ‘bio-power’; since the ultimate site for the expression of power is the human body, this paper will explore how these inscriptions functioned to coerce, discipline, normalize, and inculcate self-repression. It will demonstrate how the ‘truth’ of a foundation inscription is linked in a circular relation with the systems of power that produced it, and to effects of power which it itself subsequently induced and extended. The paper will then argue that at a higher level, ‘bio-power’ of these associations was actually a form of ‘meta-power’ in the sense that it was never directly, or completely, realized in single voluntary association, nor was it the sole possession of the cult founder, or any sub-group of the association. Rather, such ‘meta-power’ was diffused throughout Hellenistic society and was expressed through a series of multiple and overlapping power relations which included the voluntary religious associations. In this respect, the goal of this analysis of the ‘enunciative function’ of foundation inscriptions is not to decompose them into a mass of historical facts that can be related to one another according to a set of unifying themes but rather to examine the relation between truth and power in terms of how their ‘enunciative functions’ derived their coherence from meta-power’s strategies of normalization and domination.


Using Foucault’s Critical Frameworks in the Teaching of Extracanonical Sources
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Bradley H. McLean, Knox College

The ‘center’ of the discipline of New Testament studies continues to be dominated by methodologies grounded in the theoretical framework of historicism. For example, textbooks routinely trace the historical development of New Testament texts back to their ‘origins’ according to a pattern of influence and development. This practice poses a pedagogical challenge, particularly when dealing with extracanonical and Graeco-Roman sources, because, in the eyes of many students, this historical framework seems to reduce the New Testament to a phenomenon arising from mundane historical causes. This paper discusses the use of Michel Foucault’s two critical frameworks—‘archaeology’ and ‘genealogy’—as alternative pedagogical models for dealing with extracanonical sources in an introductory New Testament course. ‘Archaeological’ and ‘genealogical’ analyses allow students to compare the ‘enunciative function’ of texts outside an ‘influence and development’ model. To interpret a discourse ‘archeologically’ is to examine the discursive conditions under which texts were legitimated as true, or as expressing ‘truths.’ Our students approach extracanonical texts to explore the principles that governed their formation as discourse and not compositions. To interpret a discourse ‘genealogically’ is to examine the conditions under which texts were effective in terms of power. Many texts derive their coherence from concrete strategies aimed at effecting certain claims as true; excluding competing religious claims as pagan, magical, demoniacal, gentile; and empowering and disempowering actors as legitimate or illegitimate purveyors of those truths. A ‘genealogical’ analysis explores how the ‘truth’ of an ancient text is enmeshed in ancient strategies of power. Our course concludes with a group project entitled the ‘Early Christian Letter Project’, in which students are asked to imagine themselves as apostles writing ‘apostolic’ letters addressing a particular crisis. Students are expected to employ the above critical frameworks in the compositional process of their letters.


Paul’s Autobiography Topoi in Philippians 3:1–11
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Derek McNamara, Lubbock Christian University

Extant progymnasmata contain exercises on encomium and vituperation (praise/honor and blame/shame). With great consistency the encomium outlined how to praise someone in terms of the following five topoi; (1) Origin, (2) Nurture and Training, (3) Accomplishments, (4) Comparison, (5) Noble death and Posthumous Honors. Jerome Neyrey has used these biographical topoi to examine the Gospel of John and Michael Martin has used them to examine the Gospel of Mark. This paper will examine Paul’s autobiographical sketch in Philippians 3:1-11 through these topoi and demonstrate that Paul is using well established biographical topoi. This paper will also demonstrate that Paul adapts the biographical topoi of his origin, training, and accomplishments for his own rhetorical strategy as he presents Jewish honorable topoi as shameful in comparison to knowing Christ. This paper will also examine how Paul continues to follow the biographical topoi as he projects his own noble death and posthumous honors. Paul views his death as a noble or honorable death because it is “fellowship” with Christ’s death and it is the “power” by which he can attain the posthumous honor of resurrection.


Elijah and Elisha in “Exile”: The Inclusion of Prophetic Cycles in the Deuteronomistic History
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
James K. Mead, Northwestern College - Iowa

Among the more difficult challenges that have beset the theory of a Deuteronomistic History has been reconstructing the inclusion of the Elijah and Elisha cycles into the Book of Kings. In particular, the recent explorations by S. Otto, T. Romer, and others have used socio-literary analysis to place the inclusion of much of the Elijah and Elisha narratives in the Persian period. This argument is based, in large part, on the dissonance between the primary thematic interests of the exilic Deuteronomist the theology of the Elijah and Elisha narratives. In this paper I will argue that the dissonance is not as great as it may first appear and that, based on rhetorical-critical investigation, there are very good reasons for seeing the theology of these prophetic cycles as expressive of the Deuteronomistic theology of life and death. Although the precise social situation of exilic and post-exilic prophetic communities may continue to elude us, a rhetorical and theological reading of the Elijah and Elisha narratives reveals that arguments asserting differences in theological perspective cannot used to exclude them from consideration by an exilic Deuteronomistic school.


Jealousy, Unrighteousness, and Ignorance of God? Ancient Jewish and Christian Exegetes on Questionable Texts
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Martin Meiser, Universität des Saarlandes

Was there any envy in God when he gave the command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Was there any arbitrariness in God when he accepted Abel’s offering but detested Cain’s sacrifice? Was there any ignorance or cruelty in God when he demanded the offering of Isaac? These questions are implying problems for believers and offenses for non-believers like Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian the Apostate and cause the need of apologetics. This paper envisages both the critiques and the answers given by Jewish and Christian authors.


Speaking for God: The Angelus Interpres in Zech 1–6 and the Question of Divine Transcendence in Post-exilic Judaism
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
David P. Melvin, Baylor University

This paper explores the “interpreting angel” (angelus interpres) motif in Zech 1–6 against the background of the religious, cultural, and social milieu of Persian period Judaism. Beginning with the common assertions that post-exilic Jewish angelology shows signs of significant foreign influence and generally indicates a more “transcendent” (i.e., distant) view of God (Eichrodt, Oesterly, Robinson, Ringgren), I examine the earliest clear example of an angelus interpres, which appears several times in Zech 1–6. These passages are analyzed to determine the function of the angelus interpres in the text, its role in divine revelation/communication, and the relationship between the human visionary, the angel, and God. Following these analyses, I explore possible parallels and influences from Babylonian and Persian mythological, cultic, and literary texts, as well as a small amount of iconographic evidence (a handful of cylinder seals depicting lesser deities “mediating” between humans and gods). I conclude that while there was likely some outside influence on the development of the angelus interpres, the evidence does not suggest that the motif was borrowed from surrounding culture(s). Rather, it is primarily a development of earlier biblical motifs (cf. Gen 19:1–22; Exod 3:2ff; Judg 6:11ff; Jer 1:11ff; Amos 7:7–9; 8:1ff) within the changed historical and religious context of the post-exilic period, and its development was closely tied to the demise of Israelite prophecy and the emergence of apocalyptic.


Can Thecla Speak? Postcolonial Representational Politics in the Apocryphal Acts of Paul
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Luis Menendez, Vanderbilt University

In her groundbreaking Can the Subaltern Speak? Spivak explores the chances of recovering and representing the subaltern voice. As Loomba has put it ““in what voices do the colonized speak –their own, or in accents borrowed from their masters? Is the project of recovering the ‘subaltern’ best served by locating her separateness from dominant culture, or by highlighting the extent to which she molded even those processes and cultures that subjugated her? And finally, can the voice of the subaltern be represented by the intellectual?” Spivak contention is that the subaltern voice is hidden from historical records because nationalist discourses mine their theoretical tools from political theories in which the voices of the subaltern are subsumed under abstract categories such as ‘woman’, ‘worker’, ‘colonized’, ‘oppressed’ and so forth. Spivak concludes that “the subaltern cannot speak” because third world women experiences cannot be appropriately expressed or represented in the dominant discourses, whether they are colonialist, feminist or liberationist. Following Spivak’s insights on representational politics, I argue that the traditional view that sees in Thecla (as portrayed in the Acts of Paul) an anti-imperial feminist emancipatory model needs to be nuanced by taking into account questions of class (Thecla, Queen Tryphaena, Artemilla and Eubula belong to the highest strata) and gender (Thecla, as represented, embodies masculine attributes). By omitting these lens, an hermeneutical approach that considers Thecla as a prototype of female liberation regardless of how her status is built upon the exclusion and exploitation of the majority of the roman population will render her experience as class-blind and is likely to repeat the assumptions of western feminism towards the material conditions of women in the first and the third world. The ultimate attempt of Thecla to escape from patriarchal structures - ironically enough- will be only successful if she abides by male rules and stays by the male apostle. It is from this perspective that her representation can be interpreted as trapped within discourses that render her voice inaudible and, thus in the end ‘she cannot speak’. In the same way that Spivak has shown that the consideration of Jane Eyre as a protofeminist is problematic because is predicated upon the violent effacement of Bertha Mason, I am arguing here that the consideration of Thecla as a prototype needs to be nuanced in light of the exclusions embedded in the text.


Paul and the Colonialist Project: Romans 1:18–32: A Historical Case in Racial Reasoning
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Luis Menendez, Vanderbilt University

The global impact of the violent Conquest of America by Spain and Portugal beginning in the 15th century can hardly be underestimated. The material consequences for those conquered were dramatic in a process that ended up with the annihilation of the native population, their culture and the exploitation for years to come of whatever was left. The role that religion played in legitimating this catastrophe has also been duly emphasized by scholarly work. Christendom supported ideologically the enterprises of the kingdoms at play and posed new religious questions in the homeland: how come that the ‘New World’ had not been mentioned in the scriptures or by the classical philosophers? Who were those people? Where they humans? In fact, did they belong to the human race? The ‘historias naturales’ are a privilege witness of the views that the Christian colonizers held on the native population in the 16th century: the most famous ones were authored by Diego Durán (1537-1588) González Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés (1478-1557), Francisco Hernández (1517-1587) y José de Acosta (1538-1600). In this paper I explore the deployment of Romans 1 in these ‘historias’ in order to show how the Pauline argument that “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves” (Romans 1:24) provides scriptural basis for a religious stigmatization of the ‘other’ in terms of race (Durán, for instance, will consider the natives as belonging to the perverse race of Jews) with the ultimate end of legitimizing the exploitation of their wealth (That ‘they’ have incurred in the practices described in Romans 1, argues Acosta, is the sign that the Divine Will wants “us” to make proper use of their wealth). In the end, I argue, these ‘historias’ construct the sin of ‘idolatry’ in Romans 1 as an instance of ethnicisation; that is, ‘idolatry’ is used by the Conquistadors as a ‘cultural signifier’ that opens the doors for categorizations in terms of ethnic origins in tandem with religious beliefs.


Phantasm, Orgasm: Un-dreaming the World of the Song of Songs; Or, Making Sexy Maps by the Light of a Phantoscope
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Christopher Meredith, University of Sheffield

Almost all discussions of the ‘poetic world’ of the Song are characterised by the language of dreams. The Song’s world is, apparently, profoundly oneiric. But has this dream-rhetoric simply tamed an unruly text; have critics become entranced by the dream itself and so stopped short of thinking through the Song’s poetic ‘architecture’? The world-of-love is, after all, an important, if infamously problematic, aspect of the Song of Songs. Indeed, to be a love poem is to be a spatial poem: lovers who are always interpenetrative, without distance, without bodies or boundaries —and thus without the capacity for either discourse or intercourse— are not really lovers at all. / Using Walter Benjamin’s work on phantasmagoria and ideological production, this paper attempts to awaken critical discussion to the producedness of the Songscape. How does the Song fashion its dizzying spaces, and how has it been so successful at both ‘putting us under’ and keeping us there? Benjamin describes phantasmagoria as an array of phasing, connected and projected images that parade in unstable procession, ever at pains to mask their own producedness. As such, the phantoscope may cast new light on the Song as a text/space in which little happens but the production of more text/space. The Song generates an ongoing tension between its spectacular acts of spatial production (its fluid procession of landscapes) and the concealment of its underlying mechanics (its un-situated lovers, who speak to one another across a space that is never articulated). While the Song often uses spatial configuration as a kind of literary synchromesh to blur one world into the next, it also conceals the creative, text-producing lovers behind these self-same images. At root, the Song is not a parade of emotionally heightened worlds at all, but a poetic void that the lovers are anxious —possibly too anxious— to fill. The poem is not only constituted as a series of phasing spaces, then, but as a dynamic tension between projection and concealment. It is this manipulation of the gap between its worlds-of-writing and worlds-of-reading that keeps the giddy, rose-tinted world spinning. / Venturing behind the poem’s theatrical scrim, the paper assesses the spatial tensions that underpin the Song, offering some new approaches to its bewildering range of territories in the process. It is possible, indeed necessary, to move spatial reflection on the Song beyond the (rather limiting) arms of Morpheus and to view its trysting places from the other direction instead, that is, from the projectionist’s booth.


The Emotional World of the Qumran Sect
Program Unit: Qumran
Ari Mermelstein, Yeshiva University

In recent decades, the field of emotion studies has witnessed a paradigm shift. In line with certain conceptions from the Classical world, scholars have increasingly recognized the cognitive or evaluative, rather than the physiological or irrational, dimension as central to and constitutive of the emotions. This perspective has yielded interesting results in the field of classical antiquity by scholars such as David Konstan, Martha Nussbaum, and Bernard Williams, but has not penetrated the study of ancient Judaism. Scholars such as Carol Newsom, Steven Weitzman, Betsy Halpern-Amaru, and Gary Anderson have made important forays into the subject of emotions at Qumran or in second-temple Judaism more generally, but their theoretical orientation is different than the one that I hope to employ. In an effort to import this approach into the study of second-temple literature, this paper will consider the emotional world of the Qumran sect through this new methodological lens. Much attention has been paid to the sect’s ideology as it relates to their eschatological expectations, their relations with outsiders, their legal views and interpretations, and their understanding of the past, but, I will argue, our appreciation for the sectarian world-view is incomplete without attention to their emotional world. This paper will pay close attention to the complex ways in which the sect codified, sublimated, and commanded emotions in the construction of their distinctive world-view. How was their perspective towards outsiders expressed through and constructed by the emotional discourse of hatred and disgust? How did their self-perception vis-à-vis God manifest itself using the language of mercy, pity, and shame? How was the self-identity of the sectarians constructed around the discourse of love? My focus will be on the corpus of texts assumed to have been composed by the sect, especially 1QS, CD, 1QH, and 1QM.


The Plans of God in Jeremiah and Daniel's Historical Reviews
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Amy Merrill Willis, Lynchburg College

Daniel's use of Jeremiah's 70 years prophecy has been the subject of much attention, yet Jeremiah appears in Daniel in other ways. This paper will examine the vocabulary and thinking of the divine plan in Jeremiah and how it may be at work in Daniel's depiction of God and kings in the historical reviews. To this end, the connection between Jeremiah's deuteronomistic theology and Daniel's apocalyptic construction of history will be considered outside of the context of Daniel 9.


Gender Roles and the Intertextual Dimension of the Acts of Paul
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Annette Merz, Universiteit Utrecht

The narrative of the Acts of Paul, including the Acts of Paul and Thecla, contains a great variety of male and female roles in different (kinds of) stories (e.g. martyrdom stories, miracle stories, initiation stories). The paper explores inasmuch the literal universe of the implied author and reader(s) as a whole (Hellenistic Romance, Jewish and Early Christian holy texts) and specific individual pretexts the narrative presupposes (e.g. Pauline and pseudo-Pauline letters, the story of Esther) have been influential in shaping the narrative roles of men and women and therefore have to be considered in the interpretation.


Genitive Constructions in the Peshitta of Exodus
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Mark Meyer, Washington Bible College/Capital Bible Seminary

This paper discusses the use of the genitive construction in Peshitta Exodus. The three primary Aramaic genitive constructions will be presented according to their distribution in translating the construct phrase in Hebrew: the construct phrase, the genitive adjunct phrase with d-, and the genitive phrase with d- anticipated by a possessive suffix on the head noun. Primary factors influencing the selection of one genitive construction over another will be discussed. Important similarities and differences between five Aramaic dialects in the use of genitive constructions in Exodus will also be presented. The five Aramaic dialects to be discussed are: Targum Onkelos, Syriac Peshitta, three corpora of the Palestinian Targum (Cairo Geniza fragments, Targum Neofiti I, and the Fragment Targums), Samaritan Targum, and Fragments of a Christian Palestinian Aramaic translation of Exodus.


The "Mithras Liturgy" as Mystery and Magic
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Marvin Meyer, Chapman University

Since the days of Albrecht Dieterich, the "Mithras Liturgy" has been widely discussed and debated by scholars of ancient Mediterranean religions. Located within the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, a Greco-Egyptian codex containing texts of magic and ritual power, the "Mithras Liturgy" also includes names and themes that recall the Mithraic mysteries. This paper explores questions that address mystery and magic in the "Mithras Liturgy." Is the text Mithraic? Is it a liturgy? Is it a magical text? And what do we make of the references to secrecy and silence in the "Mithras Liturgy"?


Neuroscientific Inference in New Testament Studies: Can Paul, and 'Paul's Brain,' Be Re-embodied This Way?
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Michael L. Spezio, Scripps College

A major aim motivating Prof. Shantz's use of cognitive neuroscience is to better define what pauline studies, and biblical theology more widely construed, can say about theological claims made in or grounded upon the epistles. She emphasizes the importance of embodied, ecstatic experiences that happen 'in Paul.' The central question of this review is whether and how cognitive neuroscience was helpful in Prof. Shantz's biblical exegesis of ecstatic experiences in the narrative for the purposes of theological reflection.


Enemies of the (Church and) State: The Problem of Martyrdom for Early Christianity
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Paul Middleton, University of Chester

In the early Church, martyrs were often portrayed as Christian warriors and heroes who most fully embodied the example of Christ’s suffering and death. The earliest interpreters of martyrdom presented the death of the martyr as a subversive challenge to the power of Rome. Standing in the arena, the martyr, by holding to her confession, won a decisive victory, not only over earthly powers, but also against Satan. Martyrdom had cosmic consequences, and encouraged Christians to construct a self-identity of power through suffering; to be a Christian was to embrace at least the idea of suffering and martyrdom. Martyrdom was a direct challenge to the power of Satan and Rome. Therefore, in many accounts of Christian martyrdom, Roman authorities are found attempting to dissuade the martyr, often to the point of pleading, from the confession, ‘I am a Christian’. Ostensibly, this Roman attempt to save the potential martyr’s life was interpreted as a Satanic attack, which the Christian had to overcome. To fail as a martyr was to fail as a Christian and to lose one’s identity. Readiness for martyrdom was a sign of Christian ‘proto-orthdoxy’ and Christian identity. However, with the development of monarchical episcopacy in the third and fourth centuries, competing constructions of Christian identity emerged. Ambivalence or even hostility replaced earlier expressions of reverence towards martyrs. As Church leaders began to dampen enthusiasm for martyrdom, advocates of martyrdom retained the belief that hostility to martyrdom was Satanic. Therefore, the issue of martyrdom created a crisis for the construction of Christian identity, as proponents of martyrdom interpreted even ecclesiastical resistance to the martyrs as having a demonic origin. This paper examines the ways in which this battle for Christian identity unfolded, focussing especially on the late third century, where in the face of Roman persecution, martyrs were in a real sense, enemies of both Church and State.


"Come out of Her, My People...Repay Her Double for Her Deeds" (Rev. 18:4,6): Martyrs as Agents of Divine Wrath in the Apocalypse
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Paul Middleton, University of Chester

In Revelation 18, the fall of Bablyon is announced. Before its destruction, God’s people are urged to flee from the city, lest they become infected by her wanton ways, thus sharing in her punishment. There then follows an instruction from heaven to ‘Render to her has she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds.’ The voice further commands that the addressee give the same measure of torment and mourning as she has meted out to the saints. Two issues have puzzled commentators: first, the seemingly disproportionate punishment–Babylon is to receive twice what she deserves; but secondly, who is to carry out this judgement? Although the natural grammatical sense appears to expect Christians to inflict this punishment, virtually no commentator accepts this meaning on the grounds that the double punishment contradicts Jesus’ ‘love of enemy’ command, and secondly, it is hard to imagine exactly how persecuted Christians could inflict such punishment on Rome. The majority view is that the voice addresses avenging angels charged with carrying out God’s wrath. This paper, by contrast, will argue that the call is indeed made to Christians, and by exploring the role beleaguered believers are expected to play in carrying out divine judgement throughout the Apocalypse, will demonstrate the mechanism by which martyrs become agents of divine wrath.


E-Crit: An Open-Source Program for Electronic Critical Editions of Rabbinic Texts
Program Unit: Poster Session
Rachel S. Mikva, Chicago Theological Seminary

Computer technology has changed the way we communicate, the way we write, even the way we think. It also offers unique opportunities for presenting scholarship in more flexible and functional formats. Critical editions of classical rabbinic texts are a case in point. Even the best critical apparatus in print is laborious to decode, making serious manuscript comparison difficult. Synoptic editions require too many pages, especially if there are numerous extant manuscripts. Publication is expensive and reading the synoptic format is cumbersome. An electronic critical edition (“e-crit”) has the potential to address these challenges with a user-friendly interface that allows the reader to select the most useful presentation of the text, mark it for his/her own purposes, and easily link to related information too extensive to print on a single page. Although programs such as the Bar-Ilan Responsa Project have made large numbers of Hebrew texts available electronically, occasionally transcribing a critical edition, they do not include any of the manuscript comparisons or critical notes. Bar Ilan’s on-line synoptic edition of Vayikra Rabbah represents a first step in providing easy access to critical textual scholarship, but it also fails to provide notes and does not take full advantage of the digital format. Programs for biblical texts are not designed to manage the non-versified texts of rabbinic literature. Other efforts to digitally display multiple manuscripts of rabbinic texts lack any significant user interface. It is time for the next stage in electronic publishing of critical texts within rabbinic scholarship. The E-Crit pilot project demonstrates the potential of such an approach, offering a number of useful features for textual study: 1) Toggle between synoptic edition and single base-text scanning. 2) Single base-text includes flags to alert the reader regarding significant variants. 3) Synoptic views can utilize a computer algorithm to highlight differences. 4) Reader may select which manuscript(s) to display. 5) Presets include organization by stemmatic branches, color-coded for clarity. 6) Hyperlink to footnotes and commentary. 7) Hyperlink to basic information about each manuscript. Electronic critical editions have the potential to advance textual scholarship in other significant ways. This pilot project presents a non-proprietary model for critical texts, one that can vastly increase access to the material. Scholars may input their own texts, adapt the program and collectively construct a viable platform for sharing critical textual work. Future development of the E-Crit project will include a simpler input process for new texts, a more sophisticated analytical program for highlighting difference, the capacity to highlight or comment on segments of text for later review, a more complex search engine, and a printing interface. At this stage, however, it is important to enable scholars to review the program and suggest refinements. The SBL poster session may be the perfect medium for such an exchange.


Consent of the Governed in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Geoffrey Miller, New York University

This paper analyzes the concept of consent of the governed in the Hebrew Bible with special reference to the covenant on Mount Sinai. The author recognizes consent as a source of legitimate authority and deals in a sophisticated way with problems that have troubled later consent theories: whether parties must actually consent; the impact of a social compact on future generations; the information set needed for informed consent; the problem of framing the issue; the need for unanimity; and the question of whether the social compact is conditional or absolute. A remarkable feature of the Sinai episode is its similarity to the original position in Rawls’ Theory of Justice: the Israelites in the wilderness at Sinai, like Rawlsian subjects behind the veil of ignorance, make fundamental constitutional choices while shielded from knowledge as to their future positions or endowments


Figuring Relics: A Poetics of Enshrinement
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Patricia Cox Miller, Syracuse University

Religious World of Late Antiquity: Beyond the Sensible FIGURING RELICS: A POETICS OF ENSHRINEMENT Patricia Cox Miller, Dept. of Religion, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244 The focus of my discussion will be on the collections of sixth-century Palestinian ampullae now housed in the treasury of the church dedicated to St John the Baptist in Monza and the monastery of Saint Columbanus in Bobbio. These metal flasks, embossed with images primarily from New Testament accounts of events in the life of Christ, have been considered to be “contact” relics because of their contents, namely, oil that had been blessed by contact with the True Cross. It is understandable that it has been the contents of the flasks that define their status as relics, given the description of the Piacenza Pilgrim regarding the oil’s effervescence: “They offer oil to be blessed in little flasks. When the mouth of one of the little flasks touches the wood of the cross, the oil instantly bubbles over, and unless it is closed very quickly it all spills out.” Transformed by touch, the oil is indeed impressive as a material locus of the holy. I will argue, however, that the entire flask is not only a relic, but also a reliquary, an object that rests on complicated relationships between its hidden interior and its artistic exterior. That is, the art on the outside has a necessary if multi-layered relationship with its bubbly insides. In this I will be relying on Seeta Chaganti’s definition of enshrinement as referring not simply to acts of enclosure “but instead to the more complex effect whereby contained and containing are interchangeable, and the borders between them are indeterminate….” Enshrinement is “a principle of complex closure, an integration of container and contained that provides aesthetic and even epistemological structure” (The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary, 15, 19). To give just one example of this coincidence of inside and outside: just as the oil is “liberated” from its natural properties due to its transcendent excess, so also are many of the artistic images liberated from referential delimitation by the art’s transgressive sense of both history and topography. I will conclude that the flasks-as-relics partake of a Christian “rhetoric of paradox” wherein pleromatic infinity and finite materiality coincide without being collapsed into each other.


The Poetic Structure of Stichographic Texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Qumran
Shem Miller, Florida State University

Preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls lies a motley assortment of scriptural poetic texts that are arranged stichographically. Several of these texts were written both stichographically and in scriptio continua in different MSS, and other passages are arranged stichographically in the midst of prose. E. Tov has proposed that their stichography, although they defy uniform classification, reflect a recognition of their poetic nature and structure. He also points out that in rare occurrences their stichographic arrangement may have been due to liturgical use or aesthetic adornment. This essay will move beyond the foundation laid by Tov and offer a reconstruction and analysis of the poetic structure of Exodus 15 (4Q365), Deuteronomy 32 (4Q44-45) and Psalm 119 (4Q89-90, 11Q5). Its analysis will endeavor to show that the stichography is part, but not the determining factor, of poetic structure. Rather, the hemistiches within the stichographic presentation as well as the overall poetic structure are determined by parallelism and paranomasia. Analysis of the poetic structure shows that that their variegated stichographic divisions were ultimately based upon semantic, syntactic, and grammatical parallelism. Stichography was not only a scribal practice, but was also a poetic device which highlighted the poetic features of the text.


Mimesis and Convention in the Representation of Conversation in Ugaritic Epic
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, University of the Free State

The epic poems from ancient Ugarit (especially the Baal cycle and the Kirta text) contain extensive sections of dialogue. In this paper, I apply the insights of pragmatics, generally, and conversation analysis, specifically, to the structure of dialogic exchange as represented in the Ugaritic epics. By comparison with cross-linguistic studies of the structural and expressive features of oral conversation, those features of Ugaritic dialogue which mimic oral conversation can be described. More importantly, however, are conventional features for the representation of dialogue that are unique to these texts and their function in structuring both the conversational exchange and the broader epic.


The Gilgamesh Epic and Methods of Biblical Scholarship
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Sara J. Milstein, New York University

In our recent monograph on the evolution of the Old Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, Daniel Fleming and I propose that there was a prior, hitherto unrecognized Akkadian literary stage of the epic. This stage, which we call the “Akkadian Huwawa narrative,” would have covered only Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s journey to the Cedar Forest to battle Huwawa, an adventure that is covered in the Yale Tablet and in ten additional OB tablets. This proposal is supported in part by some hard data. First, we have access to an independent Sumerian tale in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu battle Huwawa. Not only was this tale apparently part of the OB scribal curriculum, but it is the only Sumerian Gilgamesh tale that is represented in the OB Akkadian Gilgamesh evidence. Second, of the twelve OB Gilgamesh tablets, ten cover some part of the journey to the Cedar Forest and subsequent battle against Huwawa. In addition, our argument proceeds from internal evidence: namely, a set of contrasts in logic between what we identify as the contributions of the epic author (i.e., the Pennsylvania Tablet and “Sippar”) and what appears to derive from a prior hand (i.e., the bulk of the Yale Tablet and the ten “Huwawa” tablets). This part of the argument proceeds from methods most commonly developed in biblical scholarship. Given that biblical scholars largely do not have hard evidence of earlier phases of their canonical literature, however, to what degree is this permissible? More broadly, is it possible to apply methods of biblical scholarship to textual transmission problems in Mesopotamian literature, and if so, how? The OB Gilgamesh Epic, with its combination of hard evidence of prior literary phases and internal evidence of change, may offer a model for how to do so responsibly.


Jesus of Nazareth: An Historical Approach Outside of Theology
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Simon Mimouni, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

In this contribution, I would like to distinguish between the historical approach in scientific circle and the historical approach in theological circle. I will examine the pertinence of criterions and methods used by the exegetes-theologians in the searches about the historical Jesus.


Christian Judaism: A Question Still Open for Discussion
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Simon Mimouni, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

In this contribution, I would like to return to the definition of the phenomenon that I adressed twenty years ago in an article published in New Testament Studies. I will take into account research published since then, particulary advances in the study of ancient Judaism and proposed new parameters.


The Death of Jesus in Hebrews: A Contribution to a Developing Tradition
Program Unit: Hebrews
Alan C. Mitchell, Georgetown University

Hebrews shares similarities in its description and function of Jesus’ death with Romans and Mark, pointing to the strong probability that the author of Hebrews contributed to the development of the tradition about Jesus’ death, as that tradition was preserved in Christianity at Rome. Each of these three Roman Christian texts understands the death of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice (Romans 3:25; Mark 10:45; Hebrews 2:17), actualized by his obedient faith in God (Romans 5:19; Mark 14:36; Hebrews 5:8). Each portrays the death of Jesus as a real death (Romans 5:6-8; Mark 15: 34, 37; Hebrews 5:7) that effected redemption (Romans 3:24; Mark 8:34-35; Hebrews 9:12, 15). Hebrews’ distinctive contribution to the development of the tradition of the death of Christ lies in the relation of his suffering to his priesthood as seen in Hebrews 5:5-10, where the human suffering and death of Jesus is framed by the notice that he was appointed a high priest by God (v. 5) and then designated a high priest by God because of his suffering and death (v. 10). Building on the inherited tradition of the death of Christ among Roman Christians, the author of Hebrews contributed to the development of that tradition by explaining Christ’s death as a constitutive element of his priesthood.


Servant/Slave or Loyal Follower? The Old Persian of the Behistun Inscription and Implications for the Study of Haggai-Zechariah
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Christine Mitchell, Saint Andrew's College - Saskatoon

In a recent essay, Manfred Oeming suggested that the use of 'ebed in Neh 9 was analogous to the Old Persian term bandaka in the Behistun inscription of Darius I. In this paper I analyze the use of bandaka (subject) and anušiya (follower) in the Behistun inscription compared to the use of 'ebed in Haggai and Zechariah. Since Haggai and Zechariah show definite signs of having been influenced by Persian imperial text-forms, and show special interest in Darius, it seems reasonable to test whether Oeming's hypothesis for Neh 9 holds also for these texts. The implications for the analysis of Haggai-Zechariah as colonial literature are explored.


Reimagining Covenant in Malachi
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
Christine Mitchell, Saint Andrew's College - Saskatoon

The term mal'ak habberit (messenger of the covenant) is unique to Malachi. Malachi also speaks of two covenants: one with Israel and one with Levi. In this paper I examine Malachi's concept of covenant as an interpretation of Isa 42 and 49. The figure of the servant in Isa 42 is linked with Cyrus in Isa 44 and 45; the servant in Isa 49 is linked with Israel. Drawing on the insights of postcolonial theory and literatures of resistance, I examine the messenger of the covenant in Malachi alongside the figure of the servant in Isaiah. How does a text of imperial support, imagined as part of Yhwh's covenantal relationship, transform into a text of imperial condemnation, also imagined as part of Yhwh's covenantal relationships?


Qumranic Concepts of Poetic Language: The Case of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice
Program Unit: Qumran
Noam Mizrahi, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The aim of this paper is to contrast two aspects of the idea of poetic language implied by the Songs in general, and the famous sevenfold hymns of Song VI in particular: (a) a certain conceptualization of poetic language embedded in some telling passages, and (b) the actual poetics reflected in the dense diction of this work, characterized as it is with numerous repetitions and synonymous usages. The former reflects a "minimalist" approach, since it encodes a profound questioning of the very adequacy of language for fulfilling meaningfully its referential role. The latter stems from a "maximalist" approach, since it makes extensive, baroque-like use of the linguistic medium in an emphasized effort to convey well defined messages. Taking into account both linguistic and literary perspectives, the paper highlights the paradoxical relation between these two, seemingly contradictory lines of thinking, and considers their poetic and theological implications.


Binds That Tie: Abraham and the Paradoxes of Patriarchy
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Gregory Mobley, Andover Newton Theological School

Though his name means “The [Divine] Father is Exalted,” it is Abraham himself who functions as the most prominent patriarch in the Bible and biblical tradition. With every invocation of phrases such as “Children of Abraham,” “Daughters of Abraham,” and “Abrahamic Family Reunion,” each used in contemporary interreligious conversation, the ancestor writ-large continues to receive deference from his seed. To search for the man is folly. To search among the strands of his braided narrative in Genesis for a coherent characterization is frustrating. But it is possible to survey two texts about Abraham, his intercession for Sodom in Genesis 18 and his binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, and isolate themes of patriarchy. Based on the scholarship of David Schloen, patriarchy in ancient Mediterranean cultures can be seen as a sociological, political, theological, and psychological network of nested father-figures, extending from the household to the divine palace. This paper will examine the inherent and inevitable binds of surviving in this network, in patriarchy’s chain-of-command. The dirty work of patriarchy is on display in contrasting ways in each text. In Genesis 18, Abraham must defend the needs of his community to a superior patriarch; while in Genesis 22, Abraham must harm a member of his community at the command of a superior patriarch.


Jesus the Hegemonic Male in Matthew’s Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Annelies Moeser, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

I argue that the gospel of Matthew portrays Jesus in terms of hegemonic masculinity, specifically in a dominating relationship of Jesus over the disciples, in imitation of imperial claims to power. Warren Carter has problematized the metaphors of “slaves” and “children” for the community of disciples. He identifies a troubling mimicry of imperial patterns of dominance in the retention of power by Jesus/God over the disciples. My analysis of the Parable of the Virgins reveals a similar pattern, but realized in this parable by using ancient concepts of masculinity to claim a superordinate rank for Jesus. I view Matthew’s gospel in light of a theory of gender construction that sees ancient masculinities not in binary terms, but as a “hierarchical gender gradient or continuum” (Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen Moore). Matthew subordinates the community by “unmanning” them, portraying them in cross-gendered form as virgins. The implied male reader of Matthew is forced to identify with the virgins if he is to be a disciple. This causes slippage in the reader’s masculinity vis-à-vis that of Jesus. I also review the gendered portrayal of Jesus as bridegroom (an image resonant with divine presence in the Hebrew Bible) and as the patriarchal householder who allows or denies entrance in terms of hegemonic masculinity. The community is threatened by Jesus and entrance to the feast requires submission to the arbitrary (time) demands of the Bridegroom. Community solidarity is rent asunder by a foolish struggle for resources (oil) and it becomes clear that only relationship to the Bridegroom matters. Finally, I suggest that as readers we must reject the gospel parable as it stands. Instead, the believing community must look for an alternative to the Matthean vision of Jesus the hegemonic Bridegroom.


Authority and Empire in Sasanian Persia: The Socio-cultural Interface between the Babylonian Sages and Zoroastrian Priests
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Jason Mokhtarian, Indiana University (Bloomington)

My presentation focuses on the ancient Persian context of the Babylonian Talmud, in particular the socio-cultural interface between the Jewish sages and Zoroastrian priests known in Middle Persian as mowbeds or herbeds who functioned as both the administrators of the Sasanian empire’s institutions and local scholar-priests in charge of Avestan priestly studies. The overarching question of my research probes the complex ways in which Babylonian Rabbinic society and culture was determined by the history of Sasanian Zoroastrian sacerdotalism. In this paper I explore how these two religious groups interacted and competed for cultural and social authority, ultimately influencing the terms by which each group constructed its identity vis-à-vis their internal and external “others.” In delineating the Rabbinic-Magian interface, this paper emphasizes a comparative-contextual approach to several of the Talmud’s depictions of the Zoroastrian priests, drawing heavily from material sources such as the Aramaic magical bowls and Sasanian inscriptions and glyptics in its exploration of how the Rabbis and various types of Zoroastrian priests in late antique Persia competed with one another in socio-political and epistemological modes. Brief attention will also paid to the Greco-Roman world’s impact on the polemics behind the Rabbinic-Magian interface.


Johannine Scholarship in the Australia-Pacific Region
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Francis J. Moloney, Salesians of Don Bosco

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Lot, Judah, and the Concept of Sin in Patristic Exegesis
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Yifat Monnickendam, Johns Hopkins University

The Syriac legal literature of the fifth and sixth centuries contains not only legal material but also short biblical exegeses and commentaries. Reviewing parallels of these biblical commentaries, in Syriac literature as well as in Greek and Latin patristic sources, uncovers the sources of influence on the Syriac legal writings. Furthermore, it highlights their unique position between their Christian heritage and eastern background. The test cases discussed in this paper are the commentaries on the stories of Lot and his daughters and of Judah and Tamar. Both Lot and Judah could potentially be accused of some of the worst sexual sins, incest or adultery (according to common Christian understanding). However, both Lot and Judah could claim they were not guilty, since they did not realize what act they were committing, nor express any intent of such an act, nor consent to it. The patristic biblical commentary on this story, beginning from Origen and Jerome in the west, through Mar Aba in the east, is rooted in apologetic attempts to absolve Lot and Judah from any blame. This chain of exegesis uncovers some of the sources and influences on the writings of Mar Aba, as well as the changes within western exegesis after its transfer to eastern Christianity. Furthermore, it reveals the similarities and differences in the understanding of the concepts of sin, guilt and intent according to Syriac writers and their western counterparts.


Johannine Love Emulates the Hesiodic Law of Justice
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Wooil Moon, Claremont Graduate University

Drawing on Dennis R. MacDonald’s mimesis criticism, this paper uncovers and explains echoes of Hesiod in the Fourth Gospel. Craig Evans (2005) simply notes that the passage in John 13:17 parallels the passage in Hesiod, Op., 826-27 without providing further details. John’s use of Hesiod, however, seems more significant than Evans detected. The Fourth Evangelist employs the Hesiodic law of justice and conflates it with the Mosaic motif to produce the core logic for the plot to kill Jesus in John 11:47-53 and 18:14. According to Hesiod, any evildoer or king can bring a calamity on all the citizens until whole the city pays for the offence and restores order and justice (Op., 239-41; 260-61). The chief priests and the Pharisees appeal to the same logic of justice, though without mentioning dikê, and convict Jesus of death in John 11:47-53. For them, Jesus committed treason against the Romans, and thereby he has to be punished by death in order for the whole nation not to be destroyed by the Romans. Caiaphas repeats the same idea in John 11:50 and 18:14. Throughout the Gospel, those who ostensibly advocate the law and justice are not Jesus’ followers but his opponents called the “descendants of Abraham” (John 8:33, 37) and “disciples of Moses” (John 9:28). Hesiod’s idea of justice seems to have been accessible to John because it recurs in Jewish and Christian texts written by approximate contemporaries of the Evangelist. Some of them advertise their use of Hesiod by directly mentioning dikê as in Acts 28:4; Wis 1:8; 11:20; 14:31; 18:11; 4 Macc 4:21; 6:28; 8:22; 9:15; 11:3; 12:12; 18:22. The divine commandment for the Johannine community to know and to do is not ho nomos tês dikês but hê entolê tês agapês.


The Syriac’s Rendering of Hebrew Sacrificial Terminology in Lev 1–9 and Its Implications
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
James D. Moore, Brandeis University

Scholars have paid little attention to the Syriac’s rendition of the levitical sacrificial system since Davidson (1839) claimed that the Syriac translators “neglected” sacrificial terminology. This view found its way into Weitzman’s magnum opus, The Syriac Version of the Old Testament, in which he argued that “a certain negligence can indeed be detected in [the Peshitta’s] rendering of the sacrificial laws” (1999: 217). In this paper Moore shows that the Syriac translation of Lev 1-9 is actually a carefully constructed translation, contra the long standing view that the translator was negligent. The translator went to great lengths to carefully render the Hebrew into Syriac. The translator’s carefulness has long been over looked because he used a combination of verbs and prepositions in idiomatic constructions to interpret the technical Hebrew sacrificial terminology. By looking at Syriac idiomatic equivalents to Hebrew terms, in addition to a word-for-word analysis, Moore is able to explain how the Syriac translator understood each Hebrew technical term. Moore solves the pressing problems of 1) why the Syriac renders Hebrew ‘olâ “a whole burnt offering” with various terms and the meanings of these various terms, 2) why Hebrew ’ašam “a guilt offering” does not appear as a technical offering in Syriac, and 3) why the translator uses different terms for Hebrew zeba? š?lamim “a sacrifice of well-being.” Moore argues that his study has three implications. First, it shows that scholars must be cautious and have a knowledge of specific Syriac biblical texts when using them on text critical grounds for interpreting the MT. Second, it reveals that Hebrew Bible ritual studies can glean valuable insights from the Syriac’s interpretation of the levitical sacrificial system. Lastly, this study has implications for interpreting the Heb 10:6, 8, in which levitical sacrifices are mentioned.


Who Do We Say Jesus Is?
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
James F. Moore, Valparaiso University

The title for this paper borrow from the important section of the gospel text from Matthew in which Jesus asks his disciples the question, “Who do you say that I am?” The aim of this paper is to explore precisely what we can say based on references from the Christian texts with connections to the Hebrew Scriptures as background about who Jesus is. We will explore if there is any consistent image of Jesus presented and especially if this picture of Jesus is consistent with what we might claim is the Jewish context for the Jesus of the gospels. In other words, if we move behind the theological doctrines of Nicea and Chalcedon, do we see a Jewish Jesus understood only within the Jewish context that he never actually denies. We may also raise the question whether the Jesus of the epistles is consistent with the gospel image of Jesus or whether it is radical departure from the Jewish context we are seeking in our analysis of the gospels. This latter point has often been argued and deserves another examination.


The Function of the Nota Accusativi in Moabite and the Question of Case
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
James D. Moore, Brandeis University

Not many scholars have paid attention to the use of the nota accusativi (’t) in Moabite. Blau's treatment of the Moabite nota accusativi is the most significant to-date, but he does not satisfactorily explain its function. In this paper, Moore summarizes and critiques Blau's treatment of the use of ’t in Moabite. Moore charts out all clauses in the Mesha Inscription. He finds that when the greater syntax of a each clause is considered, Moabite uses ’t in a surprisingly regular fashion. Moore's thesis is original in that he does not presuppose that the presence of ’t means that Moabite lacks a case system. Moore finds that the use of ’t in Moabite coincides with the historical disintegration of case in NWS languages. He observes that Moabite employs ’t to mark the accusative direct object of verbal clauses, when the accusative direct object is a noun in the construct state or a proper name; this is significant since both of these nouns inherently lack case. Furthermore, other indicators such as the use of a final -t on feminine singular nouns imply an operative case system. The data then leads Moore to conclude that parts of a case system were still operative in Moabite during the writing of the Mesha Inscription c.850 B.C.E.


Old Testament Apocalyptic and the Beginning and End of Wisdom
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Rickie Moore, Lee University

Old Testament Apocalyptic and the Beginning and End of Wisdom


With Walls of Iron: The Function of the “Digressions” in Aristeas in Constructing Judean Ethnicity in Egypt
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Stewart Moore, Yale University

The Letter of Aristeas is a touchstone for the study of the composition of the Septuagint. Much less often is it used as a document to study its own time, in the mid- to late second century B.C.E.; and rarely has the great bulk of the text, the famous “digressions,” been examined closely. This paper focuses on the “digressions,” insofar as they constitute far the majority of the text, and argues that their function is to offer a particular construction of Judean ethnic identity. On this latter topic, scholars have tended to operate with a simple schema of assimilation and resistance. The sociological and anthropological study of ethnicity, in contrast, reveals strategies of ethnic incorporation and exclusion which are much more complex than this schema. In particular, modern social science focuses on the boundaries that are drawn and reified between ethnic groups, regarding these boundaries as fundamentally constitutive of ethnicity. This paper brings this social-scientific perspective to bear on the case of Aristeas: Are the Jerusalem translators more “Jewish” than the Judeans of Egypt? Is assimilation easy, as “Aristeas” suggests by identifying the God of Israel with Zeus? Or is it almost impossible, as the High Priest argues when he claims that Judeans are separated by “walls of iron”? Does the table-talk digression indicate that Judean-Greek rapprochement is easy, or that it is hard? This paper identifies those markers of ethnic identity that are privileged in Aristeas, and those which are downgraded, to draw a clearer picture of how this text understands the fundamental issue of Judean identity. In the end, Aristeas’ peculiar lack of focus on its stated subject, the translation of the Septuagint, becomes clearer when it is seen how its many “digressions” directly address the subject of being a Judean in Egypt.


Howl for Moab! The Anthropology of Ethnic Identity and Jeremiah’s Oracles against the Nations
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Stewart Moore, Yale University

Engagement by biblical scholars with sociological and anthropological thought regarding ethnicity remains at a very preliminary stage. Most commentators are content to do little more than reference Fredrik Barth’s 1969 “Introduction” to "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries." Yet ethnicity is clearly a major issue throughout the Hebrew Bible, from the conceptualization of the “Canaanite” in accounts of Israel’s history, to the genealogical obsessions of Ezra and Nehemiah. This paper briefly surveys the state of the field of ethnicity theory in relation to Barth’s seminal work, especially as reformulated by scholars such as Sandra Wallman, Barbara Ballis Lal, and Richard Jenkins. Special attention is paid to Barth’s central concept of ethnic boundaries being changeable and permeable without dissolving the groups constituted thereby, as well as more recent contributions on the topic of power differentials and ethnic ascription. As a concrete illustration, this paper considers how ethnicity is deployed in the “oracles against the nations” found in Jeremiah. While it is well-agreed that these oracles function to build up Judahite ethnic identity, it is not often asked how they do so, beyond oversimplified accusations of chauvinism. Examination of the ethnic diacritica used to distinguish the various nations named in the oracles reveals different ways of relating to the different ethnic groups so named, culminating in a strikingly different categorization of Babylon as a people. These considerations bring new data to bear on the question of the time, place and authorship of the oracles, individually and as a group.


Dueling Lyres: Prophets and Heretics as Instruments in Ephraem of Nisibis
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Robert J. Morehouse, The Catholic University of America

In his article “A Lyre without a Voice: The Poetics and Politics of Ephrem the Syrian,” Andrew Palmer demonstrated that Ephraem saw the prophets, Mary and himself as instruments, lyres in fact, to be played by the Spirit, or by Christ himself. This paper will juxtapose Ephraem’s portrayal of heretics as instruments played by Satan to Palmer’s elucidation of how Ephraem sees prophets, and even himself as instruments of the divine. Building on his interpretation of Genesis 3, where Satan was the active agent within the serpent, Ephraem suggests in his Prose Refutation and Hymns against Heretics that it is once again Satan that is behind the actions of the heretics Marcion, Bar Daysan and Mani. In this way, as Ephraem perceives it, the cosmic battle between truth and error is being played out by God and Satan through their willing lyres.


Moving Peter to Rome: Social Memory and Ritualized Space after 70 CE
Program Unit: Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Milton Moreland, Rhodes College

For some early Christians, the destruction and forced abandonment of the temple in 70 CE meant that they had to imagine their etiologies in ways that explained why the temple had to be destroyed and why Jerusalem was not the central site for ritualized veneration of the deity and Christos. The destruction led to an intense period of etiological activity in which narrativized apostles were moved all around the Mediterranean world in rapid succession. This is the social and ideological context in which Peter was moved to Rome. This paper discusses the development of 2nd century Christian identity and the use of etiologies in identity formation and monumentalization. In particular, the Peter stories helped form Christian identity by constructing etiologies that linked the faithful community members to preternatural origins both in Jerusalem and Rome. The series of stories that told of Peter's travels to Rome, followed by his death and burial in the imperial capital was part of a group formation process that, in part, attempted to define identity through spatial connections. While Christians were most clearly linked to fictive kinship associations and ritualized behaviors that were centered in individual houses, it is likely that in Rome Christians were also actively pursuing veneration at tombs by at least the middle of the 2nd century. This paper explores the rise of tomb veneration in the context of early Christian community memory formation.


Soteriological Motifs in Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on the Twelve Prophets
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Jonathan Morgan, Marquette University

Cyril of Alexandria is known to most students of Christian theology for his so-called “single-subject” Christology that won the day against the theology of Nestorius. Thus, it is not surprising that a great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to his Christology, in correlation with the soteriological implications undergirding his doctrine of Christ. As such, at least until recently, he has been underappreciated as an important biblical exegete. While much attention has been drawn to his Christological works, less has been paid to his biblical commentaries with the possible exception of his commentary on John. Cyril’s Commentary on the Twelve Prophets has not received the attention it deserves, but provides valuable insight into his exegesis and theology nonetheless. This work is especially helpful because it gives readers a glimpse into Cyril’s thought before the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy, the debate that would consume the second half of his episcopacy. This commentary is of interest, in part, because it conveys the important soteriological principles in Cyril's theology and interpretation of Scripture before his Christology became more nuanced and sophisticated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the historical context in which Cyril wrote this commentary, the predecessors who may have influenced his exegesis, and the primary soteriological themes that arise from his interpretation of these short prophetic works


Diplomacy as a Nexus between Oral and Written Performances by Ancient Scribes
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
William Morrow, Queen's School of Religion

Studies of both Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH) have found evidence of the subversive use of Neo-Assyrian (NA) royal ideology. In the case of Deuteronomy this involves the well-known appropriation of Assyrian treaty rhetoric in favour of YHWH’s sovereignty. In addition, I have recently made the case that the Deuteronomic centralization formula reflects similar dynamics (JSS 55 [2010] 365-83). In the DtrH, the subversive use of NA rhetoric can be found in the speeches attributed to the rab šaq? and the prophet Isaiah in 2 Kings 18–19. Deuteronomy does not tell its readers how the scribes who wrote the book received their information; but recent study of the Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon (VTE) has shown that, while this work was transmitted in written form, it was designed for oral performance. Whether or not Deuteronomy is directly dependent on the VTE, this observation can probably be extended more generally to NA treaty practice. In the case of 2 Kings 18–19, the Isaianic speeches are purported to respond both to oral and written communication by the Assyrians. Writing and speech, therefore, appear both as a means to transmit Assyrian propaganda and as a means to resist it. The role of scribes in this process was crucial as they would have been the conduits for the transmission of royal policy and national ideology; in that role, they would have been the creators of written documents that communicated them, such as treaty texts and those which became early Jewish scriptures. One scribal role which connects the cases in both Deuteronomy and the DtrH, therefore, is that of diplomat. In this paper, I will explore the nexus of writing and orality in both bodies of biblical literature within the context of ancient Israelite and Near Eastern diplomacy.


On ' YT and ' T as Notae Accusativi in Phoenician
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Paul G. Mosca, University of British Columbia

Scholars have long debated whether Phoenician 'T functioned as a nota accusativi alongside the frequently attested form 'YT. In 1992 Charles Krahmalkov attempted to resolve the issue by proposing that the two particles were, in fact, complementary in Phoenician (though not in Punic). According to Krahmalkov, 'T was only used immediately before nominal objects equipped with a possessive pronominal suffix, while 'YT was used in all other contexts. This position is reaffirmed (with somewhat different examples) in Krahmalkov’s grammar (2001), and his solution is noted (with apparent approval) in the third edition of Friedrich’s grammar (1999). The aim of the present study is to re-evaluate the evidence cited by Krahmalkov to determine the plausibility of his hypothesis.


Tiger Mothers versus Helicopter Parents: Addressing Parenting Priorities in the Parish Context
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Anna Moseley Gissing, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

From Amy Chua’s _Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother_ to William Sears’ _The Baby Book_, parents are bombarded with ideas about the right way to raise their children. Debates that start over breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding expand to debates over educational philosophy, discipline methods and other aspects of raising children. What does this mean for the parish? Parents feel pressure to raise perfect children even though there are different definitions of “perfect.” They are anxious and feel ill-equipped to make decisions about their parenting priorities. Still others hold their parenting convictions so strongly that encountering others with different conclusions leads to division and disruption in the community. This paper will explore the theological assumptions about parenting in Chua’s description of “Tiger mothering,” focusing specifically on 1) the chief end of parenting, 2) the role of failure, and 3) the use of power. I will then respond using a biblical-theological approach and offer parenting priorities for Christian parents. Finally, I will offer practical guidelines for pastors addressing the parenting debates in their local parish.


A Pragmatic Analysis of Rhetorical “How” and “Why” Questions in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Adina Moshavi, Bar-Ilan University

“How” (’ek) and “why” (lamma/maddua`) questions in Biblical Hebrew are noteworthy for their frequent rhetorical use. The implied answer to a rhetorical “how”/“why” questions includes a phrase denoting a null set, e.g., “There is no way for X to happen/have happened”/“There is no reason for X to happen/have happened.” Rhetorical “how” questions imply propositions expressing epistemic modality (possibility), whereas “why” questions relate to deontic modality (justification). Although the pragmatic implications of the two types of questions are distinct, their communicative functions sometimes overlap. Past tense “why” questions are mostly used for criticism, whereas past tense “how” questions generally express disbelief. In the lament, the past tense “how” question makes strategic use of the implication of disbelief to express the speaker’s emotive reaction to a tragedy (e.g., 2 Sam. 1:25 “How have the mighty fallen?”) Like “why” questions, past tense “how” questions can also be used for criticism. The “why” question implies that the criticized act had no justification (e.g., Gen. 12:19 “Why did you say, ‘She is my sister?’”), whereas the “how” question stresses the inconceivability that a person would perform such an act (e.g., Gen. 26:9 “How could you say, ‘She is my sister?’”) Present/future “why” questions are used for persuasion (e.g., 1 Sam. 1:8 “Why are you crying?”), while present/future “how” questions can be used for refusal (e.g., Gen. 39:9 “How could I do this most wicked thing?”) Both “why” and “how” questions can relate to hypothetical situations, and function similarly in such cases as arguments by consequence. In hypothetical “why” questions the argument is a threat or warning (e.g., 2 Sam. 2:22 “Why should I strike you down?”) while in hypothetical “how” questions the argument is an appeal to empathy (e.g., 2 Sam. 2:22 “How will I look your brother Joab in the face?”) As the last two examples show, but kinds of arguments can be effectively combined.


"To Live a Pure and Holy Life": Scripts, Scriptures, and the Performance of Sexual Purity
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Sara Moslener, Augustana College

Since their inception, sexual abstinence organizations such as True Love Waits and Silver Ring Thing (SRT) have produced numerous texts that align sexual purity and Christian piety. Among the most significant is the Abstinence Study Bible, developed by SRT, a set of biblical and non-biblical scriptures that lay out the behavior and relational code of conduct promoted by the movement. The first and primary text is the "Silver Ring Thing Covenant" that when enacted shapes the pledgers sexual decision-making processes according to I Thessalonians 4:3-4, a scriptural citation that adorns the organization's hallmark symbol, the silver ring. Together, these three scriptures, the covenant, the biblical text, and the silver ring produce one script: if you commit yourself to purity, God will grant you a spouse. This nuptial grammar does more than enact a code of purity, it performs a ritual best described as a pre-nuptial agreement, setting the pledger onto a particular narrative trajectory. But the question remains: how are adolescent selves convinced to do so? This paper contends that by manipulating the Girardian notion of the mimetic triangle SRT is able to shift adolescent desire away from “worldly” longings and inscribe onto these selves biblical ideals of sexual purity. During the purity ritual, SRT invokes the idea of "future memory" that collapses the past, present, and future into one moment. In this interstitial space, adolescent selves are rendered malleable and amenable as they consider the moral discrepancies between past transgressions and future desires, discrepancies only resolved by present action. As these selves shift, even in uncertainty, SRT interjects their scriptualized ideals of sexual purity that are never unaccompanied by the nuptial imperative. Thus, within the brief 21/2 hours the organization is granted with their audiences, they are able to re-script the behaviors, desires, and personal narrative trajectories of these adolescent selves.


Eusebius's Harnessing of Saintly Charisma in His Treatment of the Martyrs of Lyon
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Candida R. Moss, University of Notre Dame

Scholarly assessments of Eusebius cast him as hagiographer and supporter of the cult of the saints. His authorship of the Martyrs of Palestine and inclusion of manifold stories of martyrdom in his multiple-edition Ecclesiastical History certainly confirm this interpretation. In contrast to the cohort of church fathers with which he is often grouped, Eusebius exhibits a profound appreciation for martyrs and an interest in preserving their stories. These narratives are supplemented with (or perhaps exploited for) their heresiographical significance. By interlacing stories of martyrdom with the condemnation of heretics, Eusebius uses the martyrs as surrogates for ecclesiastical authority in the history of the church. At the same time there are moments in his Ecclesiastical History where Eusebius attempts to limit and confine the authority of martyrs. This paper will examine Eusebius’s utilization of Gallic traditions about martyrs in Hist. Eccl. 5.1-3 (the Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons and associated material ). It will propose that even as Eusebius preserves, edits, and reworks earlier traditions, he employs a variety of redactional techniques in order to limit the power and importance of the martyrs. These editorial practices stem both from an anxiety about the role of confessors in ecclesiastical affairs and also the potential difficulties that the accomplishments and mimesis of the martyrs pose to the position of Christ.


The Deification of Humanity in the Revelation of Jesus Christ
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Carl Mosser, Eastern University

It has often been observed that the Revelation applies a variety of significant titles to both God and Jesus. In this scholars have seen the inclusion of Jesus within the identity of Israel's God and even an early Trinitarianism. Less often observed is the fact that Revelation also ascribes identical rewards and images to both Jesus and the redeemed. Two of these ascriptions are particularly significant for understanding the ultimate fate of redeemed humanity for the author of Revelation. First, those who overcome are given authority over the nations to rule with a rod of iron just as Jesus received such authority from his Father (2:26-28; 12:5; 19:15). Second, those who overcome are elevated to sit with Jesus on the divine throne just as Jesus overcame and sat with his Father on the throne (3:21). This paper will explore intertextual connections between these texts and other passages to illustrate how Revelation brings the canonical teleologies of creation and redemption to a striking climax. It will contend that Revelation depicts redemption as an identification between the exalted Jesus and those he redeems such that what is true of him must also become true of them. This redemptive vision is accurately described with the terminology of the second-century Church Fathers: the redeemed will be "made gods" or deified.


John as a National Gospel: Schleiermacher’s Defence for John’s Gospel as a Source for the Historical Jesus
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Halvor Moxnes, University of Oslo

The present discussion of the Gospel of John as a source for the historical Jesus can benefit from studying Schleiermacher’s arguments and his view of history in his lectures on The Life of Jesus (E.t. 1975) in Berlin 1819-32. For instance, in Jesus of Nazareth. King of the Jews (1999), Paula Fredriksen argues that rather than locating Jesus primarily in Galilee (as the synoptic Gospels do), John’s gospel reflects the historically more plausible view that Jesus mission ’was a mission to Israel’ (238, 240). Schleiermacher’s defence for the priority of John was strongly criticized as unhistorical by Strauss and Schweitzer, but for Schleiermacher his position was closely linked to a different view of history. He made a distinction between ’chronicle’, a mere collection of separate events, and’ history’, where the inner meaning of events combined them into a unity. Schleiermacher found that the synoptic gospels were ’chronicles’, and that only John’s gospel presented a unity. As the only gospel John had as an organizing principle the development of Jesus’ ’relationship with the nation.’ Central to Schleiermacher’s view of history was that there must be a unity between the inner side of Jesus’ activities, i.e. his mission, and their external side, e.g. their location. Therefore, since Jesus’ mission was directed at the totality of his people, it could not be limited to Galilee, but must be reflected in Jesus’ travels to all parts of the country and his contact with people at the centre, in Jerusalem. Schleiermacher also offers an explanation for the fact that only Jesus, and none of his disciples, were executed by the Romans. It was out of concern for his people that Jesus did not create a community around him. Since Jesus realized the danger of a conflict between Rome and the Jews, he did not want to give occasion to the outbreak of that conflict. Thus, even with his strong criticism of Jewish religion, Schleiermacher presents Jesus – according to John – as deeply concerned with the Jewish people. Schleiermacher’s focus on Jesus ’relationship with the nation’ as an organizing principle of writing history, reflects his own position within the early national movement in Germany. Moreover, an analysis of his argumentation makes us aware that presentations of the historical Jesus are always part of larger discussions of the goals and presuppositions of history writing.


"What Do You See?" Verbalizing the Visual in Biblical Prophecy
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Clinton J. Moyer, Wake Forest University

This paper explores a distinct aspect of the relationship in biblical prophecy between the sense of sight and the speaking of prophetic utterances. It focuses specifically on those situations in which the prophet’s visual experience has an inspirational function, serving as the raw material from which is drawn an expansive and/or interpretive prophetic speech. Three distinct types of this scenario are considered. The first deals with instances where ordinary physical sight is conceived as playing a key role in the nature of the resultant prophetic utterance, as in Balaam’s encounter with the Moabite king Balaq (Numbers 23–24). The second involves those situations in which the prophet verbalizes the content of his vision in response to the question “What do you see?,” and then recounts an interpretation that springs from some aspect of this description: either a particular quality (e.g. the north-facing pot in Jer 1:13–14); a pun on the actual vocalization of the object glimpsed (e.g. the qayits “summer fruit” of Amos 8:1—compare qets “end” in the following verse); or the metaphorical significance of the vision as a whole (Zechariah, passim). The third category consists of situations in which the prophet speaks in response to a visual prompt that is not physically immediate to the viewer, and thus is envisioned or imagined only in the mind’s eye of the prophet, such as Ezekiel’s prophecies to the mountains of Israel, but uttered in Babylonia (Ezekiel 6 and 36). While these scenarios demonstrate the centrality of the visual component of biblical prophecy, at the same time its significance in these contexts is suppressed, since the prophetic message is properly laid out for its audience only through the verbalization that follows. Thus the evidence suggests that the utterance of artfully interpretive speech, rather than the experience of oracular vision, is the true prophetic gift. On the other hand, however, by tracing the diachronic development of the relationship between prophetic sight and inspired speech, we may posit that over time, increasing emphasis was placed on the prophets’ visionary talents, over against their oratorial capability. This hypothesis in turn permits us to examine how the biblical attestations of this phenomenon are to be situated within the larger world of ancient Near Eastern prophecy generally.


The Qumran Psalms Scroll in Light of Ben Sira and 1 Enoch: Concepts of Textual Tradition across Generic Boundaries
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Eva Mroczek, Indiana University (Bloomington)

This paper explores the intersection of Wisdom and Apocalypticism in terms of their participation in a broader imaginative tradition about writing and textuality. In particular, I discuss how a sapiential text (Ben Sira) and an apocalyptic collection (1 Enoch) may shed light on the way ancient communities may have produced and imagined the Qumran Psalms Scroll, a text that is classified in neither genre, and what this says about the conceptualization of writtenness, scribalism, and authorship in Jewish Antiquity. Thematic links between these three texts, particularly in the way they understand worship, prayer, pedagogy, and scribalism, already show that they should not be divided along generic boundaries but studied together as part of a larger landscape of text production in the second temple period. In addition, I discuss the textual growth and diversity of these three texts as collections and argue that the manuscript/formal evidence for fluidity and expansion should be considered together with discursive evidence, i.e. what these texts have to say about scribal craft and about themselves as written materials. This is intimately connected to the way their purported “authors” or “scribes” – David, Enoch, and Ben Sira – appear in these texts and in their reception history. David is a king and legendary psalmist, Enoch is a heavenly visionary of the distant past, and Ben Sira is a self-identified “author” we can date with some precision; yet the way they are presented in their respective texts has close, even lexical, similarities. All three are presented as inspired transmitters of sapiential and liturgical traditions, responsible for writing down, arranging, and presenting revelation. Just as these figures are tradents rather than authors in the modern sense, their texts emerge not as “books” but as as pliable collections – moving channels of tradition – that are imagined to be neither “original” nor complete.


Digital Culture and the Death of the (Biblical) Book: New Metaphors for the Study of Scriptures in Jewish Antiquity
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Eva Mroczek, Indiana University (Bloomington)

In this paper, I discuss the ways in which openness to new concepts and language inspired by digital text culture can invigorate our thinking about the production and reception of writings in antiquity. I argue that to speak of biblical “books” in the context of Jewish antiquity is to use a loaded metaphor: the concept of “book” immediately evokes notions of textuality informed by the history of the codex, print, and modern publishing, even if we are consciously aware that the culture of scribes and scrolls in the ancient world was very different. Using the examples of the Psalms and Ben Sira, I show how speaking of “books” in the context of early Judaism has constrained our thinking about how such texts were produced and received. Now that the book is no longer the primary mode of imagining textuality, we are free to explore different metaphors from outside the realm of print, in order to unbind ancient Jewish texts from the constraints of the book and visualize them in fresh ways. It is now possible to imagine ancient scriptural materials not in terms of “books,” but using other concepts from contemporary information culture, such as projects, networks, archives, or databases, which can encourage us to rethink the way we describe and categorize ancient writings and refocus the questions we ask of them. Through several examples of how text is conceptualized in current digital projects, I show how digital concepts and language can foster new ways of thinking about textual production, authority, and reception in the ancient Jewish world.


Evagrian Death Meditation and Amphilochius’s Homily on Lazarus
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Ellen Muehlberger, University of Michigan

In late ancient monastic documents there is evidence of a practice designed to bring forth pain and distress in order to produce humility: meditating on the image of a corpse, often one’s own. The practice is discussed in Evagrius’s works, in compiled histories of monasticism sympathetic to Evagrius’s progressive cosmology, and in a letter from Macarius the Egyptian which shows significant overlap with letters of Antony and Ammonas. In my paper, I reveal yet another source of evidence for the practice, one from an unexpected place. Amphilochius was bishop of Iconium and contemporary of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa; he is sometimes called “the fourth Cappadocian.” His homily, On the One Dead Four Days, rewrites the biblical scene of Lazarus’s resurrection to include a extended dialogue between Martha, Lazarus’s sister, and Jesus. Their strange conversation regarding Martha’s pain and distress—not at seeing the dead Lazarus, but the resurrected one—can be contextualized as a creative work influenced by the Evagrian tradition of death meditation. The specialized vocabulary of Martha’s lament and Amphilochius’s graphic imagining of the decomposition, then recomposition, of Lazarus’s body together suggest the possibility that Amphilochius was making use of the expectations and images of death meditation. Speaking broadly, the paper demonstrates that the meditative practices of ascetics were not isolated within particular ascetic communities, but were culturally operative among Christians outside those communities.


Religion on the Road in Ancient Greece and Rome
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Steven Muir, Concordia University College of Alberta

Religion in the Greco-Roman world is usually studied with reference to fixed urban locations, namely the home and temple. By contrast, I consider evidence from the Greco-Roman world concerning the issue of religion on the road – that is, religious practices and episodes which occurred while people prepared to travel, were traveling, or had concluded their travels. I identify two background issues: the social or dyadic nature of personality in the ancient Mediterranean, and the importance of the venues of home and temple where religious activity typically was practiced. I demonstrate that religious activity on the road drew from religious practices of the polis and home in order to assuage the insecurities of travel. Such insecurities would have been of two sorts. The first relates to hardships of travel. The other type of insecurity, perhaps less apparent to modern people, has to do with how one’s social identity becomes precarious when one is separated from the primary social groupings of family and fellow citizens. Because so much of a person’s identity in the ancient Mediterranean world was socially derived, such separation would have been an acute problem. It is my thesis that the gods were invoked and encountered on the road not only as powerful divine beings who offered protection against travel’s hardships, but also as omnipresent patron-witnesses who knew the person from ‘back home’, and whose reassuring presence would maintain a person’s identity while traveling.


1 Sam 1 as the Opening Chapter of the Deuteronomistic History?
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Reinhard Müller, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Several scholars assume that the original edition of the Deuteronomistic History comprised only 1-2 Sam and 1-2 Kgs, thus implying that 1 Sam 1 was the first chapter of this work. The paper reconsiders the evidence for this theory, and highlights the counter-evidence. The redactional links between Judges and parts of 1 Sam 1-12, which can be found on several layers, will be the main focus of the investigation.


“For the Lord and For Gideon!” The Representation of Warfare in Judges 7
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Kelly Murphy, Emory University

The narrative in Judges 7 depicts the battle between Gideon’s 300 men and the enemy Midianite army, a battle anticipated since the introduction of the enemy threat in Judges 6:1. The narrative in 7:16-22 quickly recounts the so-called “battle,” although no hand-to-hand combat ever takes place between the two armies. Instead, Gideon and his men win through a series of trickster tactics, combing night and sonic warfare to surprise the enemy forces in a midnight attack. The episode unfolds as follows: After the symbolic dream report outlined in 7:9-15, Gideon is finally convinced to action and returns to the Israelite camp, commanding his army to arise and attack the Midianites. He then divides his 300 men into three companies, arms them with only horns, empty jars, and torches, and commands them to do as he does as they surround the enemy camp, shouting, “For the Lord and for Gideon!” In 7:21, the Midianites are startled awake and flee without ever fighting the Israelites, while 7:22 introduces the deity (heretofore mentioned only in speech) directly into the battle, causing the Midianites to set their swords against one another and to flee a second time. The long-awaited battle is thus quickly over and the Israelites are the victors, despite their inferior numbers and technology. This paper will focus on the ways in which the Gideon narrative faithfully portrays some realities and practices of ancient Israelite warfare while also utilizing various literary symbols, symbolic combat actions, and outfitting elements in order to address the book of Judges’ larger concern with issues of power and the role of the deity on the battlefield. Through an examination of these symbols, this paper will argue that the passage in 7:16-22 functions to transform the anxious and hesitant Gideon of Judges 6:1-7:15 into a “mighty warrior” while also making it explicit that the deity—and not Gideon—is ultimately responsible for the victory against the Midianites.


Art and Religion at Dura: Exploring Religious Interaction among Minority Groups
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Michele Murray, Bishop's University

From Gibbon to Harnack to Stark, the Christianization of the Roman Empire and its aftereffects frequently are described in terms of conflict and rivalry among the various religious groups. Such language, however, needs to be used with care when one is dealing with the time period prior to the Constantinian era to examine the views and behaviors of religious groups in earlier centuries. Alternatively, archaeological evidence of minority groups such as Jews and Christians in the pre-Constantinian period is often interpreted as proof of these threatened minorities trying to “hide themselves” away among the residential backstreets of urban centers. This paper challenges both of these interpretations of religious interaction in the pre-Constantinian period and advocates a more nuanced perspective between these two extremes by exploring the relationships and rivalries manifest in the art and archeology associated with three minority groups in the city of Dura-Europos. At Dura we find a full complement of Greco-Roman cults, including a mithraeum, and growing Christian and Jewish minorities; a walk along Wall Street reveals just how close these three neighbors were. This paper will consider these groups not as isolated or self-contained entities, but as social, and especially, urban phenomena, giving due recognition to the unique features of Dura as a city located along one of the central trade routes of Northern Mesopotamia.


Preaching Beauty in the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Jacob D. Myers, Emory University

More than any other Biblical text, the Song of Songs engages us with sustained attempts to express the embodied Beauty of the Other. Herein the poet expresses Beauty, as one commentator has noted, as an "all-pervasive quality that one cannot separate from the love of the lovers, the world they inhabit or the language in which the poem is written." Despite its oral/aural fecundity, one finds few examples of homiletic attention to the Song. My paper, therefore, is a postmodern homiletical suggestion for preaching Beauty from the Song of Songs in an ethical manner. The aim of this short paper is two-fold. First, by employing the other-focused ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, this paper seeks to offer a more robust rendering of the aesthetical dimension of the Song of Songs. Second, following the homiletical proposals of John McClure, this paper hopes to offer the reader a proposal for preaching Beauty from the Song of Songs in a postmodern context. To these ends, this paper amalgamates the writings of theologians and philosophers of aesthetics (Hart, Viladesau, Scarry and von Balthasar), other-centered ethical philosophers (Habermas, Levinas, Marion and Derrida) and postmodern homileticians (McClure, Carter Florence and Smith) to posit an argument for an ethical preaching of Beauty in the Song of Songs in a postmodern world.


Paul and Jeremiah: In Concert or Cacophany? Paul’s Use of Jer 31 in Rom 2:14–15
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Jason A. Myers, Asbury Theological Seminary

Any attempt to understand Paul and his narrative world has to be attuned to the variety of ways Paul used Scripture. The extent to which the Hebrew Scriptures shape Paul’s narrative thought and interaction with his communities, as represented through his letters, is of continued debate. Early studies of Paul’s use of Scripture focused, almost exclusively, on explicit quotations. Recent developments in intertextuality theory have given a renewed interest into the ways in which the authors of the New Testament interacted with the Scriptures of Israel. Explicit quotations, while easy to identify, sometimes result in little exegetical insight. It is the more recent found areas of allusion, echoes, scriptural language and ideas, and underlying Biblical narratives that are resulting in fruitful exegesis. Richard Hays suggests seven criteria for determining OT echoes or allusions in Pauline literature. Hays’ seven criteria will form the analytical lens to suggest Jer 31:31-34 as a purposeful allusion in Rom 2:14-15. Jeremiah has continued to echo in the writings of subsequent groups and to contribute to their theological development. Key to the interpretation of Rom 2:14-15 is the affect on the creation of the community identity. The central role of community identity formation is no surprise to any reader of Paul. Romans, like Galatians, has a keen interest in the identity of this new community of God, specifically in the role of Gentiles within this new eschatological people. Paul in attempting to redraw the lines of community identity, draws us to a familiar text, one that is eschatological in nature, and one that has been used for community formation before. It is no surprise that Paul draws upon the language of ‘new covenant’ as the means by which he incorporates the Gentiles into the new people of God.


Addressees of Prayer in the Acts of Thomas
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Susan Myers, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)

The earliest literature from early Syriac-speaking Christianity contains descriptions of rituals and prayers that are characterized by colorful language and intriguing claims. A key area of debate among liturgical scholars today revolves around the nature of early Christian prayer and whether (and when) Jesus is addressed as God. This essay looks at prayer language, often in ritual contexts, from early Syriac-speaking Christianity that addresses Jesus (or other elements or figures) in intriguing ways. These prayers and rituals are described in a third-century novel from northern Mesopotamia, the Acts of Thomas. In prayers in the Acts of Thomas, Jesus is described in ways familiar from the canonical gospels and earlier Christian literature. He is called, for example, the “Good Shepherd,” and addressed with the similarly familiar “my Lord and my God.” In other places, though, he is also spoken of in striking ways, including “Son of Depth” and “Jesus of many forms.” Jesus, however, is not the only one addressed. There are prayers to the “water of the living waters,” as well as to the “Mother.” In addition, the apostle Thomas, the hero of the novel, is presented as the twin of Jesus, and the two are often mistaken for one another. This essay argues that the religious experience of the community that produced and read this early novel had a variety of ways to encounter heavenly realities. The text suggests that, at different times and in different contexts, the author(s) creatively expressed the community’s collective experience through the appellations used in prayer. The community also encountered spiritual realities in very concrete physical objects and persons. The essay examines and categorizes those encounters, made evident through the prayers and rituals that are described.


By the Hand of an Anointed Woman: Judith as a Messianic Figure
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Dustin Naegle, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

Femme fatale, warrior, feminist heroine, virtue personified, lying murderer, saintly beauty; these are just a few of the diverse ways in which scholars, poets, playwrights, and interpreters have described Judith. However, of all the titles that have been bestowed upon Judith, one that has failed to find its way into the vast and growing list is that of messiah or savior. This paper will argue that Judith should be more readily included in discussions about messianic figures during the second temple period. Sirach and 1 Maccabees, composed during approximately the same time period as Judith, both speak of messiah-like figures and possible messianic expectation. These Jewish texts are responses to the imperial occupation in the post-exilic era, which seek to comfort the Jewish people by extolling heroic delivers and setting forth a vision of a more liberated future. The book of Judith shares and expands these themes by attributing the survival of Bethulia to a most unexpected source, an anointed woman. Several key similarities between Judas Maccabeus and Judith further solidify this comparison. Most pointedly, the Greek verb employed to describe Judith, chrio, is in fact the same word utilized to describe other messianic figures in biblical texts as the anointed. She not only has the mark of someone called to deliver her people, she enacts this ritual herself by "anointing herself" before setting out to meet Holofernes. Many have viewed Judith as an expert in deception who overcomes Holofernes by means of her beauty; I further this interpretation by asserting that the deliverance of Judith's city and her people comes about not only by means of her own wit, but also by reason of her being anointed to do so.


Three Different Shekels: The Sitz im Leben of Biblical Metrologies
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Roger Nam, George Fox University

In the HB, the term “shekel” typically stands alone, without any attributive element. But in three instances, the shekel heads a longer descriptive chain, distinguishing itself from the so-called ordinary shekel. Each of these cases appear in specific social settings that necessitate the additional modifiers. In Gen 23:16, Abraham participates in a socially-disembedded transaction as a foreigner; thus he negotiates by the corresponding metrological system of “trading shekel.” Exod 30:13 et al. refer to temple redistribution, separated from mundane transactions by the use of a distinctive “holy shekel.” 2 Sam 14:26 is not an economic transaction, but uses a metrological standard of “royal shekels,” possibly referring to palatial trade. Collectively, these three types of shekels suggest that ancient Israel used multiple metrological systems to accommodate its dynamic and complex economic systems.


Hearing Christ Proclaimed: Mapping the Aural Features of John 1:19–51
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Dan Nasselqvist, Lund University

In the ancient world, writings were routinely delivered orally by trained lectors. An important task for the lector was to give voice to the silent, close-knit lines of scriptio continua manuscripts. This was made possible by the fact that the oral structure and aural character were encoded into the text. This paper analyzes the sound structure of John 1:19–51 and identifies what aural features would have been prominent when it was read aloud. By applying the emerging methodology of sound mapping (introduced by Margaret Ellen Lee and Bernard Brandon Scott) to the first chapter of the Gospel of John, it intends to demonstrate how the sounded text varies and makes some passages stand out aurally at the expense of others. Analyzing the aural features encoded in the text, e.g. variations in tempo, smoothness, and rhythm, it will also point out that some of the Christological phrases are highlighted in a very conspicuous way and consider what this entails for the whole pericope.


Reflections on the Impact of The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Harry Nasuti, Fordham University

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The Role of Metatexts as Mediating Tool of Conflicting Theological Views in the Translation of the KJV
Program Unit:
Jacobus Naude, University of the Free State - Universiteit van die Vrystaat

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Seeing and Saying the Past: Sight and Speech as Rabbinic Pilgrimage
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Rachel Neis, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

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“Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Green Curtain”: Is DH Absent from Samuel?
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Richard Nelson, Southern Methodist University

Samuel presents a serious challenge to the hypothesis of a unified history tracing Israel’s life in the land and stretching from Deuteronomy 1-3 to the end of 2 Kings. Deuteronomistic language and ideology are rare in Samuel. Questions about the existence and dating of presumed sources abound. In contrast to Joshua, Judges, and Kings, the book lacks a distinctive editorial structure. The present form of the book has its own integrity. However, Noth’s arguments about DH redaction in Samuel were largely thematic in nature. Three observations suggest that he was right. First, the sections generally attributed to DH on the basis of language (1 Sam. 2:27-36; 12:6-15; 2 Samuel 7) are required to fill out the structure and themes of DH. Second, in texts without distinctive language, thematic bridges stretch backward and forward showing that Samuel represent an element in a larger editorial concept. Finally, without Samuel, important elements of DH in Judges and Kings remain unanchored or incomplete.


Pharyngeal Sound Distribution in Neo-Aramaic and Its Implications for Ancient Hebrew, for Medieval Hebrew Orthoepy, and for Israeli Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Yishai Neuman, University of Massachusetts Amherst

It is widely believed that pharyngeal sounds /h/ and /‘/ in Oriental Modern Hebrew are inherited form ancient Hebrew. According to this view, Oriental Jews have preserved this Semitic feature and are thus pronouncing Hebrew in an authentic manner, unlike Ashkenazi Israelis, whose Hebrew accent results from past extensive influence exerted by European languages. Pharyngeal consonants are found in Arabic as well. Blanc distinguishes between the unmarked General Israeli Hebrew, also called Ashkenazoid Hebrew, and the marked Arabicized Hebrew, used by Jewish speakers of Modern Hebrew with linguistic background in Arabic. The similarity between Semitic features common to Oriental Hebrew and Arabic may raise the question whether they are preserved from ancient Hebrew or were transferred through contact with Arabic. Sabar has studied the linguistic aspects of Modern Aramaic dialects spoken by Jews and Christians. He shows that while ancient /h/ and /‘/ are absent from autochthonous Aramaic words, they may exist in loanwords of Hebrew or Arabic origin. Their manifestation in Hebrew originated words may suggest the continuity of pharyngeal articulation throughout the centuries, going back to ancient Hebrew. This is in effect Kapeliuk’s opinion. Based on rich data from Sabar’s and others’ studies on the distribution of pharyngeals in Modern Aramaic dialects, in Kurdish and in the Aramaic idiom contained in the Babylonian Talmud, as well as on Bar-Asher’s study of a sound change (/s/ ? /ts/) in 19th century southern French Hebrew orthoepy, it is suggested that Modern Hebrew /h/ and /‘/ be considered as transfer from Arabic to medieval Hebrew orthoepy rather than as ancient Hebrew phonological heritage.


Ekklesia as Utopia: How Paul Connects Inclusion of Gentiles to the Ideal Community
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Karin Neutel, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Recent research on Paul understands his claim that there is ‘neither Jew nor Greek’ to be part of the concept of gentile end-time inclusion, attested in various forms in other Jewish writings. Yet when doing so, the unusual quality of Paul’s ideas on Jew and gentile is generally overlooked. Not only does Paul, in contrast to other sources, formulate inclusion in terms of a negation of difference, he also ties this negation to other negations of social difference: in the baptismal formula, ‘neither Jew nor Greek’ is connected to ‘neither slave nor free, nor male and female’ (Gal 3:28). These latter two elements are also present in depictions of utopian societies or ideal philosophical communities found in Platonic and Stoic thought, as well as in Philo and Josephus. The notion that an ideal community would challenge the dominance of free over slave and upset the household structure is widely attested. This paper will argue that Paul, in constructing the first Christian communities, made the creative move of connecting the inclusion of gentiles to such conceptions of utopia and the ideal community. Since for Paul the end time was happening in the present, he was compelled to give concrete shape to gentile inclusion, a shape that he modelled on existing concepts of an ideal society.


"When God Says It, That Means That It Is Law": The Place of Translation in Creating Israel’s Legal Deity
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Madhavi Nevader, University of Glasgow

A distinction long made in many areas of biblical scholarship between ‘Israel’ and its ‘neighbours’ has been regarding the issue of the promulgation and authorship of Law. Whereas Hammurapi is held up as the typical Near Eastern king who enacts law for his patron deity Marduk, Josiah, as Israel’s good king, is understood in contrast as a king who upholds the laws of his patron deity Yhwh. Israel, so the argument goes, proves itself unique, supplanting king with deity as the source of legal authority and as sole lawgiver. To this constructed distinction, the Hebrew Bible has contributed greatly. But so too, the paper argues, has the translator. By examining the translation of certain legal terms in the Hebrew Bible (most particularly those deriving from hqq, but even appearances of tôrah), it becomes clear that the nature of our debate regarding legal authorship has been considerably biased, insofar as these terms when associated with a divine subject are translated legally (‘statute’, ‘law’ or ‘ordinance’) but when associated with a human subject are translated behaviourally (‘custom’ or ‘way’) and consequently removed from a legal sphere (compare 2 Kgs 17.8 and 2 Kgs 17.13b). I suggest that the distinction between the legal and the behavioural as created through translation has served to maintain a false dichotomy between divine and human legal authority and to support the biblical picture of Yhwh has sole lawgiver. As a consequence, lost in translation is a vital element of Israelite/Judahite political and religious thinking, while hidden in translation is the still prevalent search for the uniqueness of Israel.


Creating a Deus Non Creator: Divine Sovereignty and Creation in Ezekiel
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Madhavi Nevader, University of Glasgow

Does being 'Sovereign lord of History' make Yhwh the Sovereign lord of Creation? The conclusions of the paper offer that for Ezekiel at least the answer is a purposeful 'no'. The paper begins by examining what consensus appears to identify as 'creation traditions' in Ezekiel, engaging with three scholars who have addressed the issue directly - Peterson (1999), Callender (2000) and Kutsko (2000). Here I demonstrate that what have broadly been understood as 'creation traditions' (or allusion thereto), in fact have root elsewhere: Ez 28 (Temple-Garden tradition); Ez 36-37 (parody of the Divine Image); mention of primordial monsters (Chaoskampf); use of Priestly creation language (subversion of Babylonian kingship rhetoric). As such, we are able to be more forthcoming in our conclusions than Peterson initially was. Beyond the suggestion that for Ezekiel creation traditions are unimportant, it appears that creation traditions are entirely absent in the book. But why? Why in the creation of the omnipotent God of Israel does the prophet choose not to base this sovereignty in creation? In answer to this, I suggest that the prophet is wary of making such a theological move because of Marduk, who above all was directly associated with creation. Able to claim that Babylon moved as pawn in Yhwh's own chess game (cf. Ez 21.9; 26.7; 29.19), the prophet nonetheless remains cautious about evoking language that is directly associated with Yhwh's greatest divine rival. In this capacity, creation defines both sides of the same theocentric coin. On one side, creation and claims to sovereignty over it pose a threat to the prophet's argument for a sovereign God against a Babylonian backdrop. On the other side, the prophet's silencing of creation becomes an integral part of the theological process undertaken in order to create Yhwh as sovereign God. Thus I argue that the crowning achievement of Ezekiel's radical theocentricity is the creation of a Deus Non Creator.


A Hermeneutic of Human (and Non-Human) Dignity: The Future of Psychological Biblical Interpretation?
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Michael Willett Newheart, Howard University School of Divinity

In the forthcoming Festschrift for Wayne Rollins, the father of us all in PsyBibs, I contribute an essay on the future of psychological biblical interpretation. That essay is due September 1, 2011, several weeks before the annual meeting, so I will not have the opportunity to get feedback from the PsyBibs group before it is submitted. I would, however, like to present some of the themes of that essay for our discussion. Where do we see the future of our sub-specialty going? I have been taken with news about the "Dignity Revolutions" in northern Africa, so I have attempted to fashion a hermeneutic of human and non-human dignity, which has as its aim to affirm the worth of all persons, indeed, of all things. This involves a recasting of my "soul hermeneutic" which I have pursued in my previous work. In the beginning it brought together analytical and archetypal psychology, reader-response criticism, and African American cultural experience. Along the way, various other thinkers have been brought on board: Franz Fanon, Rene Girard, and Melanie Klein, but it’s time now to widen the tent even further and bring in thinkers from the civil rights movement such as Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr., and contemporary work being done in South Africa on the Bible and Human Dignity as well as in the burgeoning new field called “Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies.” And don’t forget liberation psychology and ecological psychology. Come one, come all! A biblical hermeneutic of dignity has as its goal the granting of dignity to the elements of the biblical passage but also to those who read and hear the passage. Such a hermeneutic dignifies the person and allows him or her to dignify others, as well as the earth. The exegete, then, points out ways in which persons, places and things are dignified in a passage, and ways in which they are not. Also, he or she identifies ways in with the passage is used, has been used, or can be used to dignify (or denigrate) persons, places or things. Is the biblical passage a middle passage to slavery, or a passage to freedom? In what ways, is it both? In what ways, can its dignifying be set free? Finally, an important way for me to dignify is to signify, that is, to play with the words, so this is both a signifying and dignifying hermeneutic. In this paper, then, I will first describe this hermeneutic of dignity, and then I will apply it to Mark's story of the feeding of the 5000 in 6:30-42. Food dignifies. Let's eat!


The Liturgical Body Shaped by and Shaping the Hodayot
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Judith H. Newman, University of Toronto

The “religious experience” I will consider is not a narrative account of a discrete episode, but the way in which orally performed “text” might serve as formative experience that shapes a teleological understanding of the “self” in relation to the community. The presentation will be informed by conceptual metaphor theory and the epistemological trend in scholarship termed embodied cognition (Csordas, Johnson, Slingerland) which challenges discursive post-modern theories of “self.” The socio-cultural significance of the practices of composing and reciting texts in antiquity cannot be separated from the consideration of bodily perception and formation. This will be tested and illustrated by an examination of selections from the Qumran Hodayot.


Excavating the Significance of Nazareth via the Church of the Nazarene
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Richard Newton, Claremont Graduate University

When contemporary members of the Church of the Nazarene call themselves “Nazarenes,” they rarely pay heed to the subtle causes and effects of this act. In addition to the obvious hearkening to Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, the name functions as one of the denomination’s primary semantic vehicles for mobilizing a Holiness agenda. As one of Bresee’s pastors noted, the Church of the Nazarene aims to forge an “iron-clad government” of holiness in America. This was certainly the logic behind Phineas Bresee and Joseph Pomeroy Widney’s naming of the Methodist offshoot in the late 19th century, and it continues this work for their legatees into the present day. Now with 2,000,000 members worldwide, Nazarenes brandish their brand-name in order to call themselves and those they encounter to a specific orientation of Christianity. This multimedia presentation excavates the significance of Jesus’ hometown to the denomination’s revolutionary identity. Research involved ethnographic study of a historic Nazarene congregation. Additionally, I consulted denominational archives and statistics, as well as portrayals of Nazarenes in the news and entertainment media, to contextualize my fieldwork gleanings. This affords the opportunity to not only dig into the Bible, but also pamphlets, billboards, television shows, DVD Bible studies, and the spoken word in order to expose the ancient city’s imagined significance and its value for advocating religio-cultural change. This project surfaces the implications name’s usage in hopes of understanding the claims it makes about the denomination’s privileged reckoning of Jesus. My research question assumes Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s dialectical definition of scripture, but also appeals to the works of Jonathan Z. Smith and Stephen Sharot for analytical precision, and concludes with that of Vincent Wimbush for a synthetic reflection on the matter investigated. From these findings emerge a mosaic of biblical employments that construct an identity typified by revolution.


When Texts Sell: The Scriptural Economies of "Macabre" Religions and "Born-Again" Relationships
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Richard Newton, Claremont Graduate University

Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s What is Scripture: A Comparative Approach (1993) sounded a clarion call to reconsider the category of scripture. His study suggested that the true subject of biblical scholarship relates to the relationship between texts and people. Anticipating the unmeasured application of “scripturalizing” to all matters of interpretation, he suggests that the activity bears the mark of a transcendent symbology. But this often obscures students’ critical appraisal of the mortals, motivations, and machinations involved in scripturalizing. As Cantwell Smith concludes, “left unanswered is the teasing question, symbol of what? And unelucidated is the power.” And for students with confessional sensibilities, this can lead to a taking for granted of the social, political, and ethical considerations that made the texts appealing to their readers. In fact, such appeal is what makes such texts scripture. To help seminary students examine this power, I employ students to chart scriptural economies or the relationship between texts, readers, and conditions that prompt their scripturalizing. In the following interactive presentation, I set up a comparison between Biblezines, about which seminarians often have a strong opinion, and 4 Maccabees, an ancient text which seminarians are usually unfamiliar. Participants will join me in glimpsing the modern text’s passages in order to uncover the socio-historical scenarios that make Born-Again Christians find a glossy-paged gospel appealing. And then we will employ those same critical skills in placing 4 Maccabees and its provenance. The content of this pedagogy is informed by Vincent Wimbush, Charles H. Long, Michel De Certeau, and Pierre Bordieu and employs digital technology to help students organize the texts, readers, and conditions involved in the reconstructed scriptural economies. From this exercise, we students will come to recognize that the symbols of scripture instruct people how to transcend negative situations and the persons that cause them.


The Value of Profile Methods for the History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Curt Niccum, Abilene Christian University

Efforts at classifying the large number of late Greek New Testament manuscripts and measuring their consanguinity with established trajectories in the history of transmission has resulted in the development and refinement of tools applicable to similar research in the Early Versions. Assessments modeled after the Teststellen of the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung and the Profile Method created by Wisse and Reynolds facilitated categorizing the textual alignment of manuscripts of Acts in Ge?ez. Similarly, with important modifications for versional evidence, use of other profiling methods associated with Colwell and Ehrman aided in identifying the textual nature of its Greek Vorlage. These measuring implements will be applied to the Book of Daniel as a test of their suitability for the THEOT Project, and consequent issues concerning method and implementation will be evaluated.


De Indolentia, Books, and Libraries in Imperial Rome
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Matthew Nicholls, University of Reading

Panelist


Slave of Christ and Son of God: The Concept of Pauline Freedom
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Valerie Nicolet Anderson, Fuller Theological Seminary

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul exhorts his addressees to no longer think of themselves as slaves (douloi) but to consider themselves as sons (huioi) of God, thus challenging their own self-understanding and inviting them to construct a new identity for themselves, founded on freedom (Gal 4:7). Yet, in other letters (Romans in particular), Paul is comfortable with calling himself as slave of Christ (Rom 1:1) and with defining the self-identity of his addressees almost completely through the metaphor of slavery (see in particular chapters 6 and 7 of Romans. Only Romans 8 introduces the language of sonship). In this paper, I would like to explore the intersections between slavery and sonship language in Paul, in particular how they function to construct the personhood and self-understanding of the members of the early house churches both in Rome and in the Galatian province. Given the role of slavery in the story of Israel and in the workings of the Roman Empire at the time of Paul, it is important to unpack the nuances and rhetorical effects of Paul’s use of slavery language to construct the self of his addressees. Can this be reconciled with a liberating reading of Paul (readings which are becoming more and more present in recent Pauline scholarship and in the work of some contemporary continental philosophers)? In particular, I would like to use the works of some of the continental philosophers, who are sometimes heavily influenced by Foucault’s analyses of power, to delineate how the notion of freedom is defined through this use of slavery and sonship language in Paul.


Alternative Communities in Paul: Alternative to Roman Hierarchies or Jewish Exclusivism?
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Valérie Nicolet-Anderson, Fuller Theological Seminary

In recent approaches to Paul, scholars have been emphasizing the “resistance” aspect of Paul’s thought. In her book, Galatians Re-imagined (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), Brigitte Kahl depicts Paul as developing a koinonia which represents an alternative to the Roman imperial koinon, a community centered on otherness, and love for one another, in contrast to the dominant imperial ideology of patron-client relationships. She insists that the contrast for Paul is not so much between Jews and Gentiles, but between Christ and Caesar, between Empire and Barbarians, and encourages reading Paul in ways that see the Roman Empire as the central “enemy” of the gospel, emphasizing the imperial works of the law. At the same time, new perspective interpretations of Paul have insisted on the fact that Paul’s main purpose in his letters is to develop ways in which Gentiles can be included in the people of God, and building a community in which Jews and Gentiles not only cohabit but truly come together in order to form the new people of God. In these approaches, the problem with Judaism, for Paul, is its particularism and its exclusivism. In this paper, I would like to explore ways in which readings such as Kahl, which focus on Paul’s resistance to empire, can be connected with interpretations of Paul that are more interested in seeing Paul’s relationship to Judaism. Central to the discussion in Galatians is the concept of works of the law and circumcision. If one sees Paul as opposing Empire, what is his relationship to Judaism? Is there still a need to criticize some elements of Jewish law, and if there is, could it be the aspects of Jewish Law that can be used as tools to implement the hierarchies represented in Roman imperial ideology? The paper will explore Roman imperial ideology and its works of law, as well as the way Paul integrates the Jewish law in his presentation of his ethics. It will explore possibilities for using Jewish law as a guide for establishing the alternative communities of love Paul is constructing through his letters.


The Bible and the Biggest Island in the World
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Flemming A.J. Nielsen, Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland)

The Bible came to Greenland in 1721 with the arrival of a Norwegian missionary, Hans Egede and his family and crew. Immediate failures and setbacks of the early missionary work in Greenland are often emphasized, and the Europeans’ conduct and peculiar way of dealing with the local population and coping with the exotic Greenlandic language are ridiculed. However, after only a few generations, at the end of the eighteenth century, the entire part of Greenland within the reach of Danish and Norwegian vessels – which was most of the west coast, the east coast and the far North being inaccessible at the time – was Christianized, a written Greenlandic language had been developed, almost everybody could read and write, and during the first decades of the twentieth century, Greenlandic missionaries from the west coast baptized the remaining non-believers at the east coast and in the Thule district in the far North. Among the earliest texts translated into Greenlandic and, hence, any Eskaleut language, were the Primeval History and the Decalogue, the latter as part of a catechism. They proved immediate successes, and I would like to explore some of the reasons why the Biblical literature was attractive to the Greenlanders and offer a few samples of the discussions between Inuit and Christian world views that the Europeans forced themselves to carry on when they brought the Bible to this northern edge of the earth.


The Interpretation of the Death of Jesus in the Gospel of the Savior as Rewritten Bible
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Jesper Tang Nielsen, Københavns Universitet

The Gospel of the Savior takes old material to produce new ideas. It reveals acquintance with the four authoritative gospels but it uses the gospel traditions in an innovative way creating quite new conceptions. First and foremost this goes for the interpretation of the death of Jesus. It is certainly related to other scriptures, but it does not just repeat or paraphrase the established tradition about Jesus' death. Rather, it reinterprets the well-known story in a way that may even be in opposition to the common understanding. In the case of the Gospel of the Savior it should be possible to recover some of the narrative strategies that have led to this new and creative understanding of Jesus' death. By comparing its portrayal of Jesus with the gospel tradition in general and the different interpretations of the crucifixion in particular, it will be possible to define its place within Early Christianity. It will also be possible to define the narrative technique that has produced the creative interpretation. Probably it can be define as a kind of Rewritten Bible. These are the two objectives of the presentation, first of all to define the narrative technique as Rewritten Bible, second, to place the Gospel of the Savior in the Early Christian tradition, and finally to observe the way a gospel uses other gospels for its own purpose. The last part will produce insights for the exploration of the entire gospel tradition. It will show how ancient authors rewrote older material for a new purpose, and hence what narrative strategies gospel writers used to produce new and innovative interpretations. This approach will shed new light on the Gospel of the Savior but also contribute to the studies in Early Chriatianity. In the end, the gospel will be able to show how a reworking of older gospel traditions result in new concepts. In this way the analysis will also contribute to the understanding of the gospel tradition.


The Recitation of Sacred Texts in the Syriac, Hebrew, and Samaritan Tradition
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Ulrike-Rebekka Nieten, Freie Universität Berlin

The tradition of reciting the Bible with a tune is very ancient. It is likely that this kind of performance was regarded to convey the text in its best understandable manner. In the 5th century, the Syrian grammarians had already developed an accent system from which P. Kahle (1927) assumed that it has influenced the Hebrew one, pointing out that the similarity concerning appearances and functions is evident. The accents formed the basis for the melodic contours, which are corresponding to their semantical, syntactical, and prosodical functions. As the Syriac accent system had so much increased in complexity, it became badly arranged, and perhaps therefore the notation stopped. It is, however, part of the oral tradition until today like in the Samaritan rite. The research of the Syriac and Samaritan recitation is still now for the sciences a desideratum. Therefore a musical comparison with similar phenomena, like the Hebrew one, is necessary in the process of solving the open questions.


How Samuel Became a “Deuteronomistic” Book: 1 Sam 8–12 and the Alignment of 1–2 Samuel with Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Christophe Nihan, Université de Lausanne

It has long been observed that Deuteronomistic language is not prominent in the books of Samuel. The most noticeable exception concerns 1 Sam 8 and 12, which frame the story of Saul's rise to kingship (1 Sam 9-11) by recounting the people’s demand for a king and its consequences. 1 Sam 8 and 12 are both heavily informed by Dtr language, and take up some key passages in Deuteronomy, such as especially (though not exclusively) the so-called “law of the king” in Deut 17:14-20. Moreover, the contribution of these two chapters to the Dtr edition of 1-2 Samuel is all the more important because they explicitly identify the people’s demand (and Yahweh’s eventual consent) with the transition from the period of judges to that of kings. Whereas M. Noth was relatively confident in the possibility of assigning 1 Sam 8 and 12 to his exilic “Deuteronomist”, today, however, the composition of these texts and their place in the forming of Dtr literature are considerably disputed. In discussion with recent studies, this paper will offer a detailed reexamination of this issue. It will argue, in particular, that 1 Sam 8 and 12 were not part of the first Dtr edition of Samuel, but belong to a late revisional layer that seeks to align Samuel-Kings with Deuteronomy by transferring the responsibility for the exile from the king to the people as a whole. Furthermore, there are indications in 1 Sam 8 and 12 (as well as in related texts) that this revision took place at a stage when the books of Samuel-Kings were part of a narrative that began not in Deuteronomy, but rather in Exodus. This analysis has some important implications for conceptualizing the “Dtr” editing of 1-2 Samuel as a literary and historical process, which will be briefly addressed at the close of this paper.


The Covenant with Levi in Malachi and in the Pentateuch
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Christophe Nihan, Université de Lausanne

Within the Twelve, influence of the pentateuchal traditions is particularly manifest in the book of Malachi, to the point that it has been proposed that entire sections of this book could be read as a case of “inner-biblical” rewriting of pentateuchal texts, especially in Numbers and Deuteronomy (M. Fishbane, H. Utzschneider). Few studies, however, have attempted to correlate the composition of Malachi with the redactional history of the Pentateuch. In addition, the place of Malachi in the compositional history of the XII remains a debated issue. Focusing on the related topics of the priestly covenant with Levi, the priest as “heavenly messenger” and the critique of intermarriage, this paper will address these two issues. In particular, it will ask (1) whether it is possible to correlate the parallel material in the Pentateuch and in Malachi with a specific stage in the formation of the pentateuchal traditions, and (2) whether the intensive reception and reworking of pentateuchal material in Malachi can be correlated with a specific stage in the composition of the Twelve


Sectio Evangelica (Did 1.3–2.1) and Performance
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Perttu Nikander, University of Helsinki

My paper deals with the Didache 1.3b–2.1, sometimes termed as the sectio evangelica because it contains parallels to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The sectio evangelica is widely regarded as an interpolation in the Two Ways Teaching of the Didache because it is lacking in the most important parallel texts, the Epistle of Barnabas and the Latin Doctrina Apostolorum. The discussion on the sectio evangelica has been dominated by questions regarding the sources and the history of this section. However, these are highly debated questions. In my paper, I will set these questions aside and approach the sectio evangelica from a new angle: the framework of performance. My task is to discuss the sectio evangelica as we have it in its final form in the Didache and ask how the sectio evangelica worked in a performance. My methodological presupposition is that the ancient communication relied heavily on orality and memory. Most ancient texts were meant to be heard through oral performing, not to be read silently. Also, the composition of texts involved an oral/aural dimension because the texts were usually composed with diction and in performance. The analysis of the structure of the sectio evangelica is an important starting point for discussing the performance of the tradition. I will develop the previous studies further by applying insights from the classical rhetorical and literary-critical treatises that deal with oratory and prose composition. In the light of this data, it will be argued that the sectio evangelica betrays traces of periodicity and the arrangement of the tradition into cola. With regard to the performance, periodicity serves the performer and the audience because each period conveys a complete thought. The final colon of the period ties together the ideas presented in the preceding cola. The division of the tradition into cola, again, is significant for the performance because it links up the tradition with the concrete act of performing. Besides the periodicity, my paper will deal with the aural reception of the sectio evangelica. I will present a “sound map” of the sectio evangelica which is based on the aural features of the text. This methodology has been introduced by Bernard Brandon Scott and Margaret Ellen Lee. On the basis of the sound map, it will be argued that the sound was an important factor in the strategy how the material in the sectio evangelica was organized. This organization serves the memory of the performer and also makes the reception of the tradition easier for the audience.


The Prophet and the Augur at Tušhan, 611 BCE
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki

A recently discovered cuneiform tablet from Ziyaret Tepe, ancient Tušhan (ZTT 25), mentions a prophet and an augur as recipients of copper, presumably in the year 611 BCE when Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, was destroyed and the Assyrian empire was about to collapse. The tablet introduces the most recent addition to the evidence of ancient Near Eastern prophecy. Despite its brevity and the poor state of preservation, it turns out to be a surprisingly informative. It provides evidence for technical and intuitive divination being consulted side by side by the same people and functioning for the same purpose; it indicates that diviners were rewarded for their services (the prophet receiving more than the augur); and it connects the diviners with a possible ritual context in the temple of Ištar.


Prophets and Kings: Greece and Mesopotamia
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki

It is not exceptional to find kings as addressees of prophetic oracles in Greek sources. Typically, however, the enquirers of a Greek oracle were not kings but citizens of a city state. In Mesopotamian texts, again, prophecies are regularly transmitted to kings, while private consultations are virtually non-existent. I argue that this difference is due to (1) differences in the historical development and functioning of the oracle sites; (2) different political structures; (3) the way the sources present the process of obtaining oracles; and (4) the different origin and genre of the written sources.


Biblical Foundation for the Recognition of African Traditional Religions: Prolegomenon for an Interreligious Dialogue
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Mutombo Nkulu-N’Sengha, California State University Northridge

This paper intends to examine Biblical texts alternative to the “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” theology and the Christian tradition of interreligious dialogue that introduced a Copernican revolution in the Christian attitude toward indigenous religions. In so doing I shall explore the foundation for a genuine dialogue between Christianity and African traditional religions in this global world where “African Christianity” is rapidly emerging as a category sui generis.


Double-Healing and Experiential Blindness on the Way to Jerusalem
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
John T. Noble, Harvard University

Our paper uses philosophical psychology and phenomenology to explore the familiar motif of ?“seeing and understanding” as expressed in the remarkable account of? the double-healing of the blind man of Bethsaida (Mk 8:22–26). This passage is often understood to symbolize the disciples’ confusion regarding the nature and import of Jesus’ mission as they move toward Jerusalem in the literary unit of 8:22–10:52. Taking for granted the common connection between physical vision and spiritual perception in the ancient world (and even the precedent of the middle-state--e.g., Plato’s cave allegory [Marcus 2009]), we offer a? contemporary reading of this middle-state of vision that characterizes the understanding of the disciples on the way to? Jerusalem. A middle-state of vision between blindness and sight is a topic of significant interest in philosophical psychology and phenomenology. A common understanding of this phenomenon is summarized by the term “experiential blindness” (Noë 2004) and defined by cases where subjects have sensory experiences without understanding what they represent. Practitioners of these disciplines distinguish between several kinds of? experiential blindness: some sighted subjects lack a "know that", an understanding of the propositional content of an experience; others a "know how", an understanding of how to enact the experience into their bodily movement (Ryle 1949); still others a "know why", a failure to grasp the reasons for a proposition invoked by an experience (Campbell 2002). Given these? distinctions, it is worth asking what kind of experiential blindness would be? closest in analogy to the confused state of the disciples in this unit. We ?suggest that all three of these elements are evident in 8:22–10:52, and are anticipated by the double-healing of the blind man of Bethsaida at the beginning of the unit, and resolved by the single-healing episode of blind Bartimaeus at the unit’s conclusion. ?


Patterns of Exodus: Hagar, Ishmael, and Patriarchal Promise
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
John T. Noble, Harvard University

This paper considers the ambiguous statuses of Hagar and Ishmael—-the first to be excluded from the Abrahamic covenant—-observing on the one hand that they are cast out from the household of Abraham, but on the other hand that they are not represented as having committed any immoral or foolish act that might justify their exclusion as in the cases of other non-chosen counterparts in Genesis. The main question posed is that of the literary and theological function of these secondary figures in the unfolding drama of Israel’s forebears. Our approach is comparative: we note, for example, that although Ishmael has in common with other non-chosen siblings (e.g., Cain, Lot, Esau) the marginalized context of wilderness, this is not a consequence of his own choice but rather of Sarai’s jealousy; and unlike Cain, Esau or even Sarai, Hagar does not respond to her unjust circumstances by seeking to equalize her status with that of her rival, but responds instead to God’s promise through her submission to Sarai (this is described in the paper as a “foundational act,” one that establishes Hagar as an example of the proper human response to God’s mysterious favor or disfavor). Our thesis is that the lives of Hagar and Ishmael provide adumbration for the features of God’s plan revealed to Abram—that the patriarch’s descendants would be an “alien” (ger) in a land that is not theirs, and that they would be oppressed as slaves until God brings relief (Gen 15:13–14). By identifying Hagar’s continuing oppression (wehit'anni) with YHWH’s announcement to Abram that his descendants would be oppressed (we'innu), and by emphasizing the deliverance of Hagar and Ishmael in the narrative denouement, our hypothesis calls for reconsideration of Phyllis Trible’s reading of this narrative as a “text of terror” that negatively inverts Israel’s emancipation; as well as that of Jon Levenson, who understands that the promise to Abram only applies to Hagar and Ishmael in a secondary way: though Ishmael thrives (albeit outside the promised land), Hagar faces enduring servitude.


Presumptions of “Covenant” in Joel
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
James Nogalski, Baylor University

The book of Joel offers a case study in how covenant concepts play out in prophetic literature of the Persian Period. The question of Joel and “covenant” must reconcile several four observations that point in different directions. First, Joel never refers specifically to covenant using the term berit, which could be taken as prima facie evidence that “covenant” as such was not a significant concept for the compilation of Joel. Second, the fact that Bergler, and others, have noted how the language of Joel (especially chapters 1–2) draws upon the Exodus narrative as a typology for setting the scene for the coming day of YHWH, even while adapting preexisting source material. This observation suggests an intricate awareness of the Exodus traditions that are hard to imagine without involving some understanding of covenant. Third, Joel’s pronouncements of doom and warnings of the coming day of YHWH nowhere offer any accusations against the book’s audience to indicate specific ways that Judah has broken faith with YHWH. Fourth, significant portions of Joel, also seem to play off the covenant blessings and curses rooted in Deuteronomy 28–30. Reconciling these observations requires that one speculate upon the relationship of Joel to the concept of covenant. This paper will explore the thesis that rather than lacking a concept of covenant, a sophisticated understanding of covenant permeates the structure and rhetoric of Joel.


Is the Scroll of Samuel Deuteronomistic?
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
K. L. Noll, Brandon University

By a generous count, fewer than 2% of the Masoretic verses in 1–2 Samuel contain words or phrases that can be viewed as dependent upon the ideology of Deuteronomy. In a few cases, textual variants suggest that these are late glosses. In most cases, these words or phrases appear on the lips of story-world characters whose pious platitudes are deconstructed by the narrative. Even the story of 1–2 Samuel is at odds with the message of Deuteronomy. And yet, the belief that Samuel constitutes an integral part of a hypothetical Deuteronomistic History remains strong. This is a puzzle. Using observations from textual criticism as a starting point, this paper presents an alternative suggestion for the composition of Samuel and for its presence in the sequence, Judges–Samuel–Kings.


"Late" Byzantine Readings in "Early" New Testament Papyri: Do They Make the Readings Early or the Papyri Late?
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Brent Nongbri, Macquarie University

When Westcott and Hort attempted to assign a date to the development of the Byzantine text form (their "Syrian text"), they did so by referring to the absence of Byzantine readings in Origen’s text and the overwhelming preponderance of Byzantine readings in the text of John Chrysostom and subsequent writers. Westcott and Hort thus concluded that all uniquely Byzantine readings post-date the middle of the third century. By the middle of the 20th century, however, this conclusion was called into question by the appearance of extensive papyri such as P45, P46, and P66, which were assigned by some to the very early third century and which contained numerous agreements with the Byzantine text. This presence of Byzantine readings in these early papyri provoked two responses from scholars. Advocates of the priority of the Majority Text argued that these readings confirmed the early date of the Majority Text, while more mainstream authorities simply argued that these readings undermined Westcott and Hort’s broad generalization that no uniquely Byzantine readings existed until the late third century. This paper makes a different sort of argument. It starts from two basic premises: 1) All competent papyrologists consent that palaeographic dating of literary papyri is an imprecise art, and 2) the range of plausible palaeographic dates for these extensive New Testament papyri extends into the late third and early fourth centuries (Guglielmo Cavallo assigned P45 "probably to the end of the third century"; Stuart Pickering has contextualized the hand of P46 as part of a group for which "the third and fourth centuries [serve] as a dating focus"; and Brent Nongbri has presented securely dated fourth century parallels for the hand of P66). Thus, the evidence of the Byzantine readings need not be in tension with the date of the papyri. In other words, the usual argument about Byzantine readings in the "early" papyri can be turned on its head, causing us to reconsider the dates of the papyri rather than the dates of the Byzantine readings: I will argue that presence of Byzantine readings in these papyri should encourage us to date the papyri at the later end of the spectrum of palaeographically possible dates, i.e., the late third to mid fourth century. Such an approach redeems Westcott and Hort’s opinions on the origin of their Syrian text but complicates the overall picture of the development of "text types" in the third and fourth centuries.


On the Identification of the Gemstones of the High Priest’s Breastplate
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Benjamin J. Noonan, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

One of the key features of the high priest’s breastplate is the set of precious stones that decorated it (Exod 28:17-21; 39:10-14). The breastplate played an important role in the Israelite cult, so it is not surprising that scholars have devoted a number of studies to identifying its different gemstones. However, despite the number of studies that have been devoted to this topic, there is no consensus on the identity of many of these gemstones. The same confusion is evident in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Peshitta, and Targums, which vary considerably in their translation of the Hebrew terms for these precious stones. There are two primary reasons for this uncertainty: first, these gemstone terms are relatively rare in biblical Hebrew, and second, they constitute technical rather than everyday vocabulary. One important factor has been largely overlooked in these gemstones’ identification: many of the terms for these precious stones are non-Semitic in origin and can be analyzed vis-à-vis simple principles of lexical borrowing. People commonly adopt non-native, technical terminology for realia because no word otherwise exists to denote the foreign object, and if the term’s meaning in the donor language is known with certainty, the referent of the word in the recipient language should be the same. One can therefore determine the meaning in the recipient language even when there is not enough evidence from the recipient language itself to determine its meaning. This study examines the lexical origin of the words for the breastplate’s precious stones, thereby clarifying the meanings of these terms in cases where the referent of the non-Semitic donor term is known.


Living Apart Together (Josh 9)
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Ed Noort, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

This paper will examine the narrative of the Gibeonites in Josh 9. The story of Gideon has been studied from many angles, incudling that of its literary history, the history behind the history, the archaeology of el-Jib, and others. The focus of this paper will be on the motifs and expressions of Josh 9 in relation to the newer debates on the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic History. The paper will explore new possibilities that may be presented through the study of Josh 9.


Introductory Address on Symposium Theme - The KJV at 400: Assessing its Genius as Bible Translation and its Literary Influence
Program Unit:
David Norton, Victoria University-Wellington

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Temptress or Scapegoat? The Legacy of Potiphar’s Wife
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Yolanda M. Norton, Vanderbilt University

Judeo-Christian interpretation has traditionally demonized Potiphar’s wife as the temptress who jeopardized the fulfillment of the dreams that God had sent to Joseph. Exegetes have viewed Potiphar’s wife as a moral stumbling block, who attempted to seduce Joseph, and nearly compromised the integrity of the patriarch. Discourse around the narrative in Genesis 39 characterizes Potiphar’s wife as a sexual miscreant and temptress whom Joseph had to overcome on his way to greatness. Cultural and social contexts frame the text in ways that bring into question what role this narrative would have played in the life of the people of ancient Israel. This paper approaches Genesis 39 with a hermeneutic of suspicion shaped by womanist theology, and uses textual and rhetorical criticism to reveal the writer’s attempt to use this text to confirm ancient Israelite claims to the moral superiority of the ancestors of the faith. The inclination to simplify and romanticize the Joseph narrative creates characters that are inherently good and evil and draws clear lines of morality and immorality that promote the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ ideology governing so much of our society. The problem with interpreting the text from this perspective is that it creates a paradigm that further amplifies racial and gender divides that are ingrained in our society. My alternative interpretation of the text is not intended to vilify Joseph. Instead it seeks to nuance the story in ways that allow us to understand the motive behind portrayals of Potiphar and his wife. The potential for compassion for these characters allows us to re-claim their humanity in ways that are life-giving for African Americans who might otherwise internalize negative stereotypes of themselves based on cultural affiliations with ancient Egypt.


Ethio-SPARE and the Digitization of Ethiopic Manuscripts in Ethiopia
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Denis Nosnitsin, University of Hamburg

Nosnitsin, project director for "Ethio-SPARE: Cultural Heritage of Christian Ethiopia. Salvation, Preservation, Research," will share on the work of the project in Ethiopia. With funding from the European Union, Nosnitsin has now digitized hundreds of manuscripts. He will contribute to a series of presentations on the digitization of Ethiopic manuscripts along with other directors of similar projects.


Ezra 10:3: Solemn Oath? Renewed Covenant? New Covenant?
Program Unit: Covenant in the Persian Period
Douglas Nykolaishen, Ouachita Baptist University

The use of the phrase nikrat berit in Ezra 10:3 raises questions about its possible interpretation. On one level it can be understood simply to denote the swearing of a solemn oath. Within the context of the events described in Ezra 9-10, Shecaniah may have intended such an oath to function as an indication of the community’s commitment to the Sinai covenant, much as the covenant of Jeremiah 34 was to function. On another level, however, the points of contact that have been observed between Ezra 9-10 and covenant renewal ceremonies elsewhere in the Deuteronomistic History and in Chronicles suggest that the editor of Ezra-Nehemiah may have wished to portray this event as belonging to the tradition of these renewals, albeit with modification necessitated by historical circumstances. Finally, there are a number of literary features in Ezra-Nehemiah that point to a connection in the editor’s mind between the events he is narrating and the expectations related to a new covenant raised by the prophetic writings that came to be included in the Hebrew canon. Among these are the extant narrative arrangement of the episode in Ezra 9-10, which is not preceded by any public reading or teaching of Torah, and the prominence of marriage terminology within it. Taken together, the evidence suggests that the editor was evaluating the status of the community of the exiles in terms of the expectations concerning covenant created by the prophets. The covenant of Ezra 10:3, then, provides a valuable entry into the theological perspective of the editor, which seems to see the events he describes as a somewhat successful, yet still somewhat unsuccessful, realization of the hopes engendered by the various traditions on which he has drawn. This theological perspective must be taken into account when attempting to assess sociological dynamics in the Persian period.


A Revolutionary Cow: The Reception History of the (Apocalyptic) Red Heifer
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Ryan O'Dowd, Cornell University

In Yalkut Shimoni we read: “Thus spoke Solomon: I succeeded in understanding the whole Torah, but, as soon as I reach this chapter about the Red Heifer, I searched, probed and questioned, I said I will get wisdom, but it was far from me.” The law of the red heifer in Numbers 19 is largely recognized to be the most perplexing law in the Torah. The sacrifice cleanses the polluted but pollutes the clean. It is the only sacrifice conducted outside the camp yet in the proximity of the sanctuary. It is the only sacrifice requiring the blood to be burned with the animal’s body. And it is the only law specifying a particular color of animal, in this case red. Not only is the purpose of the color not explained in the law but the statute imagines a rare if not genetically impossible creature. The enigmatic requirements of this sacrifice have led to a corresponding variety of theories about the purpose and origin of the law. These include a law of purification from contact with the dead, a warning against adopting the practices of ANE death cults, a sacrifice focused on a location outside the sanctuary, a law transitioning from priestly offerings in chapter 18 to lay involvement in chapter 19, a symbolic or thematic ritual that memorializes Israel’s patriarchal history, and a superstitious resignation to the inscrutability of the law. The primary focus of this paper is on two millennia of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic readings of Numbers 19. Many Christians have assumed that the heifer’s mysterious nature points to Jesus’ Second Coming, which corresponds with a Jewish tradition that ties the heifer to the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of Israel. A 1998 New Yorker article creatively captures the intersection of these two readings in the relationship between a fundamentalist Christian cattle breeder in Mississippi and an orthodox Rabbi at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem who share a similar desire to produce a perfect red heifer. Their partnership is a fitting representation of the unusual cultural and religious history of this text, which has continued today largely apart from academic readings. For these two communities, one perplexing red cow represents the revolution to end all revolutions – the end of known time and the permanent reign of God with his people.


Ezekiel's Song of the Sword and the Poem of Erra: The Causes and Nature of Divine Evil
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Daniel O'Hare, Wheeling Jesuit University

Moshe Greenberg and Rimon Kasher have theorized that the use of continued repetition in the “Song of the Sword” (MT Ezek 21:13-22// LXX Ezek 21:8-17) reflects the prophet’s excitement at the prospect of divine punishment. Application of the poetic theory of Soviet structuralist scholar Jüri Lotman shows that the superfluity of this oracle extends beyond the lexical level to include the morphological, phonological, and structural levels as well. However, phenomenological comparison with The Poem of Erra suggests that the object of this poetic superfluity is not to foster revenge fantasies, but instead to ensure that the divine punishment is fully realized so that a new phase in divine-human relations can begin. Contextual and other clues in the oracle help to foreground the problem of divine violence, thereby rendering it problematic.


The weqatal Form of Biblical Hebrew Is Not Sequential; It Is Contingent or Continuative
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Perry J. Oakes, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

Scholars and Grammarians of Biblical Hebrew seem to agree that the weqatal form of Biblical Hebrew has a sequential or progressive meaning. This paper seeks to correct this understanding and argues that, rather than sequentiality, the weqatal form has a contingent or continuative meaning. The term contingent is broader than the terms sequential or progressive, and thus more adequately describes the various uses of the weqatal. The basically contingent nature of the weqatal appears most clearly when it functions as the apodosis to a condition or causal statement. The term continuative is a more specific type of contingency that differs from sequentiality and that accurately describes the function of the weqatal as a verb-chaining form. Linguistic analysis of verb-chaining languages of Africa reveals characteristics that are shared by Biblical Hebrew and that point to these conclusions. Verb-chaining languages have a specific form that exists for the purpose of chaining, that is, to continue the tense, aspect, or mood (TAM) of a head clause without the need to explicitly mark the TAM on each clause of the chain. The weqatal of Biblical Hebrew functions in this same way. Thus, the weqatal marks chronological sequentiality only when continuing the tense of a head clause in future narrative. When continuing the aspect of a habitual head clause or the mood of an imperative head clause, sequentiality is not a function of the weqatal form. Other verb-chaining languages also use their verb-chaining forms in these same two ways. The concepts of contingency and continuity thus give a clearer understanding of the functions of the weqatal form, and also allow the grammar of Biblical Hebrew to take its place among the grammars of the verb-chaining languages.


Reflections on the Common English Bible Project
Program Unit: Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars
Margaret Odell, Saint Olaf College

Reflections on the Common English Bible Project


Land Confiscation and Reallocation as Royal Prerogative in the mišpa? hammelek (1 Sam 8:14)
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Daniel Oden, New York University

Samuel's characterization of kingship in 1Sa 8:14-15 has been interpreted as a warning that biblical kings would become sole-proprietors of all immovable property in their kingdom through confiscation and reallocation, inviting comparison to the kingship exercised at Ugarit and its perceived power over land. However, the extent of royal ownership of land at Ugarit is disputed according to models of land tenure at Ugarit (e.g., J. D. Schloen and M. Heltzer), and the practice of land confiscation at Ugarit is not adequately defined or addressed by either.  ??In the past, it was proposed that the Hebrew verb pair lq?-ntn used in 1Sa 8:14, is related to the Akkadian phrase nasû-nadanu, ubiquitous in royal deeds from Ugarit, and that both phrases imply royal confiscation and reallocation, i.e, "to lift or confiscate (nasû) a property from one person and give (nadanu) to another."??While the proposal relating the nasû-nadanu clause to biblical lq?-ntn has failed to gain consensus, the nasû-nadanu clause in certain royal deeds of Ugarit has been interpreted as royal confiscation and reallocation of immovable property, and such a practice seems to be central in Samuel's description of monarchic practices.??Reexamining the royal deeds from Ugarit and building upon the work of I.M. Rowe, I conclude that the nasû-nadanu clause at Ugarit never means to confiscate and reallocate. ?While confiscation did occur at Ugarit, contemporary texts from Emar and Ekalte demonstrate that the confiscation of land practiced at Ugarit and predicated in 1 Sa 8:14 is not particular to monarchy, but could be subsumed by it. Accordingly, our understanding of land confiscation as characterized in the Hebrew Bible should reflect a more nuanced understanding of royal roles and prerogatives.


"Duodez-Ausgabe des Neuen Jerusalems": The Function of the Apocalypse in the Rhetoric of Karl Marx
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jorunn Økland, University of Oslo

Karl Marx used the Bible as a source of metaphors, allegories, images, catchphrases and example stories. He was not as well versed in biblical scholarship as his colleague Friedrich Engels. The paper will present some examples of his use of the Apocalypse, especially his use of the New Jerusalem as a symbol of the real revolution as opposed to the "Duodez-Ausgabe" of the same Jerusalem apparently promoted by the Utopian Socialists.


Calling Attention to the Performer's Body and the Effects of Such a Strategy on the Audiences of Early Christian Letters
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Bernhard Oestreich, Friedensau Adventist University

R. Bauman's definition of performance (Verbal Art as Performance, 1977, 11) draws attention to the fact that performance includes an awareness of the manner how the act of expression is done. The emphasis is placed on "the relative skill and effectiveness of the performer's display of competence", "above and beyond the referential content." Modern performance studies have confirmed the emphasis on the media aspect of expression in contrast to the meaning aspect (cf. E. Fischer-Lichte, Aesthetik des Performativen, 2004, 46-57). It is especially the human body of the performer with his or her peculiarities, skills, and inscribed experiences of life that is experienced by the audience. This paper explores the ways, how Paul and other early Christian writers draw attention to themselves and to their own bodies and how this media awareness influenced the reception of the letters while they were performed again and again by different individuals.


Business Partnership among the First Christians? The Funding of the Pauline Mission
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Julien M. Ogereau, Macquarie University

The rapid growth of the early Christian movement raises a number of questions as regards the financial support of its missionary effort. This paper seeks to address the issue by focusing on the funding of the Pauline mission. It argues that the apostle did not only rely upon manual labour to provide for his ministry needs, but also sought and received the support of generous donors. As a first stage of the enquiry, attention is paid to the oft-noted commercial terminology found in the Philippian letter. Significant terms and expressions such as apexo, pleroo, koinoneo, koinonia, ‘eis logon doseos kai lempseos’ (1:5, 4:15–19), are examined and explained with the help of (neglected) papyrological and epigraphic sources. This allows their semantic domain and lexical meaning to be defined with greater precision, which, when applied to the letter, sheds new light on one practical aspect of Paul’s relationship with the Philippian church. Revisiting earlier theories that an arrangement similar to that of a ‘consensual societas’ was established between the two parties, new documentary evidence is then adduced in support of this widely-criticised hypothesis (Fleury 1963, Sampley 1981). Focus is directed in particular to the language of koinonia, which, contrary to popular opinion, is shown to bear a commercial connation in certain epigraphic and papyrological documents, and which can often denote the idea of partnership or association in a business enterprise. In contrast with Sampley, it is argued that the commercial jargon found in Philippians reveals primarily one specific means of funding the Pauline mission. However, this does not allow ‘consensual societas’ to be considered as the sociological model by which Christian community was to be formed and maintained. Finally, after briefly reviewing Graeco-Roman concepts of business association, it is concluded that, in some circumstances, the apostle relied upon a strategic network of sponsors, whom he considered as ‘business partners’ in his evangelistic enterprise. Consequently, it is contented that the letter to the Philippians represents one of the earliest pieces of (primary) evidence that provides information on the process of financial administration in the emerging Christian church.


Prologue to the Feast: Rethinking Confession in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Ryan Olfert, University of Alberta

This paper aims at sketching out a view of confession in early Christianity through the lens of ritualization, drawing from the work of Stanley Stowers and Catherine Bell. The focus of this paper is the early Christian liturgical manual the Didache, or "The teaching of the Twelve Apostles." By locating the Didache's confessional discourse within a wider array of Greco-Roman practices, we will begin to see how ritualized confession is a strategy that takes on a particular social significance in the Didache ekklesia.


Healing on the Sabbath or in Spite of the Sabbath? Luke’s Portrait of Sabbath and Healing
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Isaac W. Oliver, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

More than any other gospel, Luke mentions healings performed by Jesus on the Sabbath. During these performances, Luke claims that various individuals experience healing and release from suffering and the power of evil. In addition, Luke contains a programmatic statement regarding Jesus’ earthly mission—a manifesto which is also delivered on the Sabbath with its promises of healing and release to those who are captive (Luke 4:16–30). Juxtaposed to this proclamation, appear acts of healing which are also performed on the Sabbath, both in the public and private spheres (4:31–39). This paper will explore whether Luke views the Sabbath as a symbolic day for healing or whether he portrays Jesus as healing in spite of the Sabbath. According to Luke’s worldview, is the Sabbath a day when one should especially heal, or does Luke believe in the uninterrupted, daily performance of healings, the Sabbath representing a theological and halakic obstacle that must be temporally suspended in order for the divine will to continue its activity? The issue will be assessed by comparing the content of the Lukan proclamations delivered on the Sabbath with the healing acts performed on that holy day.


Doubtful Reconstruction in BHS of "kai ton stenagmon sou" in Gen 3:16
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Staffan Olofsson, Göteborgs Universitet

In this paper I will focus on the reconstruction in BHS (and BHK) of the Hebrew Vorlage of kai ton stenagmon sou in the Septuagint (Gen 3:16). The text-critical apparatus in BHS unequivocally suggests a reading here. However, this reconstruction has no similarities either with the meaning of the Greek word or the translation equivalents employed in the LXX. There are in fact better explanations for the Septuagint rendering here. One may also note that this LXX translator is not extremely literal, since he introduced harmonizing additions, for example in the translation of Gen 1:1-2:3.


How Eusebius Made Josephus a Witness against the Jews
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Ken Olson, Duke University

Josephus was the most widely read non-biblical Jewish author among Christians in the Middle Ages. He claims in his own work that he was read by Romans and Jews in his own time, but with the single exception of the Neo-Platonic philosopher Porphyry, all of the external evidence for the ancient reception of Josephus comes from Christian authors. Before the fourth century, the Christian writers who cited Josephus used his works primarily as a witness to the antiquity of Moses. According to an argument used by Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, and adopted by early Christian writers, the learning of the Greeks was later than and derived from the books of Moses. In the fourth century, Eusebius of Caesarea introduced two new uses of Josephus that had a major impact on subsequent reception of his work. First, he cited the Testimonium Flavianum, the brief passage about Jesus in Josephus’ Antiquities, which appeared to make Josephus a Jewish witness to the truth of Christian claims about Jesus. Second, he used Josephus’ Jewish War to make Josephus a witness to a Christian interpretation of history. On this interpretation, the horrors of the Jewish War and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem were God’s punishment of the Jews for their crimes against Jesus and his disciples. In the century following Eusebius, Josephus’ work reached the Latin West through three Latin authors: Jerome, who quoted the Testimonium and included Josephus, along with Philo and Seneca, with the Christian writers described in De viris illustribus; the Latin translator responsible for Bellum Judaicum, sometimes identified as Rufinus; and the author of De excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae, an anti-Jewish polemical history developing the theme of the Jewish War as God’s punishment of the Jews. This paper will examine the central role played by Eusebius turning Josephus into a witness against the Jews.


Theorizing Circumstantially: Dependent Rites in and out of War Contexts
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Saul M. Olyan, Brown University

In this paper, I examine the wartime and non-wartime functions of several rites whose meaning is clearly dependent on circumstance. Though shaving and other forms of hair manipulation, disinterment, and circumcision can be used to humiliate and harm an enemy in wartime (or even to initiate war), texts suggest that such rites may have beneficial functions in non-wartime contexts (e.g., shaving’s role in purification in Lev 14:8-9, or the salutary effects of circumcision according to texts such as Exod 12:43-48) and even in wartime settings depending on the circumstances. These circumstantially-dependent rites contrast with other ritual acts of wartime and non-wartime contexts which are shaming and harmful under any and all circumstances (e.g., public stripping, blinding, or severing body parts of an enemy or offender). What is it that makes the circumstantially-dependent rites distinct? In order to address this question, I examine the roles of agency, intent, force and cultural norms in shaping circumstantially-dependent ritual action.


Meet Samaritansof Luke-Acts in Multicultural Coexistence Society (Japan)
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Tomohiro Omiya, Nagoya Gakuin University

Who are Samaritans in Luke-Acts: the subgroup of Jews or Gentiles? The answer of H. Conzelmann and E. Hanchen is that they are the “almost” Gentile and that the mission to them in Acts 8:4-25 is the first step of the mission toward Gentile. On the other hand, J. Jervell, who claims that Luke never thinks of the church as the new Israel replacing Jews, answers that Luke understands Samaritans as the subgroup of Jews. The purpose of the presentation is to clarify the figure of Samaritans in the social world of Luke-Acts. We use three different approaches to Luke’s characterization of Samaritans,. (1) Social Scientific Approach: Studying on the Jewish literature in the first century (ex. Josephus, the Paralipomena of Jeremiah), we clarify that Jews recognized Samaritans as their subgroup (but suspicious one). Their hostile activities are sorts of internal strife. Segregation of Samaritans is due to their anomalous identity. This fact is discerned by the purity idea proposed by Mary Douglas. (2) Literary Approach: We exegetically study the role of Samaritans in the story of Luke-Acts. For the author of Luke-Acts, Samaritans are the subgroup of Jews standing on the periphery of Jewish identity, like the poor and the sinners. They characterize the mission of Jesus and the apostles as the mission to the periphery of Jewish world. (3) Contextual Approach: We read the texts from the context of our own experience. The texts give us the clue to reconstruct our community as a community welcoming and affirming diverse minority groups and the vision for the church as the “contact zone” (James Clifford) In this presentation, I argue that Samaritans are one of the model recipients of the gospel, such as social peripheral groups of the Jewish world. They are not regarded as Gentiles but as the peripheral Jews by Luke. The early Christian community is the “contact zone” in which mainline Jews and peripheral Jews meet.


Acquisition, Conservation, Publication, and Exhibition of Eight Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Program Unit:
Steven Ortiz, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

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Using Economics in Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Paul Oslington, Australian Catholic University

In recent years cultural anthropology, sociology and psychology have been deployed with great effect in Biblical studies. Contemporary mainstream economics has not been much utilised by Biblical scholars, despite having a large impact in other fields such as ancient history and the sociology of religion. The theoretical tools of economics include rational choice theory, game theory, information economics, and behavioural economics, as well as the some of the best developed empirical techniques in the contemporary social sciences. Economics can engage with Biblical studies at several levels: Level 1- Using economics to deepen and sharpen our understanding of the background of the Biblical texts. This adds economics to the toolkit of the historical critical method. Level 2 - Illuminating the actions of the characters in Biblical texts, including God. Level 3 - Illuminating the design and purposes of the text. Several objections to an economic approach are considered: 1) The tools are not neutral. 2) The rationality concept is specific to modern Western cultures, and inapplicable to the world of the Bible. 3) We are not dealing with market societies 4) If there are markets, the goods traded (like honour) are not subject to economic analysis. The paper concludes with an assessment of the promise and pitfalls of using economics in biblical studies.


“Reverse Exegesis”: An Examination of Contemporary African Approach to Bible Interpretation
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Nkem Osuigwe, Faith Baptist Church, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

“There is no royal road to legitimate exegesis or authentic textual exposition of any Biblical passage.” The above perceptive comment by Walter Brueggemann perhaps underscores the emphasis of this paper. What is the primary locus of biblical exegesis and what is its flow? Does it begin with the word of scripture or the world of the interpreter? Normally an exegete begins her/his hermeneutical assignment with the interrogation of a biblical text in its variegated contexts with a view to elucidating meaning. A critical element in that quest is the discovery of authorial intention. However there is a growing pattern of biblical interpretation among some African preachers in which this ‘normal’ pattern is inverted. In this approach the interpreter begins her/his exegesis with the community of faith rather than with the author’s intention. This paper sets out to examine and critique this approach using data from an ethnographic study carried out in three local congregations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.


Foreign Marriages and Citizenship in Persian Period Judah
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Wolfgang Oswald, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

The prohibition of foreign marriages occurs in the Hebrew Bible mainly in the deuteronomistic literature and in Ezra-Nehemiah. The list of „the peoples of the countries“ Ezr 9:1, with whom illegitimate marriages had been established, combines the lists in Deut. 7:1 and 23:4–9, thus giving a clear signal that the problem is to be located in Persian period Judah. However, the rationale for the prohibition of foreign marriages is not entirely evident. Most commentators think that divergent religious beliefs caused the segregation, but this seems to be a too simplistic view. Deut. 7:1–5 connects foreign marriage with cultic service for other deities, which means: these persons are no longer part of the „assembly of YHWH“. The problems of foreign marriages and of membership in the assembly (citizenship) are closely related. This is also apparent in Neh 13:4–9 and 13:28, where a foreign marriage leads to a struggle for control of the temple. Some laws of early Greek poleis shed new light on the problem. Athens under Pericles, for example, prohibited foreign marriages in order to restrict citizenship to legitimate male descendants of the full citizen (Ath. pol. 26,3; 42,1). This paper seeks to explore how Greek concepts of citizenship can help to explain the particularistic aspect in the constitutional thought of the post-exilic Judean community.


In Plain Sight: b`eyney and l`eyney and the Case of Proverbs 1:17
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Charles J. Otte III, University of Chicago

The New American Standard Version translates Proverbs 1:17, "Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net in the sight of any bird." Other translations treat this verse similarly, either calquing b`eyney as "in the eyes of" or taking it as an explicit reference to visual sensory perception. This paper explores the distinction between the phrases l`eyney and b`eyney in the Hebrew Bible, arguing that only the former can be used for sensory perception. The latter is used only to refer to value judgments and is thus a transparent metaphor. Proverbs 1:17 should instead be seen as a proverb to be translated, "No bird thinks that the outspread net will capture him." This conclusion necessitates a reanalysis and reinterpretation of the first instruction in Proverbs because 1:17 is widely regarded as the crux of the admonishment. This paper argues that the understanding of b`eyney as a statement of value and not sensory perception resolves the questions surrounding the referents of the proverb within the context of the narratival world in Proverbs 1.


Addai as a Missionary to the Jews
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Aaron Overby, Saint Louis University

The Doctrine of Addai has a lot to say about the Jewish people. It has been called an anti-Jewish text and contains the familiar patristic refrain of the Jews as the ones who crucified Christ. On the other hand, Jews also appear in the story in a positive light as hosts of the missionary Addai, respected citizens of the city, successful merchants, and bearers and interpreters of holy scripture. At the center of this narrative of evangelism, Jews are portrayed as audience. There are narrative elements such as Addai’s stay with Jewish hosts in the city and his reference to Jews in the audience during his main speech to the people of the city. Even more compelling is the way he crafts his two-pronged message, claiming proof from both miracles and holy scripture. While the first of these is directed at pagans, Addai explicitly directs his claims about scripture to his Jewish audience. This paper will show how both Addai’s actions in Edessa and the way he frames his message about Christ reflect a concern for the conversion of the Jewish people of Edessa.


Barbara Jordan, the Bible, and Performed Power
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Robin L. Owens, Claremont Graduate University

As a direct result of her early life experiences with the Bible, U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) engages in a practice of ‘signifying on scriptures’ in her political speeches. While she does not explicitly cite the Bible in her speeches, I argue that its implicit influence is embedded in the manner in which she utilizes American scriptures (namely, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) as a performed language in her speeches as she negotiates political power. This act of performed power and the Bible’s influence upon it is demonstrated in this paper. Through a case study approach based on historical, biographical, rhetorical and literary analysis, this paper answers the clarion call of historians of religion, namely Wilfred C. Smith, Miriam Levering, William A. Graham and Vincent Wimbush to give serious scholarly attention to individual and community engagements with scriptures and their scripturalizing practices. Barbara Jordan’s political speeches alongside her early life experiences provide a model and point of departure from which to examine other African American women public speakers in relation to the Bible and performance.


Dashing a Foot, Trashing a Tradition: On the Use of Psalm 91 in Matthew 4
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Carl Pace, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Among the most memorable episodes in the story of Jesus is the story of his well-known sojourn in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Compelled by the Spirit of God, Jesus passes into No-Man’s Land, where he confronts Satan himself. Most curious in this encounter is the fact that Satan quotes scripture from Psalm 91. This paper will attempt to demonstrate an aspect of Satan’s quotation that has not been widely acknowledged or noted, namely the contextual meaning of Psalm 91 in the interpretive communities of Judaism and Christianity. Looking to 11Q11, the apocryphal psalms text from Qumran, I will establish the contextual meaning of Psalm 91 in early Judaism in the practice of exorcism. Given the nature of the text, a cultured reader expects Jesus to confront Satan by quoting Psalm 91, as any good exorcist of his time would, but in fact, this standard exorcistic tool is revealed to be quite familiar to Satan and is inverted as an instrument for temptation. Through this irony, the exorcistic use of this text is undermined by the gospel writers (Matthew and Luke), and the believer is encouraged to avoid magical means (however traditional) of dealing with evil spirits and to turn to God and to Jesus as the true sources of exorcistic power. Alongside texts from Acts, Jude, and 2 Peter, I argue that Matt 4:1-11 should be understood in part as a polemic against inappropriate magical and exorcistic practices and as a lesson in appropriate conduct for the believer in regard to evil powers.


The KJV and American Civil Religion
Program Unit:
Jon Pahl, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

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“Joseph the Carpenter Planted a Garden” (Gos.Phil. CG II 73:8–9): Apparent Meaning and Hidden Meaning in the Gospel of Philip
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Louis Painchaud, Université Laval

Einar Thomassen (2006: 91) has argued that the figure of Joseph in this passage is to be interpreted as referring typologically to the Demiurge, the Creator God. Thomassen’s argument, which some have questioned, is mainly based on doctrinal considerations; in this paper, I will support it on a literary level, demonstrating that the author of this text is clearly and deliberately using allusion as a literary device in order to identify Joseph with the Demiurge. In addition to discussing the interpretation of this specific passage, I will argue that the use of allusion is an intrinsic part of early Christian literature, and that being a “gnostic" consists precisely of being able to grasp the hidden or secret meaning which lies under the surface of a text. I will conclude by arguing that such esoteric texts as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip and many other texts were consciously written in order to lead their reader to the experience of gnosis.


To Be the Elect or Not to Be? Well, that is a Question of Behavior: A Re-appraisal of the Contents and Function of 4Q381
Program Unit: Qumran
Mika Pajunen, Helsingin Yliopisto - Helsingfors Universitet

Manuscript 4Q381 has previously been argued to be a collection of non-canonical psalms drawn from different sources, with a possible principle of collecting together psalms ascribed to different kings of Judah. A material reconstruction of the manuscript and a detailed analysis of its contents challenge such a theory. At first the psalms on this collection do appear quite distinct from each other, e.g., one dealing with the creation and others pseudepigraphically attributed to specific kings of Judah, but careful comparison of the contents and structure of these psalms shows them to form an intentional unity. It will be claimed that the preserved collection is made up of eight psalms that revolve around the same theme and have a common function. By using and interpreting a large amount of source material, now found in the Hebrew Bible, the author(s) of the collection traces this selected theme through history. At many instances the interpretation of the sources is similar to what is found also elsewhere, but sometimes new innovations governed by specific theological concepts are found. By following the gradual development of the central theme of the collection, and at the same time highlighting some of the aspects common to these psalms, it will be shown, what the function and central message of this psalm collection are.


Aspect and Aktionsart Once Again: Towards a Distinction between Properties of Verb and Verb Phrase
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Francis G H Pang, McMaster Divinity College

In the discussion of the verbal aspect in the Greek of the New Testament, Zeno Vendler’s characterization of verbal classes is often considered as a crucial development of the study. Quite a few works of Greek verbal aspect in the last thirty years use his quadripartition of lexical classes as part of their theory. This in turns fuels the debate among the aspect theorists on the distinction between semantics and pragmatics in the discussion of aspect. However, even though most of these proposals insist on articulating a clear distinction between semantics and pragmatics categories and a clear distinction between aspect and Aktionsart, such insistences break down when the tense-form under investigation lacks a clear expression of aspect. This study is an attempt to retrace the development of the verbal classes and to examine how it contributes to the discussion of verbal aspect in the New Testament Greek. It provides an up-to-date discussion of the nature of these verbal classes in cross-linguistic studies, and particularly regarding the question of whether the discussion of lexical aspect should be at the verb level or the verb phrase level. Advances from cross-linguistic studies are reviewed and used in the discussion of the Greek verbal system. It is argued that lexical aspect should be viewed as a property at the verb phrase level and more discussion on the classification criteria of various properties of verbs and verb phrases that are relevant to the understanding of Greek lexical aspect is needed.


Matthew 21:33–46: Wicked Tenants and the Vineyard of Israel
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Cambry G. Pardee, Loyola University Chicago

The parable of the wicked husbandmen in Matthew 21:33-46 is in essence a story of origins—the origins of a mixed Jewish-Gentile community of Christ-followers. This pericope has often been interpreted as an outright rejection of Israel from the Kingdom of God, but this sort of interpretation fails to give a rationale for Matthew’s own “mixed” community. The evangelist explains the phenomenon of Gentile inclusion in the community by appropriating the traditional metaphor of Israel as the vineyard of the LORD (Isaiah 5:1-7) and by creating a new standard for participation in the community based on fruit production rather than pedigree. Matthew alters key components of the parable by replacing the referents of certain allegorical elements from the original song and adding new elements to reflect his own situation. The parable serves not only to explain the expulsion of Israel from the vineyard and the subsequent inclusion of Gentiles, but also to create a new standard for inclusion by which Israelites might “re-enter” the vineyard—namely, fruit production and acceptance of the son. Producing good fruit (deeds) is a constant theme in the gospel, appearing as early as John the Baptizer’s witness in 3:8 where he suggests that even the Jewish religious authorities might bear fruit worthy of repentance. Acceptance of the son is the second criteria for inclusion in the Kingdom. Matthew interprets the capstone saying of Psalm 110 Christologically, emphasizing that the new community is founded on belief in Jesus—the son of the vineyard owner. Matthew appropriates this traditional Jewish metaphor for two reasons: to explain the existence of his mixed Jewish-Gentile community and to develop a new rubric for participation in that community based on belief and action rather than heritage. In so doing he provides a theological framework by which the community could understand its own identity in relation to its parent Judaism.


The Didache and Orality Theory
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Nancy Pardee, Saint Xavier University

Increasingly in recent years, proposed solutions for a variety of problems associated with the composition of the Didache have had as their basis the "oral" nature of the text. Indeed, this area of research has been applied not only to sub-texts in the Didache clearly intended for oral recitation (the Two Ways and the eucharistic prayers) but also to other problems in the text, including the relationship of the Didache to the Synoptic Gospels and the claim that redactional stages can be found in the text. The goal of this paper is to summarize and critque recent studies applying the category of orality to the Didache in order to arrive at a status quaestionis for this avenue of research.


Meaning of dikaiosyne in the Torah Hermeneutics in the Gospel of Matthew
Program Unit: Matthew
Eugene Eung-Chun Park, San Francisco Theological Seminary

This paper addresses the issue of the salvific efficacy of the Torah in the Gospel of Matthew by investigating the meaning of the term dikaiosyne and its implications on Matthew’s soteriology. Dikaiosyne, which is a translation of tsedaka in the LXX, is an important theological concept in the Hebrew Scriptures as a reference to the status of being right/just in keeping the terms of the covenant between God and the people of Israel (Deut 6:25). As such it is a key term for soteriology in Judaism. Among the canonical gospels, only in Matthew does this term feature prominently as a major theological theme. As a Jewish follower of the Jesus movement, the author of the gospel of Matthew places dikaiosyne, which appears neither in Mark nor in Q, at the heart of the salvific event that Jesus initiates through his life and teaching. This dikaiosyne in Matthew is first and foremost closely connected with the commandments (entolai) of the Torah and it is presented as a decisive criterion for entering the kingdom of heavens/God (Matt 5:17-20). The dikaiosyne as a sine qua non for salvation in Matthew is not attained by faith in Jesus Christ as savior but by doing the will of God as it is proclaimed by Jesus especially through his interpretation of the Torah (Matt 7:21-23). This newly defined meaning of dikaiosyne encompasses the classical notion of distributive justice as in Plato, The Republic (331e; 332d) or in the ius talionis in the Code of Hammurabi as well as the Hebrew Scriptures (Exod 21:23-25) but more importantly it is radicalized by the Torah interpretation of Jesus in the so-called six theses and antitheses (Matt 5:21-48) with the result that it transcends the language of scrupulous observation of the individual commandments of the Torah and becomes a matter of honoring and fulfilling the ultimate will of God that underlies all the Torah commandments (22:34-41). This radicalized notion of dikaiosyne will be picked up in the last parable (Matt 25:31-46), which comes at the end of the final discourse of Jesus, as what ultimately makes a person dikaios (25:37 & 46) and therefore qualified for the eschatological salvation. This kind of soteriology is thoroughly Jewish in the sense that it is based on the Torah and the dikaiosyne that is derived from it, but it is also highly Christological because it is mediated through the particular hermeneutical orientation of Jesus as the authoritative interpreter of the Torah and also because the application of the newly defined notion of dikaiosyne at the last judgment is solely at the discretion of the son of man as the judge. This has a significant impact on Matthew’s Christology at the macro level. That is, even though Matthew maintains the Markan language of redemption Christology (Mark 10:45/Matt 20:28), the Matthean Jesus is a savior not just by dying as a lytron for many but also by teaching the ultimate will of God that leads to salvation through his interpretation of the Torah.


Q as Narrative for Its History and Theology
Program Unit: Q
InHee Park, Ewha Womans University

Q as narrative can make us to meet the people behind Q, who were in misfortune but giving mercy. In recent decades, both studies of Q and theories of narrative have advanced astonishingly, which makes Q not only a beautiful story but also a historically significant by revealing who were Jesus’ followers in 1 Century Galilee. Since Q has been known as one of the earlier sources of the synoptic Gospels, the application of literary tools for Q has eventually influenced on the history and theology of early Christianity. For example, Kloppenborg’s claim of Q as a wisdom collection of has influenced constructing the historical Jesus such as a cynic philosopher. The diversity of narrative theory can not be summarized as one dimensional. However, most of them agree on the function of narrative plot which can reveal or create the world when reordering given experiences. In some sense, a “creating world” implies the incompleteness of reality. In this case, narrative criticizes its reality or reflects its struggle for renewal. These dynamics can disclose the social ‘location of life’ within the narrative. Q shapes a simple outline for a story of ‘Jesus the coming one’, referring to the Jewish symbolic terms of “the coming one” and “the son of man”. The narrative structure of ‘longing for a deliverer’ shows a familiarity of the folk legends in many cultures, especially in suffering situations. Q has abundant eschatological terms and images. However they have hardly been recognized in terms of a type of social resistance, being isolated from the text of Q as well as the context of Galilee. However, they establish the resistance against the leadership which consist a part of the orientation of the narrative. It is the orientation that sustains and completes the story. Thus, the harsh words against the Pharisees and scribes (11:42-52) do not have to retreat to the religious conceptions or the productions of post persecution. This orientation leads the narrative consistently and successfully links with historical evidence of 1C Galilee’s triple tax system. Meanwhile, Q shows obvious preference for one group namely the poor, advocating that they are heirs of the kingdom (6:20ff). Instead telling life of Jesus, Q narrates the lives of Jesus’ followers, identifying them with Jesus in describing “the son of man”. Definitely the title refers to Jesus in Q, but developing within the narration ‘the son of man” became an ordinary person. He hardly performed miracle, he was worried about daily necessities just like those in his audience. If Mark’s ‘son of man’ related with passion of Jesus, Q relate the title with the ordinary people. The most significant result of Q as narrative is revealing the people’s theology related with Kingdom of God (6:20-36). They proclaim the Kingdom of God is coming with mercy even in miserable condition. By reordering their given experiences in narration, they obtained a new identification as the children of God. With that function of narrative they would resist evil with mercy and forgiveness.


Baal in the Divine Council and David in the Saulide Court: Political Implication of the Divine Council and Its Outsider
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Kyung Sik Park, Drew University

What did the divine council in the Baal cycle imply in both the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel? What are the similarities and the differences in the description of the divine council between the ancient Near Eastern literatures and the Hebrew text? What kind of political implication did the divine council have in the Israelite kingdom? In this paper, we try intertextual reading of the divine council in the Baal cycle and the Saulide court in the Books of Samuel. Based on the scholarly suggestion that the Davidic-Solomonic court appropriated the Baal cycle for the monotheistic legitimation of its dynasty (mainly through J source), we compare the divine council composed of divine parents, sons and daughters with Saul’s dynasty or family (e.g., Jonathan and Michal). From the viewpoint of political interest in establishing absolute kingship of the Davidic dynasty, specifically from the perspective of a political propaganda, we pay more attention to the political implication of Baal’s status as an outsider in the divine council. Then, the political implication can be read against the backdrop of David’s status as an outsider in the court of Saulide dynasty. Baal’s later enthronement as a subversion of the established system may allude to David’s ascent and usurpation.


Creation out of Nothing: St. Basil’s Contribution to the Defense of its Doctrine in His Hexaemeral Homilies
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Samuel C. Park, Catholic University of America

Despite the attempts of its opponents to dispute the doctrine of creation out of nothing by insisting that Scripture, Genesis in particular, does not warrant that sort of creationist reading, that the doctrine itself therefore has no antiquity and is merely a development of the second century A.D., many modern OT scholars and systematic theologians as well as the Church Fathers have defended precisely that doctrine as both biblical and ancient. Although few modern scholars recognize the full scope of the work, St. Basil’s Hexaemeral homilies contribute greatly to that debate because he not only specifically articulates creation out of nothing as the proper way to understand what the author of Genesis means but also provides proofs of the sort which contemporary scholars such as Copan and Craig have identified as necessary to establish the case as both biblical and ancient.


Census and Censure: David and the Sin of Counting in 2 Samuel 24
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Song-Mi Suzie Park, Luther College

This paper will focus on the mythological aspects of the story of David’s census in 2 Samuel 24. This strange narrative has usually been explained as a story justifying the subsequent acquisition and placement of the Temple in the city of Jerusalem. While this is correct, the mythological themes in the story, such as those concerning cosmogony, sacred sites, taboos on counting, rivalry between gods, sacrifice and Temple building, have been generally overlooked. Focusing on these mythological aspects, I will show that the story not only draws on the narrative of the Exodus, but also transforms and reutilizes traditional creation myth found in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East, including the chaos-to-cosmos motif. Positioning my exploration of the census into past criticism, I will show that the story of the census is both retro- and prospective. It is at once an etiological myth for the Israelite Temple in Jerusalem looking back to the past victory of God over the forces of chaos, while at the same time pointing towards the future function of the Temple as a site symbolizing the presence and rule of the Israelite deity.


Synthesis
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
David Parker, University of Birmingham

What do we learn about the two manuscripts and their relationship when we have put this information together? Is it consistent? Do the findings contradict each other in any way?


Commentary Manuscripts of the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
David Parker, University of Birmingham

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The Levant Comes of Age: Collating the Ninth Century B.C.E. Inscriptions
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Heather Dana Davis Parker, Johns Hopkins University

This paper will focus on the inscriptions from the ninth century B.C.E., the period in which the traces of the various Levantine national scripts are first discerned in the epigraphic corpus. These inscriptions are scattered in museums and other collections throughout the Middle East and Europe, and good photographs of many of the texts are not available. As the best paleographic analysis requires collation of the epigraphs on-site, as well as the study of high-quality digital images, the author traveled to the pertinent museums for on-site study and produced high-quality images for those inscriptions for which they were lacking, such as the Mesha Inscription, the Nora Stone, and the Bir-Hadad Stele for Melqart. This paper will provide an updated discussion of the development of Northwest Semitic national scripts in the ninth century B.C.E., based on new colLations and photographs. It is important to draw attention to this corpus in light of recent debates surrounding the history of the Levant and the rise of nation-states in the tenth-ninth centuries and to showcase epigraphy’s contribution to the discussion.


Re-membering the Dismembered: A Comparative Look at Women and Body Parts in Ancient Near Eastern Literature
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Julie Faith Parker, Colby College

This paper compares ancient Near Eastern stories of women and body parts. In the Hebrew Bible, two women at opposite ends of the power spectrum both end up in pieces. Jezebel, the Phoenician princess and Israelite queen, is arguably the most commanding woman in the Hebrew Bible. Nonetheless, Jezebel’s position does not ensure a respectful demise as eunuchs fatally hurl her from a tower and only her hands, feet, and skull remain (2 Kgs 9:35). In contrast, the Levite’s concubine lacks influence, speech, or even a name, and may have the least agency of any person in the Hebrew Bible. After she is gang-raped, her owner/husband cuts her into pieces and sends her body parts throughout Israel (Judg 19:29). Viewed in tandem, these stories send a chilling message about the inability of women to sustain a dignified death. Yet other ancient tales counter these images of muliebral victimization through dismemberment. In the Ugaritic Baal cycle, Anat is the aggressor, dividing Mot’s body by cutting him with a sword and winnowing him with a sieve (KTU 1.6 ii 31-33). In the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris, Isis acts as a healer who finds and reunites her husband’s scattered body parts, ultimately restoring him to wholeness. This paper explores the connections and contrasts among these stories, suggesting that corporality is inextricably intertwined with issues of power and passion.


Amphibologia in the Song of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53)
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Donald W. Parry, Brigham Young University

Isaiah 53 is a text with multiple layers of meaning, wordplays, parallelistic structures and poetic forms, figures of speech, and more. This paper will examine six examples of a figure of speech called amphibologia (double meanings), which pertains to a phrase or word that has two possible interpretations, both of which are legitimate. E. W. Bullinger defines amphibologia as “a word or phrase susceptible of two interpretations”; also, “a statement that is amphibological has two meanings, both of which are absolutely true” (Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, 804). Examples of amphibologia in Isaiah 53 include the following Hebrew words: ns’ (bis, see vss. 4, 12); ‘nh (vs. 4); ?ll (bis, see vss. 5, 10; for vs. 10 see the textual variant in 1QIsaa); gzr (vs. 8); plus there are others. Isaiah 53 is often called the “Song of the Suffering Servant.” According to Philip, the servant described here is Jesus Christ (Acts 8:26–35). Matthew, Peter, and Paul also understood that at least parts of this chapter referred to Jesus (Matt. 8:17; 1 Pet. 2:24–25; Rom. 4:24–25). These instances of amphibologia have direct relevance to Jesus Christ (for those who have a Christological view of Isaiah 53) and impact one’s understanding of Jesus’ mission and sacrifice. As a side item, these instances also influence our understanding of Isaiah as a master poet and a prophet who presented his writings in remarkable ways.


A Sententious Silence: First Thoughts on the Fourth Gospel and the Ardens Style
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
George L. Parsenios, Princeton Theological Seminary

John's Gospel presents Jesus in this world as a "Stranger from heaven," and a key feature of his strangeness is his style of speech, punctuated as it is with aphorisms and pointed epigrams, or what the Romans called sententiae. This paper will compare Jesus' discourses to early imperial discussions and examples of rhetorical sententiae, especially in the Annales of Tacitus and the tragedies of Seneca. Tacitus draws boundaries between insiders and outsiders by carefully coupling a sententious style with the strategic use of the first person plural, just as Jesus does in his discourse with Nicodemus in John 3. Seneca employs sententious speech as a means to show, in keeping with his view of the independence and remoteness of the Stoic sage, that no communication is possible in a broken world where the life of the sage is foreign and strange. Jesus similarly confuses his interlocutors, to whom his sententious speech sounds much more like silence.


The KJV and its Role in Ecumenism
Program Unit:
Michael Patella, St John’s University-Collegeville

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Earliest Christianity in Edessa
Program Unit: Extent of Theological Diversity in Earliest Christianity
Stephen J. Patterson, Willamette University

To be entered


Is a Jewish Jesus Significant for the Christ of Christian Faith?
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
John T. Pawlikowski, Catholic Theological Union

The "Parting of the Ways" scholarship over the past two decades has clearly transformed our understanding of the complex Christian-Jewish relationship in the first several centuries of the Common Era. One of its results has been to firmly anchor Jesus in the Jewish community of his time in terms of ethics, worship,etc. Jesus is now seen by most scholars as deeply linked to constructive positions with the tent of Judaism. But the question remains, what significance does this "Jewish Jesus" have for the "Christ of faith" which serves as the basis for contemporary Christian faith? This will be the major focus of my time=limited remarks.


The Feeding Stories and the Two Gospel Hypothesis
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
David B. Peabody, Nebraska Wesleyan University

Matthew and Mark each record two feeding stories (Feeding of the 5000 = Mt 14:13-20//Mk 6:30-44 and the Feeding of the 4000 = Mt 15:32-39//Mk 8:1-10), plus a retrospective passage on them (Mt 16:5-12/Mk 8:14-21), while both Luke and John record only the feeding of the five thousand (Lk 9:10-17; cf. Jn 6:1-14). Therefore, neither Luke nor John record a retrospective passage on two feedings since they each have only one. On the Two Gospel (neo-Griesbach) Hypothesis, Mark would have had access not only to Matthew's gospel, but also to Luke's. And if Mark had access to Luke's first volume, then it is not unlikely, providing that relative or absolute dating would allow it, that Mark would have also had access to Luke's second volume, the Acts of the Apostles. While assuming the validity of the Two Gospel Hypothesis, this paper will argue that Acts 6:1-6 is the clue to understanding (1) Mark's choice to include two feedings in his gospel, as did Matthew, in contrast to Luke, and (2) Mark's choice to change Matthew's focus in his retrospective passage on the Pharisees and Sadducees as the "leaven" which members of the earliest Jewish Christian community are to avoid to an end focus on numerological speculation about the significance of the number of baskets remaining from each of the two feedings (the 12 and the 7) one feeding each for the more original Jewish Christian community (the 5000, the 12, cf. Acts 6:2) and the more Gentile oriented early Christian community (the 4000, the 7, cf. Acts 6:3). The way the two feedings and the retrospective passage upon them are woven intimately into the literary fabric of both Matthew and Mark make these passages, short of comparative analyses of the whole texts of the synoptics, some of the most important in determining literary relationships among the synoptics.


Earliest Christianity in Egypt
Program Unit: Extent of Theological Diversity in Earliest Christianity
Birger Pearson, University of California-Santa Barbara

To be entered


Materializing Orthodoxy: Syriac Readers of “Heretical” Manuscripts
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Michael Penn, Mount Holyoke College

One day the eighteenth-century Roman Catholic bishop Etienne al-Souichi obtained a Maronite codex that left him in a quandary. What should he do with a precious manuscript that contained works from Catholic Fathers but also from “Maronite heretics”? The bishop decided to pen a cross next to every “heretical” passage. He found 67 such passages, some going on for entire pages. In each case he tried to literally conquer the offending passage with the sign of the cross. Paris Syriac 223 reflects one of the most zealous of interventions upon a manuscript that confounded the theological boundaries later imposed on it, but it was far from the first. Late ancient Syriac manuscripts present numerous examples of readers reacting to texts that defied easy categorization. Their physical interventions illustrate various ritualized techniques to try to domesticate manuscripts that presented their readers with a disturbing mélange of what they considered orthodox and what they considered heretical. Based on several summers’ of research in the British Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale. my presentation will analyze works such as: British Library Additional 14,509 where a scribe writes the names of those historical figures whom he considered to be heretics upside down; BL Add. 14,541 that in the course of four pages has 104 changes to a biblical translation to try and make it better conform to the version with which the reader was more familiar; Paris Syriac 235 and BL Add. 14,528 that include marginalia anathematizing the Council of Chalcedon whose decisions appear in the main text and even a marginal note cursing the pope; BL Add. 12,155 in which one reader erased the name of a controversial theologian a dozen times and a later reader rewrote the name over each erasure supplemented with a marginalia cursing his predecessor. My analysis of these works will be accompanied by high quality digital images of these manuscripts that I have already obtained from the BL and BN. Such texts serve as material witnesses for the unruliness of the communities between which these manuscripts traveled and suggest that orthodoxy and heresy were in even greater flux than most modern scholars imagine. They also provide important information about late antique manuscript culture and ritual practice. In particular they suggest that readerly interventions were a form of practical theology. That is, one doesn’t have to write theological tomes to be a heresiologist. Instead, many late ancient Christians patrolled the ever contested boundaries of orthodoxy, not through the composition of polemical tractates but through their, quite literal, active reading of them. For these Christians, the materiality of manuscripts provided both the incentive and the opportunity to perform orthodoxy. The tendency of Syriac manuscripts to circulate across confessional boundaries meant that Syriac readers often encountered artifacts that defied easy categorization as entirely orthodox or entirely heretical. In order to tame these hybrid texts, readers modified what they were reading through a variety of ritualized strategies. In the process, they left physical traces of these textual transgressions and their reactions to them.


Locating the Fulfilment of Isaiah’s Prophecies in Time: The Early Christian Evidence
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Ken Penner, Saint Francis Xavier University

It is commonly claimed that the Jewish translator of Isaiah into Greek considered Isaiah’s prophecies to be fulfilled in his own day. However, it is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether this “actualizing” style of reading Isaiah continued into the Christian period. For example, the two volumes on Isaiah the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series provide conflicting answers to this question. McKinion indicates that the Fathers’ interpretation of Isaiah is almost exclusively christological (xxii), but Elliott claims it “is soteriological rather than christological” (xx). This paper describes the extent to which early Christian authors found fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies in the time of the prophet himself, in the time of Christ, at another time in the past, in their own present time, and at the future eschaton.


Pedagogy of the Bible in the Liberal Arts Context: Paradigms and Perspectives
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Timothy D. Peoples, Adrian College

Many liberal arts institutions offer an introductory course in Bible, and some colleges and universities even require their students to take such a course. This study seeks to determine the dominant rationale for such courses, and the prevailing perspective from which they are being taught. A professor’s rationale and perspective are embedded within course syllabi. Therefore, my approach compares a representative sample of syllabi from introductory Bible courses taught at liberal arts institutions in the United States. Whenever possible, I focus on explicit statements concerning rationale and perspective in course descriptions, course objectives, and so forth. Where explicit statements are absent, I focus on implicit indications of rationale and perspective in course content, textbooks, assignments, etc. Each syllabus is then placed into one of three analytical categories according to the overarching rationale and perspective of the course. Those operating from within an “Historical Critical Paradigm” view the Bible as an historical artifact, locate meaning within the text, and teach students to understand and interpret it in relation to its original context. Courses operating from within a “Postmodern Critical Paradigm” locate meaning with the reader, emphasize experience, and teach students to appreciate the Bible as literature. Lastly, those operating from within a “Post-Secular Religious Paradigm” view the Bible, not necessarily confessionally, but no less spiritually and religiously, seeking to understand the Bible as a religious text, and focusing on its morality, ethics, and theology. Identifying the dominant rationale and perspective for introductory Bible courses in the United States will contribute to conversations in our field concerning what the Bible is, how it is best understood, and why (see e.g., Avalos, Barton, Meeks, Boer, Martin, Donfried, et al.).


"Sealed as a Soldier of the Heavenly King": Imagining David as Warrior in the Dura-Europos Baptistery
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Michael Peppard, Fordham University

In the Christian baptistery at Dura-Europos, the painting of David and Goliath is the only part of the artistic program accompanied by graffiti to identify the figures. Their identities may be certain, but the meaning of this painting in its ritual context has been difficult for scholars to determine. Art historian Kurt Weitzmann has called the artistic subject “a choice rather unexpected in a Christian baptistery and not easy to explain.” Sound interpretations have been offered by connecting the anointing of David with the anointing of athletes and warriors and, in turn, with the pre-baptismal anointing of Christians known from Eastern rites of initiation. This scholarship will be summarized and built upon. My paper explores the meanings the painting might have evoked for Christians at Dura-Europos by situating it in two more contexts: first, the actual military setting of the city on the frontier of two empires; second, the “militaristic imaginary” generated by Christian appropriation of David as warrior. I will show that the Christian reception of David as a soldier and warrior -- and as such, a type of Christ and of the initiated Christian -- appears frequently in texts that describe or celebrate rites of initiation. A study of David and militaristic motifs in early Christian exegesis and homiletics (e.g., Athanasius, Ephrem, Theodore of Mopsuestia, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus) leads ultimately back to the texts believed in antiquity to have been authored by David himself: the Psalms. I will argue that selected psalms of David offer a militaristic imaginary that resonates with several other aspects of Christian initiation at Dura-Europos.


Imperial Time Frames
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Judith Perkins, Saint Joseph College (West Hartford, CT)

This paper argues that Christians’ suffering was not so much about suffering as about a testament to Christian commitment to their future vindication and existence. That a privileging of the past, its forms, linguistic practices, and subject matter structures the contemporary elite early imperial literature has long been recognized. Contemporary pagan prose authors exercised their creatively by imitating the past and its models. Christian literature instead focused on the future looking forward to the Last Day, the Judgment, a new heaven and a new earth. Their vision is suffused with futurity and its potentiality; it reinforces resistance. In the Martyr Acts, Christians routinely compare their short suffering to the pagan’s eternal pain. So Polycarp responds to the governor: “The fire you threaten me with burns merely for a time and is soon extinguished. It is clear you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment and of the judgment that is to come, which awaits the impious” (10.2). With their eyes on the future, Christians minimized their suffering. In the Acts of Marian and James, the Christians chide the pagans, “Do you still believe that Christians, for whom awaits the joy of eternal light, feel the torments of prison or shrink from the dungeons of this world?” (Acts of Marian and James,6.1). The paper proposes that Christian texts should be recognized as engaging with and re-directing some of the central themes of early imperial literature. And by doing so, Christians managed to interrupt and open up the Roman imperial sovereignty to allow for Christianity’s emergence as an alternate site of power. The messianic impulse fueling early Christianity and focused on a future redemption and vindication has continued to underwrite liberatory movements up to Marx’s vision of a classless society.


The Greek Translator of Exodus—Interpres and Expositor—His Treatment of Theophanies
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Larry Perkins, Trinity Western University

Within Greek Exodus the accounts of numerous theophanies reflect a similar emphasis in the Hebrew narrative, but many scholars have noted the divergencies from the Masoretic text in the the Greek translation. Almost all agree that this feature represents the activity of the translator (whether his own distinctive theological reflections or those of some portion of the Alexandrian Jewish community is debated), rather than reflects his Vorlage, in distinction from the Masoretic text. However, a systematic review, an evaluation of these accounts (especially their possible inter-relationship), as well as other translational alterations, and a definition of the specific ways in which they may modify the Hebrew Vorlage remain a desideratum. The key texts include Exodus 3:1-14; 4:24-26; 19; 24:1-11; 33:7-23; 40:28-32, as well as various other interactions with Moses and especially the translation in 25:22(21); 29:42,43; 30:36. In this paper these texts are carefully reviewed with a view to discerning more specifically the variations in the Old Greek version that occur in these contexts and whether the reasons scholars propose to explain these variances have validity. Further, this investigation may enable us to draw some tentative conclusions about the translator’s creative ability to combine the roles of interpres (non-literary translator) and expositor (literary translator), to suit his purpose, and thus define his translational profile more adequately.


The Historical Jesus and the Cultic Context of the Great Commandment (Mark 12:28–34 par.)
Program Unit: Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
Nicholas Perrin, Wheaton College (Illinois)

While certain influential strands of form-critical interpretation of Mark 12:28-34 have tended to separate this well-known dominical saying from its immediate literary context, so far as the Sitz Leben Jesu is concerned, here I argue that the setting provided by Mark is not only historically likely but also an important component in interpreting Jesus’ words. I maintain that the dialogue’s reference to cultic imagery suggests that the historical Jesus affirmed an ethical vision which was deeply rooted in what can only be described as a priestly self-understanding. This in turn implies that for the historical Jesus, love for God and neighbor was less an abstract ideal or principle than a specifically hieratic participation in the kingdom of God.


The Role of Memory and Multiformity in the Tradition Represented by the Deuteronomic History and the Book of Chronicles
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Raymond F. Person, Jr., Ohio Northern University

Albert Lord and John Miles Foley have discussed the role of memory and multiformity in oral traditions. Their work helps us understand better (1) the interplay of the oral and the written within the context of communal memory and (2) the role of multiformity within the broader tradition. Extending the suggestive work of David Carr on biblical texts as mnemonic devices, I will argue that the multiformity present in the textual traditions of Samuel-Kings // Chronicles points to the existence of a broader tradition behind these texts that existed in the communal memory (both oral and written) of ancient Israel.


Luke and the Bishops
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Richard I. Pervo, Saint Paul, Minnesota

This paper will contribute to the discussion of the date of Acts and to its author's ecclesiology. Luke appears to be aware, without enthusiastic approval, of the three-fold model of "deacons," presbyters, and "bishops"/overseers. The church contains other "orders," possibly "youth" and definitely widows. It looks back to governance by apostles followed by mixed models. Jerusalem looks like Ignatius' picture of bishop with circle of elders. Ephesus has presbyters who are equated with "bishops." The presence of an organized body of widows (and a group of young persons)better suits c.110-30 than c.80-100 on the basis of community size. (e.g. R. Stark). Comparison with 1 Clem, Pastorals, Polycarp, and Ignatius confirm this. That the cmmty still meets in houses is appropriate for the era.


Textual Problems in Acts: An Exegete's Perspective
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Richard Pervo, Saint Paul, MN

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A Pharisaic Reading of Esther and Judith in First Century Corinthian Churches?
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Janelle Peters, Emory University

Tal Ilan has proposed that Susanna, Esther, and Judith functioned as propaganda for the reign of Queen Shelamzion (Salome) Alexandra. Ilan observes that the queen's support for the Pharisees over other Jewish movements suggests the Pharisees possessed a religious outlook more favorable to women. It was only when the Pharisaic viewpoint (as continued by rabbinic Judaism) became the singular, uncontested Jewish viewpoint that the hegemonic patterns of patriarchy calcified. Of course, trajectories imply periods of negotiation and flux. We find one such instance in 1 Clement, written in the late first century CE to the church of Corinth. The Corinthian believers are exhorted to find strength in the example of faithful women imitating Judith and Esther. These women who perform manly deeds are twofold: Judiths and Esthers (56.3-6). 1 Clement thus departs from Greek and Hellenistic Jewish authors such as Philo who demand a woman's virginity or renewed chastity in menopause in order to be counted as a man (e.g., Athena, Sarah). Could it be that 1 Clement, written to a community that Acts tells us was founded in close connection with the synagogue, is manifesting Ilan’s Judith and Esther? After attributing Lot’s wife’s failure to a change of mind after she had already decided to go with her husband, the text encourages its audience with the example of “Rahab the prostitute” (12.1). It is certainly possible that 1 Clement’s Judith and Esther are retaining the tradition of a Pharisaic movement favorable to women rather than being restricted to a conventional warrior woman-passive wife dichotomy. If so, this has implications for readings of canonical texts of the New Testament. 1 Clement is a letter of concord, which means it essentially employs the same form as 1 Corinthians, and it also manifests an engagement with stoicism closer to 1 Corinthians than to Colossians. Moreover, 1 Clement is addressed to the same city as 1 Corinthians. If the model of Esther and Judith of 1 Clement reflects Ilan’s Pharisaic views of women (or even vestiges of them), then the pattern of female involvement represented by the first Corinthian female prophets in the Pauline house-churches (cf. Wire, Schüssler Fiorenza) may have continued for some decades after Paul’s original community.


Instruction, Performance, and Prayer: The Didactic Function of Psalmic Wisdom
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Catherine Petrany, Fordham University

This paper examines the function of psalmic wisdom by looking at the inclusion of didactic discourse in three psalms dominated by different communicative stances, namely trust (Ps. 62), thanksgiving (Ps. 92), and lament (Ps. 94). In modern scholarship, the degree of influence that the wisdom tradition exerted upon the book of Psalms remains a contested question. Form-critical approaches have attempted to establish a “wisdom psalms” category without achieving a consensus while redaction-critical approaches have seen the heavy hand of the sages in the historical processes that governed the book’s final editing. In contrast, this paper seeks to illuminate the function of psalmic wisdom from a literary and theological perspective. Identified according to grammatical and thematic characteristics, psalmic wisdom most clearly manifests as horizontally-oriented, inter-human discourse which focuses on the empirical experience of living in the world. Such discourse didactically guides the addressee to reflection rather than ritual, receptive learning rather than active involvement in liturgical activity. This paper investigates how this kind of didactic speech participates in and contributes to the communicative encounter that takes place between God and human beings in the psalms by looking at its interaction with other kinds of speech in individual psalms. The paper also suggests how this examination of psalmic wisdom within the literary confines of individual psalms has implications for understanding the manner in which didactic speech operates as an integral player in the complex array of voices that participate in the communicative make-up of the Psalter as a whole.


The Flying Scroll that Will Not Acquit the Guilty: Exodus 34:7 in Zechariah 5:3
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Anthony Petterson, Morling College

Many have noted the way that elements of the revelation of the meaning of the divine name in the glory theophany of Exodus 34:6-7 recur throughout the Book of the Twelve (e.g., Van Leeuwen). This paper proposes that a passage that is overlooked in relation to this theme in the Twelve is Zechariah 5. This association seems to have been missed because of the tendency to mistranslate niqqâ in Zech. 5:3 as ‘will be banished’ or ‘shall be cut off’, where it should have its usual sense of ‘have been acquitted’ or ‘have been cleared’, as it does elsewhere and is in keeping with its meaning in Exodus 34:7. The associations of the Flying Scroll and the Torah in the vision of Zechariah 5:1-4 strengthen the connections with Exodus 34. This paper will also show how this connection back to the Exodus glory theophany suits the unfolding of Zechariah’s night visions: Zech. 2:8 has already connected God’s glory with his departure from Jerusalem (cf. the Exodus glory themes in Ezekiel). With God’s return to Jerusalem, and his removal of the guilt of the land (Zech. 3:9), this sixth vision underlines the fact that with his return God will continue to act according to his name and glory and ‘will by no means acquit the guilty’ (Exod. 34:7 cf. Joel 3:21 [4:21]; Nah 1:3). The implications in terms of the unfolding of this motif in the Twelve will also be explored.


King Solomon and the Global Economy
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Christina Petterson, Macquarie University

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the vocabulary used to convey Solomon’s dealings and transactions in various translations of 1 Kings 3-10. Beginning with Wyclif’s translation from the 14th century, the aim is to trace the increasing use of capitalist nomenclature in the translation of ancient texts and to contribute to current debates on the consequences of applying such a terminology to the economic relations of the Ancient Near East.


Class, Hybridity, and the Bible: Does It Work?
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Christina Petterson, Macquarie University

In response to Ella Shohat’s question as to “when does the post-colonial begin,” Arif Dirlik provided the well known answer: “When Third World intellectuals have arrived in First World academe.” Dirlik’s provocative response touches upon the issue of class, which seems to have been eradicated from postcolonial concerns, especially in the celebration of hybridity. This paper is an attempt to assess the applicability of postcolonial theory to the Bible. To do so, I propose to take an element of postcolonial theory (hybridity) to analyse some of the identity issues in a New Testament text (Acts) and then assess how hybridity is used in New Testament interpretation. First I focus on depictions of class in the Acts narrative. I am particularly interested in Paul and how he is presented as a Roman citizen, with the privileges associated with this status. The second step is to look at some of the ways in which hybridity is conceptualized and deployed in analyses of various texts, especially Paul’s letters. I will argue that the focus on hybridity evades class matters among the interpreters. Furthermore, such a focus tends to read along with and thus reinforce the ‘grain’ of the narrative, rather than against it, which raises the question of power, resistance and the use of the Bible in colonial ideology. My ultimate aim is twofold: to demonstrate how, by focusing on hybridity and avoiding issues of class, interpreters eclipse important political contexts for their own act of interpretation, and to show that bringing class issues into the discussion complicates the narrative of postcolonialism, but is not incongruous with it.


Raising the Serpent: Gods, Magicians, and the Mystical in John 3:14–15
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Jeff Pettis, New Brunswick Theological Seminary

This study proposes to examine John 3:14–15 in relation to magico-religious practices of mysticism. The author of John identifies the sacrifice of Jesus the Son of Man with the serpent raised up (hupsothenai) on a staff by Moses in the desert (Num. 21.8-9). Jesus thus becomes directly connected with the transcendent and transformative symbolism of the serpent. This occurs inseparably from Moses as serpent-wielding, saving figure rooted in the glory of Mount Sinai theophany (c.f. Ex. 4.1-8; 7.9-13). At the same time, the serpent has significance for the Asclepius dream-cult flourishing in the Roman world during the formation of the Johannine writings. Through various temple rituals followers experience the god Asclepius as a potion-making magician who bears a staff entwined with the serpent (Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica III.11.26). The discovery of ancient votive offerings near the sacred pools at the sheep gate at the NE corner of the Jewish temple where Jesus heals the lame man (John 5.1-9a) suggests further Johannine awareness of the Asclepius cult rituals and practices (Duprez, 1970). However, various ancient sources attest to early Christian disapproval of Asclepius, over/against Jesus as the Savior. More than a magician who makes earth remedies and requires the performance of ritual formulae to heal the body, the Jesus of John is himself ritually given as the all-healing potion (c.f. John 4.10). After the way of Moses (Num. 21.8-9), Jesus raised as ton ophin gives life to all who gaze upon him. Such transformative potency is precisely what Jesus speaks of in the transcendent language of rebirth to Nicodemus in 3.5ff.. For the Son of Man such rebirth has to do with glorification and being lifted up out of the earth into the heavens (John 3.14; c.f. 8.28; 12.32; cf. 6.39-40, 44, 54; 13.32; 16.14; 17.1, 5). Whereas Asclepius heals (bodies) with the serpent, Jesus himself has become the serpent, raised on the wood pole as a sacrifice for all who believe. In the practice of liturgical hearing of the text Johannine initiates become taken up into/by the transcendent mediation of the chthonic symbol of the serpent to experience Christ.


“Mild,” “Grim,” “Uneasy”? Reassessing Asceticism in the Sentences of Sextus
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Daniele Pevarello, University of Cambridge

As a second-century collection of Christianised pagan moral maxims, the Sentences of Sextus afford an exceptional opportunity to study the differences between pagan and Christian attitudes towards asceticism.Commentators, however, have found it difficult to reach agreement on Sextus’ asceticism. While some have depicted Sextus as a grim proponent of self-castration and as an Encratite taking to the extremes the otherwise “banal” asceticism of his sources, others have stressed Sextus’ “mild asceticism” and moderation or simply labelled the teachings of the Sentences as an “uneasy compromise.” This paper will explore ascetic utterances regarding sexuality, diet and wealth in the Sentences and show the limitations of previous studies that have been based on the opposition of mild or extreme forms of self-discipline.By comparing the ascetic teachings of Sextus with pagan sources, the vestiges of which are still extant in collections like the Clitarchus, the Pythagorean Sentences and in Porphyry’s letter Ad Marcellam, the paper will counter the view that the Sentences constitute a departure from the ascetic standpoint of its pagan sources. Finally, having emphasized the relevance of contemplative life and Platonic godlikeness in Sextus’ collection, it will be argued that the ascetic tendencies of the Sentences stand in a creative continuity with their Hellenistic sources.


"He is Our Brother": Shechem’s Covenant History and the Story of Abimelech (Judges 8:30–9:57)
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Amy L. Pfeister, University of Denver / Iliff School of Theology

The Canaanite city of Shechem, the setting of Judg 8:30-9:57, brings with it a rich history of covenant and destruction. Reading the Abimelech story in light of this history suggests that there is much more to this tale than meets the modern eye. The author of Judg 8:30-9:57 uses the meaning laden terms ba'alîm and ba'alê-šekem and the proper names Shechem, Ba'al/El-Berît, and Hamor to elicit the memory of a bloody covenantal past, a memory that foreshadows the conflict between Abimelech and the city of Shechem and highlights the political and religious sins of the half-blood king. This paper draws from the archaeological data of Tell Balata, other biblical traditions about Shechem (Gen 34, Josh 24) and various extra-biblical sources, including the Amarna Letters, Treaty of Aššur-nerari V with Mati’-ilu, Hurrian Hymn to El, and Arslan Tash Incantation. The resulting narrative characterizes the history of Shechem as one plagued by spoiled allegiances leading to destruction. Knowledge of this history creates anticipation and transforms the terms and proper names repeated throughout Abimelech’s story from data to literary device. The artistry of the text is revealed as knowledge of Shechem’s history illuminates the author’s use of allusion, foreshadowing, and irony. This historical-critical investigation of Shechem and the story of Abimelech paves the way for a more fruitful literary analysis and underscores the dangers of allying with the Canaanites.


Forsaking the Original: Multiformity of Memory and the Cry of Dereliction in Textual History (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34)
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Amy L. Pfeister, University of Denver / Iliff School of Theology

In no other section of the NT are there more variations than in the sayings of Jesus. This is due to the fact that the texts written about Jesus are rooted in oral-traditions, traditions which predate their written form by several decades and continued to be in circulation long after the Gospel writers penned their records and recollections. In light of these oral roots, the text of the Gospels remained fluid for a time, despite their written form. Early scribal tradition was empowered by a “scribal memory,” a memory that was flexible and dynamic, which kept the past alive by making it relevant to the present. The multiformity of Jesus’ Aramaic Cry from the cross, eloi eloi lema sabachthani, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (NA27), serves as a particularly helpful test case for an investigation of orality, textuality, and “scribal memory.” As mentioned, the sayings of Jesus contain more variations than any other genre of the NT, but the Dereliction Cry has the added bonus of being remembered in Aramaic, Jesus’ primary language. The fact that these words were preserved in Aramaic, albeit in transliteration, emphasizes their particularly strong connection to oral-tradition and performance. If one properly retroverts the Greek transliterations of the various manuscript (MS) readings of the Dereliction Cry and analyzes their Aramaic forms, the data lends itself to two related observations. The first is that some scribes, specifically those responsible for Codex Bezae (D) and its corrections (DC), have a working knowledge of Aramaic. The second observation is that this knowledge of Aramaic enables D and DC to reconstruct the memory of the Dereliction Cry in a way that acknowledges and is sensitive to the Christological controversy of their day. Contrary to Bart Ehrman’s notion of “Orthodox Corruption,” D illustrates an understanding of multiformity itself as “Orthodox,” maintaining the memory of Jesus’ sayings by adapting them to an ever changing environment.


Practical Considerations for the Beginning of an Immersion Classroom in an Ancient Language
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Anna Phillips, Grace Evangelical College & Seminary

Teachers of Koine Greek have not usually been trained in an immersion environment that was rich in audio and in comprehensible input with visual and real world stimuli. To begin, we need to make a commitment to preparing both lesson plans and ourselves. Outlining basic materials must be expanded at a micro-level and practised in order to handle the irregular forms of the most common Greek words. Developing a freedom with these words can turn a classroom into a creative learning environment. Material can be rapidly processed in a class, so much material is needed ahead of time. Skits, props, and sequencing needs to be arranged and thought out. An overview of blocks of 5 and 20 classroom hours helps keep things on track. The pace of introducing new material is crucial, just a few bits at a time. A brief demonstration will illustrate some of these points. An important question underlying all of this, ‘Is it worth it?’ NAI ?a?.


Luke’s Economic Critique and Vision in the Light of the Gospel’s Deuteronomistic Hermeneutic
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Ray Pickett, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

This paper explores the characterization of Jesus as the “prophet like Moses” who teaches and enacts the “law and the prophets” in the Gospel of Luke. It builds on the work of others who have emphasized Luke’s use of the Deuteronomistic tradition, especially Deut. 18:15, to depict Jesus as the eschatological prophet. However, it moves beyond a consideration of citations and allusions to the Deuteronomistic History to argue that the rhetorical strategy of Luke is influenced by a Deuteronomistic hermeneutic. The paper builds on the notion that there was an influential Deuteronomistic current of thought throughout Israel’s history that placed an emphasis on “return” or repentance. Repentance is one of several Deuteronomistic themes in Luke and it is inextricably tied to the hope of the restoration of Israel introduced in the birth canticles. These two themes frame narrative expectations in the Gospel and along with Luke’s emphasis on Jerusalem suggest that, analogous to the Deuteronomistic historian, the narrator tells the story of Jesus in response to the crisis of 70 with a view to calling people to repent and consider what Israel should do in this hour. The primary focus of this paper is on how Jesus addresses economic issues in the Gospel. The hope of the poor and judgment of the rich is sounded initially in the Magnificant, and Jesus speaks to the plight of the poor in the first two Galilean speeches (4:18; 6:20-21, 32-36). However, it is the travel central section of Luke (9:51-19:44 ) that features a high percentage of material dealing with economic matters such as poverty and wealth, sustenance, debt, anxiety about material security, alms, etc (e.g. 9;58; 10:4, 25-37.; 11:1-13, 37-44; 12:4-7, 13-21, 22-34; 14;1-33; 15:11-32; 16:1-30; 18:1-8, 18-30; 19:1-27). This paper argues that as the “prophet like Moses” Jesus critiques the misuse and abuse of wealth and sets out an alternative social vision predicated on Jesus’ interpretation of the law and the prophets.


A Model Insurgent: The Use of Korah's Rebellion in Early Jewish and Christian Literature
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Chad T. Pierce, Central College

Numbers 16:1-50 records the rebellion of Korah and his 250 followers against the leadership of Moses. In this narrative, Korah, a Levite, is not willing to accept the authority of Moses and the Aaronic priesthood. God punishes his insurgency by having the ground consume him and his family. The rest of the rebels are scorched by fire. Despite the uniqueness of this story, Korah and his wayward followers are not explicitly referenced again in the Hebrew Bible. However, the story of Korah’s rebellion regained popularity and served as a type for later rebellions in a wide variety of early Jewish Christian works. Literature such as Jude, Ben Sira, fragments from Qumran, and Pseudo-Philo all reference this narrative as an example of human sinfulness. This paper examines the use of Korah imagery in early Jewish and Christian literature. It identifies how the various authors used the tradition of Korah and his rebellion in order to lend support for their own respective agendas. Furthermore, it attempts to ascertain what patterns, if any, can be observed in the use of this narrative.


Wine, Debauchery, and the Spirit
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Lloyd Pietersen, University of Gloucestershire

Commentators have puzzled over why the injunction against drunkenness (citing Prov 23:31 LXX) is included by the author at this point in the letter. Some think that there is a specific problem with drunkenness in the Christian community whereas others point to the association between inebriation and ecstasy in the Mystery Religions. Whilst not discounting the relevance of these suggestions this paper argues that the underlying contrast is between competing notions of spirituality. Elsewhere drunkenness is condemned without the intoxicating liquid being named (Luke 21:34; Rom 13:13; Gal 5:21) but here the specific mention of wine in the cited Proverbs text is significant. Drawing on both Hebraic and Graeco-Roman conceptions of the good life and the cross-cultural correlation of wine and human joy, this paper will argue that, for the author of Ephesians, wine and Spirit symbolise contrasting dimensions of lived experience. If wine “makes the heart glad” (e.g. Ps 104:15), then wine appears to be an appropriate symbol for human happiness. But excess wine does not produce greater cheerfulness. By way of contrast, life in the Spirit, for the author of Ephesians, yields ultimate joy and, unlike wine, for him there can be no ill-effects from continually being filled with the Spirit.


“You Clothed Me with Skin and Flesh”: Analyzing Metaphor in Job 10:11
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Dana M. Pike, Brigham Young University

Job 10 continues Job’s third speech, begun in chapter 9 (following the comments of Bildad). After Job’s announcement of his intention to verbally confront God (10:1-2), his accusatory address charges God with creating him only to torment him (10:3-22). Verses 9-12 employ various images to depict Job’s fetal creation as the work of God’s hands. The metaphors employed include God as potter, cheese maker, and weaver. After quickly reviewing the metaphors in verses 9 and 10, I focus on verse 11: “You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.” The latter portion of this verse has received a certain amount of commentary, typically comparing it to Psalm 139:13-18. However, commentators routinely say little or nothing about the imagery employed in the first portion of verse 11: “You clothed [l-b-sh] me with skin and flesh.” In analyzing the meaning and purpose of this imagery, I address two questions in particular: what is intended by the metaphor of clothing someone/something just being created, and what is conveyed by the order of the two images in verse 11—why is clothing mentioned before being knit together? My paper examines both the linguistic and literary dimensions of this passage. I conclude by outlining what I consider to be the most plausible interpretation of this verse and its metaphoric imagery, and how it fits into the larger passage of which it is a part.


Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics in Latin America and Tamez
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Ahida Pilarski, Saint Anselm College

N/A


“I Myself…Am a Slave”: Exploring Romans 7:14–25 as an Example of Paul’s Negotiation of Living within and between Conflicting Cultures
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Edward Pillar, Prifysgol Cymru, Y Drindod Dewi Sant - University of Wales, Trinity Saint David

Within Paul’s letter to the Romans there appears a whole series of cultures that are almost constantly being considered, analysed and reckoned with. So, for example, Paul speaks of Jews and Gentiles; of his obligation “both to Greeks and Non-greeks;” he challenges the “godlessness and wickedness of men;” he considers the faith of Abraham with particular reference to that most Jewish of cultural symbols, circumcision; he is concerned for “the requirements of the law;” and regularly takes up the Imperial term ‘gospel’ to refer to his own ‘message’ concerning Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Paul makes reference to Adam, Moses, sin, death, marriage, government, and slavery – all of which invoke a wide range of cultural ideas and potentially create further complex questions. But what are we to make of Paul’s own cultural negotiations? He comes to us as a Jew, living in the Empire as a citizen of Rome while confessing allegiance to a new Lord, Jesus Christ and announcing a gospel to Gentiles. Within this paper we shall specifically focus on Romans 7:14-25 where we contend we have a particularly personal window into Paul’s own dilemma of living within and between a number of varied cultures – particularly as a disciple of Jesus Christ versus the pressures of life within the Empire. His own struggle to come to terms with the conflicting demands upon him, epitomised by his dramatic outburst, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” will be assessed and we shall moreover be concerned to consider the surprising solution at which Paul arrives.


Healing in the New Testament: Towards Integrating Individual and Societal Intervention Strategies in an AIDS Era
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Miranda N. Pillay, University of the Western Cape

"AIDS is a medical problem with social ramifications. Do you intend giving it a theological twist?" This quote is an indication that any attempt to appeal to first century Christian texts in response to the complexities of the challenges posed by a health-related challenge of the twenty-first century needs careful consideration. HIV and AIDS present challenges to the well-being of individuals and to public health of proportions unprecedented in modern history. While the challenges presented by the AIDS pandemic are scientific and medical, it also has a psychological, legal, economic, social, ethical and spiritual impact on those infected and affected. Over the years there has been a general shift in the attitudes of many religious communities, from “AIDS is a punishment for sexual immorality" to “AIDS is a disease and those who suffer need to be cared for and treated with compassion”. However, there still appears to be a dis-ease amongst some Christians who feel pity for the ‘innocent AIDS orphans’ but blame ‘individuals for bringing the disease upon themselves’ (Pillay 2008a:177). This view about human agency assumes “that individuals can make choices in relative isolation from the broader social environment’ (Pillay 2008b:236; cf.Minkler 1999:126). Over the centuries, the church has used the Bible as a primary resource for justifying patriarchal privilege which upholds male domination and female subjugation in marriage and family relationship. This practice has also shaped gender roles in broader society by limiting (or denying) women access to education, employment and healthcare. Recent scholarship has emphasized the fact that gender intersects all social justice issues – locally and globally – which makes gender power-relations one of the most urgent challenge for society and the church in the 21st century. This is particularly true is the contexts of poverty, domestic violence, human trafficking, rape, sexual harassment, and HIV/AIDS (See Ackermann 2003:184-186; Acckermann 2005:389; Pillay 2003a:116-118; Pillay 2003b: 153-157; Pillay 2005:450-452; Pillay 2008b:212-218; Phiri 2004:60; Khumalo and Lenka Bula 2003:18-21; Dube 2004:12; Haddad 2009:14; Manda 2009:25-28). In this paper I want to illuminate how patriarchal hierarchies of the Christian Church and African tradition exacerbate the tension between individual and societal intervention strategies against the spread of the HI-virus. I then want to explore how virtues such as compassion, care, love, faith and reticence exhibited in the Synoptic healing stories can serve as contemporary theological resources for the tension between intervention strategies based on advocating care for sero-positive individuals and those based on prevention. Here, I will bring my insights as an African woman theologian into conversation specifically with the work of Pieter Craffert, Robin Gill, David Hollenbach, John Pilch, Vernon Robbins and Jeffrey Weeks.


David's Jerusalem in the Literature of the Late Persian Period: Narrative, History, and Scribal Craft in the Book of Chronicles
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Daniel Pioske, Princeton Theological Seminary

The remarkable representation of David’s Jerusalem in 1 Chr 11-29 provides a striking illustration of the techniques utilized by a late Persian period Yehudite scribe to revise the past portrayed within venerable written sources. Though a number of recent studies have offered rich treatments of scribal education and culture in ancient Israel, a notable lacuna in these works has been the absence of a more sustained discussion of the Chronicler’s scribal craft in the context of the late Persian period. With few literary antecedents in the eastern Mediterranean world that approximate the bold revisions the Chronicler introduced to an older, familiar text from his community’s past, the Chronicler’s sophisticated method of both modifying and preserving vivid images of David’s capital captured in Samuel-Kings provides an important intimation of scribal culture in late Persian period Yehud. A central thrust of my paper will be to call attention to a number of intricate literary techniques employed by the Chronicler to accomplish his retelling of the story of David’s capital, including not only the addition and omission of specific scenes from Samuel-Kings, but also a complex reshaping of narrative time used to recast the prominence of David’s Jerusalem and thus promote a central concern of the Chronicler’s work. My paper will then conclude with a consideration of the relationship between the Chronicler’s scribal craft and the context of late Persian period Jerusalem, offering a reflection on how the Chronicler’s portrayal of David’s Jerusalem can also shed light on the intellectual, political, and social history of the Jerusalem within which Chronicles was written.


Review of 1 Enoch 2
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Pierluigi Piovanelli, Université d'Ottawa - University of Ottawa

A review of the Hermeneia commentary on 1 Enoch, vol. 2, focusing on the Parables.


Thursday Night Fever: Dancing and Singing with Jesus in the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior around the Cross
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Pierluigi Piovanelli, University of Ottawa

The recently published Dance of the Savior around the Cross from Kasr el-Wizz is the only independent witness to an episode – Jesus dancing and singing around the cross on the Mount of Olives prior to his arrest – which was previously attested within the context of two larger narratives: the Passion story in the Gospel of the Savior (72-132 = B 107-111 + S 121-123) and John’s retelling of Jesus’ final hours in the company of his disciples in the Acts of John (94-96). The well-preserved text of the Dance of the Savior sheds new light on the extremely fragmentary remains of the Gospel of the Savior. In both cases, what was originally intended, in the Acts of John, to provide the memorial justification for a liturgical celebration of a “Johannine Gnostic” (Valentinian?) community has subsequently been sanitized and recycled in order to produce new apocryphal stories for the orthodox faithful in late antique and early medieval Egypt.


Revelations of a Dream
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College

Since its inception, film has played with the unstable boundary between reality and dreams. While many theorists have remarked on the inherent dream-like quality of film, it is only in recent years that mainstream film in the U.S. has rediscovered unsettling dreams and the cinematic possibilities of virtual realities. These films reflect the multiple realities, simulations, and metaphysical anxieties of our late capitalist world. Films such as Inception (directed by Christopher Nolan, 2010) and eXistenZ (directed by David Cronenberg, 1999) challenge notions of the Real and of Truth with alternative dreamscapes. These films’ dreams or virtual realities offer quite temporary fantasies of other worlds, and they offer unsettling questions about what it is to be human. We want to play with this notion of boundary crossing from these films as a way to explore biblical dreamers and their dreams. Biblical dreamers embark on similar journeys into fantastic spaces, where they encounter divine figures, prophetic symbols, or keys that open a new future. Biblical stories also play with this unstable boundary between reality and dreams, most notably in apocalyptic visions such as the Apocalypse of John. Playing with notions of the Apocalypse as a “dream-book,” we enter into both film and biblical dream worlds to participate in apocalyptic renderings of space and time, reality and fantasy. What happens to us when we enter into John’s dream/s? For these films and the biblical apocalyptic text, it is in dreaming that we venture into layers of alternate realities, and these journeys are always dangerous. Despite the claims of biblical dreams to authority and stability, these worlds are nonetheless unstable dreams of desire, of the future, and the present.


"Sons of Belial" and the Old Greek Text of Samuel-Kings
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Andrés Piquer-Otero, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This paper approaches the phrase "sons of Belial" in the context of its translation in the Septuagint, with a particular focus on the situation of Samuel-Kings. A careful study of the different Greek terms used to render the construction indicates a sequence of interpretations of the noun bly`l and of the structure as a whole. These interpretations should be compared and connected with various conceptions and approaches to sinfulness and evil, from the mundane to the supernatural, in Judaism around the turn of the era, from Rabbinic literature and Greek apocalyptic to witnesses from the Dead Sea Scrolls.


The Last Supper, the Lost Tribes of Israel, and the World to Come
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Brant Pitre, Notre Dame Seminary, Graduate School of Theology

In his new book, Constructing Jesus, Dale Allison makes a powerful case that Jesus saw himself as inaugurating the eschatological restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel—including the lost ten tribes of the northern kingdom (67-76). Allison also agrees with the view that Jesus expected the imminent destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. But how do these two points go together? If Jesus expected Jerusalem and its Temple to be destroyed, to where did he think the lost tribes would be gathered? In this paper, I will propose that while Allison is correct in proposing that Jesus anticipated the ingathering of the lost tribes of Israel, he is incorrect in assuming that Jesus expected an earthly return from exile. Contrary to Allison’s assumption, the earthly city of Jerusalem is not “the presumed destination” of the end of the exile (51). Rather, the evidence suggests that Jesus expected Jerusalem to be forsaken and destroyed (Matt 23:37-39; Luke 13:34-35) and the twelve tribes of Israel to be gathered to the heavenly banquet of the eschatological promised land. In support of this proposal, I will make three points. First, Jesus, like certain other ancient Jews, did not see the earthly promised land as Israel’s ultimate destination. Rather, he saw the eschatological promised land of the “new creation” or “the world to come” as the place to which the twelve tribes would be gathered (Matt 19:28; cf. Isaiah 60, 65-66; m. Sanh. 10:1; b. Sanh. 110b). Significantly, as Allison himself demonstrates, in ancient Jewish sources, the “world to come” is not only an eschatological reality, but a heavenly realm that exists in the present into which the righteous may enter—one that is homologous with “the kingdom of God” (168-204). Second, Jesus, also like other ancient Jews, apparently conceived of the eschatological banquet as a heavenly feast, and no ordinary meal (Matt 8:11-12; Luke 13:28-29; cf. Isa 25:6-9; 1 En. 26:1-6; 62:13-16; T. Levi. 18:10-11; Num. Rab. 13:2; Exod. Rab. 25:8). This feast would mean both “the transcendence of death” and “the ingathering of the people of Israel not only from all places but also from all times” (John Meier). Third and finally, at the Last Supper, Jesus performed a prophetic sign of the ingathering of the twelve tribes of Israel to the messianic banquet (Mark 14:17-25 et parr.). In the midst of doing so, he alluded to the gathering of the twelve tribes at Mount Sinai, which itself climaxed in a heavenly banquet (Exod 24:1-8) that became the biblical prototype for the banquet of “the world to come” (b. Ber. 17a). In short, the Last Supper was no mere farewell meal, but a prophetic sign that has manifold implications for how Jesus understood the ingathering of the twelve tribes and the nature of the kingdom of God.


"It Caused Those Who Ate of It to Come into Being" (Gos. Truth 18,27–28): Christian Origins according to the "Gospel of Truth"
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Catherine Playoust, Melbourne College of Divinity (Jesuit Theological College, UFT)

The "Gospel of Truth" is written for "little children" or "true siblings" who know and are loved by the Father. From the paraenetic sections of the text, these Christians clearly have some sense of themselves as a group of people who care for one another and who share truth and knowledge with those who seek it. Yet when they explain their own origins, they have little interest (at least within the span of the text itself) in the history or sociology of the Christian movement, let alone in particular apostolic figures. Instead, they focus upon two stages of their origin, neither related to their bodily history as individuals. The first is their coming forth from the Father at the beginning. The second is their liberation from error and ignorance through the Son’s teaching and crucifixion, which are figured as acts that make the Father manifest. The first stage has an incipient or potential character, so that it is often the second stage which is called "coming into being", and the situation of ignorance is even regarded as a non-state, a nightmare or deficiency that vanishes when the children are called by name. In explaining the complexities of this two-stage origin, the text employs several images and metaphors, taking care both to safeguard the Father from any blame for the error and ignorance that have so dominated the world and to justify the need for the Son's advent and death in terms of the knowledge of the Father. However, the price the text pays for its emphasis on revelation and manifestation, even to the point of Jesus' being embodied and able to die, is that appearance, change, and perishability take on a higher value than the philosophical presuppositions of the text would at first admit.


Discordant Harmonies: The Traditioning of the Hebrew Bible’s Justice Vision
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
J. David Pleins, Santa Clara University

Early efforts at unpacking the Hebrew Bible’s ethical message focused on two very different paradigms. On the one hand, the attempt to isolate the text’s poverty vocabulary foundered on the assumption that vocabulary could signal social realities and political movements. The debate over the ‘anawim, in particular, followed this flawed logic. On the other hand, the Documentary Hypothesis opened up historical constructions that made the prophets veritable ethicists in a competition with the priestly tradition. More recent efforts that employ social-scientific methods and liberation theology analysis suggest ways out of the older impasses. Ultimately, only an appreciation of the discordant fault lines of the tradition will enable us to reconstruct the traditioning of the Hebrew Bible’s justice vision.


You Have Covered My Head in the Day of Battle: Iconography of Protection in Psalm 140
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Adam Plescia, Catholic University of America

The central literary image of divine protection in Psalm 140 is found in v. 8. The psalmist affirms YHWH’s past protection with the statement, “You have covered my head in the day of battle.” The phrase has no close parallel elsewhere in Scripture. Although it is clearly an image of war, what does it mean exactly to cover one’s head in battle? Some modern translations use the image of a shield (NIV, REB, NET) while others a helmet (NAB). The Hebrew word “cover” (skk) can be used in both concrete and abstract senses, but ultimately the term is ambiguous. This study turns to the iconography of the ancient Near East in order to gain a better understanding of the literary image. A number of motifs illustrate how the psalmist might have envisioned YHWH covering his head. For example, although wings are not explicitly mentioned in Ps 140:8, the many iconographic images in which protection is signified with wings suggest that avian motifs are significant. In particular, this study will explore images in which divine protection is given in battle, including the depictions of Egyptian deities in their pteromorphic form: the falcon, the vulture, the winged sun disk, the winged disk in Neo-Assyrian art, as well as a number of warrior deities from Syro-Palestinian art. Iconographic motifs congruent to the literary image usually have a royal dimension: protection is typically offered to the king in battle. Finally, the study will discuss the overall significance of the image in the context of the psalm.


“The Remnant” and “The Others”: A Reappraisal of Adventist Remnant Theology
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Rolf Poehler, Friedensau Adventist University

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Second Peter's Knowledge of the Transfiguration's Synoptic Context
Program Unit: Extent of Theological Diversity in Earliest Christianity
John Poirier, Kingswell Theological Seminary

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What Is New in Zechariah 3? The Inauguration of the Office of the High Priest between Exilic and Post-exilic Priestly Traditions
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Thomas Pola, Dortmund University of Technology

In the vision of a heavenly scene in Zech 3 (which is a unified text), several pre-exilic institutions undergo a substantial change inaugurated by God himself. Together with the erection of the second temple between 520 and 515 B.C.E. the priesthood and its head were re-established. Whereas in the Priestly Code the priestly hierarchy is obviously well established, in Ez 40-48 the High Priest is not even mentioned. Zech 3 fills the void between these two textual corpora, the Priestly Code and Ez 40-48. It presents the office of the High Priest using the new terminus technicus "hkhn hgdwl" and theologically attaches royal responsibilities to this office. Likewise a prophetical aspect was added: the "hkhn hgdwl" becomes a member of the heavenly council. In addition, the priest has to perform the atonement rituals culminating in the solemn Day of Atonement. Zech 3 demonstrates knowledge of Priestly traditions that were later expounded upon in Ex 25-31, 35-40, and Lev 1-9. Such was the case, as certain details mentioned in the Priestly Code are still missing in Zech 3: there is neither washing nor anointing of the High Priest; there is distinct terminology regarding the garment and the diadem; there is no hint at the covenant of Levi, which represents another step in placing traditionally royal hegemony under the purview of the priesthood (e.g. Num 25:10-13); and the Priestly atonement theology still seems to be in statu nascendi. As Zech 3 presents Joshua ben Yehozadaq as the first High Priest, this vision must have been written before the consecration of the temple in 515 B.C.E. Consequently, the office of the High Priest in the Priestly Code and the Priestly atonement theology in the books of Exodus and Leviticus emerged by accepting the claim of Zechariah's vision that God has inaugurated a new priestly office.


Orality and Writing: Continuum or Nexus?
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Frank H. Polak, Tel Aviv University

The notion of an Oral-Written continuum, originally proposed by Deborah Tannen, implies a perspective that is limited to the discourse produced orally, in writing, or as a “transitional text” (Lord 1995). But when we view the wording as a product of human activity, and when the verbalization process is taken into account, fundamental distinctions make themselves felt. Oral discourse always is the achievement of the performer, for whom the wording is only part of the performance. Performance wise the enunciation is always complemented by gesture, diction and portrayal. The audience forms a group of listeners, who enjoy communal participation in the interactive performance as addressees. Writing and reading of the written text, if meant to be read, does not allow for the same kind of communication and participation. Moreover, the writer does not have gesture and diction at his disposal; portrayal is by description only. The radical difference in activity of oral poet/narrator and writing author means that the oral-written symbiosis has to be described as a nexus (Amodio 2004) rather than as a continuum. From a sociocultural point of view this symbiosis is a phenomenon sui generis, a tertium quid (Bäuml), studied extensively in mediaeval studies as mediality (Schaefer 1992). Mediality includes the commission to writing of an oral text, written composition inspired by oral performance or in the oral style, and writing by the performing artist himself. In any case, mediality implies a common arena to which the performing and the writing poet/narrator have equal access and in which the expertise of the performing poet/narrator plays a dominant role. For biblical narrative this means that the lean, brisk style (or rhythmic-verbal, Polak 1998/2010), which could be described as “oral derived” (Foley) or as “transitional,” is at home in the shared arena of mediality. Both for narrative and for prophetic literature all aspects of mediality are to be taken into account. The elaborate, intricate style (alias complex-nominal) belongs to a different arena, a mileu in which literary verbalization is dominated by scribal expertise. In prophetic literature the medial arena is represented by such books as Amos, Hosea and First Isaiah, whereas the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are transitional in that they include both the medial and the scribal milieu.


Participant Tracking, Dialogue Structure, and Narrative Pragmatics in Classical Biblical Narrative
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Frank H. Polak, Tel Aviv University

In classical biblical narrative the participants are indicated in the setting, and further indication is, in principle, necessary only for the sake of clarity. This principle is particularly clear in the management of the participants, initiator and addressee, in dialogue pericopes, viewed, in accordance with the principles of Conversation Analysis, as an interplay of initiative and response, leading to a transaction (Edmondson; Polak 2001, 2002-3, Hebrew). The way in which the narrator manages participant tracking is conditioned not only by discourse segmentation or discourse structure in general (pace Longacre; de Regt), but specifically by its role in the transaction, as a special aspect of narrative pragmatics (mentioned in a different way by Levinsohn; Runge, and hinted at by Revell). At the outset both initiator and addressee are mentioned by name or epithet (Ruth 1:8; 4:1a). Once the identity of the participants is established the narrator may cease mentioning them even when the subject chnages (Ruth 1:9-10; 4:1b-3), since their identity is always clarefied by the mechanics of turn taking (Sacks and Schegloff). Thus turn taking works as a principle of transphrastic syntax affecting accessibility and anaphora. However, the initiator may be mentioned again if he/she renews the initiative (Ruth 1:11; 4:5), or if the transaction is concluded as expected (e.g., Ruth 4:9). The addressee is mentioned again when her/his counterresponse is in opposition to the proffer (Ruth 4:6), but not when it follows suit (4:4b). Many passages in different corpuses manifest this way of participant management. Special effects are involved when one of the sides has to yield. If the initiator gives in, the narrator may mark this by non-mention of her/his name, even if he/she is renewing the initiative in a new opening (1:15, 18). If the respondent has the upper hand, it is his/her name that is reiterated, even in the closure of the section (Ruth 1:16). Another aspect of non-mention is point of view, such as the non-mention of Meri-ba‘al (2 Sam 9:6, 8), on whom is no more than a passive beneficiary. Non-mention of Jacob’s name highlights his subtle diplomacy vis-a-vis Esau as a helpless and submissive fugitive. In the same way women succeed in overcoming the ostensibly dominant male, such as Rachel vis-a-vis Laban (Gen 31:34-35) and Tamar over against Judah (38:14-22). In such context mention of a participant’s name posits her/him as the person in charge (2 Sam 9:6b-7) or as someone who imagines to be in charge (Gen 38:24). If an action/event sequence is viewed as a sequence of action/reaction, we can discern a similar play with under- and overdetermination, in particular of the successful participant. Although these matters often involve textual variation (Gen 29-31; Num 22:23; 1 Sam 15:27, 30-31), in some of the most complex sections the LXX reflects the same reading as the MT (e.g., Gen 18; 2 Sam 13).


Invariants and Thematic Development in the Narratives of the Patriarchs
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Frank H. Polak, Tel Aviv University

Invariants and Thematic Development in the Narratives of the Patriarchs. Structural analysis still has much to teach about biblical narrative. Comparison of several tales concerning Abraham, Jacob and Joseph indicates a number of recurrent centers of attention, apart from the promise of the land and the descendants, such as the status of the wife, the property of the patriarchs, and the status of the extended family. In a cognitive perspective these elements, which have been noted by Polzin (1975) in a structuralistic theory and Clines (1978) in a thematic framework, represent the cornerstones of the “house” as a socio-economic unit. Thus both narrative comparison and cognitive poetics warrant the structural insight that these elements form the structural invariants of patriarchal narrative. In other words, the proposed structure is not just the reflex of an exegetical mood and a way of reading, but represents central issues in the societal framework. When we follow the development of these centers of attention (the permutations of the invariants) in the narrative, we see that the narratives of Abraham and Jacob, strongly interconnected as they are by contrasts (systemic oppositions), form two panels of a diptych. This diptych is complemented by the Joseph tale, which represents a further series of permutations of those invariants. Structurally the Moses tale embodies further permutations of these invariants and thus parallels patriarchal narrative. Analysis along these lines has important implications for our understanding of the so-called coming into being of patriarchal narrative and of pentateuchal narrative in general. In this prism, patriarchal narrative represents an overarching structure in which the particular narratives fulfill a certain function, as they highlight and flesh out specific centers of attention. In this context one notes in particular that the tales of the “Covenant between the Pieces” and the “Binding of Isaac” do persist in the Abraham tale, even though they do not reveal any connection to historically existing sanctuaries in spite of their strong ritual connotations. These structural function of these tales in the framework of patriarchal narrative is not dependent on ties to certain cultic localities. In this perspective, patriarchal narrative forms an overarching framework, which different narrators through the generations could develop in their own way, by retelling, or by supplementation and substitution of individual narratives, as long as the structural framework was preserved.


The Spirit-Filled Word in the Spirit-Filled Life of Jesus
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Gregory Polan, O.S.B., Conception Seminary College

Throughout the gospels we find the Hebrew Scriptures constantly on the lips of Jesus. The manner in which Jesus uses the Hebrew Scriptures suggests that these Spirit-filled words gave shape to the meaning of his life, vocation, and destiny as the Messiah. This presentation will look at passages in the gospels which suggest that Jesus’ own destiny, voca¬tion and life, guided by the Spirit, were formed by the Spirit-filled words of Scripture. We rightly discern here a connection to the manner in which the Spirit-filled words of Scripture give focus to our own lives as well.


The Covenantal Context of Hatta’t and the Priestly Sacrificial System
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Nehemia Polen, Hebrew College

Jacob Milgrom’s influential view of the hatta’t offering includes a number of interrelated elements: ‘hatta’t’ is ‘purification offering’, not ‘sin offering’; the hatta’t purifies the sanctuary, not the sinner; the sanctuary needs purification because sin attacks it from a distance ; kipper means purgation and is effected by blood, the “ritual detergent.” This presentation will offer an alternative to Milgrom’s ideas, both in their individual elements and their global perspective. The hatta’t provides purification, as well as forgiveness, not because its blood is “ritual detergent” but because it restores right relationship with Israel’s God, whose Glory resides in the Inner Sanctum. The Israelite camp and the tabernacle form a series of nested rectangles whose innermost core is the Kapporet, the epicenter of the entire system. I translate Le-khapper as ‘to apply’/ ‘to make application’, which captures both the physical action as well as the relational significance. The Kapporet is at once that which is applied to cover the Ark, and the target of all the applications of blood, the fluid of life-intimacy that restores covenantal wholeness. There is no need to posit that the removal of the carcass from the camp and burning in Lev. 4:3-21 was for riddance of impurity. Rather, this schema is designed to circumvent what can be called the Paradox of Self-Referentiality: How can the priest act as both subject and object of the ritual at the same time? The paradox is defeated by making use of successive, graded areas of holiness (Jenson). Once the system’s core has been touched, the priest is then restored to his role as mediator. The flesh of the inner hatta’t is not eaten by the priest because he is the petitioner; it thus must be consumed by fire (saraf) but not offered as a sacred offering-of-smoke (hiktir).


“I Want You to Understand Your Book": Mythmaking, Fard Muhammad, and the Lost-Found Nation of Islam
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Andrew Polk, Florida State University

In the present essay, I explore the enigmatic character of Fard Muhammad and the manner in which the mystery surrounding his life allowed a space for open and innovative interpretation for both scholars of America’s Nation of Islam (NOI) and Fard’s successor, Elijah Muhammad. I argue that the inscrutable nature of Fard’s life allowed Elijah Muhammad to center the myths of the NOI on Fard’s own body. Elijah’s reimagined myths, explicitly derived from various aspects of Christian theology and myth, then became concepts whose notions of divine origins, salvation, and purity were incarnated in the black body itself. These embodied myths, made possible by Fard’s deification, set up an alternative paradigm of morality, meaning, and even hygiene for the Nation of Islam. This conceptualization of the Nation’s mythos thus connects mythmaking and ethics to the material culture and lived practices of the NOI in their struggle to imagine and construct their own identity. Moving beyond previous historiographical squabbles over religious authenticity, my essay builds upon, and enhances, the work of numerous disciplines and scholars, including biblical scholar Burton Mack, religious theorist Russell McCutcheon, and historian Herbert Berg. Like numerous traditions within the “Black Church,” Elijah Muhammad re-imagined Christianity in light of the African American experience, but he additionally combined these elements with a form of Islam he had come to know. By interweaving the two religions, Elijah was able to create an amalgam that could speak directly to the perspective of his audience and lift that perspective to a new understanding of the self. By constructing a vision of “Blackness” in mythological language, and founding it on the life and words of a Black god in a Black body, Elijah was thus able to reimagine the Black body as the locus of racial pride, political liberation, and religious expression.


Women between the Lines: Scribal Practices in P.Oslo 1 (PGM 36)
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Elizabeth Pollard, San Diego State University

More than eighty years ago, A.D. Nock wrote of the newly released edition of the Papyri Graecae Magicae from Preisendanz et al. that it “bids fair to be the standard for many years” [JEA (1929), 219]. He was correct. The acquisition of many of these texts in the mid-nineteenth century by libraries in Leiden, London, and Paris led to a surge in publication of critical editions of magical texts, many of which were folded into Preisendanz’s PGM, including such works as Kenyon’s editing of the London texts (1893) and Griffith and Thompson’s work in Leiden (1904). The twenty-first century has seen a return to the grimoires themselves, with new considerations of PGM IV [Betz “Mithras Liturgy” (2003) and LiDonnici, BASP (2003)] and PG/DM XII and XIV [Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites (2005)], to name a few. Owen Davies’ recent book Grimoires (2009) underscores the importance of the history of such texts on their own and not as part of the constructed PGM, even if several of the texts in the PGM may have belonged to a “Theban Magical Library.” This paper shares images and findings from close physical examination of P.Oslo 1 (PGM 36). While S. Eitrem’s editio princeps stands as a model for papyrological publication (1925), the past century of scholarship on Greco-Egyptian magic and modern sensitivities to gender warrant a return to this text. This paper discusses the physical features of the more than eight-foot long P.Oslo 1, the layout of the spells on the scroll, the illustrations on the papyrus, gender-specific interlinear corrections, holy names and scribal notations on the papyrus, and the logic of the spells grouped in this grimoire. Additionally, this paper relates these observations of P.Oslo 1 to recent arguments about the scribes and audiences of other Greco-Egyptian magical handbooks.


The King at the Crossroad between Divination, Law, and Prophecy
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Beate Pongratz-Leisten, New York University

The ancient world view in Mesopotamia held the king responsible for maintaining the equilibrium between heaven and earth, and the welfare of the city, territorial state, or empire directly depended on that harmonious relationship. The balance or imbalance of things was directly linked with royal action and was revealed by means of divination. Not only had the king a personal interest in divination as well as in the preventative methods to avert portentous signs, his role as lawmaker and judge directly intersected with divination as is obvious in the term dinum used for the divine judgment written into the liver as well as for the verdict of the king. This paper will explore the interconnection between divination and law in more depth on the basis of literary texts. A final section will be dedicated to the question of whether prophecy can be considered as an integral part of this cultural discourse.


Josephus on Historical Truth
Program Unit: Josephus
Mladen Popovic, University of Groningen

The idea of historical truth is a fundamental question for working with ancient historians. In modern philosophy of history the concept of truth has evolved e.g. from the idea that doubt brings us closer to truth to doubt demonstrating that there is no such thing as the truth. However, despite whether we can attain historical truth or whether there is such a thing the concept of truth in various ways remains highly important in the writing of history, especially in the form of truth claims. In this regard it is interesting that Josephus claims that he spoke the truth, whether his readers may like his style of writing or not (War 7.455). In recent research on Josephus' history writing, whether narrative composition analysis or source criticism, it has not been taken sufficiently into account as to what this truth claim of Josephus means for how he perceived of his own work in relation to historical truth. In this paper I will reflect on this truth claim of Josephus and set it within the wider context of ancient history writing.


Teaching Bible in Small Liberal Arts Contexts
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Adam Porter, Illinois College

Teaching Bible courses at the undergraduate level is challenging. Students enroll in the class for different reasons. Some take these classes to fulfill a distribution requirement, but have little interest in the topic; how can you share your fascination with the material? Other students are interested in the topic, but dislike a non-devotional approach to the text; how can you teach biblical criticism without being labeled a “faith-buster”? Institutions may have different goals for introductory classes: are they supposed to teach content or transferrable skills? This table will offer participants the opportunity to share both the difficulties they have experienced in teaching Bible classes and the solutions they have developed to address them.


Roman Crucifixion within the Writings of Josephus
Program Unit: Josephus
Brian Pounds, University of Cambridge

The present paper examines what Josephus evinces concerning Roman crucifixion within Palestine, with a focus upon the purposes for which authorities carried out the punishment and the offenses commited by the victims. If not for the existence of Josephus' writings, we would have few sources of crucifixion within a provincial context; however, with the accounts provided by the historian, we are enabled potentially to reconstruct the particular circumstances of numerous crucifixions. Within Josephus' works, crucifixion is carried out by the Romans for the following reasons: (1) to quell violent uprisings that had the intent of replacing Roman rule, (2) to coerce the surrender of besieged cities and fortresses during full-scale revolt, (3) to punish both violent and non-violent actions deemed to be seditious, and (4) to pacify violent conflict between two groups within the province. The overwhelming majority of cases of crucifixion in Josephus' writings occur within situations of extreme political disturbance in which a higher authority (Syrian legate or Roman military commander) than the governor is required to intervene in provincial affairs to restore order. In these cases, the punishment is carried out summarily and en masse as part of sweeping military operations. In the remaining cases, crucifixion is used to eliminate those who are deemed to be challenges to the governor's authority. In at least two cases, some of those crucified seem to have been victims of circumstance (the tyrrany of the governor Florus; the siege of Jerusalem), while in another case, beneath Josephus' stock 'revolutionary' vocabulary, one can infer a situation that is not appropriately categorized as revolt.


How Shall We Remember Amalek? Reading Exodus 17:8–16 for Our Children
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Stephanie Day Powell, Drew University

The cunning attack of the Amalekites in Exodus 17:8-16 stands out as a traumatic memory in the life of Israel. In the text’s reception history, Amalek has often been understood as the embodiment of evil and likened to historical architects of Jewish genocides from Haman to Hitler. Other interpreters, uncomfortable with this totalized characterization of Israel’s enemy, have read Amalek as an extension of all humanity’s yetzer hara or “the evil inclination” (the’ Amalek within’, according to the rabbis). In the post-Holocaust age how should we view Amalek - as the reality of genuine evil in our midst, or a psychic construct who exemplifies our own violent predilections? Is there a "third space" of interpretation in which we might respect the ethical concerns underlying both readings while also reading against the polarized interpretations this metaphorical figure inspires? This paper undertakes an alternative psychoanalytic and literary reading of Exodus 17:8-16 that traces young Israel’s harrowing first attempt to come to terms with its self-in-relation. Drawing upon the theoretical insights of Cathy Caruth, James W. Jones, D. W. Winnicott, Jessica Benjamin and Bruno Bettelheim, I explore how the unfolding of a traumatic "othering" process in the text suggests internal conflicts within post-exilic Israel that mirror our own difficult strivings toward intersubjective relations. From an object-relations perspective, the eternal pledge to wipe out the Amalekites has a paradoxically constructive purpose as Israel secures her existence through "the surviving other." Thus, as a literary representation of interpsychic processes, Exodus 17:8-16 demonstrates a genuine search for the other who is neither cipher nor projection, but an authentic "other outside the self." Properly contextualized, a reading which takes these interpsychic dynamics into account allows us to mine the text for deeper ethical lessons about the productive if precarious need for “othering “in the human developmental process.


Academia.edu: The Past, Present, and Future of Scholarly Social Networking
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Richard Price, Academia.edu

The CEO of Academia.edu offers a brief history of the rapidly-growing social network for scholars and discusses the role Academia.edu plays in promoting scholarship and research today. Dr. Price will discuss new functionality under development at Academia.edu, as well as the future of scholarly social networking and online scholarship.


Remnant Identity Past and Present
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
T. Richard Price, Loma Linda University

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A New Epigraphic Study of RS 15.022+ (KTU 4.141)
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Miller Prosser, University of Chicago

This presentation provides the corrected reading of RS 15.022+ (KTU 4.141), one of the longer Ugaritic economic texts. This corrected reading is supported by photographs and hand copies produced during inspection of the tablet in Damascus in 2004. The most striking findings of this new epigraphic study are the correct decipherment of the title of the text and its columnar division. While it is clear that there are various personal names and vocational groups listed in the text, it is not clear what relationship, if any, they had to each other or to the palace, which is certainly the source of the document. Moreover, it is not clear what role the bunushuma ("men") of the king played in this text or who is being referred to by this term. Also frustrating is the uncertain referent of what would seem to be a summary statement. All these problems are addressed in an attempt to untangle the structure and meaning of the text itself and what it might tell us about the nature of the royal economy. When placed in the context of the larger textual corpus, we consider what the text may indicate about an overall organizational strategy of Late Bronze Age Ugaritian economy.


Revising Karl Barth’s Ethics of War
Program Unit: Karl Barth Society of North America
Matthew Puffer, University of Virginia

This paper investigates Barth’s ethics of war and its reception by placing this discussion within the larger framework of the general ethics of CD II/2 and the special ethics of CD III/4. It gives careful attention to the infamously problematic “exceptional case” to illumine what sort of “exception,” if any, the provocative passages on war entail. The outlines of Barth’s ethical framework and the borderline case, with particular attention to the problematic translations and reception of the Grenzfall, provide the background for the re-evaluation of three common interpretations of his views on war. Barth’s primary concern for witness eventuates in an imperative to work toward a just peace--an active pursuit he perceives as the human action corresponding to the reconciliation achieved in the person of Jesus Christ through his work of free obedience for us--that is, the enactment of God’s command.


Jacob and the Jinn: The Concept of Secret Names Connecting Two Scriptures
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Nicholaus B. Pumphrey, Claremont Graduate University

The Hebrew Bible and Qur’an develop out of an Ancient Near Eastern world. Other than the blatant character and narrative similarities, both texts retain similar concepts based on their geographical and cultural origins. One of the main concepts in a Semitic mindset is secret knowledge as an ordering of society and secret names as a correlation. Deities and humans name objects as an ordering of society and creation, such as the deity in Genesis as well as Adam naming the animals in the Qur’an and Genesis. The knowledge of the “true” name of these higher, naming beings is kept secret in order to keep order. If another being stole this true name, he or she could use the power of the name for beneficial or malevolent means. Taking this common folkloristic motif, this essay examines the nature of the wrestling match between Jacob and a stranger in Genesis 32. The two major interpretations of the identity of stranger result in either angel or man. The text intentionally makes the figure ambiguous by first stating that the figure is a man but then states that Jacob describes it as god, which is generally explained by redactional hypotheses. However, considering the parameters of the match, Jacob’s blessing, and his question for the name of the stranger, it is evident that the battle surrounds the significance of names and using the Qur’an and common folklore, the stranger is a jinn from Islamic lore rather than a man or angel of the Hebrew Bible. Given that the jinn are similar to the lilitu of Akkadian, the Hebrew Bible is intentionally being ambiguous in order to hide a being connected to the ANE that is easier understood through an Islamic understanding of monotheism.


A Material Base for Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation in Africa?
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Jeremy Punt, Stellenbosch University

On the African continent, neither Marxist biblical interpretation nor postcolonial biblical interpretation thus far succeeded to inspire either biblical scholars in particular, or Bible readers and users generally. This paper investigates this apathy by considering the materialist base of postcolonial theory. Beyond positing cultural reasons (favouring African Theology), political sentiment (with a focus on Black Theology, albeit mostly limited to Southern Africa), or religious inclination (associations between Marxist reading and political regimes, or between postcolonial interpretation and philosophical moorings) for disillusionment with Marxist- and postcolonial interpretation reception in South Africa, is the more pressing question not perhaps about the relationship between the two?


Voice Cries to Voice: Dialogue and Unity in Job
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Hugh Pyper, University of Sheffield

The relationship between the Prologue of Job and the speeches continues to be a source of controversy. In this presentation, we hope to show that Bakhtin's concepts of dialogism and of the chronotope can support a reading that makes the connection clear. Voices from the Prologue are taken up in the speeches in a new chronotope allowing both continuity and contrast. Furthermore, it turns out that the issues of identity, language and world-creation that Bakhtin considers in his discussion of chronotope are also at the heart of the problematic of the book of Job. The presentation will stage a double-voiced dialogue between the voices of the prologue and the book and also between supervisor and student as readers of Job.


St. Peter and the Pearly Gates: The Engagement of Biblical and Pop Cultural Literacy and Illiteracy in Teaching the Bible
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Phil Quanbeck II, Augsburg College

Phrases like “getting it” or “connecting the dots” have become slang expressions describing the difference between understanding a larger whole or failing to grasp a picture. Scholars like Steven Prothero, Timothy Beals and Kristin Swenson are among a number of authors who have proposed the need for a biblical literacy within the wider culture including the academy. British Philologist David Crystal in his book Begat argues that the language of the King James Version has permeated the English language with many unaware of the biblical origins of popular usage. It is also the case that some pop cultural readings attribute things to the Bible which are not there. I would like to pursue two complementary questions: In what ways does biblical literacy affect the understanding of popular culture and in what ways does attention to popular culture serve to enhance the reading of and engagement with biblical texts in fresh ways? To that end I propose to examine the popular cultural notions of St. Peter and the Pearly Gates. This is a popular cultural image transmitted in some kinds of popular pieties as well as jokes, cartoons, movies, allusions and idioms. I will look at the way this theme plays out in terms of popular expectations of what the Bible says about Heaven and Hell and the afterlife or the role of the NT figure of Peter. I will then propose a way of using this long-standing popular-cultural tradition as an entrée to leading students into biblical texts and the interpretive traditions of those texts with special attention to pedagogical use. I will also demonstrate how attention to biblical texts provides students with a way of understanding popular culture.


Loving One Another Because One Has Been Loved First (Joh. 13:34): Ethical Enabling in the Johannine Corpus in the Context of Early Jewish Ethics
Program Unit: Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
Volker Rabens, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Love is the center of Johannine ethics. However, the question how one is able to love others has scarcely been asked in Johannine studies. Therefore, this paper asks the question: how is religious-ethical life empowered in the Johannine corpus? By way of answer I want to show that in John (focusing on the Fourth Gospel), religious-ethical life is enabled through the experience of divine love. Moreover, a number of early Jewish traditions, most prominently Philo Judaeus, show distinct parallels to this mode of ethical enabling. In the first part of the paper I will elucidate what I mean by “the experience of love”. This will partly be done by interacting with Jan van der Watt who argues that in John the basis of love is not an emotion but “functional relations” that are expressed in actions. I will suggest that the concept of “intimate relationships” works better for describing the nature of the interactions and transactions of love in John. This nuance can help explain why in John Jesus’ love not only functions as model but also as the enabling basis of the disciples’ love. The emotional and the empowering aspects of love will be discussed both on the basis of the narrative of the Fourth Gospel as well as from 1 John. In the second part I will show that Philo is at heart a theologian for whom the intimate experience of God is of paramount importance. The transforming and empowering effect of an intimate encounter and relationship with God is clearly expressed in various texts (e.g. Poster. C. 12–13; Quaest. in Exod. 2.7; Gig. 49). This indicates that the Johannine corpus was part of a milieu in which ethical life was often implicitly or explicitly understood to be enabled by divine love.


The Implications of Archaeological Models of the Growth of Judah for Early Prophetic Literature
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Jason Radine, Moravian College

The widely different archaeological pictures of the history of ancient Israel from the tenth through the eighth centuries that have been proposed in recent years have significant implications for the origins and emergence of early prophetic literature in ancient Israel. In the Low Chronology model, Judah and Jerusalem experienced new growth beginning in the ninth and to a much greater extent in the eighth century. This may explain why biblical prophetic literature does not appear from earlier periods. A re-examination of the books of Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah in light of these archaeological developments may reveal much about the social and political conditions about which these books were concerned, as well as new insights into their historical assumptions about Israel's past. One such insight is on the historicity of the United Monarchy; while the books of Kings trace the cause of Israel's fall back to events connected to its supposed secession from the United Monarchy, the early prophetic books may present a different picture of Israel's history, one more in line with recent challenges to the existence or scale of a Jerusalem-based monarchy. In those books, the United Monarchy appears only indistinctly if at all, and the crimes of the North are more connected with the Omride period.


The Genealogy of Jesus in the Book of the Cave of Treasures
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jesse Rainbow, Harvard University

The Book of the Cave of Treasures (the Cave) presents a genealogy from Adam to Christ that includes not only the names of the lineal male ancestors of Jesus, but also the names and lineages of their mothers. As the author of the Cave observes, this makes the genealogy the single most extensive list of Jesus' ancestors ever constructed—a claim that still stands. The author of the text invests the genealogy with considerable significance by pointing out that prior to the composition of the Cave, "from whence [Jesus’ ancestors] took their wives, and whose daughters they were, neither the Syrian writers, nor the Hebrews, nor the Greeks has been able to show us." This paper investigates how the author of the Cave assembled a genealogy that extended far beyond its Gospel sources (both Matthew 1 and Luke 3 have influenced the text), and in many cases, beyond what could be gleaned from Christian scripture as a whole (i.e., both testaments). Previous approaches to the text have focused on the sources—-or when that quest has failed, the etymologies—-of the non-biblical names in the extended genealogy. This paper, in contrast, looks at the larger structure of the genealogy, identifying several patterns, and then attempting to describe the social world those patterns reflect. The paper concludes that the genealogy is patterned neither on the culture into which Jesus was born, nor on the culture of the Cave’s author, but on an imagined culture that was inspired by several discernible inferences from scripture. In other words, the genealogy is undergirded by an exegetical reconstruction of the culture of Jesus’ ancestors involving such matters as endogamy and gender.


“Their Peace or Prosperity”: “Hereditary Punishment” as Another Rationale for the Exclusion of Foreigners in Nehemiah 13
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Brian P. Rainey, Brown University

"Hereditary punishment,” will be a term employed to describe a variety of biblical scenarios in which an act or event has negative repercussions on a person’s or people’s descendants. The nature of the punishment can vary widely from low social status (Gen 9:25-26; Josh 9:23) to recurring, debilitating pollutions (2 Sam 3:28-29), to permanent inability to have social relations with Israel (Deut. 23:4-9; 25:17-19), to outright destruction of one's lineage (the karet penalty; 1 Sam 3:13). This paper argues that Deut. 23:4-9, which prohibits Ammonites and Moabites from entering the qehal YHWH, and says that Israelites may not “seek their peace or prosperity” constitutes a “hereditary punishment” and that Neh. 13:1-3 uses the idea of “hereditary punishment” in this passage to assert that the “people(s) of the land(s)” are permanently excluded from the social and cultic life of the exile community. The author of Neh. 13:1-3, as a editor, accomplishes this by positioning Neh. 13:1-3 so that it interprets the conflicts between Nehemiah and non-Judeans in Neh. 13:4-31 as being analogous to the behavior of Ammon and Moab in the wilderness. One of the distinctive rhetorical functions of "hereditary punishment" is its ability to single out certain groups and not others for special punishment. In Deut. 23:4-9, Ammon and Moab have been singled out for particularly harsh punishment, in contrast to Edom and Egypt. In the same way, Neh. 13:1-3 asserts that the people(s) of the land(s) have been singled out for particularly harsh punishment because their behavior is analogous to the obstructionist actions of Ammon and Moab. Furthermore, because of the sense of “heredity” inherent in “hereditary punishments,” for the author of Neh. 13:1-3, the alienation of the people(s) of the land(s) is a consequence of who they are qua members of an ethnic group under punishment, and not a because of “religious” concerns about the potential “idolatry” of non-Judeans, in contrast to what earlier strands of Nehemiah emphasized (13:26-27).


Aquinas, Psalm 2, and the Four-Fold Sense of Scripture: A Study in Medieval Reception of Scripture
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Charles Raith II, Baylor University

This essay explores the reception of Ps 2 during the medieval period and the effects of the four-fold sense of Scripture on the text’s interpretation and use by looking to the exegesis and theology of Thomas Aquinas. I briefly analyze Aquinas’s commentary on Psalm 2 and reflect on his “literal sense” interpretation in which the Christological elements, although present, are deeply muted. I then turn both to his commentary on Hebrews and his Summa theologiae to explore the ways the “spiritual sense” interpretations of the Psalm become embodied in Aquinas’s theological reflection. By moving from the literal sense to the spiritual senses, I reflect on how this follows Aquinas’s own stated interpretive methodology that seeks to root the spiritual senses in the literal. In terms of the spiritual senses, I look in particular to the way Aquinas employs Ps 2 to address: (a) the eternal engendering of the divine Son, (b) the universal “rein” of Christ as human; (c) whether Christ’s persecutors knew who he was; (d) the sin of derision. I then reflect on Aquinas’s engagement with Ps 2, indicating some of the assumptions underlying Aquinas’s interpretation necessary for such an interpretive methodology and asking whether his use of Psalm 2 in theological reflection adheres to his own stated interpretive principles. I conclude by asking whether his interpretation has anything to offer our reading of Psalm 2 today.


Bardaisan of Edessa: A Syriac Theologian between Christian Middle Platonism and Judaism
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Ilaria Ramelli, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

This contribution illustrates and interprets the figure of Bardaisan of Edessa between Middle Platonism and Christianity, and between Syriac Christianity and Judaism. In particular, it investigates the ways in which Bardaisan interpreted the Genesis account of creation in the light of Plato’s Timaeus and of Middle-Platonic categories. The analysis is based especially on the fragments preserved by Porphyry and on the so-called cosmological traditions. Yet the analysis also includes some passages from the work of Ephraem the Syrian. Some of this material allows one to highlight some interesting parallels to Jewish exegesis of the creation account in Genesis.


The Pseudepigraphic Correspondence between Seneca and Paul: Its Composite Nature and Different Functions in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Ilaria Ramelli, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

For the third, open session, I would propose a paper on the pseudepigraphic correspondence between Seneca and Paul. A close analysis of the allusions to the NT therein confirms what I had already supposed on other (philological, linguistic, historical and religious-historical) grounds, namely, that two of these letters were added afterward. The provenance and use of the NT allusions in the two added letters (notably, one of these is also the *only* letter in the correspondence that suggests Seneca’s “conversion” to Christianity) is completely different from those of the original corpus. This points to two different dates for the original corpus and the later additions respectively, and two different receptions and functions of these letters in the early Christian communities from which they originated.


Enter Sophia: Wisdom in Proverbs and the Wisdom of Solomon
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Karen Rangel, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

Though the character of Sophia appears in several books, her personality is quite distinct in each. The difference between Sophia’s character in Proverbs and in The Wisdom of Solomon lies in who holds the agency. Proverbs shows a woman who is calling and waiting on humanity. Humanity seeks Wisdom, enters her house, and grasps her. The agency for attaining wisdom lies with humanity. In contrast, the agency in the Wisdom of Solomon lies in the hands of Wisdom herself. It is Wisdom who enters. The personification of Wisdom in Proverbs and the Wisdom of Solomon show that, not only does the agency change hands from humanity to Wisdom, Wisdom changes from a woman controlled by others to a woman who reveals herself when she wants, to whom she wants.


Historical Criticism and the Authority of History
Program Unit:
Rebecca Raphael, Texas State University

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Transformed Inside and Out: Bodily Permutations in 1 Enoch
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Rebecca Raphael, Texas State University

This paper examines bodily representation and transformation in the collection known as 1 Enoch. Although a composite work, it shows a sustained use of body imagery to elucidate its cosmology and eschatology. Rather than pass over this imagery as symbolic, I propose to take it seriously as a product of, and as rhetoric for, a belief system in which different beings have different forms of embodiment. First, the imagery shall be employed to develop a typology of bodies (heavenly beings, Watchers, monsters righteous humans, wicked humans). This typology will provide the basis for examining hybrids, e.g. the Watcher-women offspring, animal hybrids in the cow dream, etc. Next, the passages of bodily transformation shall be surveyed; these include the disposal of the Watchers, the burning of the wicked, and (I shall argue) the resurrection of the righteous. In the context of representations of embodiment, resurrection appears as an aspirational body, i.e. the form of embodiment for which the righteous are encouraged to hope. Throughout, the ambiguous figure of Enoch, the translated man, presides over these multi-forms and trans-forms, even as the narrative maps different embodiments on to different cosmic locales or eras. The literary analysis shall then permit an historical assessment of how the imagery clusters in different strata, with particular attention to two issues in Second Temple Judaism: the text’s (or strata’s) position on bodily manipulations, including medicine, as either culturally approved or culturally intrusive; and the motif of stellar imagery for resurrection.


“The Bible Told Us Every Girl Is Sour”: Hip-Hop Polyphony as a Pedagogical Tool for Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Chris Rapko, Candler School of Theology

Interpretations of scripture performed by Hip-Hop artists predictably vary from artist to artist due to the artists’ utilization of varying experiences and sources for composition. This polyphony is pedagogically valuable for teaching interpretational methods of the biblical text, which is polyphonic in nature. Using Hip-Hop as a pedagogical tool makes possible new culturally relevant interpretations of scripture for a community that has been neglected historically by biblical interpreters. This paper will argue that the intersections between scripture and its interpretations in Hip-Hop songs hold special pedagogical value. One such intersection is the varying images and understandings of women in both the Bible and in Hip-Hop songs. This paper will examine instances of Hip-Hop artists using scripture to perpetuate misogynistic images of women, and, after contrasting these misogynistic images of women with positive images, will argue that Hip-Hop resists essentialization of the discourse on the imaging of women by “sampling” from an intricate history of themes that often are in disagreement. Next, this paper will examine the varying scriptural voices concerning women, arguing that in the same way that Hip-Hop resists essentialization regarding the imaging of women, scripture’s polyphonic discourse concerning women resists essentialization. The fact that both Hip-Hop and scripture exhibit polyphonic discourse encourages responsible interpretations that resist simplistic and essentialist imaging of women on the basis of scripture. These interpretations reach out to a community that is often neglected by biblical interpreters.


The "Woman at the Window" in Iconography, Biblical Literature and Material Culture from Ramat Rahel
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Keren Ras, Tel Aviv University

The beautiful stone window balustrade fragments found at the site of Ramat Rahel during the excavations of Y. Aharoni in the 1950's and 1960's, have been published more than five decades ago. Additional fragments have been uncovered by the renewed archaeological expedition. However, despite the fact that the "woman at the window" is among the most researched motifs associated with the Biblical world, this data was not taken into consideration. Whether it be through the 8th century ivory iconographic depictions or the literary biblical portrayals of Jezebel, Michal and Siserah''s mother, scholars have long been fascinated with this powerful image of a female face gazing from an enclosed frame, yet paid little attention to these important architectural finds. Iconographic and biblical scholars seem to concur that the "woman at the window" motif is rooted in depictions of the divine, and that it should be viewed as symbolizing some form of a female deity or an earthly representation of such. Commentators have associated this image with the cultic roles of the queen mother in the ancient Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (Ackerman 1998). Despite this agreement the biblical accounts of women at windows have been much more thoroughly researched than the iconographic depictions or the related archaeological finds, resulting in a wider verity of interpretations. This paper will reexamine the iconographical motif, primarily depicted on the ivory reliefs found at Samaria, Nimrud and Arslan Tash in order to highlight its main characteristics. In addition, the physical material architecture fragments found at the site of Rama Rahel will be presented and a comparison between the archaeological artifacts and the biblical accounts will be made. This examination will engage with the questions of meaning and development of this motif.


Rereading Amos: 9:11 as Commentary on 5:26
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Matthew Rasure, Harvard University

In this paper, I examine the collection of images and promises used in the final verses of Amos (9.11-15) with the goal of showing that they are not simply taken from some stock concept of what is good or hopeful; rather, each of the images of restoration are chosen because they are used previously in the book amid the oracles of doom and destruction. That is, Amos 9.11-15 consciously re-reads and reverses a subset of the curses pronounced earlier in the book. In one particular case, this act of re-reading sheds some light on early understandings of an crux that has long posed a problem in the interpretation of the book of Amos; namely, the infamous phrase sikkut malkekem in 5.26.


Pornographic Representation in the Acts of Paul and Thecla
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Rosie Andrious-Ratcliffe, King's College - London

The APTh is a text of ‘alterity’; a text with a difference. It was contested in antiquity partly because aspects of it represent a different cultural expression. It recounts the unusual story of a woman who renounces marriage and motherhood, and rejects the advances of males, in a public forum. The characterisation of Thecla as an empowered woman, who asserts her own will and desire and rejects the societal norms of marriage and motherhood, is celebrated among scholars working on women in early Christianity. However, despite her rebellious nature and commitment to chastity, to the male viewer Thecla is eroticised; at times quite sadistically so. This sadistic eroticism is graphically depicted in a number of scenes where Thecla is stripped naked, forced to ‘mount’ the pyre, threatened with rape and paraded through the streets and arena as an object of voyeurism. When Thecla, with God’s miraculous help, repeatedly manages to evade death, she is humiliated even further by being tied naked by the feet between two bulls. One need only conjure up the image of a beautiful naked woman, tied by the legs between two bulls, in the middle of an arena full of clothed spectators. If this were a contemporary scene depicted in pictures or in a film, how might the image be defined or interpreted? There is little doubt that the heroine within the text is regularly exposed, in often degrading ways, to the gaze of readers and others in the narrative. In this respect the text sets up an ambivalent presentation of Thecla as someone who, on the one hand is obstinate and rebellious, a thinking acting subject, but who on the other hand, predominantly presents as a silent, powerless victim/object. Thecla may go against socially accepted gender norms, but in many ways her representation still functions as a symbol of femininity that sits comfortably within patriarchy. Reading the text with an eye to these constructions, and utilizing contemporary feminist theorizing about pornography, I aim to assess the underlying ideology, values and prejudices embedded within the text, and to explore how the construction of representations persuades readers and orients them to a particular worldview. My primary concern here is to determine the underlying sexual politics played out in the text. In looking at the text's rhetorical effect what we find is a notion of sexuality that objectifies women and demonstrates a great chasm of inequity between the male and female. By utilizing contemporary feminist theories about pornography I hope to show that despite modern technology and its use in producing very graphic pornography, modern conceptions of what constitutes pornography are not so separate from certain scenes depicted within the text.


Rewriting Jeremiah "Before the Womb"—A Meditation on Reading against the Telos of Redaction
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Yosefa Raz, University of California-Berkeley

This paper will consider chronology in the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah, both as way to thematize the contradictory forces of succession and interruption exerted on this particular text, and as a potent site for reflecting and questioning the scholarly hermeneutics of traditional redaction criticism. Though close attention will be given to the historical palimpsest of the chapter, I argue against a Romantic privileging of the first layer as more authentic or worthy of analysis. Rather than attempting to excavate the lost object at the heart of the redacted text, (i.e. layer A/ the authentic oracles of the prophet) this paper will consider the late redactions of Jeremiah 1 as preservers and authors of a fantasy, a shadow, a set of anxieties, in the face of enormous social and national ruptures. The focus of the paper will be on the chronology of the superscription (vv. 1-3), in juxtaposition with the chronology of the call narrative (vv. 4-10). Both passages are implicitly concerned with succession, whether monarchic or prophetic. Though Moses is not mentioned by name, many of the conventions for prophecy are taken from the Moses narratives, or DtrH notions of the Mosaic prophet. So that the “conversation” the chapter has is both with the oracles of chapters 1-25 and previous Deuteronomistic conventions about prophecy. I argue that the paradoxes, disjuncts and fantasies of the chapter comprise a landscape of "weak prophecy," a belated deuteronomistic and post-deuteronomistic reimagination of prophecy in the shadow of more successful prophetic modes. Though later redactions of the text can be read as post-event justifications of a failed institution, a new redaction criticism which reads the text against the grain, can reveal the creative possibilities generated by late attempts to regulate, rewrite and form the text anew.


Persecution without Suffering: Christian Identity in Apocalypse of Peter (NHC VII, 3)
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Pamela Mullins Reaves, Duke University

In this paper, I examine how the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter (NHC VII, 3) promotes a distinctive Christian identity that centers on the experience of persecution, yet rejects the value of physical suffering. Like many ancient apocalypses, Apoc. Pet. responds to a situation of (perceived) oppression. In this case though, fellow Christians, rather than foreign authorities, present the threat. Informed by social identity theory, my analysis of Apoc. Pet. considers evidence for such intra-group conflict, emerging ground boundaries, and expressions of social identity, particularly as these elements relate to persecution and potential suffering. I demonstrate how Apoc. Pet.’s apocalyptic perspective lends to the identification of its audience as persecuted; physical suffering, however, is not celebrated as part of the plight. Rather, the author appears to criticize fellow Christians, likely those in positions of power, who encourage martyrdom. A brief consideration of Apoc. Pet.'s Christology reveals why the author might question the value of such a suffering death. In addition, I suggest that the characterization of Peter not only challenges the traditional authority ascribed to him in proto-orthodox circles, but also (re)defines Peter’s role as a critical witness, or martyr. With no reference to his “future” death as a martyr, Apoc. Pet. centers on Peter’s role as the recipient of the Savior’s significant message. Apoc. Pet. thus offers valuable insight on early Christian debates over the value of suffering and, more specifically, martyrdom. In addition, the polemical nature of Apoc. Pet. suggests that these were critical issues in the construction of divergent, often competing, Christian identities during the second and third centuries.


Withdrawing the Mind from the Body
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
M. Jason Reddoch, University of Cincinnati

In Philo of Alexandria’s allegorical treatise De migratione Abrahami, there is a specific description of the prophetic experience of divination through dreams (Migr. 190). This passage occurs in the context of discussing the journey from Chaldea to Haran as an allegory for a spiritual journey to self-knowledge. As one continues to progress, one may experience prophetic dreams when the mind is able to withdraw from the senses and other corporeal burdens during sleep. Philo further explains that the freedom of the mind from the body entails the purging of sensory images. After this, the mind’s eye is able to see truth “as if in a mirror.” The reference to the withdrawal of the mind from the body during a prophetic experience is also a prominent feature in Cicero’s De divinatione, where there are other parallels to Philo’s treatment of prophetic dreaming. Philo’s use of the imagery of the mirror is a reference to Plato’s Timaeus where a physiological explanation of divination is described in terms of the reflective capacity of the liver. Philo’s description of divination through dreams is notable for its emphasis on the relationship between spiritual progress and the internal changes which result from progress and thus make this religious experience possible. The details of Philo’s description of the process of divination through dreams are remarkable for their emphasis on both the mental and the physical. Thus Philo combines an understanding of personal spiritual development with psychological and physiological phenomena. Regardless of the validity of the process of divination described by Philo, his holistic approach provides an interesting model for contemporary investigations. Religious experience is neither an isolated event nor the product of any single factor; rather, it is a psychological and physiological experience, which should be examined in the context of an individual’s personal development.


Enigmatic Dreams and Onirocritical Skill in De Somniis 2
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
M. Jason Reddoch, University of Cincinnati

In De somniis 1-2, Philo describes three categories into which biblical dreams should be organized, and his three classes of dreams are characterized by increasing levels of obscurity and enigma. Whereas the meaning of the first category of dreams is totally clear, the third category is difficult to understand and requires skill in dream interpretation (oneirokritike techne). Unfortunately, the relationship between Philo’s classification system and his corresponding exegesis of the dreams which fall in those categories has not been well understood, and it is unclear how Philo determines which dreams are enigmatic and require onirocritical skill. By examining Philo’s vocabulary relating to dream interpretation in some key passages in De somniis 2, where Joseph’s dreams are placed in the third category, I would like to suggest that there is a close relationship between the characteristics which Philo attributes to the third class of dreams and his exegesis of the larger biblical narratives in which Joseph’s dreams are found. Philo is not referring to his own evaluation of the difficulty of the dreams or to his own ability to interpret the dreams. In other words, when Philo refers to onirocritical skill, he is not referring to his allegorical exegesis at all. Rather, Philo looks for evidence within the biblical narratives that suggests that Joseph had trouble understanding his dreams and in turn, required assistance to interpret them. For example, Philo emphasizes Joseph’s hesitation and confusion when recounting his dreams to his family as evidence that the dreams were particularly difficult for him to understand. Surprisingly, when Joseph’s family responds indignantly to his descriptions of his dreams, Philo treats these responses as an indication that they possess the necessary onirocritical skill. Thus Philo’s classification system is not just an organizing device for his treatises on dreams and actually relates directly to his treatment of the text.


“No Jew nor Greek”? The Surprising Metaphorical Privilege of Jewish Identity in Galatians
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Abigail April Redman, Vanderbilt University

In Galatians 3.28, Paul apparently erases distinctions which separate Jews from non-Jews, claiming “there is neither Jew nor Greek.” But whether Paul envisions an end to ethnic, cultural, social, political, or theological distinctions between Ioudaios and Hellen is not immediately clear from the context. Although many scholars have found in Galatians 3.28 evidence of Paul’s radical egalitarianism, the apostle’s rhetoric in Galatians relies heavily on ethnic metaphors to depict the new community of Christ-followers. Rather than doing away with ethnic divisions, Paul repeatedly capitalizes on distinctions that separate Ioudaios and Hellen, and he categorically privileges Jewishness. Following Jonathan Hall, Anthony Smith, and Daniel Boyarin, who establish the myths of genealogy and autochthony as the building blocks of ethnic identity, I argue that Paul urges the Galatians to reject their ethnic (Gentile) past and adopt a reimagined Jewish identity in order to become part of the metaphorical family of faith. In Galatians, Paul eschews the concrete markers of ethnicity, but he nevertheless employs ethnic reasoning through figurative descriptions of a new spiritual family of God. He transforms the measurable realm of circumcision, demonstrable genealogy, or the performance of traditional rituals into figurative expressions of identity: the mark of this new family is neither on the body (circumcision), nor in blood ties (claiming descent from Abraham), nor in social or cultural observances (keeping kosher or observing the Sabbath and other “special days”) but in the spirit. In this family, the Galatians are “brothers” who have received adoption into God’s family. Paul provides them with mythical ancestors, promises them a great inheritance, and names them citizens of a great city, the Jerusalem above. A “third race” has been figuratively born, and Paul employs ethnic reasoning to give familial coherence to an otherwise diverse group of Christ-followers.


Teaching Beyond Death: Textuality, Memory, and Pedagogy in Testamentary Literature
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Annette Yoshiko Reed, University of Pennsylvania

This paper will consider narratives about the preparation for deaths by biblical patriarchs as a nexus for anxieties about memory and transmission within testamentary and related parabiblical literature, occasioning the articulation of ideals of pedagogical and other practices aimed at ensuring the continued preservation of knowledge from generation to generation. To explore these dynamics, I shall focus on the interplay of writing, orality, exemplarity, and imitation in the narrative depiction of the last speeches of biblical patriarchs to their children, as well as reflecting upon the various types of authorial claims found within testamentary literature.


What Corinth's Ara Pacis Tells Us about the Imperial Cult
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
David Wheeler-Reed, University of Toronto

Classical archaeologists have known for some time that a copy of the Ara Pacis likely existed in Roman Corinth. This paper will examine the ideological features of Rome's Ara Pacis and relate those features to what is known of Roman Corinth from the 1st C BCE to the end of the 1st C CE. The purpose of this exercise will be to elucidate elements of Corinth's Emperor Cult through the artistry of the Ara Pacis. Moreover, this paper will examine the impact of the Emperor Cult on the everyday lives of Corinthian citizens.


Experiments in Secular Biblical Studies: Burton Mack as Pioneer
Program Unit:
Randall Reed, Appalachian State University

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Family Violence and Christian Identity in Mark 13:7–12 and Matt 10:17–22
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Caryn A. Reeder, Westmont College

In Mark 13:7-12 and Matt 10:17-22, Jesus warns the disciples that, in addition to official action against them as his followers, their families will turn them over to the authorities to be executed. Biblical and Second Temple texts make use of family violence to establish, protect, and control the identity of the larger community (cf. Deut 13:7-12; Exod 32:25-29; Philo, Spec. Laws 1.314-318; Josephus, Ant. 4.309-310; etc.), and this paper proposes that these traditions provide one lens for interpreting Mark 13:7-12 and Matt 10:17-22: Jesus’ disciples face family violence for what is, in the eyes of their family members, the corruption of “Jewish” identity. Of course, in gospel perspective this violence represents the unjust persecution of the faithful followers of Jesus, and thus paradoxically empowers its victims. In Mark 13:7-12 and Matt 10:17-22, the potential victims of family violence appropriate the violence to further a Christian identity as righteous sufferers imitating the model of Jesus himself.


The Bible Software Shootout 2: Wyatt Earp or Rodney King?
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Keith H. Reeves, Azusa Pacific University

This brief paper will lay down ground rules for the Bible Software Shootout 2.


Royal Space and "National" Ideology: The Hasmonean Palaces in Jericho
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Eyal Regev, Bar-Ilan University

The four Hasmonean palaces in Jericho, excavated by the late Ehud Netzer, are analyzed in order to explore the kind of ideology manifested in the courts and structures built and used by John Hyrcanus, Alexander Jannaeus, Queen Salome Alexandra, and their successors Hyrcanus II and Arustobulus II. Did their courts reflect their royal status¸ luxury and hospitality, or did they portray a more common, egalitarian or "national" style? Were the Hasmoneans advocates of Hellenistic art and architecture or did they restrict themselves to traditional Jewish ethos? The architecture of the palaces is compared to other Hellenistic palaces, especially the early Herodian ones in two different ways: (1) Examining the palaces' general measurements and the extent of their public halls (courtyards and traclinia); (2) Spatial analysis of their structure using Hiller and Hanson's Space Syntax Theory, commonly called Access Analysis. The ceramic assemblage found at the palace complexes is studied using socio-anthropological theories of food consumption and dining. The numerous pools and bathhouses are discussed, taking into account anthropological perspectives of private bathing and public swimming. It will be shown that the palaces indicate a rather complex royal ideology. The architecture of the palaces is modest in comparison to early Herodian and Hellenistic palaces, and their spatial structure is quite segregated. They contain many Jewish ritual baths and a limited use of Hellenistic motifs. The pottery is extremely plain but the numerous amounts of tableware attest to meals of many participants. However, the many Hellenistic bathhouses and swimming pools point to an inclination towards a royal Hellenistic posture. It is suggested that the Hasmoneans sought a certain balance between the two tendencies. The display of prestige was limited to outdoor pools and gardens, which could be shared with a large number of visitors and introduced as the gift of nature, carrying a more 'national' character. These results should be compared to Josephus' (and Nicolaus') description of the Hasmoneans as Hellenistic rulers.


Zion and David in the Hymnbook of Freedom
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Stephen Breck Reid, George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University

Jerusalem was just another town. David was just another shepherd boy. Until a poetic performative act transformed the average into the special. Hans Mol describes a process sacralization that creates dominant institutions as the embodiment divine legitimation of a location and political office. Christl Maier and Mark George have examined this process of sacralization of place with some reference to the role the Psalter played. The sacralization of politics through the Davidic metaphor finds expression through Wilson understands of the “royal frame” in the compositional history of the Psalter. This paper will demonstrate how the “royal frame” functions in the anti-imperial hymnbook (Zenger) in concert with a move to develop Jerusalem as a pilgrimage center. David and Zion began together as emerging ideologies/sacralizations and return as an anti-imperial tandem in the Persian period.


Human Rights and International Law in the Book of Amos
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Reinhard Achenbach, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

As a consequence of the monotheistic creed the question for JHWHs position with respect to the non-Israelite peoples arose. The increasing amount of wars and of international exchange provoked questions about justice and legal regulations in the field of diplomacy, treatment of foreigners, treaties and laws of war. The paper investigates the correlation between the prophet’s original message concerning the protection of personae miserae and the oracles against the nations in Amos 1-2. The latter are early records that give evidence about the discussion of problems of international law in antiquity.


Johannine Scholarship Today: The North-American Scene
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Adele Reinhartz, Université d'Ottawa - University of Ottawa

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Scribal Habits of 9th Century Latin Scribes When Copying New Testament Greek Manuscripts
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Bob Relyea, Independent Scholar

While Latin scribes of the 9th and 10th centuries did not copy many Greek New Testament manuscripts, some of the manuscripts that they did copy provides us with a unique opportunity to examine their scribal habits in detail. There are 2 manuscripts, the Codex Sangermanensis (GA 0219, Dabs1) and Codex Waldeccensis (GA 0220, Dabs2), which are both copies of the still extant Codex Claromontanus (GA 06, Dp). There are also two manuscripts which are copies of a now lost common manuscript, Codex Augiensis (GA 010, Fp) and Codex Boernerianus (012, Gp). These 5 manuscripts gives us a unique ability to look at their scribe's habits with more fidelity than the singular reading approach of Colwell and Royce. This paper examines these habits, including codicological changes, using a fragment of Ephesians and the letter to the Galatians. It will then compare these results to the the singular reading approach to scribal habits used by Royce in Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri.


Repetition with Variation: Element of Style and Facet of Performance
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Gary A Rendsburg, Rutgers University

Lines repeat throughout the Bible, both in prose and in poetry, but almost always the repetitions are with variation (witness, for example, Gen 19:33, 35; Ezek 37:16; Ps 49:13, 21; Ps 107:6, 13, 19, 28; the refrains in the Song of Songs, and numerous other passages). These variations serve two purposes: a) a literary one, to allow the author to demonstrate his virtuosity, as he/she often employs atypical grammar and unusual lexical items; and b) a performance one, to allow the reader/presenter/performer to engage his/her audience, through a series of ‘mind games’ (for lack of a better term), thereby demanding that the listeners remain alert during the recitation.


Up, Up, or Away? Exploring Vertical and Horizontal Conceptualizations of Sacred Space in Ezekiel 40–42
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Jacob Rennaker, Claremont Graduate University

Ezekiel 40-42 describes a rather unique temple that stands in the midst of the land of Israel. Even within this quintessential sacred space, there are different degrees of holiness as one progresses through the temple. While almost all recognize the importance of graded holiness in Ezekiel’s temple vision, there is no consensus among scholars regarding the spatial paradigms used to express this sacred space within the temple compound. This paper will examine both the vertical and horizontal literary representations of graded holiness in Ezekiel’s description of the temple compound. This examination will take into account both the suggestions made by scholars regarding these themes, as well as other heretofore unrecognized aspects of the text in order to determine the legitimacy of these two competing views. The discussion of vertical sacred space will focus on the spatial language used by the author. In addition, this paper will take into account the author’s use of mythical and cosmological imagery that is evocative of Mesopotamian conceptualizations of a vertically-aligned temple and cosmos. In the discussion of horizontal sacred space, I will give primary attention to narratives within the Hebrew Bible and Priestly imagery, especially as they resonate with depictions of Eden and a closely associated horizontal emphasis reflected in the layout of the sanctuary (with the holy of holies at the westernmost position within that building). Following this discussion, I will look to a unique piece of Neo-Assyrian iconography in order to reconcile these two opposing scholarly conceptualizations of sacred space within Ezekiel’s expansive temple vision, allowing the significance of both views to be held by both ancient and modern audiences.


Jewish Teachers, Stoic Teachers, and the Gospel of Matthew
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Boris Repschinski, Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck

On occasion both the practice and the content of NT teaching has been related to forms of teaching in popular Hellenistic philosophy. Most recently Stanley Stowers has proposed that the teaching in the gospel of Matthew may be related to Stoic traditions. Stowers' arguments will be examined closely and related to the Jewish context of Matthew's gospel.


I See Dead People: The Post-mortem Vision Motif in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Bennie H Reynolds III, Millsaps College

Recent years have seen important, if sometimes contradictory, work on how ancient Jewish and Christian scribes authorized their engagements with older texts and traditions. One of the most prominent and best studied literary techniques is pseudepigraphy. This paper attempts to understand another literary strategy that is in several cases related to the practice of pseudepigraphy. The post-mortem vision motif brings the dead back to life – at least literarily – and presses them into the service of scribes. It cuts across biblical, parabiblical, apocryphal, pseudepigraphic, and other texts from ancient Judaism and Christianity. This paper contains three main sections and seeks to understand the structure and broad significance of the motif. I use motif-historical and rhetorical analysis, the latter specifically informed by Umerto Eco’s notion of the “model reader.” In the first section, I survey the available evidence for the motif: in which texts do the living fraternize with the dead? In the second section I outline the literary super-structures of the motif in its different embodiments. I suggest there are two basic types of post-mortem visions. In the third section, I ask if the function of the motif changes if the example involves a living person appearing to the animate dead (in, e.g., an otherworldly journey) or the dead appearing to the living (on earth). My primary test-cases for section three are the appearances of Onias III and Jeremiah in 2 Maccabees and Abraham’s appearance before the dead in the Testament of Abraham. These primary examples help to contextualize and organize the larger pool of evidence from 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch, 3 Baruch, the Apocalypse of Peter, Philo’s On the Cherubim, Mark, Luke, and Acts. I argue that while post-mortem visions can be profitably organized into two basic categories, their functions and agendas are more varied and can only partially be deduced by formal classifications.


What Linguists Wish Biblical Scholars Knew about Language
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Richard Rhodes, University of California-Berkeley

Many developments in our understanding of the phenomenon of human language over the last 50 years have pinpoint relevance to understanding ancient texts. They shed considerable light on matters of translation and theology, but nonetheless remain largely unknown to biblical scholars. Nowhere is this more true than in the areas of meaning (semantics) and language use (pragmatics). Developments in semantics and pragmatics enable us to understand things in ancient texts that have been lost in transmission, for example, the use of expressions based on s? ???e?? as a distanced way of saying yes. Language is highly redundant, and that redundancy allows us to use large corpora to learn the meanings of expressions in ways analogous to the ways children learn. As an example, I will show that ?p?t?µ?? traditionally glossed ‘rebuke’ actually means ‘tell (someone) to stop’ in NT Koine, but ‘reprimand’ in LXX Koine (as in late Classical Greek). The linguistically naïve perception of language is that it is much simpler than it actually is. In particular, meaning is very complex, involving both reference and framing. Much of what an expression means is in the complex mental structures that a word evokes – its reference. The amount of information in explicit language is sparse relative to the meaning conveyed. This has important implications for accuracy in translations. The part of meaning that resides in expressions is the framing. Words like kill, murder, assassinate, and execute differ in framing not in reference. The reference of expressions in Biblical languages is, for the most part, accurately understood, but the framing isn’t. Finally, every Bible scholar has learned the texts either in his or her native language or through it. As a result scholars know the texts, but don’t really know the languages. Linguists know that language is both ambiguous and precise. On points in focus very precise distinctions can be made, but not everything can be in focus all the time. Not really knowing the language, scholars often get focus and framing wrong and misread the texts.


The Judeo-Christian Lasterkataloge and Hellenistic Lists of Emotions: Patterns of Convergence between Didache 3:1–6, Doctrina Apostolorum 3:1–6, Canons of the Holy Apostles VII–XII and Aristotle
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Luiz Felipe Ribeiro, University of Toronto

Ever since the publication of Siegfried Wibbing’s Die Tugend- und Lasterkataloge im Neuen Testament: und ihre Traditionsgeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Qumran-Texte, in 1959, the research into the Christian urkatalog did not quite recover from the insistence that it should be identified in uncontaminated Jewish documents. Wibbing sought in the Rules of the Community the Jewish mould from which much of the Pauline lists of virtues stemmed from. He also saw the dualistic framework present in the ethics of Qumran pullulating in the vice and virtue catalogues of the Early Christian literature. With exception to the Pastoral Epistles catalogues and the catalogues of virtue found in 2 Peter 1.5-7 and Philippians 4.8, a Hellenic or Stoic flavour was nowhere to be found. This paper contends that disallowing a comparison between the Judeo-Christian lasterkataloge and Stoic/Stoicized ethical lists was premature. In dialogue with the scholarship from the last decade which aimed to recover the impact of Hellenistic moral philosophy in Early Christianity, ? such as John T. Fitzgerald’s et. al. collected essays Passions and moral progress in Greco-Roman thought, ? the paper wishes to demonstrate to what extent the popular moral psychology of Stoic influence surfaced in Early Christian ethical lists. Revisiting the vice catalogues of the Two Ways Document (Did. 3.1-6//Doctr. 3.1-6// Canons VII-XII), the paper points out compelling patterns of convergence between the My Son ethical lists and the lists of pathe found in Aristotle’s Ars Rhetorica, Diogenes Laertius’ Chrysippian and Zenonian catalogues of emotions and its Roman Stoic counterparts in Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations. Finally, attentive to the formative importance of the second register of the Decalogue for its vice catalogues, the paper contends, via Philo’s De Decalogo, that the Two Ways Document saw no disparity between Zeno and Moses. The ethics of the second table of the Decalogue is presented as an antinomy to the Hellenistic passions and vices. It could be that, for the Didachist and the Doctrina, just as in Philo, the Decalogue stood as a path for virtue and salvation, being instrumental in the struggle against the perils of certain emotions. Or perhaps looking at the subject from a juridical perspective, if according to recent literature Philo wants to demonstrate the extent to which the Jewish law really is more than a national code of laws, that it constitutes the very Law of Nature, the Implanted Reason which aids men in their pursuit for the good ? then perhaps the Two Ways exhibits a similar juridical rationale. One in which the Decalogue encapsulates the regulatory powers of reason, and that it in itself excludes the principal and subsidiary passions, antipodes of the path of virtue in Stoicized Hellenistic philosophy.


Modifying Mark’s Passion: Luke’s Use of Rhetoric to Amplify the Guilt of the Jewish Leaders
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Peter H. Rice, Baylor University

As Mikeal C. Parsons notes, scholars have longed recognized the appropriateness of applying ancient rhetorical models to the speeches of Luke-Acts, even while expressing reluctance to apply similar insights to the narrative portions of Luke-Acts, despite the fact that ancient rhetoricians freely employ a variety of written genres to illustrate and teach rhetoric. This study follows the lead of Parsons and others in analyzing narrative portions of the Gospel of Luke in light of the progymnasmata tradition. It proceeds by making use of an under-examined exercise from the progymnasmata: common-place (koinos topos), an exercise in amplifying wrong-doing or, less frequently, brave deeds. Specifically, this study contends that Luke modifies Mark’s telling of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion according to the headings of common-place (the Opposite, Comparison, Pity, Final Headings, etc.) in order to amplify the wrongdoing of Judas and, in particular, the Jewish authorities. The study pays particular attention to Lukan additions to and rearrangements of Mark’s narrative. Among the findings offered are: 1) a reinterpretation of the standard Noble Death theme in light of the heading of The Opposite; 2) Lukan Comparisons between the Jewish leaders and four individuals or groups—all to the former’s denigration; and 3) that the Third Gospel sculpts Jesus’ death according to the Final Headings of the Just, the Honorable, and the Expedient. The Final Heading of the Expedient, however, resists Luke’s rhetorical efforts to amplify the Jewish/Jerusalem leaders’ guilt, a rhetorical problem which Luke attempts to solve through a two-fold strategy. This study seeks to demonstrate, among other things, that reading the Third Gospel through the lens of common-place explains a number of Lukan modifications to Mark’s passion narrative. Might Luke’s use of this technique, if established, also offer an indication of Luke’s intended audience?


Jehu in the Most Ancient Edition of the Deuteronomistic History
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Matthieu Richelle, Faculté Libre de Theologie Evangelique

Various studies have been published recently with regard to the way Dtr dealt with his sources concerning King Jehu. However, these works are generally based on the Masoretic text, whereas there exist huge differences in other textual traditions in 2 Kings 9-10. As a result, there is a risk of ascribing to Dtr some redactional work on certain verses, that pertains in reality to later scribal activity or subsequent editions. This paper is an attempt to integrate recent progress in the textual criticism of 2 Kings into the composition criticism of the Deuterenomistic History, in order to study Dtr redactional techniques (building on my recent book Le Testament d'Elisée: Texte massorétique et Septante en 2 Rois 13,10-14,16; Cahiers de la Revue Biblique, 76; Pendé: Gabalda, 2010). By taking account of important differences in the most ancient edition of the DH, a somewhat different picture of Jehu emerges. In particular, an entire passage (2 Kgs 13,14-21*) involved probably Jehu and not Joash, and was seemingly located in chapter 10 (as in the Old Latin). This corroborates the existence of a Deuteronomistic frame around the Jehu narratives, already identified by D. Nocquet (Le livret noir de Baal; Genève: Labor et Fides, 2004), and it allows us to extend it. In addition, my results lead me to interact with the work of D.T. Lamb (Righteous Jehu and His Evil Heirs; Oxford: OUP, 2007) and L.W. Beal (The Deuteronomistic's Prophet, LHBOTS 478; London: T and T Clark, 2007).


Suspicious Strangers and Hidden Heroes: Fallen Angels in Popular American Fiction and Biblical Text
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Amy Richter, Saint Mary's Seminary and University

Themes of identity, the “other” among us, and the battle between good and evil are popular in contemporary American fiction based on the myth of rebellious angels who leave heaven to mate with women and give birth to part-angel, part human offspring called nephilim. The myth appeared in pseudepigraphical writings of Second Temple Judaism, and seems to be an expansion of the story of the “sons of God” and “daughters of men” found in Genesis 6:1-4. According to the expanded version of the myth, evil enters the world because of angels’ bad behavior. The deity intervenes and sends obedient archangels to capture the fallen angels and destroy their dangerous offspring. But what if some nephilim survived? What if they continued to procreate with humans and gradually lost some of their more obvious attributes? What if over generations nephilim started to look more like normal humans and could blend in, walk among us, attend high school, and invite their classmates to participate in dangerous-sounding adventures that might just lead to the ultimate triumph of good over evil? Answers to questions such as these are taken up in several recent books, including these young adult bestsellers: The Fallen (Sniegoski), Fallen (Lauren), and Hush Hush (Fitzpatrick); and the adult novel, Angelology (Trussoni). The theme is translated to screen as well: Lauren’s Fallen has been optioned by Disney and Sniegoski’s The Fallen was made into a mini-series by ABC. Some authors refer to the Bible or to the pseudepigraphical texts within their work; others do not. This paper provides an example of a way to encourage students to engage in careful reading of biblical texts through tracing the development of the themes of identity, the “other,” and the battle of good versus evil as seen in the Genesis story, expansions and developments of the story in literature from Second Temple Judaism, and in current bestselling fiction. The presentation of the paper will include examples from contemporary fiction, written and video.


The Use of the New Testament in Coptic Manichaean Sources
Program Unit: Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Siegfried G. Richter, Institute for New Testament Textual Research, Muenster

The Coptic Manichaean literature is inspired by several books of the New Testament. But it's a question whether this fact can be used to support the case for Christian roots of the Persian religion. Especially in the new published corpus of letters of Mani the links to the Epistles of Paul seem to be very strong. But also in the Homilies and Psalm-Book the various use of Christian writings is obvious. In analyzing the form of reception several ways of dealing with Christian literature have to be distinguished. The use and transformation of parables and verses show the integration or adaption of the Christian New Testament into the Manichaean religion in several cases. However, the very center of Manichaean thought is to be localised behind the scenes. In the paper the various possibilites of reception will be ordered in groups. An analysis of the skillful techniques of transformation into their own worldview offers an appreciation for understanding the way of thinking Manichaean scholars had.


Mark 10:42–43 and the Stereotyped Greco-Roman Rhetoric of Barbarian Tyranny
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Aaron Ricker, McGill University

Mark 10:42-43 looks self-explanatory to most commentators: "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you" (cf. Matthew 20:25-26; Luke 22:25-26). The rhetorical thrust of this teaching depends on a sharp antithesis: legitimate (Jewish-)Christian authority versus barbarian tyranny. This paper shows that biblical scholarship has uniformly – and wrongly – accepted this contradistinction at face value. The rhetoric of Mark 10:42-43 is dependably read as a benign instance of (Jewish-)Christian xenophobia, deployed against "pagan" – and especially Roman – rulers. The main problem with this consensus reading is that defining legitimate authority in opposition to barbarian tyranny was a well-established and popular Roman rhetorical habit at the time. The stereotyped insult of barbarian tyranny was everywhere in Greco-Roman culture, from schoolboys’ textbooks to the popular theatre and the Senate floor, as has been shown exhaustively in the work of classicists like Roger J. Dunkle and Nigel M. Kennel. In this paper I therefore review the development of this stereotyped insult in Greek and then Greco-Roman popular rhetoric, as a tool used to define and defame both outsiders and unwelcome insiders. I then note its similarly evolving forms and functions in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Jewish literature that inherited it and redeployed it liberally in Jewish polemic and apologetic, including especially the works of Josephus and the latter books of the Maccabees. With this Greco-Roman and Jewish rhetorical context in mind, I offer an analysis of the most likely form and function of the sterotyped insult of barbarian tyranny in the Greco-Roman Jewish rhetoric of Mark 10:42-43.


The Unseen Image of Edessa: Palladium, Propaganda, and Polemic
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Meredith Riedel, University of Oxford

The Mandylion, an object both relic and icon, is first mentioned in a Syriac legend of the fifth century, the Doctrina Addai. This legend tells the story of King Abgar Ukkama (‘the Black’), the ninth King Abgar of Edessa, who sent a messenger named Ananias (Hannan in Syriac) to Jesus Christ requesting a healing miracle for Abgar’s gout. Jesus replied by letter, promising a cure and guaranteeing the eternal safety of the city. Abgar’s emissary also brought back a cloth bearing the image of Christ, which was either painted by the emissary during his conversation with Jesus, or presented to him as a gift after Jesus had wiped his face with it. Both variations – the painted cloth and the one marked by sweat – occur in the Syriac. In the sixth century, it was ‘rediscovered’ walled up in a gate of the city of Edessa. In the tenth century, over the vehement objections of the people of Edessa, it was translated to Constantinople and deposited in the imperial chapel. Although no longer visible to the public, its cultural weight remained evident in liturgy, hagiographical writings, and painted churches. It disappeared after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. This paper proposes to suggest the varying ways that this famous object functioned. In Edessa, it became an object that represented the foundation of Christian faith tradition in Syriac. In the eyes of those in Constantinople, it was a highly desirable palladium imbued with a double portion of Christ’s power, which made it to shine more brightly, surrounded as it were by the darkness of a perennially hostile power. For the emperor who commemorated its translation to the Byzantine capital, it was a source of legitimation, an object of liturgical ritual and a tool of propaganda. This paper will explore the power of the presence of the object, even in its visual absence, for emperor and church in the 6th-10th centuries.


Christians in the Roman Army: From Decimation to Domination
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Meredith L. D. Riedel, University of Oxford

Roman soldiers in the first two centuries CE who converted to Christianity often faced a dilemma between their calling and their faith. By the early fourth century, these two identities were no longer seen as inevitably in conflict, although the Church Fathers did not rate a military career very highly. The transformation of the Roman army into a Christian one was slow. However, as the ethnic composition of the Roman legions became more diverse – German and Hunnic cavalry were recruited after the Roman humiliation at Adrianople in 378 – and the world changed from a polarized situation (Rome versus the barbarian) to a multi-ethnic one, the Roman army also changed. Based at Constantinople by the end of the fifth century, and using not just Latin but Greek terminology, the army rallied around Christianity as its source of identity, a difference that was highlighted when fighting non-Christian peoples. The emperor Maurice (r. 582-602) composed a military manual specifying how to fight against various peoples. After the rise of Islam, his ideas were copied and expanded by the next emperor to write a guide for Roman generals; this manual, however, emphasized the status of Roman soldiers as Christians fighting for God and kingdom, and drew distinctions with the Muslim enemy they faced. This paper proposes to trace the development of this change in the Roman army from primarily pagan to candidly Christian, giving particular attention to the authority of military command structures in motivating soldiers to fight with courage despite the risk of death.


Hos 4.12b–14: ZNH, a Signifier of Non-Yahwist Religious Praxis?
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Irene E. Riegner, Independent Scholar

The stem znh, generally translated as "prostitute, be promiscuous" is often used as a metaphor for Israel's alleged apostasy. If non-Yahwist praxis is worthy of serious punishment, "prostitution" should be a heinous crime, but in the decalogues and in Lev 18 and 20, prostitution is neither criminal nor illegal. The outstanding sexual crime is adultery, a capital offense and a powerful metaphor against non-Yahwist praxis. Without evidence of sexual rituals in Canaanite religion and widespread prostitution, arguments built on this conjecture—that znh refers to Canaanite cultic sexual rituals and prostitution—need revision. In this paper, I argue that znh has a second meaning, "participate in non-Yahwist religious practices." Utilizing concepts from cognitive linguistics, Max Black's network of associations and Gilles Fauconnier's blending, I explore the textual environment surrounding Hos 4.12b-14. The target word, znh, acquires meaning from surrounding source words which, in turn, direct our understanding of the target; moreover, each source word has a "system of associated commonplaces" with implications and relationships that also affect the target. In Hos 4.12b-14, the words surrounding znh point to non-Yahwist practices: "err, stray" and "[away] from under their god" (v. 12b); references to sacrifices and smoke offerings at the high places "under a great tree" (v. 13a); "and with holy women [q'desha] they sacrifice" (v. 14). The causal conjunction of 4.13b, "therefore, on these conditions," which connects v. 13b with the non-Yahwist activities of v. 13a plus the use of the piel, also support a non-Yahwist milieu for znh. Moreover, vv. 12b-14 are embedded within a larger unit, vv. 1-19, in which Hosea critiques contemporary Israelite religious attitudes and practices. These encompass negative attitudes towards the Israelite god, Yahweh, and references to non-Yahwist practices. "...and no loyalty and no knowledge of [the Israelite] god...." (v. 1); "misdeeds," a reference to practices directed to deities other than Yahweh (v. 4.9); "abandoned Yahweh" (v. 4.10b); divining (v. 12a); "...they will be ashamed of their sacrifices" (v. 19). The language immediately surrounding znh in Hos 4.12b-14, the source words, and the language in the larger pericope, Hos 4 1-19, become part of the content and meaning of the target word znh, a collection of non-Yahwist ceremonies and their locale "Adultery" is the only sexually explicit word found in these verses. Beneath the charge of adultery are the marriage metaphor and images of unfaithfulness and betrayal. Using parallelism and inclusios, Hosea blends two "spaces," the znh "space" of non-Yahwist practices and the adultery "space" with its attendant commonplaces of criminality, betrayal, and the death penalty. In doing this, Hosea restructures the reader's understanding of non-Yahwist praxis by making it an activity that is implicitly illicit, sexual, and criminal.


The Upside to Feeling Down? Mesopotamian Deities and Their Sentiment
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Andrew Riley, Xavier University

Emotion (human and divine) is a common feature in biblical and Mesopotamian documents. Both gods and people are happy, sad, angry, regretful, and so forth. In the Hebrew Bible, authors consider wrong many instances of negative human emotion, while they ostensibly laud and deem appropriate negative divine emotion. Can one say that Akkadian scribes think the same about Mesopotamian deities’ negative emotion? This paper endeavors to answer this question by exploring the divine portraits of Enlil (in the Epic of Gilgamesh), Anzu (in the Anzu Myth), Tiamat (in the Creation Epic), and Nisaba (in Nisaba and Wheat).


Ecosemiotics: Jesus and the Fig Tree
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Christina C. Riley, Drew University

As human animals, we are just beginning to understand the way that nonhuman semiotic processes of signification and communication work. Language precedes us, the human animal, and as scientists and semioticians are just coming to understand, even plants, which precede even the animal, have their own systems of semiotics. After briefly tracing the development of and arguments for the field of ecosemiotics, I perform an exegesis of how systems of semiotics functions within the pericope of Mark 11:12-14; 20-24. Many scholars have only identified the eschatological or judgmental aspects of the pericope, a reading that has essentially been “against nature.” These interpretations tend to render the fig tree culpable for not performing its “duty” and also typically treat the fig tree as metaphor for a human community (Israel) or a human institution (the temple), thus depriving it of its own integrity. I intend to execute a counter-reading of the fig tree episode that instead demonstrates continuity between the human animal (Jesus) and nature (the fig tree) through their shared ability to perform semiotic functions. The fig tree exhibits a number of semiotic functions in the pericope. In other words, the tree mediates its relationship with its own environment, its umwelt, a process which can be read in much the same way that human animal processes of semiotics can be read and interpreted. I suggest that through these shared processes of semiosis, the binary divide imposed between “human,” on the one hand, and “nature” on the other, is disrupted. Thus, this reading of the fig tree narrative not only engages the Earth Bible’s Principle of Interconnectedness but is also inspired by Thomas Berry’s notion of understanding the Earth and its inhabitants as a “communion of subjects.”


Reconfiguring the Akedah and Lamenting God: Mark's Theological Narrative of Divine Abandonment
Program Unit:
Matthew S. Rindge, Gonzaga University

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Theological, Religious, and Sociopolitical Aspects of Lament: Fight Club, Lament Psalms, and Mark 15:34
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Matthew S. Rindge, Gonzaga University

This paper seeks to construct a mutually critical dialogue between the film Fight Club (1999, d. David Fincher), Psalms of lament, and Jesus' cry of dereliction (Mark 15:34). After comparing the use of lament language in specific scenes in the film to lament Psalms and Mark 15:34, I demonstrate (drawing on Westermann and Brueggemann) how the film can be illuminated when it is understood as a lament of divine abandonment. Moreover, I show how the film, when read in concert with biblical laments, functions religiously and theologically as a lament of late 20th century American culture. The function of the film as a lament provides hermeneutical lenses for addressing two contested issues in Markan scholarship: the theological and sociopolitical implications of Jesus' final cry from the cross (Mark 15:34). I thereby provide a model of how biblical texts can help interpret a film, and how a film can serve as a window into (re)interpreting a biblical text.


Feminist Biblical Interpretation and Tamez
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Sharon Ringe, Wesley Theological Seminary

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Teaching Empire: Gospel of Luke
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Sharon Ringe, Wesley Theological Seminary

This paper will explore teaching matters relating to imperial negotiation in Luke


Iron IIB/C Walls on the Western Slope of the City of David
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Ken Ristau, Pennsylvania State University

In their 1927 season at the City of David, Crowfoot and FitzGerald (1929: 12-26, pls. I-IV/A; XXII) excavated a narrow trench on the western slope of the southeastern hill, uncovering two massive walls, which they called “gate towers.” Based on the massive size of the towers, Crowfoot and FitzGerald suggested that they were originally constructed in the Bronze or early Iron Age. Ussishkin (2006) has recently challenged the date and the very nature of the gate towers, arguing that they were constructed as a substructure in the first centuries B/CE. My re-examination of the evidence demonstrates that neither the initial interpretation nor the reinterpretation is correct. Instead, the available evidence points to an Iron IIB/C date for the gate towers.


The Shifting Sensorium and Biblical Texts
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Ian Ritchie, Wycliffe College

Walter Ong’s work, along with others, called attention to shifts in the ways cultures value the senses in relation to each other, giving more or less authority to one sense against another at different times and places in human history. This field of knowledge, while growing significantly in the field of anthropology over the last twenty years, due to the work of David Howes, Constance Classen and Anthony Synnott, has still to make a significant impact in the field of Biblical studies. Evidence suggests that translations of texts such as Isaiah 11:3 concerning the messiah whose “smell(ing) will be in the fear of the Lord” have shifted significantly between the 16th century and the 19th, not due to any improvements in the textual apparatus, or texts, or knowledge of the original language, but more because shifts in the sensorium of the translating cultures have made certain ideas seem impossible that once seemed quite reasonable. Thus, when we investigate “the texture of texts” greater mindfulness of shifting sensorial orders will help translators and readers to touch the deeper layers of meaning in the texture of any text.


Carnivalizing Sinai: A Bakhtinian Reading of the Story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Charles M. Rix, Oklahoma Christian University

The story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32 bewilders and bewitches. With fast paced episodes, inverted characterizations, mayhem, laughter, and improbable violence, this topsy-turvy tale of a community's response to trauma suddenly interrupts a long stretch of priestly text detailing instructions for building a tabernacle and ordaining a priesthood. Traditional readings of the story foreground the people’s sin of idolatry which occasions the wrath and forgiveness of their deity YHWH. However, the laughter in the story-world and the narrative’s inverted characterizations suggest the potential for alternative readings. Applying Mikhail Bakhtin's literary concepts of polyphony and carnival to Exodus 32 reveals that the story bears the marks of comedy and a literary carnival. As the story of the calf interrupts a serious priestly landscape that is anxious about the body, the tension inherent in the priestly regulations resolves into a comic story about people, priests, a mediator, and a deity whose bodies have been set free and are now caught up in the joyful relativity of all that is carnival. Through the application of Bakhtin’s literary notion of polyphony to the literary landscape of Exodus 20-40, we see that the intrusion of carnival into the priestly world of laws upends its serious and hierarchical nature and creates a polyphonic space. In this polyphonic space, two unmerged voices, one priestly the other story, move in counterpoint to each other as together they explore the idea of the special YHWH-human relationship. Thus, in reading Exodus 20-40 polyphonically, we experience a literary carnival that continues to turn an isolated priestly world inside out thereby opening up new vistas for exploring the nature of the human-divine relationship. Carnivalizing Sinai provides insights into the relationship between comedy, carnival, and trauma and how the Bible reflects on approaches to the human-divine relationship that attempt to control the vibrancy and unpredictability of human experience. For every law, there is a calf.


Sociorhetorical Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Vernon K. Robbins, Emory University

Thi RRA Group session will offer a showcase in a public forum of what we do in sociorhetorical interpretation and how we do it. In each session (one per year) we will examine a short text in a seminar format. This year's text is "the Lord's Prayer".


Cognitive Aspects of Social Practice in Matthew's Gospel
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Erin Roberts, University of South Carolina - Columbia

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Kierkegaard and Lazarus
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Kyle Roberts, Bethel University

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Paul as Failed Ideologue: Deviance in Romans 14–15 and Dialogue with Trypho 47
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Ronald D. Roberts, Brite Divinity School

Using the symbolic interactionist approach to deviance, particularly labeling theory, this paper analyzes Rom 14:1–15:13 as Paul’s attempt to counter attempts at identifying observance of the Mosaic Law as unacceptable deviant behavior for Christ-followers. According to John M. G. Barclay’s reconstruction of the likely historical situation behind Romans 14:1–15:13, the weak are Law-observant Christ-followers and the strong are non-observant Christ-followers. A radical segment of the strong push for the exclusion of Law-observant Christ-followers from their churches. Although Paul identifies himself as a strong Christ-follower, he instructs both strong and weak to accept one another. Thus, Paul acts as a moral entrepreneur working against the strong’s campaign to treat as deviant the Law-observant weak. Paul appeals to the moral value of equality in order to promote his vision of an ethnically diverse church containing both Law-observant and non-observant Christ-followers. Paul, however, shows favoritism toward the strong and subtly criticizes the weak, and this favoritism and criticism contributes to the increasing marginalization of the Law-observant Christ-followers. Chapter 47 of Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho provides evidence of the status of Law-observant Christ-followers within the second-century, Roman Christ-movement. In particular, Justin draws upon Paul’s language and ideas in Rom 14–15, 1 Cor 8–11, and Galatians to explain to Trypho his conditional inclusion of Law-observant Christ-followers into the so-called “orthodox” churches. Justin exaggerates Paul’s favoritism toward to those who do not observe the Law in order to marginalize further Law-observant Christ-followers, particularly Christ-following Judeans, in a way Paul would likely find unacceptable. Both Justin and Paul recognize that many non-observant Christ-followers consider Law-observant Christ-followers to be deviant Christ-followers. In fact, Justin only includes the Law-observant within the boundaries of orthodoxy if they accept the validity of non-observance and refrain from persuading the non-observant to keep the Law. The increasing marginalization of Law-observant Christ-followers in Dialogue 47 demonstrates that Paul in Rom 14–15 fails to stop the deviantization of Law-observant Christ-followers in Rome, and many of the non-observant Christ-followers continue with increasing success to treat the Law-observant as deviant Christ-followers. The seeds for this failure are Paul’s own favoritism toward the non-observant strong in Rom 14–15.


The Selective Use of Numenius in Eusebius' Theology
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Jon M Robertson, Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary

While Eusebius' citations of Numenius have often been noted, the theological motivations for his use of the Middle Platonist's philosophy have not always been appreciated. In this paper, I hope to illustrate the Caesarean bishop's selective appropriation of Numenius. In particular, through a careful analysis of his quotations from Numenius in the 'Demonstratio Evangelica', it will be seen that Eusebius, far from simply inserting foreign Platonist thought into his presentation of theology, was selecting those statements of Numenius that supported his particular Christian theological positions. This not only helps us understand his usage of Numenius better, it may also give us a better understanding of Eusebian theology.


Theorizing Paul and Contemporary Greco-Roman Literature
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Paul Robertson, Brown University

Scholars have long struggled with how to understand Paul’s letters. Are they a product of an advanced rhetorical education or is Paul writing in the plain vernacular of the people? Should they be understood as resulting from a distinctly Jewish education or are they better understood within the context of Greco-Roman moral-philosophical teachings? Such questions of context are also, but not as often, posed about certain contemporary Greco-Roman texts, specifically writings that fall neither into the category of advanced rhetoric nor of common vernacular. It is my contention that by a careful comparison of Paul’s letters with these types of contemporary writings we will find a host of shared literary criteria that justifies grouping these writings together. By doing so, we will thus be able to rethink how we categorize and theorize groupings of ancient literature. A new literary typology will enable more complex and nuanced comparison of Paul’s letters with other contemporary texts and thus improve our understanding of Paul’s writings as well as the author himself. Central to my project is the argument that we must develop new literary criteria if we seek to compare in an innovative way and if we want to explain why Paul wrote what he did and why his letters took the form they did. These literary criteria take as their starting point the rhetorical features of classicizing rhetoricians (e.g. those found in Quintilian), but many are second-order categories that reflect the realization that Paul’s letters and some contemporary literature must be understood not as classicizing, advanced rhetorical treatises. These new criteria reflect my own previous research into what best describes the writings of such authors as Paul, Philodemus, Seneca, Epictetus, and Pliny the Younger, among others, and contain both modes of argument and techniques of narrative, e.g. appeals to authoritative writings/figures, claims to novelty, figurations of groupness, invoking of pathos, moral exhortation, rhetorical questions, first person reflection, and analysis of potential objections, among others. By mapping out the relative incidences of such criteria onto particular authors, we will be able to see in which ways and to what extent particular authors and texts overlap with Paul and his letters. This project not only develops improved tools for comparison but applies these tools to improve our understanding of the place of Paul and his letters in their social and literary milieu. This improved comparison and consequent understanding will lead me to conclude that we are best served by theorizing Paul and his letters along with certain writings and authors (mentioned above) as belonging within the same literary sphere with its attendant socio-literary conventions and practices.


The Hasmonean Nationalization Project
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Madison Robins, University of Toronto

This paper assesses the Hasmonean project of nationalization by tracing the process by which the Judaean ethnic group shifted towards emerging nation using categories borrowed from ethnosymbolist scholarship on nations and nationalisms. With the reclamation of the temple and city of Jerusalem from 163-161 BCE by Judah Maccabee and his guerrilla warriors, the building blocks were laid for a century-long autonomous dynasty improbably nestled between the Hellenistic empires of Egypt and Syria. Over time, the Hasmonean princes would claim the kingship, the high-priesthood, and dominion over expanding borders and diasporic communities. Accounts of the revolutionary battles were composed in Hebrew (1 Maccabees) and Greek (2 Maccabees), translated, epitomized, and disseminated in support of the Jerusalem-based rulers and their festival of liberation, Hanukkah. Drawing on the ethnosymbolist scholarship of Anthony D. Smith and his students, which argues for continuity between the pre-national ethnie and the full-fledged nation and charts processes and categories by which this shift occurs, this paper traces the goals and means by which the Hasmonean leadership asserted the terms and symbols of an emerging national identity. I focus on the second epistle in Second Maccabees (1:10-2:18), a festal letter composed in the name of Judah and sent to the communities of Egyptian Jews to compel Hanukkah observance and express hopes for their restoration to the homeland, as the clearest articulation of this program. By using ethnosymbolism as an interpretive lens, the goals and strategies of the Jerusalem leadership are revealed and assessed for their impact and success within the context of Hellenistic hegemony and emerging Roman imperialism.


The Pivotal Status of Martyrdom: The Song of Moses as Prophecy and Paradigm in Second Maccabees
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Madison Robins, University of Toronto

As epitomist, the author of Second Maccabees took historical material from Jason of Cyrene, combined it with other sources and legends, and crafted a structured account of cause and effect leading up to the restoration of Jerusalem under the generalship of Judah Maccabee. This paper explores how the Song of Moses influenced the epitomist’s structuring of the narrative through attention to where he begins and ends his historical account along with a close examination of the pivotal events in 2 Macc. 6-7. I claim that adoption of the Song of Moses as structuring paradigm for this text placed considerable stress on martyrdom as pivotal event. While other scholars have stressed the centrality of the temple (Doran) or city (Schwartz) as determinative for the epitomist’s narrative structure, in my view the pivotal moment is an excursus, bracketed from the narrative history by authorial reflections, on the Maccabaean martyrs. In 2 Macc. 6:12 -7:42 and in a series of earlier authorial comments (4:16-17; 5:19-20), the epitomist’s historiographical impulses are disclosed, revealing a pattern of divine favour, apostasy, punishment, and redemption borrowed from the Deuteronomistic history as a whole and crystallized as prophetic paradigm in Moses’ final testament, Deuteronomy 32, the so-called ‘Song of Moses.’ Textual variance in the DSS, LXX, and MT versions of this passage suggest that reflection and redaction of the testament as prophecy was undertaken to conform prediction to contemporary events. The citation of Deut. 32:36 in 2 Macc. 7:6 provides evidence that the epitomist was engaged in this process of prophetic application. I argue that the postulation of the connection between the Song of Moses and the events of the Hasmonean revolt influenced the emplotment of the historical account in Second Maccabees.


"Uncovering" the Introductory Course in Religion
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Joanne Maguire Robinson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Reconsidering Jepsen’s Contribution to the Redaction History of Kings
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Jonathan Miles Robker, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel

While the term “Deuteronomistic History” remains most often associated with Martin Noth, scholars should not overlook the source- and redactional-critical study of the Book of Kings offered by Alfred Jepsen, which has often been covered in a few sentences or relegated to the footnotes in many studies covering elements of the Deuteronomistic History. During the course of Jepsen’s examination of Kings, he lucidly concluded that two secondary sources (S and A), as well as up to three redactional levels (RI, RII, RIII), could be identified in the traditional text of Kings. Jepsen’s method therefore imposed limits on exactly how much material in Kings could legitimately be identified as coming from Noth’s single “Deuteronomist” (= Jepsen’s RII). Thus, he both reinforced the pre-Deuteronomistic character of many elements in Kings and simultaneously limited the amount of post-Deuteronomistic material and the number of post-Deuteronomistic redactions. In this paper, I would like to return to Jepsen’s contribution to the redaction history of Kings and reconsider any potential implications such a reconstructed redaction history might have for future studies in the Deuteronomistic history, both within and outside of Kings. Further, I will suggest an alternative to Jepsen’s sources S and A, considering geographical, rather than temporal, alternatives for the oldest source material in Kings. These reflections should ultimately lead to a reconsideration of contemporary models for the redaction history of Kings, and possibly even other books in the Deuteronomistically redacted corpus of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel.


The Jew First and Also to the Greek, the Wise, and the Foolish: Identity Inversion of Aristotelian Moral Competence in Romans 1
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Ian E. Rock, Codrington College

Culture and Identity played critical roles in the New Testament World. The great Roman orator Cicero illustrates Roman attitudes to non-Roman ethnic groups. For him the Greeks who had given Rome her culture were for the most part now degenerate, though they are to be held at a higher level than the Asian majority ethnic groups of the Mysians and Phrygians. Jews and Syrians however, were “nations born for servitude.” Cicero seem to have derived these conclusions from pervasive Greek philosophy and particularly from Aristotle’s depiction of moral competence. This article seeks an exegesis of Romans 1 with these worldviews in mind. The wise and the foolish, the Greek and the barbarian, the catalogue of vices are all rhetorical pointers that aid in this particular reading of Paul.


The Job Project: Interactions between the Book of Job and Displaced Communities and Their Neighbors in South America
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Rev. Dr. Sue Dickson, Ashland University

The Job Project in Barranquilla, Colombia ‘bridges the divide between practical/classical disciplines; embodies collaboration between biblical interpreters and pastoral theologians; exposes the multivalent tensions and possibilities in interactions between biblical and human texts;’ and is itself a ‘forum for integrating cognitive, practical and normative aspects of pastoral practice.’ The Job Project asks, ‘How will displaced persons in Colombia, South America and their neighbors interpret Job and what impact will that interpretation have on their lived experience? The paper describes the different interpretive centers and margins of three communities of faith in Barranquilla (the Camelot Refugee Community, the Corporacion Universitaria Reformada and La Iglesia Presbiteriana) which are embedded in Colombia’s post-colonial struggles and violence. The contemporary issues emerging from this multi-layered context are several: e.g. government corruption, displacement, violence, the business of illegal drugs (and all that goes with it), poverty. The paper illustrates how interpretation takes place in these three, unique and inter-related settings; explores the interactions between the biblical text, the human texts and the specific contexts; and asks practical, pastoral and missional questions of the text, the academy and the communities of faith. It documents a collaboration between ordinary biblical interpreters, pastoral theologians, biblical scholars and religion students and uses a particular interpretive frame—the lived experience of displaced persons living in Camp Camelot and their neighbors—through which to read the Book of Job.


The Jews in Jesus´ Trial in the Acts of Pilate
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Jörg Röder, Universität Mainz / Université de Lausanne

This paper focuses on the Acts of Pilate as New Testament Apocryphon and its relationship to the canonical gospels from a source-critical and a poetological perspective. It follows the hypothesis that though the Acts of Pilate, presumably a 4th century text, do not provide historical insight into the actual events, they are a very important narrative stage of interpretation of the canonical gospels. For this reason, the paper asks whether the analysis found in the Acts of Pilate changes the perspective on certain aspects of the canonical gospels, such as the role of the Jews. The specific focus of this paper’s comparison of the Acts of Pilate with the canonical gospels is the trial of Jesus. As can be proved by the method of source criticism, the author of the Acts of Pilate used all the canonical gospels. With regard to the Roman governor, it is quite obvious that Pontius Pilate is presented in a much more positive way than in the canonical gospels. Concerning the group of the Jews, however, one can also state a harmonizing relecture. A narratological approach results in the observation that the Jews are presented as a more incoherent group with more individual representatives—most of them already mentioned in the canonical gospels such as Nicodemus or the jews testifying Jesus´ miracles—which might change our attitude towards the Jews in the canonical gospels in a fundamental way.


Revising the Apocrypha of Luther's Bible
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Martin Rösel, Universität Rostock

The council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has announced a close examination of Martin Luther´s translation of the Bible into German. The task is to correct the translation in cases, where there are new text-critical and/or new exegetical insights. In those cases the translation has to be altered to comply with the basic principle of faithfulness towards the biblical text. Nevertheless, the tenor of Luther´s characteristic German should be kept wherever possible. The aim of this revision is not to modernize the German vocabulary or style used in the Bible. The case of the Apocrypha is particularly difficult. Not only do the texts from the Judaean Desert give us access to older Hebrew and/or Aramaic versions of some of these books, furthermore we now have much better Greek editions of the Septuagint. But the major problem lies in the history of Luther´s Bible itself. Only few of these books were translated by Martin Luther himself (Sir; Wis), the other books were translated by different translaters, i.a. Justus Jonas and Philipp Melanchton. Some of these texts were not translated from the Septuagint but from the Vulgate. Moreover, when the initial translations were revised, often polyglots were used, so that Greek and Latin variants were inserted and textual traditions were mixed. This also led to a diverging system of verse and chapter count. Because of these problems the council of the EKD has come to the conclusion that a mere examination of the Apocrypha will not suffice to bring the text in line with the principle of faithfulness towards the biblical text. Therefore it has been decided to re-translate from the Greek text (Göttingen-LXX) the books of Tobit, Judith, Ben Sira and 1st Maccabees, which are until now based on the Vulgate. The aim is to produce a German text which has a typically Lutheran sound of expression so that it fits the other books of the Bible. The number and order of the Apocrypha (including the Oratio Manasse and the Letter of Jeremiah as part of Baruch) will be kept as in Luther´s last edition of 1545. Although in the case of the additions to the book of Daniel it is known that the Septuagint (Old Greek) is older than the Theodotion-version, Theodotion will be kept because it has been widely used in the Church while the Septuagint version was almost unknown. In the paper a short characterization of the princples of the work on the new edition of Luther´s Bible will be given, followed by an introduction into the Apocrypha of Luther´s Bible and by some examples of the revision currently carried out. These illustrations of our work will come from books which are re-translated, for example Ben Sira or Judith and from books which are revised according to better Greek texts such as Susanna or the Additions to Daniel.


Beyond Translation: The Explanations of the Greek Pentateuch in Septuaginta Deutsch
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Martin Roesel, Universität Rostock

According to the German philosopher H.G. Gadamer, “translation is the fulfilment of the exposition” of a text. When the Greek text of the Septuagint was translated into German, it became obvious that in this particular case we were dealing with two distinct levels of exposition. Firstly, the Greek translation betrays in many cases a characteristic understanding of its Hebrew source text. Since for modern readers it is not always immediately clear how to understand the background of a particular translation, the explanations in the second volume of LXX.D offer insights into how the translators were adapting their Vorlage and, as such, bringing the meaning of the text to its new readers. Secondly, the translation of the Greek text of the LXX into German had to be explained in a number of instances. Therefore there are notes to give the readers insights into phenomena like strange semantics, hebraizing word orders, unexpected equivalents or characteristic theological concepts. This paper will present different types of annotations on texts from the Greek Pentateuch that one can find in the commentary volume on LXX.D. Special emphasis will be laid on the excurses on topics like the translation of berit/covenant, the notions for God or the vocabulary of the cult. Thus the distinctive hermeneutical approach of Septuaginta Deutsch towards its subject will become clear.


Searching for Daniel in 1 Corinthians: Methodological Considerations
Program Unit: Scripture and Paul
Jessie Rogers, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick

How can a reader discover whether one text has drawn upon another in its production? This paper, which documents a search for traces of Daniel in 1 Corinthians, is an exploration of methodological issues around identifying the systematic transformation of older texts in newer ones. If the author of 1 Corinthians drew upon Daniel in a systematic way, what traces of this activity would be discernable in the text? What evidence would need to be proffered to make an assertion of literary dependence possible, plausible or probable? Beginning with a search for allusions to Daniel in 1 Corinthians, and moving on to a thorough analysis of any shared vocabulary I conclude that the conventional methods of identifying literary dependence show meagre results in this case. Proceeding to the structural level, and drawing upon Brodie’s hypothesis in TheBirthing of the New Testament, I look at the possibility that the epistle has been structured in conscious imitation of the book of Daniel. Lastly, I ask whether 1 Corinthians could be read as a transformation of the theology and message of Daniel by comparing and contrasting the treatment of resurrection in the respective books. At each stage of the search, in addition to outlining findings, I critically engage a number of suggested methodologies for determining literary dependence, concluding with some observations on the kind and quality of evidence and controls required to make a plausible argument for dependence of one text on another.


Matthew’s Mountain Setting: Defining the Community’s Identity in Worship
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Trent Rogers, Loyola University Chicago

Many have attempted an explanation of the mountain setting of the Great Commission, but existing proposals fail to account both for the situation of the Matthean community and the trajectory of mountain scenes in the Gospel. This article reads Matthew’s Gospel in light of Jewish opposition to the community’s proclamation and worship of Jesus, an opposition that doubtlessly reasserted the preeminence of Moses’ authority and teaching. Matthew’s inclusion of the mountain setting serves as one way to define the community as worshippers of Jesus, the Son of God. Throughout the Gospel, Matthew redactionally highlights the significance of Moses and the mountain setting as a place where Jesus is confirmed as the Son of God through divine declaration, obedience, and miraculous deeds. This paper surveys three scenes in the Gospel—baptism and temptation, feeding of the 5,000 and walking on water, and the Transfiguration —to show how Matthew’s allusions to Moses function to prove the superiority of Jesus as Son of God. Each of these scenes, involving the mountain setting and Moses allusions, connects a confession of Jesus’ Sonship to instruction about proper worship. The Great Commission draws together numerous themes that run throughout the Gospel, so it is not surprising that Matthew situates the Son of God on the mountain with allusions to Moses; moreover, the disciples’ response to the resurrected Jesus is to worship him. The mountain of the Great Commission serves as the culmination of the convergence of the Son of God and Moses themes throughout the Gospel in which Matthew argues that Jesus, Son of God, is the only one to whom the community owes worship and obedience; he alone can promise his own ongoing presence. Thus Matthew defines his community as one that worships Jesus, Son of God, in contrast to others’ obedience to Moses.


Philo's Universalization of Sinai in De Decalogo
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Trent Rogers, Loyola University Chicago

In De Decalogo, Philo of Alexandria explains the Exodus account of the giving of the law and the law itself. But in his description of the narrative events surrounding the laws, Philo shapes Sinai into a place of universal revelation. Philo writes in a cultural milieu that challenges the legitimacy of Jewish practice and the Jewish legal code. In De Decalogo, Philo employs arithmology, Middle-Platonic philosophy, and appeals to the natural world to show that the Jewish law is serviceable for the larger Greco-Roman world, but he still must explain the how the law’s location at Sinai to a particular people group can become the universal revelation to all humanity. In an effort to departicularize Sinai, Philo omits words from his description: covenant, patriarchs, and Sinai itself. He dramatizes the narrative by heightening the descriptions of the lightening, thunder, and unseen trumpet. Philo extensively treats the miraculous dictation of the law to show that the anomalous voice superseded physical capacities and spoke to the souls rather than the physical capacities of humans; thus, the giving of the law occurred at the level of the rational soul and was received by any soul receptive to reason. Moreover, Philo hints at the allegory of the soul when he compares the fire from which the voice comes to the reception of the laws in the souls of humans. The laws illuminate the soul of a rational human, so that their reception is dependent not on ethnic identity but on the fittingness of the human soul. In De Decalogo, Philo presents the law as proved true by nature and philosophy and shown to be unique by its divine and miraculous origins, but to universalize the law Philo must hurdle the particularizing aspects of the Sinai narrative and transform Sinai into a truly universalizing event.


The Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament (DGENT): Method, Approach, and Purposes
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, Groningen University

The present paper intends to offer an overview and some practical examples both of the working process and of the achievements of the work in progress of the DGENT (Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament) by the GASCO (Semantic Analysis Group of the University of Córdoba and La Laguna.[Tenerife]). The DGENT’s main distinctive feature is perhaps the classification of the lexemes according to five semantic categories: Entity (the category of beings), Event (action, act or activity), Attribute, Relation (lexemes that establish relationships among lexemes) and Determination (category of lexemes that delimit the sense). At the same time, instead of ‘intuitively’ describing the lexeme’s different meanings, the DGENT follows both a clear and solid method of semantic analysis (J. Mateos, Método de Análisis Semántico Aplicado al Nuevo Testamento, Córdoba, 1989) and a methodology (J. Peláez, Metodología del Diccionario Griego-español del Nuevo Testamento, Córdoba, 1996) that a priori establish the work procedure. Owing to its mainly semantic approach to the NT vocabulary, the dictionary intends not only to provide the meaning of a given lexeme in its various contexts, but also to explain how and why this meaning changes. After discussing the method, approach and purposes of the DGENT, my talk shall provide, on the basis of some significant examples, a short overview of how the entry is ‘built up’


Q and the Peasants: The Utility of a Social Description
Program Unit: Q
Sarah E. Rollens, University of Toronto

It is becoming increasingly common among scholars of Christian origins to describe the Galilean Jesus movement of the first century, especially as evidenced by the Q document, as a peasant movement. This line of argument is informed by modern peasant studies, sociological and anthropological theory, and postcolonial studies, among other theoretical frameworks. However, too often the peasant category is simply taken as self-evident and accepted as the most appropriate designation for non-elite people in antiquity. Although it seems clear that the Jesus tradition preserves "peasant" concerns or worldviews, this sociological identification stands in some tension with recent opinions of the people responsible for Q, in particular, that they were mid-level scribal figures. In order to address the appropriateness of the peasant category as another description of the Q people, this paper aims to take seriously the peasant realities embedded with Q but also to reconcile them with the arguably higher social location of the scribes responsible for Q. In other words, it examines the phenomenon of the Q people identifying a peasant social experience and appropriating it for rhetorical ends, although they themselves may not be best described as peasants.


Ad Nomen Argumenta: Personal Names as Pejoratives in Ancient Texts
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Christopher Rollston, Emmanuel School of Religion

This presentation will focus on the presence and usage of pejorative personal names in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin texts.


Genealogy, Intertextuality, Theology: Matthew's Women in Genealogical Tradition
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Gil Rosenberg, Iliff School of Theology and University of Denver

When scholars address the genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of Matthew, the inclusion of five women in the patriarchal genealogy is a common topic of interest. While these scholars provide a wide variety of answers, their method is generally consistent. They attempt to identify what the women have in common that would also support Matthew’s other purposes, such as his theology or apologetic project. This paper uses a different methodology and comes to a different conclusion. I draw on Gerard Genette’s theory of intertextuality, and instead of looking to what comes after the genealogy (the rest of Matthew’s gospel), I look to what comes before: Matthew’s apparent genealogical sources in Genesis, Ruth and Chronicles. A close look at the intertextual relationships between these Hebrew Bible genealogies suggests that the women (with the exception of Rahab) were already an important part of the genealogies, and that Matthew included them because he acknowledged their importance in his sources. This argument does not necessarily invalidate attempts to find theological, literary, or rhetorical significance in the presence of the women in relationship to the rest of Matthew, but it does provide another perspective, not only on the genealogy but more generally on Matthew’s relationship to his scripture.


On the Immersion of Proselytes: Identity Marker, or Purification?
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Michael Rosenberg, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

The question of whether the Rabbis considered non-Jews to be fundamentally and inherently impure has engendered much debate among scholars. While Gedalyah Alon claimed that gentile impurity had roots already in biblical law, Christine Hayes in her recent work Gentile Impurities has cast serious doubt on that historical claim, carefully showing how biblical sources that had been understood by earlier scholars as ascribing impurity to gentiles were in fact discussing something other than the kind of contagious, ritual impurity generally thought of as “impurity,” and that the Rabbis themselves were aware of this lack of a precedent for ascribing ritual impurity to gentiles. This paper will attempt to consider the question from a different angle: by considering Rabbinic attitudes towards immersion generally. That is to say, through a consideration of Rabbinic attitudes towards immersion (i.e. not only in the context of conversion) and its possible legal meanings, we will examine the various ways in which immersion as part of a conversion process might have been understood by Rabbis of different time periods. These conclusions will then shed greater light on the question of Rabbinic views about the impurity of gentiles and how those views may have changed over time.


Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Jordan D. Rosenblum, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Food often defines societies and even civilizations. Through particular commensality restrictions, groups form distinct identities: Those with whom “we” eat (“Us”) and those with whom “we” cannot eat (“Them”). This identity is enacted daily, turning the biological need to eat into a culturally significant activity. In this paper, I bring together the scholarship of rabbinics with that of food studies in order to explore how early rabbinic (tannaitic) food regulations created a distinct Jewish, male, and rabbinic identity.


Yam Suf: Methodological Reflections on the Use of Geography in Biblical Literature
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Angela Roskop, Xavier University

This paper will address two problems in the exodus and wilderness narratives: Why do the Israelites arrive in the wilderness twice (Exod 14:2 and 15:22a) as they depart Egypt? and Why does the name Yam Suf appear to refer to two different places? As far as the first problem is concerned, I will argue that the narrative has been revised in order to identify the redemption event memorialized elsewhere in the Tanakh as the sea crossing rather than the deliverance from the plague of the firstborn associated with Pesah. Here we will explore how the itinerary genre plays a role in this revision, as well as how literary and geographical concerns may work together in our effort to understand the composition history of the text. Regarding the second problem, I will argue that Yam Suf is used in the exodus narrative to provide a spatial and temporal setting for it. This use created a conflict with its use elsewhere in the Tanakh and particularly in the wilderness narrative to refer to one or the other arm of the Red Sea, and I will discuss two instances of reference repair aimed at resolving this conflict. Here we will look at geography as an element of cultural repertoire carried in a mental map, consider how archaeology plays a role alongside biblical and non-biblical texts in our effort to reconstruct ancient mental maps, and look at the poetics of how such cultural repertoire is used to create setting in literature.


Interpreting the Q Text as Intertext: The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Q 15:4–5a, 7)
Program Unit: Q
Dieter T. Roth, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

In recent years, increasing criticism has been leveled at attempts to reconstruct the “actual” or “exact” wording of Q. This skepticism concerning the reconstructed Q text has often appealed to the so-called “thought experiment” of attempting to reconstruct Mark from Matthew and Luke and the rather significant differences that would be found, particularly on the word level, between this reconstructed Mark and the Mark of modern critical editions. This line of critique has, at the very least, revealed the limits of the traditional source- and redaction-critical approach to Q, indicated that scholarship should be rather more skeptical about the ability to access the wording of Q, and highlighted the need for new approaches to the text of Q. This paper, therefore, presents an attempt to consider the Q text of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Q 15:4-5a, 7) via Matthew and Luke, where Matthew and Luke are studied, not to recover the words of Q, but rather to recover insight into a parable and a source that presented itself as useful to the writers of these two gospels. Thus, it is suggested that Q studies should move away from focusing on recovering and then exegeting the supposed words of Q “behind” Matthew and Luke and to move towards attempting to exegete the images, narratival elements and structures, metaphors, and theological trajectories of an intertext “between” Matthew and Luke.


Now and Then: Clarifying the Role of Temporal Adverbs as Discourse Markers
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Steve Runge, Logos Bible Software

Conjunctions and temporal adverbs contribute significantly to the shaping of a discourse. Although conjunctions nearly always serve as discourse markers, the same cannot be said of temporal adverbs. Blakemore (2002:178) suggests that only a subset of temporal adverbs function as discourse markers, those which are not part of the propositional form, i.e. which are conceptually separate from the main proposition. However there is a tendency to treat temporal adverbs monolithically, e.g. as though NUN and TOTE always mark transitions in the discourse. This paper outlines principles for determining whether or not a temporal adverb is functioning as a marker within the discourse. The principles will be applied to NUN and TOTE and tested using representative examples from the Greek New Testament and Apostolic Fathers.


Revenge on the Whore: Literalist Allegory and the Violence of Scripturalization
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Erin Runions, Pomona College

This paper looks at the violent role of allegorization in processes of scripturalization. Literary theorists Agnus Fletcher and Gordon Tesky both note the way that allegory relates to violence and power, in part by forcing a hierarchical order of meaning that centers around the self, rendered universal. In the words of Tesky, allegory devours the other. This paper suggests that allegory is crucial to the construction of scripture, allegorical scripturalization facilitates actual violence, and further, that so-called literal readings of scripture also require allegory. The paper will think through these claims using apocalyptic interpretations of the Whore of Babylon, which literalize and allegorize the book of Revelation’s violent aspirations for revenge.


The House of Jehu and Tribal Notions of Land
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Stephen C. Russell, University of California-Berkeley

Part of a larger project on space and power in the Hebrew Bible, this paper uncovers how the House of Jehu grounded its legitimacy in tribal notions of land by appealing to the space of the dead in the story of Ahab’s violent acquisition of property in 1 Kgs 21. The House of Jehu is often regarded as coming to power in relation to the prophetic movement or as part of a popular uprising. I supplement such views here with spatial insights. According to the narrative, King Ahab’s wife Jezebel arranged for the execution of Naboth on false charges, clearing the way for Ahab to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard adjoining the royal estate. An alternative Naboth tradition stresses his bloody murder as a private matter (2 Kgs 9:26). First Kings 21, however, has broader resonance. The narrative describes Naboth’s refusal to dispose of his property by placing in his mouth the protestation, “Yahweh forbid that I should sell the inheritance of my fathers to you!” The significance of this imprecation is best understood against the background of the inalienability of land and the veneration of the dead in the ancient Near East, as well as the connection between them. In at least one ancient Near Eastern cultural pattern, the dead were buried on family land, and it was by maintaining ownership of family lands that households could best continue to perform their devotion to the ancestors. An appeal to the genealogical basis of land rights, then, is an appeal to the space of the dead, who continue to occupy land by being buried there. The circle of Jehu partially constructed the legitimacy of his new dynasty by aligning itself with traditional tribal notions of land rather than with monarchic territorial ambitions like those of the House of Omri.


Banknotes, Lost Coins, the Image of God and Parliament: The Biblical Interpretation of Two Generations of Victorian Reformers-John Grey—Campaigner for the Abolition of Slavery, and His Daughter Josep
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Amanda Russell-Jones, University of Birmingham (UK)

As they influenced governments and offended Lords and bishops, John and Josephine were driven by their understanding of the King James Bible and applied it in radical ways in support of slaves and prostitutes. Though neither was an MP, these two had a very important influence on major pieces of legislation which they believed were de-humanising and oppressive. John Grey, a noted orator, applied his ‘fiery hatred of all injustice’ to persuading his cousin the Prime Minister to abolish slavery. ‘You cannot treat people as you would banknotes to be accepted or rejected’ he insisted (referencing doubts about the paper notes which replaced gold coins). Josephine, sneeringly described in Parliament as ‘this woman who calls herself a lady’, told a Royal Commission ‘We have the Word of God in our hands, the Law of God in our consciences’ as she led a sixteen year campaign against the sexual double standard and the Contagious Diseases Acts (which could require any woman to prove that she was not carrying a sexually transmitted disease). As Butler repeatedly argued from Scripture, Jesus ‘The Liberator’ and ‘revolutionary’ treated ‘the woman of the city who was a sinner’graciously. For Butler the outcast woman was the lost coin for which the householder must diligently search- ‘trampled in the mire’ but still bearing the image of God. A century before Phyllis Trible, Butler also gave powerful and innovative interpretations of ‘texts of terror’ such as ‘The Levite’s concubine’. Her contemporary F. W. Newman said ‘She reads scripture like a child and interprets it like an angel’.


"Women and Prophecy": A Voice Crying in the Wilderness—Josephine Butler’s Prophetic Biblical Interpretation and Its Impact on Nineteenth Century Societies
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Amanda Russell-Jones, University of Birmingham (UK)

Josephine Butler the noted campaigner for ‘outcast women’ against the sexual double standard in Victorian Europe and the British Empire, entitled her major publication against the evils of trafficking into the European brothels of ‘white slavery’, ‘Un voix dans le desert’. In this work and elsewhere she produced innovative and powerful biblical interpretations identifying the outcast woman as condemned to life in the wilderness outside the camp. She also challenged the society of her day and ours with her calling to ‘walk side by side and hand in hand with the outcast’, seeking to change the ‘tangled wilderness into a garden of the Lord’. Her remarkable Biblical interpretation has begun to draw the attention of scholars but a closer study of her exegesis will reveal the roots of her public theology and prophetic life. Going outside the camp of ‘respectable’ society, she was derided in Parliament as ‘this woman who calls herself a lady’ but she drew attention to God’s presence beside the abandoned outcast slave Hagar in the wilderness as a sign of hope and a statement of the mind of God. She also consistently pointed to Jesus saying ‘Behold the man’ who treated women as did no other man. Butler sought to reverse the world view of her contemporaries by welcoming the outcast woman and challenging the habitué of London drawing rooms-threatening his exclusion from heaven because of his hypocrisy in condemning the woman’s morals but not his own. Her contemporary F.W.Newman said ‘She reads scripture like a child and interprets it like an angel’. This paper will argue that Josephine Butler was not the angel in the house who silently upholds the hypocrisy of Victorian ethics, but rather the messenger who declares 'Thus says the Lord'. This paper will be accompanied by a powerpoint presentation illustrating Butler’s prophetic speech against the background of the Victorian thought and culture that she was at the heart of.


Citizenship among Jews and Christians: Civic Discourse in the Apology of Aristides
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Will Rutherford, Houston Baptist University

Recent research on the Apology of Aristides of Athens has highlighted “ethnic reasoning” in the text. Advocates of this approach note the description of Christians, Jews, Greeks, and barbarians as genê. They observe how Apology indexes these genê in a strategy designed to demonstrate that the Christian genos is superior. Consequently, ethnoracial discourse is now popularly regarded as the primary mode of discursive reasoning in Apology’s formulation of Christianness vis-à-vis Jewishness. This presentation offers an alternative to the emerging consensus. Focusing on the Syriac text of Apology, an important witness to Aristides’ primitive text, the presenter argues that Apology articulates Christian and Jewish identities in primarily civic terms. The text develops a logic that identifies the Christian mode of ritual life, legal code, and collective ethic as more consistent with the divine nature than that offered by the Jews. Apology’s strategy of evaluating modes of shared human life in light of the divine nature is consistent with second-century patterns of civic discourse, particularly the theory of the Stoic cosmic city. The Stoics regarded the universe as a vibrant urban center where (rational) men and gods cohabit under common laws and mutually participate in citizenship (Dio Chrys. Or. 36.38). This is not to suggest a relationship of dependence between Apology and any particular text. Rather, Apology shares discursive space with such contemporary civic arguments, and it crafts its approach towards Christian and Jewish genê in a specifically civic direction in a way that suggests that the former make better “world citizens” than the latter.


Comprehensive Messianic Midrash in the Making: From 1 Enoch to Gospels to Genesis Rabbah
Program Unit: Midrash
Serge Ruzer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Genesis Rabbah attests to what may be called a comprehensive messianic midrash: Appealing to a variety of biblical proof-texts, it creates a full-scale picture of the future redemption collating/incorporating different, and sometimes conflicting, patterns of messianic belief. Among salient features of this impressive harmonizing effort are (1) presenting the kingly Messiah (Son of David) and the Anointed of the Spirit as one and as identical to the heavenly Son of Man from Daniel 7; (2) establishing Messiah's preexistence (preexistence of his name/spirit); (3) conditioning Messiah's advent on Israel's repentance (teshuvah) signified by water immersion, and others. This paper highlights the fact that these motifs, attested also elsewhere in rabbinic Midrash, are found already in 1 Enoch and other Second Temple and early post-70 period Jewish writings, and that all of them feature prominently in the Gospels. It is shown, however, that in these earlier compositions the above motifs are lacking an explicitly midrashic posture. Moreover, they function there as disengaged pieces of tradition – a far cry from the harmonized whole of Genesis Rabbah. Relying on the available evidence, the paper aims at reconstructing some of the stages (and their possible settings) of the trajectory leading to creation of a comprehensive messianic midrash.


The "New" Work of Early Christian Literature Preserved in P.Berol. 22220, the "Strasbourg Coptic Papyrus," and after the Coptic "Stauros-Text": Observations on Initial Proposals and Further Suggestion
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Timothy B. Sailors, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Over the past several years, evidence has been marshaled demonstrating that text from a single, once-lost work of early Christian literature remains extant in three Coptic MSS. From this work of literature, the following, very fragmentary scenes are preserved: A scene apparently after the Last Supper and in the Garden of Gethsemane, a spiritual vision revealing a (transfigured?) Savior on the mountain and a heavenly vision, a resumption of the Son’s prayers to the Father, a discourse with the apostles, an "amen" responsory punctuated by one or more addresses of the Savior to the cross, a sort of farewell discourse, another revelation of him glorified, and the investiture of the apostles with power. In this paper, a brief overview of the manuscript evidence that has been presented to date will be followed by observations regarding 1) potentially related material found in other Coptic, Greek, Old Nubian, and Latin texts and 2) the possible genre, date, and original language of this piece of literature. Despite the assumption upon which earlier designations of the MS witnesses rest, we do not know that this ancient Christian text necessarily formed part of a "complete" gospel. It may instead have been part of the acts of an apostle, an independent narrative (which may have begun only with the Last Supper or the Gethsemane scene), or perhaps even an apocalypse. There are, however, any number of other works of literature and specific passages with which parallels of varying exactitude can be drawn. These will be discussed under the following categories: 1) The Stauros-Text and the texts with which it has been preserved and transmitted, 2) "Bartholomew texts," 3) other later Coptic texts, 4) the Apocalypse of Paul, 5) the Acts of John, 6) "Dialogue texts," and 7) the Gospel of John. Whatever date can be maintained for this "new" work of ancient Christian literature once all witness and other related texts are thoroughly examined and brought to bear on the work as a whole remains to be seen. That the text has affinities with other early Christian literature from the second to the fifth century and beyond will be of help only once these are critically scrutinized to determine what they necessarily imply and require regarding the relation of our text to others.


The KJV and Women: Soundings and Suggestions
Program Unit:
Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Princeton Theological Seminary

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Latrina Monastica and the Spatial Politics of Surveillance in Early Monasticism
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Tudor Andrei Sala, Yale University

Though the pious visitors could think of them as angels, the early Christian monastics remained very much humans of flesh and bones. This unflattering circumstance brought with it a physiological function mostly neglected by students of late antique monastic life. But as much as food consumption had its own location in the monastery in the fascinating examples of monastic kitchens and refectories documented by archaeologists and social historians alike, so too did excretion. Using varied archaeological and textual evidence for the rather elusive monastic latrines, my paper will try to map them within the social space of the early monastery. I will compare the monastic latrines with similar structures in the world outside the monastery and their social connotations. As such, the monastic latrine could be viewed as a liminal space posing threats to a strict ascetic regimen that included a close control of the senses. However, its usual peripheral location within the monastic compound—motivated by basic hygienic concerns—invited a subversive occupation that dodged the overall surveillance inside the monastery. To substantiate the scant historical narrative, I apply the method of access analysis to interpret constructed space. The results are surprising, for the early monastic latrines appear as a contested territory of monastic identity where the monastic body clashed with the monastic spirit in a struggle with a hardly controllable outcome.


How Did Jewish Enlighters Translate the Hebrew Bible for Children?
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Dorothea M. Salzer, Universität Potsdam

At the end of the 18th century a new genre arose in Germany’s enlightened Jewish community: storybooks containing biblical narratives especially re-written for Jewish children. In the 19th century, these biblical stories for children developed into one of the most popular genres of Jewish children’s literature. The traditional system of education in Ashkenaz used the Hebrew Bible as a means of language teaching rather than as text that should be understood and studied for its own value. The Haskala movement changed the status of the Hebrew Bible due to their extensive reform of the Jewish educational system. For the Maskilim, the Bible was an important tool for emphasising their tasks. From engaging in Bible studies, they could strongly benefit with regard to their intention of integrating into German culture. In terms of education, the Jewish enlighters saw the Hebrew Bible as an important source for teaching universal moral values as well as historical knowledge. For this reason, Jewish children’s Bibles were created. In these textbooks selected stories from the Hebrew Bible were summarized and usually provided with a more or less detailed commentary. These commentaries served as a means to interprete the biblical text according to the educational aims of the authors. The paper focuses on the question how the Jewish authors used this kind of literature usually known from Protestant culture to transform Jewish religion and thereby construe a new Jewish identity within the framework of Jewish acculturation and assimilation. Several aspects will be analyzed, such as the following: How is the Biblical text itself presented? What are the differences of the presented stories to the stories of the Hebrew Bible? How is the message of the Biblical story translated or even changed according to the needs of the authors?


Phoenician Inscriptions on Jars
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Gaby Abousamra, L'Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon

This presentation will discuss four previously unpublished ceramic jars bearing Phoenician inscriptions. Attention will focus on the names painted and engraved on these objects and the palaeographical problems of interpreting them. These names will be explained by comparison with similar names attested in the Hebrew Bible and other Northwest Semitic inscriptions.


Three Syriac Magic Bowls
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Gaby Abou Samra, Holy Spirit University, Kaslik, Lebanon

This paper discusses three unpublished Syriac magic bowls. Following the presentation of the objects and a description of how this kind of bowls was used in Mesopotamia in late antiquity, the paper presents and discusses the texts inscribed on the bowls, offering transliteration, translation, and commentaries. One main topic that arises from the text of the inscriptions is that of views of deities, angels, and demons mentioned in the formulae that are used. A second main concern of the paper is the usage of biblical citations in these incantation texts.


The Levites in Deuteronomism: A Short History
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Harald Samuel, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The Levites are one of the most prominent groups in the Hebrew Bible, as well as one of the most elusive. On the one hand, biblical scholars have held the Levites responsible for a number of decisive events in Israel’s history in addition to the composition of several biblical books; on the other hand, many basic questions concerning etymology, their origin, and socio-political role (esp. in pre-exilic times) are still unanswered. The situation comes, for the most part, from the scarcity of extra-biblical sources. Although comparative ethnology and the like can provide additional material, the biblical texts remain the primary source. A clear picture of their literary development is therefore necessary before any historical conclusions can be drawn. Since texts concerning the Levites, particularly those in the Pentateuch, were often used to (re)construct Levitical history, the major shifts that have taken place in Pentateuch research compel us to rethink the scriptural basis of these theories. Hence, this paper will concentrate on questions of innerbiblical exegesis and redactional criticism in Exod 32 and Deut 10, 18, 33. It will be shown that although Deuteronomy provides the oldest information about the Levites, most of these texts cannot tell us anything about the Levites’ pre-exilic history; but for a few possible exceptions, they reflect exilic and post-exilic discussions about Levitical functions. There is, as has long been recognised, a pro-Levitical stance in the deuteronomic and deuteronomistic strata of the Pentateuch. The final perspective, however, is set by late redaction(s) through superimposing a literary layer which “corrects” most of these texts in favour of priestly matters. This priestly revised Book of Deuteronomy is one of the missing links in the development from early Deuteronomism to late biblical books, such as Chronicles.


Revision of Bible Translations for Readers with Low Literacy
Program Unit: Bible Translation
José Sanders, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Introduction Although bible translators can be expected to be relatively loyal to their source text (De Vries 2007; Blois 2008), they are known to vary greatly in their translation approach. Older translations often aimed for maximal parallelism in grammatical and lexical choices (e.g. King James, Dutch: Statenvertaling); modern translations sometimes aim for maximal readability (e.g. The Message, Dutch: Het Boek). As a result, bible translations can vary dramatically in their choices with respect to, for instance, connectives that express discourse coherence relations (because, so, and then). Translations used in liturgy and education (e.g. Current English Version; Dutch: Nieuwe Bijbel Vertaling) are aimed at practical use in the target language, but remain nonetheless quite difficult to read and understand for readers with low literacy. A recent development is the revision of such bible translations for people with low literacy (e.g. Bible in Easy English, Dutch: Bijbel in Gewone Taal). Research question In these revised translations, the question of discourse coherence is specifically interesting: are different choices being made to express complex causal relations? Who is made responsible for the causal connections between clauses: the biblical narrator, or one of the characters? Is the translator able to maintain this source of causality in his or her coherence markings, or are different choices being made for the sake of readability? Hence, this study explores how translation goals affect the marking of coherence relations and the source of causality in causal fragments. Method A corpus-based analysis was conducted on narrative and argumentative parts of two Dutch translations that differ in their target audience: One translation focuses on experienced readers (Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling [New Bible Translation], 2003) and the other is a revision for readers with low literacy (Bijbel in Gewone Taal [Bible in Plain Language], in preparation, Dutch Bible Society). We selected over 700 fragments that were causally related in one of the translations, and compared them with respect to their use of causal coherence markers. Also, we compared the source of causality by analyzing each fragment’s Domain of Use (Sweetser 1990) and Subject of Consciousness (Pander Maat & Sanders 2000, 2001). Results The translations showed important differences, either in their connective choice (implicit vs. explicit marking, or complete reformulations), or in the scope of the coherence relation. Sentences that contained grammatical complex structures such as embeddings or relative clauses in the Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling, were often cut up into smaller units in the Bijbel in Gewone Taal, resulting in more local relations. Most importantly, in the revision for readers with low literacy we found a significant increase in so-called epistemic relations, in which the source of causality is clearly positioned in the biblical narrator. This was often due to the to the fact that this revision made reasons for actions or conclusions explicit. Thus, the revision is easier to read, but its interpretation has changed also. Examples will be discussed.


Thoughts, Conclusions, and Beliefs in Biblical Translations
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
José Sanders, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

When comparing old and new Bible translations, differences are striking at all discourse levels. This paper concentrates on variations in the representation of cognitions, emotions, and reasons of subjects in the discourse. Particularly, the representation of thoughts, conclusions and beliefs of the biblical narrator and the biblical characters will be studied. Older Bible translations such as the King James version or the Dutch Statenvertaling were source oriented and translated concordantly: lexical entries in the source were translated individually by fixed translations. Thus, the grammar and semantics of the text in the goal language remain close to the grammar and semantics of the source language, ensuring optimal loyalty to the source text. By contrast, new translations are goal oriented and translate into modern language, aiming for “normal” sentences and comprehensible meaning of the text. In this paper, I will analyze the consequences of these choices in old and new translations for cognitive representations. Causal reasoning in old translations remains very often implicit, presented as a chain of sequentially or temporally connected events. If it is explicit, it is most often presented in terms of characters’ utterances and sensations in their physical world. The Basic Communicative Spaces Network model (Sanders, Sanders and Sweetser 2009) helps us to understand why the “look and feel” of such old character representation is so different from new translations. The space building devices that give access to these characters’ content spaces are robust, and the embedded spaces are clearly separated from the narrator’s basic narrative space. In modern translations, even if they are loyal to the source text such as the Contemporary English Version and the Dutch Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling (2004), space building is much more complicated. Reasoning by characters is represented in epistemic spaces that are accessed by causal connectives as well as by modal verbs and verbs of cognition. Very often, the characters’ epistemic spaces are blended with the narrator’s epistemic space, resulting in intertwined thoughts and shared reasoning. Examples from the Old and New Testament will show that characters in old translations are, paradoxically, more distant and more direct at the same time in comparison to the accessible, yet blurred characters in new translations. Reading old translations next to new ones thus helps us not only to appreciate the changes in our own language over time, but also to recognize the strange openness of the source text: the mere voices and acts from characters provide us with maximal opportunity to infer and, again paradoxically, share their thoughts, conclusions and beliefs.


Northwest Semitic Epigraphy as a Challenge to Reconstructions of Early Iron Age Levantine History
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Seth Sanders, Trinity College - Hartford

An exploration of methods and conclusions of recent epigraphic study into the early Iron Age in the Levant, including fresh perspectives on the inscriptions from Tel Qeiyafa, Tel Zayit, and Gezer.


Tamez and Ecclesiastes
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Timothy Sandoval, Chicago Theological Seminary

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The "Argument" and the Poet: Reflections on a Middle Babylonian Take on Gilgamesh
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Jack M. Sasson, Vanderbilt University

In a 2007 fine article on the newly discovered Gilgamesh material(“Gilgameš at Ugarit,”Aula Orientalis 25: 237-254) Andrew George offered a new rendering and study of Daniel Arnaud’s edition of a tablet and several fragments from what is termed the Middle Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. In this presentation, I focus on the tablet that features the “arguments” about Gilgamesh and his exploits and discuss how they might inform us about the shaping of one version of the epic in the second half of the second millennium BCE.


Sense and Practicality: Building a Historical GIS Online
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Juhana Markus Saukkonen, University of Helsinki

This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of creating an online Geographic Information System (GIS) presenting archaeological and historical data. For the purposes of this paper, the focus is on a research-driven GIS that gets its data from various different sources (mainly publications and documentation from relevant excavations and surveys) but has a topical point of convergence (in the case study presented here, archaeological markers of religions in Roman Judaea). The requirements are different from those encountered when building a GIS for the documentation of a single archaeological project, or a GIS mainly intended for storage of a diverse range of maps, satellite imagery, etc. that cover a certain geographical area. While the main function of a research-driven GIS of the type described above is to provide a basis for spatial analysis, it also offers a convenient vehicle for presenting the data and its interpretations online to reach a wide audience, scholarly or otherwise. A successful online presentation of such a GIS requires a sound technical implementation, including a user-friendly interface. On the other hand, the substance of the GIS should not be overshadowed by the visual presentation. One also needs to carefully consider copyright issues and publication permissions as the data comes from various sources. This paper attempts to present workable practical and technical solutions to these questions. A work-in-progress version of the GIS used as a case study here will be available online before the SBL Annual Meeting 2011 at http://jmsaukkonen.org/JudaeaGIS.


Old Data in New Clothes: Research-Driven Archaeological GIS
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Juhana Markus Saukkonen, University of Helsinki

This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities of creating a Geographic Information System (GIS) to manage, analyse and present archaeological datasets and their interpretations. More specifically, the focus is on a research-driven GIS that gets its data from various different sources (mainly publications and documentation from relevant excavations and surveys) but has a topical point of convergence (in the case study presented here, archaeological markers of religions in Roman Judaea). The requirements are different from those encountered when building a GIS for the documentation and data management of a single field project, or a GIS mainly intended for convenient storage of a diverse range of maps, satellite imagery, etc. that cover a certain geographical area. For a research-driven GIS of the type described above, the data from different sources needs to be processed into a uniform dataset so as to provide a basis for spatial analysis. This preliminary data processing needs to be carefully controlled in order to retain the complexity of the data while providing a dataset that will be useful at later stages of the research project (producing meaningful analysis and interpretations). The paper attempts to present workable solutions to this aim. Technical issues will also be considered, particularly in view of an online publication of the GIS. A work-in-progress version of the GIS used as a case study here will be available online before the ASOR Annual Meeting 2011 at http://jmsaukkonen.org/JudaeaGIS.


Salt for the Earth: Eschatology, Ecology, and the Empire of Heaven in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount
Program Unit: Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Stanley Saunders, Columbia Theological Seminary

The Sermon on the Mount describes the ecology of the “empire of heaven,” i.e., its relationships, values, and practices, thereby engendering both the vision and critical consciousness that constitute eschatological imagination. This paper examines the implications of this eschatological imagination and practice for the earth itself.


Assemblage at the Gate: Marking the Sacred and Domestic Ritual
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Carl Savage, Drew University

The Iron Age II assemblage from the four chambered gate of Et-Tell may give us insight into the connection between sacred ritual practice performed at its 3 step high place, and other associated cultic spaces, and the mundane domestic practices using simlar vessels commonly a part of daily life. Some connection to mostly biblical references may offer insights as well into cognitive behavior possibly indicated by the recovered artifacts. The discussion of cultic space at the gate has focused on three questions: 1) What is being used? 2) How is it used? 3) Why? These questions have been approached from both the material record and literary corpus. This paper focuses more on the material record, specifically on the material found in the gate complex of Iron Age Et-Tell. The patterns we discover in the material culture can allow us a glimpse into what was held in common, the consensual culture of the site. This evidence from Et-Tell presents a likely shared symbolic world-view between Et-Tell and the close neighboring Israelite context. When one examines the entire archaeological context recovered from the gate area, there was a well-defined demarcation of the gate area by items of religious significance. Once the artefactual and architectural data is analyzed, the image of the city gate that emerges is one that, far from being dominated by a military and defensive modality, appears to be religiously and ritually active.


Re-conceiving ‘Gnosticism’: Competing Visions Regarding the Care of the Soul as Disruptions to the Discourse of Martyrdom
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Deborah Niederer Saxon, Iliff School of Theology/University of Denver

In the Hermeneutics of the Subject, Michel Foucault argues that the emphasis on “knowing oneself” in ancient Greek and Roman thought is actually subsumed within the broader concern for “the care of the soul.” This insight can be applied in re-conceptualizing issues of “orthodoxy” and “heresy” particularly with respect to “defining” the problematic category of “Gnosticism.” In Re-thinking Gnosticism, Michael Williams has argued that “Gnosticism” lacks any actual descriptive power while in What is Gnosticism?, Karen King has argued that it reflects not only the biased perspective of the heresiologists but also the assumptions of modern scholars of religion regarding origins and typology. Building on their work, this paper argues for an epistemological shift in unpacking “Gnosticism” by using a Foucauldian approach in analyzing discourse. Specifically, this paper argues that the various distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy are not binary oppositions based on the essential characteristics of doctrines. Rather, they are discursive constructions arising out of competing visions of how to best care for the soul. This becomes clear when one examines the ways in which the voices of “Gnostics” disrupt and challenge what was rapidly becoming a new dominant discourse within the period of the early Christianities, that of the emotionally-charged glorification of martyrdom. Scholars such as Judith Perkins and Elizabeth Castelli have argued that the cult of the martyrs itself functioned discursively in the development of Christian identity and establishment of an alternative power structure. Foucault believes that this exmologesis (the practice of publicly recognizing or bearing witness to one’s faith) was at odds with the Hellenistic notion of the care of the soul. What has gone unrecognized is that certain groups lumped together as “Gnostic” articulated beliefs and practices aligning more closely with the care of the soul. These beliefs and practices elaborate an understanding of Christian identity quite different from that developing in the discourse of martyrdom. Not only do certain members of these groups challenge any voluntary seeking of martyrdom (in, for example, The Testimony of Truth, The Apocalypse of Peter, and the recently-discovered Gospel of Judas), they actually emphasize the value of faith in terms of a therapy of emotions which helps one overcome excessive emotion. (Ismo Dunderberg explicates this beautifully with respect to Valentinian texts in Beyond Gnosticism.) Yet others, particularly the authors of the gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Philip, speak about how the practice of faith enables one to become more completely human in this life. Unfortunately, such groups were characterized as unethical, cowardly, and disloyal by the heresiologists for their failure to embrace martyrdom. A certain suspicion toward such claims must be maintained as closer examination of the texts shows that not seeking martyrdom (though certainly not refusing it) reveals the kinds of differences described above. Re-conceptualizing the differences between early Christian groups in this way provides a step in the direction of re-conceiving history in terms of practices rather than beliefs, a goal toward which a Foucauldian analysis aims.


Revising the KJV: The Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Centuries
Program Unit:
Harold Scanlin, United Bible Societies

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"One Language and One Tongue": Animal Speech in Jubilees 3:27–31
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
A. Rahel Schafer, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Few scholars have analyzed the picture of animals within the book of Jubilees, as the issues of nakedness and Eden as a temple are more important to the dating of the book. Jubilees 3:27-31 discusses the previous ability of animals to speak to each other, but this communication aspect of the passage is usually mentioned only briefly, and is rarely connected in any way to the halakhah on nakedness. Instead, most scholars consider this passage to be a reaction or resistance to Hellenism and the apparently rampant nakedness in society that affected the attitudes of even the most conservative Jews. Thus, this paper attempts to look at the issue of animal speech in Jubilees, especially as to the function of Jub. 3:27-31 in relation to animal rationality/sentience, comparable accountability with humans, and culpability. I first examine the structure of the passage, especially as it relates to Jubilees 3 as a whole and in relation to the picture of animals it presents, and then compare it to the account in Genesis 3. Next, I consider what Jub. 3:27-31 means for animals in regards to their speech/rationality, comparable accountability with humans, and culpability for wrong actions. Finally, I conclude by summarizing the reasons for the connections between loss of animal speech and the command to cover nakedness. I contend that the reality of animal speech in the book of Jubilees makes animals more rational and communicative than in Genesis, is used as a comparison/contrast for improper human behavior (animals are in solidarity with each other and with humans), speaks to the ancient understanding of animal culpability/accountability, and is key to understanding the meaning of the subsequent legal passage in Jubilees 3 that is not present in Genesis.


Mourning and Memorial: Insights from Tall el-Hammam’s Megalithic Sacrescape
Program Unit:
Kennett Schath, Trinity Western University

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Marketing the End of the World
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Linda S. Schearing, Gonzaga University

What happens when the world of marketing teams up with Biblical apocalyptic themes? The result ranges from the construction of online communities debating on what they want to save in the coming chaos to crass commercialism like the iPhone app that promises to deliver “End of the World Facts”. This presentation explores how biblical apocalyptic expectations—with the aid of the Internet--become a marketing tool for films, books and a host of other objects. Moreover, with 2012 drawing nearer, one can expect an escalation of such marketing. Ultimately this presentation explores the phenomenon of “apocaholics” in American society and how Madison Avenue utilizes their addiction.


Ancient Quality of Life
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University

The Human Development Index of the United Nations and other broadly-based indices of wellbeing seek to identify and measure a wide range of determinants of the quality of life. Income, longevity, and education are regarded as key indicators. Auxiliary variables include nutrition, income and gender inequality, political and human rights, crime rates, human rights, and environmental degradation. Although some of the factors cannot be properly assessed with respect to the more distant past, indices such as these nevertheless provide a useful template for the historical cross-cultural and comparative study of human development and quality of life. This paper illustrates the potential of this approach by exploring the changing configuration of significant variables in ancient societies.


To en logo idiotikon tou Apostolou: Revisiting Patristic Testimony on Pauline Rhetoric
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Ryan S. Schellenberg, St. Michael's College (University of Toronto)

In the ongoing debate regarding Paul's knowledge of ancient rhetorical theory and/or practice, interpretation of patristic testimony has become something of a proxy war. As Eduard Norden noted in his influential Die antike Kunstprosa, Paul's earliest readers appear to have taken his concession that he was "untrained in speech" (2 Cor 11:6) at face value. For scholars like Philip Kern, this is reliable ancient testimony to Paul's lack of paideia. Margaret Mitchell has been the most insistent spokesperson on the other side, arguing cogently that patristic emphasis on Paul's lack of worldly wisdom was an apologetic move intended to prove the divine origin of his gospel, and thus cannot be read as a disinterested report of Paul's rhetorical competence. Further, she has emphasized that Chrysostom, whilst claiming, when it suited him, that Paul was a rhetorical naif, nevertheless identified numerous rhetorical figures and tropes in Paul's letters. In this paper, then, I reconsider the patristic testimony and its apologetic context. Two considerations tell against Mitchell's interpretation: First, Chrysostom and his ilk locate rhetorical figures not only in Paul, but also in Amos, Isaiah, and Jesus -- none of whom, of course, can reasonably be credited which formal knowledge of Greco-Roman rhetoric. It appears, then, that Chrysostom's rhetorical exegesis tells us more about his own knowledge of rhetoric than about Paul's. Second, the apologetic topos of which Mitchell speaks was a response precisely to the widespread critique that the Christian scriptures were devoid of sophistication and thus of wisdom, an accusation that can already be seen in Origen's response to Celsus. Paul's letters were apparently susceptible to such critique, thus early Christian apologists found a way, in Chrysostom's words, to make this accusation an encomium.


"I Am More Beast Than Man": The Concept of Wisdom in Prov 30 and Its Significance for the Final Composition of the Book of Proverbs
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Bernd U. Schipper, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The teaching of Agur in Prov. 30, with its strange description of wisdom, is one of the most difficult chapters in Proverbs. It presents a concept of wisdom, which appears in the formal robe of an instruction, but proclaims the inability of man to understand wisdom (hochmah) and “knowledge (da’at) of the Holy One” (V. 3b). The paper investigates the meaning of the passage against a double focus: first, in its relationship to the religious understanding of hochmah in Prov. 1-9, second against the backdrop of the chapter as part of the final framework of the book of Proverbs (1, 30, 31). By evaluating both aspects, the paper presents the thesis, that Prov. 30 (as well as Prov. 31) must be seen as the result of a discourse on Wisdom and Torah, which contains the question of the capability of wisdom and which can be found in the different layers of the book. Taking this into account, Prov. 30 appears as a text on the level of the final composition of Proverbs. This final composition reduces the concept of a theological (not to say “a divine”) wisdom in Prov. 1-9 to an understanding of hochmah without any religious dimension.


A Textual Comparison of the Two Manuscripts
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Ulrich Schmid, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel

The consistently collected data analysing the textual relationships between all the manuscripts of each Gospel has made it possible to compare them more accurately than has hitherto been possible. For example, it is now known that the St Petersburg manuscript is a member of a group known as Family 1 in John. This data is used to compare the two manuscripts, and places them within the tradition using online tools.


Zion and the Servant of God Structuring and Gendering Isaiah 49–55
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Uta Schmidt, Justus Liebig-University Giessen

Lady Zion and the Servant of God dominate most of Isaiah 49-55. While they are the two main "characters" of these chapters, none of the texts present Zion and the Servant together or interacting with each other. However, their juxtaposition suggests that they are combined purposefully to enhance the message, or rather the messages of Isaiah 49-55. Since more and more exegetes have considered the so called servant-songs an integral part of Second Isaiah, the similarities and the proximity of the Servant and Zion have been noted (e.g. by Beuken, Sawyer, Korpel and Steck) but evaluated in different ways, (e.g. as diachronical stages of text development or as interchangeable features). This paper explores the way these two figures serve as a structuring principle in Isaiah 49-55. The texts give no biographical narrative for either of them, but they offer a certain kind of dynamic inherent in their presentation from one text to the next. This dynamic is very different for Zion and for the Servant. Thus, they both structure and present the thematic development within Isaiah 49-55. They allow viewing the topics of the chapters from two different angles. This is even more interesting since two different gender perspectives are brought in by the two figures. Isaiah 49-55 are concerned with future times and with ways to cope with the past. The texts offer several kind of reaction to these envisioned future times and a range of coping strategies for experiences of the past. Servant and Zion can be seen as two exemplary ways to do so, two different attitudes towards past and future. Gender stereotypes are employed both to play with common expectations and to undermine them, in order to achieve the effects intended in the texts.


War Rituals in the Old Testament
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Ruediger Schmitt, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

No military action in the Ancient Near East could be started without preceeding ritual actions and omina. Accordingly – like in contemporary Assyria and Babylonia – military actions in Ancient Israel were accompanied by ritual actions and omina. The paper analizes biblical accounts on war oracles like 1 Kgs 12:22—24 by the men of god Shemaiah, execretion rituals by the king in Ps 2,9 and by men of god in 2 Kgs 13: 14-19; 2 Kgs 22,10-12 and related symbolic actions by prophets like the execretion ritual in Jer 18 similar to the eyptian s? dšrwt-ritual. The aim of the paper is to give a typology of the different kinds of rituals, their socio-religious setting and their military and political functions (cf. R. Schmitt, Magie im Alten Testament, AOAT 313, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2004, 272-284; ibid., Der „Heilige Krieg“ im Pentateuch und im Deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk, AOAT 381, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2011, 136-145). Moreover, the iconographical evidence from Iron Age Israelite and Judean seals will be related to the textual evidence.


The Iconography of War and Warfare in Iron Age Israel and Judah
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Rüdiger Schmitt, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Different to Assyria with its large repertoire of-war-related representations in monumental art, war and warfare in Iron Age Israel and Judah only occurs in miniature art, predominantly in glyptic arts, but also on a fragment of wall painting. The aim of the paper is to give an overview on warfare-related motifs on Iron Age Seals and related arts (chariots, horses, king smashing enemy, siege scene etc.), a comparison with related motifs from Assyria, and an investigation in the functions of Iron Age glyptic arts for official and royal representations of power. It will be shown that Iron Age II Israelite and Judean representations of war and warfare were strongly influenced by Aramaic and Assyrian art, but also still show some Egyptian influence (cf. R. Schmitt, Bildhafte Herrschaftsrepräsentation im eisenzeitlichen Israel, AOAT 283, Münster 2001).


Where Do We Go from Here: Women in the Book of Genesis
Program Unit: Genesis
Tammi Schneider, Claremont Graduate University

The role of feminist studies in biblical research has been growing substantially for the last thirty years. Despite the strong scholarship behind much of this research, to a large extent, the impact and results of those studies has only slowly begun to infiltrate mainstream studies of the Hebrew Bible and the book of Genesis in particular. Yet many of these discussions not only impact how we understand the role of women in Genesis but, as a result, how the men should be viewed which suggests a slightly different focus of the text as a whole. This paper will lay out a few avenues where research on the Book of Genesis could go as a result of some the insights gleaned from many of the recent studies on the women in the book of Genesis. I will then turn to applying some of this to what should be viewed across the board as outmoded assumptions about male characters and the themes they represent in the book of Genesis as a whole.


Anthropological Linguistics, Writing, and the Dating of Biblical Texts
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
William Schniedewind, University of California-Los Angeles

Recent debates have critiqued some of the underpinnings of the traditional distinction between Standard Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew and thereby undermined some of the rationale for the dating of biblical texts. The current paper brings methodological insights from anthropological linguistics and the linguistics of writing into the discussion. Some of the recent critiques of the dating of biblical texts are based on assumptions deriving from the historical linguistics of vernacular languages rather than writing, and they do not take into account the sociolinguistic and anthropological linguistic disciplines and how they may contribute to the dating of biblical texts.


Reading Sectarian Spaces: Critical Spatiality and the Case of Qumran
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Alison Schofield, University of Denver

What betrays a sectarian space? The flourishing of Jewish sects in Roman-era Palestine is not obvious from the archaeological remains, and Qumran itself offers little clarification. Archaeologists and text scholars alike debate the identity of this site for the Dead Sea Scrolls sect, yet few have examined it from a critical spatial lens. If space is a social product and one that simultaneously re-presents the society that produced it, these physical remains are telling. The community that lived here is represented not only by the physical reality of the site, but also by the mechanisms through which they would have experienced these spaces (cf. Lefebvre’s category of “spatial practice,” la pratique spatiale). In light of the regimented life of the Scrolls sect, one could ask of the remains themselves are conducive to “these apparatuses that produce a disciplinary space”? (De Certeau, Practice of Everyday Life, 96) Further, on the level of symbolic space (Lefebvre’s “spaces of representation,” les espaces de représentation), does the spatial arrangement function in response to the centralized priestly space of the Temple (in Jerusalem)? Does this site itself reflect socially contested space? This paper examines the experience of Qumran spaces from an embodied perspective and queries the spatial praxis behind the physical site. Drawing from the perspectives of critical spatial theorists, such as Lefebvre and Yi-Fu Tuan, in conversation with some conclusions from space syntax theory (access analysis), this paper reexamines Qumran through a critical spatial lens and challenges the very criteria used to identify Jewish sectarian spaces in Second Temple Palestine.


The World’s Language in the Gospels of John and Thomas
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
T. Nicholas Schonhoffer, University of Toronto

Recent scholarship has produced a wave of comparisons between the Gospels of Thomas and John, and observed that these two texts show greater similarity with each other than with the synoptic gospels. These comparisons, however, have not examined the methods of critique that John and Thomas employ against the languages of “the world.” William Arnal argues that Thomas deliberately uses contradictory metaphors and discourses as a rhetorical tool to expose the inadequacy of language which conceals the hidden meaning of Jesus’ words. This attack is targeted, in particular, against the economic and familial structures that represent the world. Bruce Malina, building on a model first proposed by Wayne Meeks, argues that John employs an “anti-language,” that is, a relexicalised vocabulary indicative of an anti-society or a highly alienated sub-culture. The many misunderstandings narrated in the Johannine Gospel are structured around the inability of those of the world to understand the relexicalised Johannine vocabulary. Mikhail Bakhtin’s linguistic theory provides an interpretive framework through which Thomas and John’s use of the world’s language can be further compared and elaborated. Both Thomas and John exploit the social diversity of language, producing centrifugal effects as the illusion of linguistic unity is shattered. Both make this argument through the incorporation of the world’s language into their texts. John does this by bringing the Johannine anti-language into conflict with the various languages of the world, while Thomas brings the various strata of the world’s language into conflict with each other, without ever establishing a stable linguistic system of its own. In John, these centrifugal tendencies are countered by a centripetal tendency: the distinct Johannine anti-language, the superiority of which is continuously asserted against the languages of the world. Whereas, in Thomas, no such re-centering occurs, and in order for the Thomasine sage to find the hidden meaning, language itself is undermined. Thomas and John, then, agree in connecting their critique of the world’s language to their critiques of the world. The Johannine anti-language, however, re-establishes a centre around which an anti-society could form, whereas the Thomasine use of language moves in the direction of individual mysticism. Other comparisons of John and Thomas have observed that John also keeps Jesus as a center, focusing on his resurrection and the exclusivity of his soteriological role, whereas Thomas denies the resurrection, and presents the salvation as accessible to the sage; the approaches to language here described, then, cohere with their Christologies. The word of God incarnate in Jesus and spoken by Jesus remains unified in John, allowing a community to form in relation to the word, while the Thomasine sage seeks the meaning that words must be deconstructed to find.


Serving Soteriology: Siblings in the Gospel of Thomas
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
T. Nicholas Schonhoffer, University of Toronto

In this paper, I will explore the philosophical and popular traditions associated with siblingship in antiquity, and then use this context to interpret the sibling metaphor in the Gospel of Thomas. It has often been observed that Thomas portrays the characters of Thomas and James as superior to the other disciples, and that both these figures are considered brothers of Jesus by other early Christian texts. However, explanations for this observation have neglected the contextual data regarding the sophisticated understanding of the sibling relation that existed in ancient Mediterranean culture, and have also failed to notice that the two female disciples, who are positively evaluated in Thomas, also share names that early Christian tradition attributed to sisters of Jesus. In the non-individualistic societies of the ancient Mediterranean, identity was largely embedded in family. Honour was shared and harmony was expected of family members. Since theirs is the longest lasting familial relationship, these demands were particularly powerful on siblings, and the concept of “brotherly love” was extensively developed and elaborated on, in order to specify proper relationships among siblings. Writings on brotherly love were particularly critical of behaviours that created or exaggerated inequality or difference among siblings. Particularly in Roman writings, outright identification becomes common between brothers, who could be described as a “second self.” The difference in age was one such distinction that could create dissimilarity between siblings, and therefore twins could be used as a particularly strong example of this ideal. This potential identification among siblings provides the metaphorical basis for the Gospel of Thomas’ adaptation of early Christian figures who were considered siblings of Jesus. The central aim of Thomasine soteriology is the achievement of equality and identification with Jesus. Thomas’ adaption of siblings of Jesus as its central positively evaluated figures is an important metaphor that the text uses to describe this soteriological principle. The siblings, which the text employs as its exemplars, share identity with Jesus by means of their familial relationship, thus serving as metaphors for the Thomasine sages, who share identity with Jesus by discovering the hidden meaning of his words. The character of Thomas, who was regarded as Jesus’ twin, is portrayed as the best of the disciples, having actually achieved the unification that the text advocates. While on their way, James, Salome and Mary have not yet achieved this identification. Just as the difference in age continues to represent a distinction between non-twin siblings, these three have not completely eliminated their differences from Jesus.


The Critical Editio Magna of the Samaritan Text of Genesis
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Stefan Schorch, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

During this lecture, a critical editio magna of the Samaritan text of Genesis will be presented. The edition was prepared by a team based at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and lead by Stefan Schorch. The edition is diplomatic, being based on the manuscript Dublin Chester Beatty Library 751 (1225 CE). Critical apparatuses contain variant readings, punctuation variants and vocalization signs from 25 Samaritan manuscripts, dating from the 9th to the 14th century CE. Two further apparatuses provides variants indicated by the Samaritan versions (i.e., the Samaritan Targum and the Samaritan-Arabic translation), and parallels to the Samaritan text from the manuscripts from the Judean Desert and the Septuagint. Additionally, marginal notes indicate the traditional vocalization of difficult words as transmitted in the Samaritan reading of the Torah. The edition of the Book of Genesis to be presented is the first volume of a critical edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch.


The Prophet Deborah and the Seventeenth Century Literary Ladies
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Joy A. Schroeder, Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Capital University

For the first sixteen centuries of the Common Era, Christian interpretation of Judges 4-5 was recorded almost exclusively by men. Beginning in the 1600’s, there was a virtual explosion of women’s publications, and many of these women invoked the prophet Deborah in support of women’s expanded rights. In contrast to commentaries authored by male interpreters, women argued that Deborah was neither a prodigy nor an exception to some general rule about male superiority. Rather, she is incontrovertible evidence that other women can become proficient in law, politics, and literature. This paper explores the writings of seventeenth-century authors such as Amelia Lanyer, Esther Sowernam, Lucrezia Marinella, Bathsua Makin, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Margaret Askew Fell Fox. These women used the prophetess’s example as bold defenses of their own studying, teaching, writing, and public speech. Female scholars, poets, and public speakers argued that they were following the example of biblical women like Deborah. Women offended by men’s verbal assaults were stirred and inspired by the image of Deborah and Jael conquering their male enemies. Female authors said that men who oppose and slander women should expect to be (metaphorically) crushed like Sisera, who underestimated a woman’s intelligence and strength.


The Relation between Authority Figures and the Will of God in the Book of Nehemiah
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Lucas L. Schulte, Claremont Graduate University

This paper proposes to identify an “authority triangle” within the book of Nehemiah consisting of the Judean Deity, the Persian king, and (a representative of) the Judean people (primarily Nehemiah). Much of previous scholarship has focused upon diachronic discussion of the Nehemiah Memoir as a document intended to justify Nehemiah’s actions to an intended reader of either God or the Persians. However, a synchronic reading suggests that the book attempts to justify Nehemiah’s actions as authorized by God and Persian rule to an intended readership of the Judeans. The book of Nehemiah presents a historiography which contains the following primary authorities: YHWH, Artaxerxes, and Nehemiah. They form a triangle in which the author presents Artaxerxes and Nehemiah receiving authority for their actions from YHWH—with particular emphasis given to Nehemiah’s divine authority being derived through Artaxerxes from YHWH. The book asserts Nehemiah’s authority as ultimately derived from YHWH. It also presents King Artaxerxes as manifesting YHWH’s will. Next, it presents Nehemiah’s actions within Jerusalem as authorized by the Persian king Artaxerxes. Ultimately, Nehemiah’s authorization from YHWH is reinforced by Nehemiah’s authorization by Artaxerxes who in turn manifests the will of YHWH. Because references to God, Nehemiah, and the Judeans are quite frequent with the book, this paper will first identify passages that refer to Artaxerxes both explicitly and implicitly. The paper will then analyze and discuss what these passages tell us about the authority relationships among Artaxerxes, YHWH, and (a representative of) the Judeans. The paper will then conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the understanding of the book as a whole while suggesting avenues of further research on these implications both for comparative and diachronic understandings of the book of Nehemiah.


Communicative Language Teaching: A Practical "How-to" for the First Steps
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Brian Schultz, Fresno Pacific University

Research in the field of Second Language Acquisition has shown that using the "Communicative" approach to teaching languages enjoys multiple advantages over the Grammar-Translation approach commonly used for the biblical languages. These include faster learning, higher retention rates, suitability to multiple learning styles, increased retention in class enrollment, as well as greater enjoyment and motivation among students. However, few instructors of biblical Hebrew have been taught with the "Communicative" approach or were trained themselves to use it in their own teaching. This paper will explore basic principles and practical first steps any instructor of biblical Hebrew, regardless of their training or background, can use to begin incorporating "Communicative Language Teaching" (CLT) to their curriculum successfully. In particular, I will break down the various components of a typical class session taught with CLT at the very beginning of a first year or first semester introductory course, and detail how one can prepare to teach such a class without any prior experience in the "Communicative" approach.


Ritual and Ethics: The Didache as Test Case
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Jonathan Schwiebert, Lenoir-Rhyne University

For various reasons, ritual has traditionally taken a back seat in the quest for Christian origins. In this paper, I offer the Didache as a strong counter-weight to such a tendency. In this text, we encounter a community that is defined largely by its rituals. The text contains no theology; it tells no story; it offers only two things: ethics and ritual. Both the ethics and the rituals define appropriate behavior and community boundaries. Given this obvious overlap, the question of which is primary raises the distinct, though perhaps counter-intuitive, possibility that ritual, in the final analysis, lies closer to the community's raison d'etre. That is, ritual does not exist for the sake of defining those who must keep the ethical code, but rather the ethical code has been put in place for the sake of the ritual’s purity and efficaciousness. The point, I argue, can be clearly demonstrated within the Didache, which in turn raises significant questions about the relationship between these two spheres within the Hebrew Bible and various forms of second-Temple Judaism.


“Your Reasoning Act of Worship”: Logikos in Rom 12:1 and Paul's Ethics
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Ian W. Scott, Tyndale University College and Seminary (Ontario)

In Romans 12:1 Paul describes the ethical self-offering of the Roman believers as their logiken latreian. This statement has generally been taken to mean either a) that the worship is non-corporeal, and so "spiritual," or b) that the worship is "rational" in the sense that it is a suitable or fitting response to God's saving acts. Yet a survey of the use of logikos in Hellenistic Greek literature reveals that the word was seldom, if ever, used in these senses. Instead, logikos was used consistently to identify some act as involving reasoned thinking, or to identify some being as capable of rational thought. The term is much more specialized than the English word "rational." It was strongly associated with the discourse of elite philosophy and is absent in the language of the courtroom, the theatre, and the cultic festival. Neither is there evidence for a specialized Jewish or Christian use of logikos (1 Pet 2:2 and TLevi 3:6 notwithstanding). So in calling the believer's ethical worship logike in Rom 12:1, Paul was most likely emphasizing that their actions involved the exercise of reasoned thought. Such an interpretation fits well with the following context in Rom 12:2 where the Apostle describes the activity of moral discernment (dokimazein) that is made possible when one's mind (nous) is renewed. Hence the best translation of logike latreia in Rom 12:1 would be something like “reasoning act of worship.” If this is correct, the traditional readings (and translations) of Rom 12:1 have masked Paul's central emphasis on rational moral deliberation, an emphasis that is in keeping with his practice of reasoned ethical argument in Rom 12-15 and elsewhere. Indeed, the usual translation of Rom 12:1 would seem to be one symptom of the general reluctance among modern readers to accept that Paul may have been optimistic about the capacity of the human intellect, at least once it is revitalized by the Spirit.


Paul's Self-Presentation in Philippians: Providing a Model for Enduring Suffering
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Kevin Scull, University of California-Los Angeles

Paul presents himself as one who has endured suffering in many of his letters, most notably 2 Corinthians. In these instances, Paul follows the standard techniques outlined by the Greco-Roman rhetorical handbooks for presenting oneself as suffering in order to establish a positive relationship with his audience. However, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul eschews the advice provided by the handbooks, and instead, he emphasizes the deeds he accomplished (spreading the Gospel throughout the Praetorian and inspiring others to proclaim Christ) rather than the suffering he endured during his imprisonment. That is, while describing himself as a prisoner to the Philippians, Paul is provided the ideal opportunity to highlight his current and past suffering. For instance, in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 Paul outlines many instances of suffering that he endured such as floggings, beatings, and shipwrecks, and it is difficult to imagine that during Paul’s imprisonment, described in Philippians 1:7-30, he did not undergo any suffering. Therefore, it is my assertion that Paul presents his imprisonment to the Philippians as a model for the community of one who was able to persevere despite suffering. Moreover, providing the Philippians with a model worthy of imitation was necessary because they too were enduring suffering of their own, as Paul states in 1:29-30. Furthermore, recognizing Paul’s unusual presentation of his imprisonment makes it possible to isolate the primary motive for Paul's letter to the Philippians, providing an example to the suffering Philippian community. In fact, Paul invites the Philippians, in 3:17, to "... join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us." Finally, interpreting Paul's call to imitation as an invitation to follow the example of one able to persevere despite imprisonment provides a sharp contrast to the work of scholars such as Elizabeth Castelli who view Paul's call to imitation as a coercive command.


Babai the Great’s Exegesis of Paul as Corrective to Evagrian Eschatology
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jason Scully, Marquette University

Antoine Guillaumont first discussed the Syriac appropriation of Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters in his 1962 study, Les‘Képhalaia Gnostica’ d’Évagre le Pontique, but few scholars have returned to the subject. This paper will advance Guillaumont’s initial findings by examing the way Babai the Great, the Syriac-speaking abbot of the monastery of Mount Izla from 604-628, appropriated Evagrius’s thought. The content of this examination will come from a close textual reading of Babai’s commentary on Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters. Guillaumont showed that Babai based his commentary on an altered version of the Gnostic Chapters that had removed many of Evagrius’s most explicit Origenist statements, which were heretical to Babai and his contemporaries. Although Babai was not aware that he was reading an altered version of the Gnostic Chapters, he neverthess realized that it lacked a coherent framework. In order to help him interpret inconsitencies in the altered form of the text, Babai used the biblical teaching of Paul, whom he saw as the standard for Orthodoxy, to explain the unclear passages. In particular, this paper will examine the way Babai completes the work of the Syriac translator of the Gnostic Chapters by eliminating all remaining traces of the Origenist claim that the body will be destroyed in the future world. In place of Evagrius’s teaching on the destruction of the body, Babai interpreted the altered version of Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters as a program that promoted ascetical labor in light of the Pauline teaching of the resurrection of the body. Among other Pauline texts, Babai uses 1 Cor. 2.19, 1 Cor. 13.9-10, 1 Cor.15.54, 2 Cor. 5.10, and Eph. 1.18 to support this reading of the Gnostic Chapters. The bulk of this paper will analyze Babai’s exegesis of these biblical texts. In addition to serving as a witness to the history of Syriac exegesis of Paul, this study will also shed light on the growing interest in Paul among ascetical and mystical authors in the middle-East during the sixth- and seventh-centuries.


Not What the Doctor Ordered or How Not to Write a History of Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
JoAnn Scurlock, Elmhurst College

Anyone who has had to read medical texts as a graduate student can appreciate that this endeavor is something of a white-knuckle experience for most people. Quite apart from the fact that reading cuneiform texts is itself a challenge, it really helps to have some clue what your text is talking about, and the arcana of medicine are not something most people were born knowing about. In principle, the solution should be an easy one—cuneiformists and medical doctors toiling together to translate and to triumph or cuneiform-trained medical doctors deciphering and decoding or traditionally-trained cuneiformists triangulating from what else is known about Mesopotamia and/or the rest of the ancient world. Fine in theory, but, in practice, not so much. In a quite serious, yet tongue-in-cheek manner (and with names omitted to protect the guilty), this paper will examine major pitfalls to be avoided in the study of ancient Medicine.


Dialectical Identity and the Apostle Paul
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Love Sechrest, Fuller Theological Seminary

Dialectical eschatology is a well known feature of Pauline theology. What is not as well known is the way that Paul’s already/not-yet thinking intersects with the dynamics of ethnoracial identity among second temple Jews. This paper will describe the similarities and differences between ancient and modern ethnic and racial identity, and the particular ways that Paul adapts these concepts for Christian identity, negotiating continuity, discontinuity, and hybridity vis-à-vis Jewish contemporaries inside and outside of the Christian movement. We will see that Paul’s concept of Christian identity has important analogues with modern ideas, particularly with reference to the interplay between the construction of identity in a given setting and an individual’s decision to emphasize certain aspects of their identity in that setting.


The Kethuvim in the Coenim: Job, Daniel, Psalms, and the Apocalyptic Landscape in the Films of Joel and Ethan Coen
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Robert Paul Seesengood, Albright College

Film critic A.O. Scott, when reviewing Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2009 A Serious Man, commented on how this film, unlike their others, directly engaged both Judaica and the Bible. In some ways, Scott is quite correct. None of their films invoke Jewish-American culture or the rabbis on the scale seen in A Serious Man, and the Coens rarely to never directly refer to Torah. Yet I would take issue with suggestions that the Coens are sparing or reserved in their use of Bible. They have a particular penchant for the kethuvim. Alongside Serious Man’s use of the narrative of Job (and also Ecclesiastes), the Psalms appear in The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where art Thou. The book of Daniel has made several cameos (Big Lebowski, Ladykillers, and Barton Fink) where the Coens use the text of Daniel to establish a general “apocalyptic” tone for the film establishing an early warning of deadly chaos to come. When the Coens turn to Job or the Psalms, they also invoke themes of death and divine judgment (i.e. Lebowski’s famous funeral home scene or the closing whirlwind of Serious Man). I will argue that the Coens use biblical text much in the way they use set/location (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, etc.) or cinematography (particularly their reliance on Roger Deakins’ trade mark light-and-shadow): to create a context of surreality, vacant-yet-dangerous space and dramatic foreboding. In contrast, then, to Scott, I will argue in this paper that biblical literature, particularly the Kethuvim, regularly composes the very “landscape” of the Coen Brothers’ imagination and vision. The early proto-apocalyptic elements in the kethuvim, to the Coens, invoke the mystery, absence and risk that, in part, constructs a space for drama to unfold.


Reconsidering the Theological Background of Daniel 7 in Light of Innerbiblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Michael Segal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The apocalyptic vision of Daniel 7, which plays a pivotal role within the Book of Daniel, has influenced both Early Christian and Jewish literature. The rich symbolism of the four beasts, and of the Ancient of Days and the One like a Human Being, have been discussed by both early interpreters and critical scholars. Most recent studies have focused on extrabiblical parallels, including Mesopotamian and Canaanite mythology. While these influences are highly significant, this paper will emphasize the reuse of earlier biblical traditions in Daniel 7, including Deuteronomy 32:8–9, the division of the nations to the sons of God; Psalm 82, a courtroom scene involving the divine retinue, which culminates with the inheritance of the nations; and Psalm 68:5, in which YHWH is described as riding on the clouds. In light of these passages, it will be suggested that the apocalyptic vision in Daniel 7 describes an eschatological redistribution of all of the nations and their lands, reversing the division described in Deut 32:8–9, and enacting the court scene of Psalm 82, according to which YHWH will inherit all of the nations. This line of interpretation sheds new light on Daniel 7 itself, as well as on the process of literary development of the entire book.


The Bible at Qumran and the Bible in Light of Qumran: Towards a Typology of Scribal Activity
Program Unit: Qumran
Michael Segal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Qumran discoveries have fundamentally challenged and changed many basic assumptions about the processes by which the Hebrew Bible was transmitted and transformed in Antiquity. Biblical scrolls provide new readings, demonstrating the fluid nature of the texts in Antiquity. More significantly for the discussion here, large-scale differences between the Qumran scrolls and previously known textual witnesses demonstrate the ongoing literary development of the biblical books, even in this late period. This picture is further complicated by the category of texts that scholars have labeled Rewritten Bible.


Bible as Interpretation: Ivone Gebara
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Fernando F. Segovia, Vanderbilt University

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A New Garb for the Jewish Soul: The JPS Bible Translation (1917) in Light of the King James Bible
Program Unit:
Naomi Seidman, Graduate Theological Union

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Antiochene Interpretation of Psalm 2
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Christopher Seitz, University of Toronto

“Invited paper” Antiochene interpretation is frequently characterized as historicist, limiting the reference of the psalms to events and figures within Israel’s own temporal context. Yet because this does not happen in all instances—and Psalm 2 is a case in point—it is important to understand these exceptions for their own sake and in order better to categorize the literalism of these interpreters. Also to be discussed in this context: theoria, extended sense-making, and the Augustinian recourse to Christ speaking in the place of the sinful church in the psalms.


Inner-Biblical Exegesis and the Literal Sense in the History of Interpretation
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Christopher Seitz, University of Toronto

An examination of the way in which earlier commentary thought about sense-making in the Psalms, the voice of David, authorial intention, and the reception of the psalms in the NT. Special attention will be given to the antiochenes, Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin, and how they relate to what today might be called canonical interpretation.


How Does Jeremiah's Letter (Jer 29) Deal with the Way That the Exiled Community Reconstructs and Commemorates Its Past?
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Kyong-Sook Seo, Texas Christian University

The OT/HB stories related the history and meanings of communities, including their traditions, values, and beliefs that shaped and sustained their identity and ethos. These narratives also shaped and sustained the identity of individuals who were members of these communities. The OT/HB narrative, therefore, is history-like, but not necessarily history in the critical sense of contemporary understanding. Jeremiah 29 is a letter from Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon. In this letter, Jeremiah emphasizes the need for people to settle down in Babylon so they may live and multiply (Jer 29:4-7). Through both literary and sociological analysis, I will try to unravel the intention of significant editing by redactors. Therefore, my reading will attempt to demonstrate that Jeremiah 29:1-23 is a sophisticated literary work that participates in the author’s grand scheme of justifying the deported group’s control over Jerusalem’s economy and cult in the exilic or post-exilic periods. The selected passage emphasizes the Babylonian deportation as a “temporary” exile of a superior group of people (Jer 24; 29:10-14) who eventually returned in triumph to Jerusalem after seventy years. I will also discuss how narrative or memory theories deal with the way that the exiled community reconstructs and commemorates its past in Jeremiah’s letter in Jeremiah 29:1-23.


The Distinctiveness of Elihu’s Style Reconsidered
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
C. L. Seow, Princeton Theological Seminary

There has been something of a consensus among scholars for nearly a century that the Elihu speeches are set apart from the rest of the Job poem by a distinctive style. Arguments for this view include (1) the use of divine names, (2) the preference for the short form of the 1 cs independent pronoun, (3) long-form prepositions, (4) a greater number of Aramaisms, and (5) the use of certain distinctive Hebrew terms. This paper challenges the consensus.


Textual Character of 4QSam-a and 4QSam-b in the Light of a Statistical Analysis
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Christian Seppänen, University of Helsinki

In this paper, the variant readings found in the Qumran Scrolls 4QSam-a and 4QSam-b will be analyzed statistically. The aim is to find how closely either Qumran scroll is textually related with the LXX or the MT. Special attention is paid to the question whether the affinity between the scroll and the MT/LXX is the same in different kinds of variant readings (e.g. omission / interchange of word; intentional change / scribal error). Finally, on the grounds of the statistical approach, a characterization of the manuscripts 4QSam-a and 4QSam-b will be given.


The Biblical Hermeneutics of Frances Willard
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Claudia Setzer, Manhattan College

In her work, Woman in the Pulpit, Frances Willard, the powerful president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, shows remarkable agility and creativity with biblical texts. She engages in what we would today identify as source criticism, textual criticism, and cultural criticism. When compared to some of her contemporary feminist biblical critics, she seems free of the theological anti-Judaism and Orientalism that sometimes marred their arguments. Similar attitudes accompanied emerging historical-critical scholarship. This paper will examine Willard’s approaches to the Bible, compare her approaches to some other feminist exegetes, consider her relationships with fellow exegetes, and speculate about her awareness of historical-critical methods coming out of Germany.


The Spirit Defense of Christ in Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on Luke
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Anne Seville, Loyola University Maryland

Throughout his polemical works Cyril of Alexandria staunchly defends his Christology by examining many scriptural episodes of Christ’s life, from identifying the subject who worked miracles to the subject who expressed suffering. In his Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, passages with the Spirit take a prominent role in a practical, albeit vigorous, Christological argument. This paper will look at how Cyril uses several of these Spirit episodes as proof texts to support his views against competing models.


Reading the Parables Theologically to Read them Missionally: A Missional Reading of the Early Galilean Parables in Luke’s Gospel
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Jason S. Sexton, University of St. Andrews

Jesus’ parables provide fertile ground for wide-ranging reflection on a missional reading of Scripture. Yet they are not only conducive to a missional hermeneutic, but also gain strength as missionally-oriented texts when seen as cohering in a reciprocal relationship with theology’s traditional systematic categories, all of which seem best conceived missionally. Flowing from postdoctoral work on “missional theology as public theology,” this paper works from the basis that all of the traditional theological categories are missional in character and emphasis. Thereby it considers the ways that Jesus’ parables give birth to yet are complemented and fortified by the systematic categories framing all of theology’s missional thrust. After framing the theological context for reading the parables missionally, finding them hemmed in by the theological loci of, on one hand, theology proper, and on the other, eschatology, this paper further develops a missional reading of Jesus’ parables by in conversation with the remaining systematic loci, which only then coherently yields a hermeneutic ably designated as coherently missional, and yielding interpretations that nurture readings that possess inherent explanatory power that leading to faithful Christian proclamation and discipleship. Because of its explicit missional character as a letter written to a disciple—Theophilus (cp. the Lukan and Acts prologues)—of particular interest is Luke’s emphasis on parables (twenty-eight cp. to Mathew’s twenty-two, and Mark’s eight), and how they resound the missional theme. As test cases for developing missional readings of the parables, this paper considers the first six in Luke. • New cloth on old coat (5:36) • New wine in old wineskins (5:37–38) • Houses on rock and sand (6:47–49) • The moneylender (7:41–43) • Sower and soils (8:5–8) • Lamp under a bowl (8:16) The explanation of Jesus’ intention for speaking in parables (8:10) accords with an account of mission most readily aided by an interpretation conversant with the other systematic loci, which provides categorically-descriptive language for helping contemporary interpreters understand these passages as characteristically missional. Accordingly, in these passages Jesus proclaims and recounts in parabolic manner the “good news of the kingdom” in “secrets of the kingdom.” Marking early parts of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, where the “hearers” participate in the kingdom’s “good news” proleptically, although not actually, with the exception of those participating in the kingdom by their very participation in the King himself, who brings them into this “world” of discipleship, which carries epistemological and ontological dimensions, with the transformation of the latter being the basis for the transformation of the former, all of which, again, is aided by the traditional theological loci. There’s a coherent relationship between the development of the gospel in the world, and the gospel-proclamation of the Kingdom, of which not everyone has ears to hear; and yet the coherence is best tested by the coherence of the features of the Kingdom proclamation as both testified to, understood and experienced through the systematic categories, which adheres to each of the five interlocking realities in the biblical text that comprise the vision for presentations in the GOCN’s Missional Hermeneutics Forum.


Border Cities of Judah: A View from Tel Burna
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Itzhaq Shai, Bar-Ilan University

Tel Burna is located in the Judean Shephelah, along the northern banks of Wadi Guvrin, slightly north of Lachish. The clear prominence of the site in the Iron Age is most notable when viewing the fortifications on the summit, which based on the excavations can be dated to the Iron Age II. It has been proposed that the site should be identified with Biblical Libnah, one of the Levitical cities (Josh. 21:13) and a Judean border site. Two seasons of excavation at the site have painted a picture of the importance of the city as a border town in Judah in the Iron Ages. In this lecture, we will present the findings of the first seasons of excavation, and reflect on the location of the city along the border with Philistia and how this affected the material culture. Comparisons will be made with both Philistine and inland Judean sites.


More Subtle Than Any Other Beast: The Affordances of the Serpent in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Avram R. Shannon, The Ohio State University

Many cultures in the ancient Near East framed the myth of creation in terms of a battle between a god, representing the forces of order against some being representing chaos, often a serpent or dragon. Hermann Gunkel identified this as a “Chaoskampf,” and it is an important part of the mythic fabric of the ancient Near East. The Hebrew Bible also preserves traditions in which Yahweh fights against a dragon and subdues the sea (Isa 51:9-10, Job 41, Ps 74:13-14, etc). This is not however, the primary form which the creation takes in Genesis 1-3. There, Yahweh simply speaks and creation happens. Even in the Genesis account, however, a serpent works his way into the story, a serpent who attempts to overthrow the order established by God. Drawing on the mythological work done in Classics by Detienne, and especially on the idea of “affordances”—the way that humans respond to animal characteristics to create literature and myth—suggested by Maurizio Bettini’s work on the weasel, this paper will examine the character of the serpent in the ancient Near East, including the connection between the seven-headed chaos serpent of Job and at Ugarit, and the subtle serpent of Genesis. It will show that although the creation account in Genesis is perhaps more understated in its mythological use of a serpent as the enemy of chaos, it is still using the “affordances” characteristic of the serpent to make its own point and to put forward its particular ideological and theological ideas.


So Let It Be Written, So Let It Be Done: Performative Speech in Ancient Egypt and the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Avram R. Shannon, The Ohio State University

Psalm 110:3 records a speech on the part of the God of Israel, where he “swears and it will not be annulled” that the king is a priest forever. In this and other places, Yahweh uses performative speech, so that by the very process of speaking, he brings about that which he speaks about. This is one of the ways in which the divine power of the God of Israel is conceptualized in the writings of the Hebrew Bible, as in the first chapter of Genesis, where God speaks and creation comes about. Performative speech is also an important part of certain Egyptian conceptions of divine and royal power, especially that of Ptah, as expressed in such texts as the Memphite Theology (which was inscribed on the Shabako Stone about the same time as much of the Hebrew Bible was composed). Although the Egyptians and the Israelites differed in a number of ways on the characteristics of the divine, performative speech was a concept which was shared by them. This paper will examine performative speech in the Hebrew Bible and Egyptian sacred literature in order to explore what the ideological conceptions behind the use of performative speech by the divine meant in ancient Israel and ancient Egypt. Similarities and dissimilarities will be shown in order to illustrate that although the two cultures often had very disparate ideas about the divine realm, performative speech was part of the general religious and cultural milieu of the ancient Mediterranean, of which both cultures took part. In particular, the persistence of the written record in perpetuating performative speech-acts in both Egyptian and Israelite conceptions will be illustrated.


The More We Get Together...: Some Neurological Considerations of Ritual and Synchrony
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Colleen Shantz, University of Toronto

For several generations Durkheim’s notion of group effervescence has served as a label for a striking aspect of group events: collective behaviour, whether performing “the wave” in a sports stadium, dancing the macarena at a wedding reception, or intoning a Psalm in a communal liturgy, appears to generate effects beyond those experienced when acting alone. This paper examines the contribution of cognitive studies to the understanding of group behavior in ritual action. In particular, I will outline some recent explorations of synchronous behavior and the brain functioning that appears to lie behind it. These studies also suggest that such synchronous behavior has a positive effect on group cooperation and cohesiveness outside of ritual settings. These findings will then be applied to the practice of glossolalia in Christian origins in order to probe further its role in the history of the new movement.


The Conquests of Jerusalem by Pompey and Herod: On Sabbath or "Sabbath of Sabbaths?"
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Nadav Sharon, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In Antiquities 14 Josephus dates the conquests of Jerusalem by both Pompey (63 BCE) and Herod and Sossius (37 BCE) to "the day of the fast," emphasizing that both occurred on the same date. The natural understanding of the phrase "day of the fast" identifies it as the Day of Atonement ("Sabbath of Sabbaths"), which comes in September or October. However, due to various considerations, mostly derived from examination of Josephus' own narrative, scholars have argued that in fact the conquest came earlier – in the summer – on both occasions. That consensus argues, accordingly, that in the formulation of his specific chronological data Josephus followed a pagan source (Strabo?) without realizing that it used "day of the fast" for the Sabbath, since some pagan authors believed that Jews fast on the Sabbath. It is clear, however, that, for Josephus' narrative (perhaps also that of his source), the identity of the dates of such parallel events, which he underlines, has its own meaning. But that is the case whether or not his claim is true. In this paper I intend to examine the considerations that underlie the consensus and show that a careful reading of Josephus' accounts and of other Greek and Latin literature will result in a simpler picture than what scholarship has posited, and thus cast doubt upon the assumption that Josephus' narrative entails earlier dates for the conquests of the city. The argument entails a new examination of the assumption that ancient Greco-Roman authors used "day of the fast" when they meant "Sabbath." The paper will also explore the possible halakhic views of Judeans on both sides of the conflict on the question of fighting on the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement. This will require scrutiny of the otherwise unattested halakhic view which Josephus attributes to the Jews besieged by Pompey according to which on the Sabbath only direct self-defense is permitted while any other wartime labors, such as are needed to hinder the building of the siege, are forbidden.


Buying Land in the Text of Jeremiah: Feminist Commentary, the Kristevan Abject, and Jeremiah 32
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Carolyn J. Sharp, Yale Divinity School

Feminist biblical commentary in the postmodern era should be transparent about its contextual commitments, decline an authoritarian stance with regard to methods and meaning, and catalyze reader engagement with a robust politics of transformation, that last configured over against gendered and other systems of oppression veiled or expressed in the biblical text, the history of reception, and contemporary guild practices. As a feminist commentator, I experience a powerful tension between my desire to honor the ancient polyphony of Jeremiah as voice(s) of the Other and my desire to construct a space for the flourishing of socially just interpretive communities in the present day. The domineering discourses of Jeremiah 26-52, in particular, threaten to trap the feminist commentator within the limitations and distortions of ancient androcentric constructions of cultural and theological power. Must the feminist commentator “submit to Babylon” in order to live? Is resistance possible without the commentator, for her part, rendering monstrous the ancient voices of those who shaped the Jeremiah traditions? This paper will read Jeremiah 32 as a site from which to interrogate the positioning of Jeremiah as speaking subject and the abjection of “Israel” by both the prophet and God. With Julia Kristeva’s notion of the abject lurking nearby, we will listen for the fragility and alterity of all parties in the overcompensatory discursive performance of Jeremiah 32. It remains to be seen whether this will allow feminist readers to lay claim — however provisionally and anxiously — to a small plot of land in Jeremiah on which to build.


Towards a Methodology for Identifying Translations verses Transcriptions: P. Mich. Inv. 3521 as a Case Study
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Daniel B. Sharp, Claremont Graduate University

Despite problems outlined by Metzger, P.J. Williams and others, the early versions of the New Testament continue to be a valuable resource for textual critics and used by the International Greek New Testament Project and the Nestle Aland and United Bible Society editions. One of the questions surrounding these versions is their relationship to the Greek text. Parker categorizes versions as, “primary versions, translated directly from the Greek, and secondary versions, translated from a primary version,” but there has been little discussion of the methodology a textual critic would use to determine if a given manuscript was a primary or secondary version. This paper outlines a methodology for ascertaining if a particular manuscript is a primary or secondary version, and operates under the assumption that a scribe doing a translation must necessarily mentally engage their source in a way that a scribe doing a transcription does not. The methodology begins with identifying singular readings of a manuscript to identify the habits of a particular scribe, as argued for by Colwell, Royse, B. Aland and others. After categorizing the singular readings of a scribe, if one can show that there are no examples of parablepsis, haplography or dittography and that, in general the singular readings represent sensible readings, then one can cautiously categorize a given manuscripts as a primary version. This methodology will be applied to the Coptic manuscript P. Mich. Inv 3521 as a case study and the findings of the methodology discussed as part of the paper.


A New Take on the Text of 2 Macc. 12.13
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Frank Shaw, Wright State University

One of the knotty textual problems in 2 Macc is the account of Judas coming against the city/town of Caspin at 12.13. It is one of only nine obelized passages in Hanhart's Gottingen text. A fresh perpective, drawn from the knowledge of ancient warfare, is in order. The locus, a review of the textual testimony, and established views on the problem, along with the reasons (and in one case a presentation of the linguistic evidence) for them, are reviewed. Never before considered evidence is presented and the significance of one particular stylistic feature of 2 Macc's Greek is invoked to add support for the new solution offered.


Octavia, Daughter of God
Program Unit: Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars
Jane Shaw, Dean, Grace Cathedral

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Joanna Southcott and Mabel Barltrop: Interpreting Genesis and Revelation
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Jane Shaw, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

This paper examines how English prophetic figures Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) and Mabel Barltrop (founder of a utopian religious community in Bedford in the early 20th century), interpreted the books of Genesis and Revelation. In particular it looks at Southcott’s distinctive interpretation of Eve’s role in the Fall, and her belief that just as Woman was responsible for original sin, so only Woman could ultimately redeem the world. Mabel Barltrop, called Octavia by her thousands of followers around the world in the first half of the twentieth century, carried that interpretation one step further. She believed she was that female redeemer, and she gathered a community of female (and some male) disciples around her to build the New Jerusalem on earth. In that sense, she actualized the interpretation of the books of Genesis and Revelation that Southcott had made, and lived her particular interpretation of the Book of Revelation’s ideas about the end times.


(Re)Viewing Judith: Art Illuminates an Unlikely Combination of Character Traits in the Book of Judith
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Andrea M. Sheaffer, Graduate Theological Union

The story of Judith is extraordinary and unique in apocryphal literature. Combining faith and ingenuity Judith saves Israel from Assyrian domination by a single murderous act. Over centuries, Judith’s character has been hailed for numerous virtues: piety, chastity, wisdom, and unyielding faith in the God of Israel. However, there is another side to Judith’s character, one that is decidedly more problematic for some readers; Judith is also a woman of violence and deception—she prays and asks that God “strike,” “crush,” and “bring wound and bruise” on to her enemy Holofernes (Jdt 9.10-11), and she uses her beauty and a deceitful tongue to seduce Holofernes and later murder him, thus saving her people. The notion that a woman could be pious, deceptive, and yet a savior of her people may seem conflicting, and some scholars have even argued it was Judith’s moral deficiencies that perhaps lost the book its place in the Hebrew canon. Indeed the character of Judith is usually extolled as either a woman of extreme piety and chastity, or condemned as a violent, seductive, and murderous liar. In this paper I will argue, however, that recognizing each of Judith’s character traits, whether deemed positive or negative, is essential because they are not only part of the text, but also contributed to the ways in which Judith accomplished her overall mission. Depictions of Judith in art illuminate her unlikely character traits, which portray the heroine as a courageous and pious woman, but also do not shy away from her more sinister side as a dangerous and seductive murderer. Using a narrative approach in conjunction with art images, this paper will explore the evolution of Judith in paintings from the Middle Ages to the 17th century Baroque period, in order to demonstrate the various ways artists have portrayed Judith’s character—from pious and chaste to deceitful and seductive—and how these underscore the multi-dimensional character of Judith in the apocryphal text. This paper will embark on the study of Judith’s character reflected in painting beginning in the Middle Ages through the Baroque period, a span that witnessed an extraordinary increase of Judith depictions. Broadly tracing the development of Judith in art, we see Judith’s character traits evolving, initially depicted as a woman of piety and wisdom in the Middle Ages, to a paragon of chastity in the Renaissance. Moving into the Baroque, artists begin to explore the darker side of Judith’s character, portraying her as a seductive, violent, and sinister temptress. Over time, artists have painted diverse depictions of Judith, each different, but illuminating her key character traits from the apocryphal narrative: she is all at once a woman of virtuous piety and chastity, but also one who also uses violence, seduction, and deception to beguile her enemy in order to save her people. Through broad strokes of color, images illuminate Judith’s positive virtues, but also accurately confront us with her more questionable moral exploits, characteristics indelibly written into the text, which taken together, can yield more comprehensive insight.


Can Anything Targumic Come from Qumran? Revisiting Klaus Beyer’s ‘Targums’ of Tobit and Isaiah
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
David Shepherd, University of Chester

From the earliest days of their exploration, it was suggested that the caves of Qumran contained translations belonging to that emerging school of master translators, the meturgemanim. In the first blush of enthusiasm, the ‘discovery’ of these (proto-)targumim was taken as read but in recent years it has been increasingly recognized that the Aramaic version of Leviticus from Cave 4 and that of Job from both Caves 4 and 11 are in fact ‘untargumic’ in quite fundamental ways, including their translational approach to the Hebrew text. In light of this trend, this paper examines 4Q196-99 and 4Q583 and Beyer’s claims regarding them with a view to assessing whether anything targumic really can come from Qumran.


Children at Risk: Exodus and Anxiety in the Early French Cinema
Program Unit: Bible and Film
David Shepherd, University of Chester

At the same time as Moses was emerging in the American cinema, the major French film-makers Pathé Frères and Gaumont renewed their own interest in the Exodus tradition, enlisting leading directorial lights such as André Andréani and Louis Feuillade, who would later become famous for crime serials such as Fantômas and Les Vampires. While Andréani offers a pictorial elaboration of a classical tableau—the narrative moment of Moses’ deliverance—and Feuillade focuses instead on an episode from the plague sequence, we will consider the extent to which both films' depiction of 'children at risk' is merely a projection of then current cultural anxieties or a reflection of the concerns of the biblical narrative itself.


Reading Philo Reading Babel: De Confusione Linguarum in light of Second Temple Interpretive Traditions
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Philip Sherman, Maryville College

Philo’s interpretation of the narrative of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) seems initially to share little in common with other interpretations of Babel found in Second Temple literature. The paper will explore de Confusione Linguarum from three different vantage points. (1) Philo’s weak defense of the importance (or even reality) of the literal sense of Gen 11 will be examined in light of a more typically robust Philonic defense of the importance of the literal sense of Torah. (2) An overview of Philo’s reflection on Babel as an allegory of proper vs. improper forms of community will follow. In particular, I will attempt to demonstrate some continuity between Philo’s reading of the narrative as focusing on both the proper constitution of the individual soul and the larger body politic and other Second Temple texts which interpret Babel with regard to more overtly political issues. (3) Finally, I will stress Philo’s heighted commitment to the precise language of Scripture and his citation of “co-texts” from elsewhere in the biblical canon (LXX) in his construction of meaning. While Philo’s interpretation of Gen 11 may seem largely sui generis, his hermeneutical method shows profound continuity with other Second Temple and rabbinic reading strategies.


Velvet Bibles/Glorious Revolutions
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Yvonne Sherwood, University of Glasgow

The so-called ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 plays a significant role in British national mythologies as a qualified or soft revolution that ‘saved us from the violent revolutions which shook our continental neighbours’ as Margaret Thatcher put it in 1988. In this paper I examine the role of the Bible in this (alleged) soft or velvet (?) revolution. I develop earlier work on what I have termed the ‘Liberal/Whig Bible’ or alternatively the Lockeian Bible: the Bible that mediates between Patriarchal/High Monarchical Bibles and the wilder republican Bibles so audible at mid-century (see for example Sherwood JAAR 76 [2], pp. 312-343). The Liberal Bible is a moderate and moderating position—a third way (?). It is best understood negatively, as a set of operational boundaries placed on valid interpretation of the Bible’s theology and politics and the reduction of Bible to a few axiomatic politico-theological principles, which can be applied liberally (excuse the pun) thereafter. It transforms the Bible from a set of texts, susceptible to literal application in the polity, to a foundation, an icon, a sign. The innovation of the Liberal Bible turns the biblical corpus into something that embodies self-sacrifice, or kenosis, as in the sacrifice of the incarnation and passion of Christ. The text contracts; graciously self-limits. God and his World graciously devolve power. In this paper I look at how this Bible as a negation of ‘Bible’ in a dictatorial, literal sense, is the perfect ‘text’ for the Glorious Revolution perceived as a negation of Revolution as such. Both the Glorious Revolution and the Liberal Bible celebrate the limitation of chaos and violence—and yet the very urgent desire to limit/sacrifice produces violence.


Hybridity, Mimicry, Ambivalence, and Hidden Transcripts in Jeremiah 25: A Postcolonial Reading of Jeremiah 25
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Seungwoo Shim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper investigates Jeremiah 25 by presenting the exegetical analysis from the perspective of postcolonialism to show how the employment of postcolonialism can shed light on the better understanding of the prophetic literature in the Hebrew Bible. In particular, the paper focus on how the power imbalance between the colonizer (i.e., the Babylonian Empire) and the colonized (the Jewish people) is reflected in the Jeremiah’s notion of prophecy and in his understanding of Jewish history and international politics. The paper specifically employs Homi Bhabha’s concepts of hybridity, mimicry, and ambivalence, and the James Scott’s concept of “hidden transcript,” as well. This paper draws some postcolonial implications from the text. First, the identification of Nebuchadrezzar as the servant of God assumes its postcolonial nature as hybridity. It also reflects the effort of the colonized to maintain their religious supremacy and dignity in the face of its national destruction. Second, the oracle against foreign nations depicts the judgment of foreign nations, in terms of imperial campaign route of the Babylonian Empire. In this regard, it takes on the feature of mimicry. Third, the vivid portrayal of the judgment on the foreign rulers in the text reflects the strategy of the colonized people who exert themselves to downplay the reputation of the Babylonian Empire and to negate the Babylonian imperial claim of supremacy. It also serves as the revenge of the destruction of Jewish nation and Temple. Fourth, Jeremiah 25 presents the messages of divine affirmation of the Babylonian king and of divine judgment against the Babylonian king at the same time. The coexistence of these two seemingly contradictory messages shows its postcolonial nature of ambivalence. Fifth, the use of a codified word “Sheshach” may be regarded as an example of “hidden transcript,” with which the colonized articulate their critique of colonial masters in a nuanced, indirect, but safe way.


A Postcolonial Reader’s Symptomatic Reading of John 11: 45–57
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Seungwoo Shim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper explores the account of Sanhedrin’s decision to kill Jesus in John 11: 45-57 from the perspective of postcolonialism. Special attention will be paid to the role of the Roman Empire that exerts a tremendous influence on the lives of the first century Mediterranean world but occurs only rarely in the Gospel. John 11: 45-57 is the exception, however. The text reports that the conflict between the Jewish leadership and Jesus and his followers reaches its peak as the Sanhedrin council decides to kill Jesus. More importantly, the text articulates that Rome plays a significant role in the Sanhedrin’s decision to kill Jesus. The Gospel of John frequently describes the conflict between Jews and the Jesus group but it rarely reports the role of Rome in the conflict. In fact, Jewish-Christian conflicts originated from a colonized land. Thus anti-Judaism is a remnant of colonialism. The imperial dominion of Rome affects, directly and indirectly, the conflicts between these two religious groups. By addressing a postcolonial lens the paper more clarifies the role of Rome in the conflicts between Jews and the Jesus group. In addition, owing to the oppressive nature of Roman colonial domination, the paper uses a “symptomatic reading” strategy to identify the deep ideological structure under the surface of the text. In particular, the paper pays attention to disruptions, gaps, silences, and exclusions in the text. Moreover, the paper offers an inter-cultural reading by introducing the cases of Korean colonial experience under the Japanese imperialism during the early twentieth century. This paper identifies several the roles and effects of colonialism. From the perspective of the colonizer, the paper identifies (1) Rome as unwilling but crucial political variable, (2) the brutal nature of colonial dominion, (3) the moral hazard of the colonial retainer class, (4) deteriorated Social structure of the colonized, (5) expansionism of the colonizer. Moreover, from the perspective of the colonized, the paper identifies (1) the silence of the colonized lambs, (2) messianic movements of the colonized, (3) internalization of the ideology of the colonizer, (4) group conflict and marginalization of the colonized.


Intertextuality and Postcolonialism: A Postcolonial Reading of the Infancy Narrative in Luke 1–2
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Seungwoo Shim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper focuses on the relationship between intertextuality and postcolonialism by analyzing the Infancy narrative of Jesus and John the Baptist in Luke 1-2 as a test case. To put more specifically, the paper examines various intertextual echoes in the Lukan Infancy narrative from the perspective of postcolonialism. In fact, the Lukan Infancy narrative contains various intertextual echoes from the both Jewish and Greco-Roman cultural milieus. On the one hand, Lukan infancy narrative echoes several aspects of Jewish tradition in the Hebrew Bible, especially the account of Samuel’s birth story. On the other hand, Luke also draws largely on the Greco-Roman cultural heritage. At this point, this paper pays attention to how the power imbalance between the colonizer (i.e., the Roman Empire) and the colonized (the Jewish people) operates in the Luke’s use of these materials. For this analysis, this paper employs some postcolonial concepts such as hybridity and mimicry as analytical tools. Luke portrays the birth of Jesus as the miraculous one by underscoring the virginal conception of Mary. This positions the Lukan infancy narratives within the literary tradition of some Greco-Roman heroes and kings. In this regard, hybridity is the characteristic of Lukan infancy narrative. Moreover, Luke presents Jesus as the savior of the world and associates his birth as the peace of the earth. In this regard, Luke mimics some elements of the Roman imperial theology. As the Roman imperial theology associates the birth of Augustus with the restoration of earthly peace from the chaos of the late Republic period, so Luke relates the birth of Jesus with the earthly peace who symbolizes the restoration of the Davidic kingship. However, as Bhabha argues, the mimicry of Luke is different from the original Roman imperial ideology in that it envisages the different social vision. The Lukan infancy narrative pays attention to the subaltern people of the colonized, such as the hungry, the lowly, and the humble. Moreover, Lukan Infancy narrative in general and the Magnificat in particular contains the important materials that testify the resistance voice of the postcolonial women who lived in the imperial and patriarchal society.


The Desired Qualities of the King
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Zvi Shimon, Bar-Ilan University

The story of David and Goliath (1 Sam 17) is commonly perceived as naive and unsophisticated. There is vivid conflict, involving the pagan bully against the children of God. The conflict is understood as one between obvious right and obvious wrong. In contrast to the prevailing approach, this study wishes to claim that the narrative is highly sophisticated. It presents the desired qualities of the king and comes to justify the election of David instead of Saul. Analyses of the narrative have often divided the story's characters into two groups – David, on the one hand, and the rest of the characters, on the other. Our analysis suggests that the three central characters – David, Saul and Goliath – represent a continuum. Saul is not, as has often been understood, an Israelite duplicate of Goliath. Saul, like David, believes in the Israelite God. The question which this narrative wishes to answer is what distinguishes between the two? The answer is complex and relates to the relative weight and importance attributed to each of the principles forming their world view. David, like Saul, is a complex character. David's great faith in God does not stand alone but is accompanied by the use of sophisticated and deceptive combat techniques. In addition to David's concern for the honor of God, he is driven by personal motives. In the narrator's eyes, faith in God does not contradict sophisticated methods of combat or the presence of ulterior personal motives. The desired identity of the king, as it is represented by David, is a complex identity that combines different values but places faith in God at the center.


Aporia as Not Redactional: Indicators of Audience Address in the First Four Chapters of John
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Whitney Shiner, George Mason University

Much of the discussion of the fourth gospel in recent years has centered around various proposals concerning the redaction of the gospel and reconstructions of the Johannine community based on suggested redactional histories. Another strain of the discussion has concerned analysis of the narrative of the gospel. In spite of valiant attempts, the curious nature of the Johannine narrative has proved relatively impermeable to explanation, reinforcing the tendency to treat the gospel as an archeological dig, with perceived inconsistencies serving as markers of different strata. There is, however, a third alternative which takes seriously the apparent incoherences of the gospel while also taking seriously the received text as the locus of meaning. Assuming that the gospel was originally experienced as an oral presentation, the perceived inconsistencies serve not to mark different strata but to mark variations in performance style. In turn, these markers of performance style indicate that the genre of the gospel is something other than story. The performance mode of the gospel would have been firmly established by the end of the fourth chapter. Based on the received verbal text, it is apparent that the implied performance intentionally deconstructs the illusion of a consistent narrative world. The so-called prolog establishes two inconsistent though overlapping narrative worlds, the heavenly world of the logos and the earthly world of the witness. The ensuing pseudo-narrative forces the implied ideal audience into the middle of the overlapping inconsistency in part by completely collapsing reported dialog and direct address. The reported words of the pseudo-narrative Jesus (and John) to purported dialog partners collapse with direct revelation and with the words of (the audience’s constructed experience of) Jesus as logos to the audience itself. By the end of the fourth chapter, it is clear that the words of Jesus are primarily addressed to the audience. The dialog partners in the pseudo-narrative in turn reflect somewhat parodied aspects of the audience’s own reaction to words of Jesus, which are absolutely outrageous within the earthly half of the overlapping worlds. John’s joyful embrace of the absurdity of Jesus’ claims within all worldly standards of judgment allows the implied ideal audience to bridge the two worlds by simultaneously recognizing and rejecting their own worldly judgment that the claims are absurd. The apparent intent of the gospel is not to perform a coherent narrative of Jesus but to create, in conjunction with the audience’s knowledge of a synoptic-like Jesus and their experience of the community of the cult of Jesus, an experience of the risen Jesus/Jesus as logos. Such an attempt to create an experience of the cult god coheres with accounts of the effects of mystery cult performances, such as that found in Asclepius’s Golden Ass.


A Qur'anic Intervention at Muhammad’s Death: Q 3:144 as Interpolation
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Stephen J. Shoemaker, University of Oregon

Contemporary scholars of Islam are often suspect and even highly critical of any suggestion that parts of the Qur?an may in fact not go back to Muhammad. The Qur?an instead is widely viewed as a relatively transparent record of Muhammad’s teachings, a faithful record of his prophetic words that was carefully transmitted and transcribed by his earliest followers shortly after his death. Yet many scholars from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were much less confident in the Islamic tradition’s ascription of the entire textus receptus of the Qur?an to Muhammad than their more recent counterparts. Accordingly, we find many early western Islamicists expressing doubts about the textual status of a number of Qur?anic passages, and among these, sura 3:144 figures prominently, largely on account of certain early biographical traditions connected with this passage. Nevertheless, such early investigations into potential interpolations within the Qur?an were cut short over a century ago by Nöldeke’s rather stultifying proclamation that the Qur?an contains only authentic material, which effectively proscribed the possibility of any textual additions to the Qur?anic text beyond Muhammad’s lifetime. Despite the frequent sureties expressed by Nöldeke and his disciples regarding the Qur?an’s integrity, the textual status of this particular passage is in fact very much open to question, and it is not at all clear that it was a part of “Muhammad’s” Qur?an. Particularly in light recent scholarship redirecting our attention to the eschatological urgency that lies at the heart of the Qur?an and the early Islamic tradition, it seems that we should once again seriously consider the possibility that this verse was likely added to the Qur?an only after Muhammad’s death, an event that seems to have been incompatible with Muhammad’s promise of the Hour’s impending arrival in the minds of many early Muslims.


The Dead Sea Scrolls Digitization Project
Program Unit: Qumran
Pnina Shor, Israel Antiquities Authority

"The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library" The digitization project of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) was initiated as part of the Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) conservation efforts to preserve them for future generations. From the time of their discovery by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947, until the establishment of the IAA's unique conservation lab dedicated solely to the conservation and preservation of the scrolls in 1991, the scrolls were heavily damaged by the ravages of time, as well as previous handling and treatment. The task of conservation and preservation of the scrolls continues to be an ongoing mission due to their extreme fragility and the need to make use of the most up-to-date conservation methods known worldwide. . We have been following a protocol drawn together with world experts, but since we have been practicing for over 18 years we decided it is time to reassess our work, and address unsolved issues. The idea to use spectral imaging for monitoring the well being of the scrolls was first suggested a few years ago by a scientist from the Weitzman Institute. Eventually the project developed into an overall undertaking whereby we mean to monitor their physical condition on the one hand, and to expand and facilitate access to them, to scholars and the public worldwide, on the other. The digitization project will thus sustain the scrolls' conservation and preservation by creating high-quality spectral images, using the most advanced and innovative technologies available. These will support and provide active conservation assessments, non-invasive testing and monitoring tools, and a better record and documentation of the state of the scrolls. Further more the IAA has decided to make these highest resolution images, accompanied by data including transcriptions, translations, commentaries and bibliography available and accessible via the internet to all, as well as to provide for scholarship by supplying interactive tools within a supportive research framework, Uploading the images and data to the internet and allowing diverse searches will be achieved with the assistance of Google-Israel.


Levav Shalem in Kings and Chronicles
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
J. Randall Short, Tokyo Christian University

In the Hebrew Bible, the phrase “levav shalem” (translated variously as “X was wholehearted,” “the heart of X was true,” etc.) occurs in conjunction fourteen times. All occurrences are found in either Kings or Chronicles, with the sole exception of a parallel text in Isaiah. With the exception of one passage, the phrase is used both positively and negatively to say something of the actual or desired disposition of its subject in relation to (the will of) YHWH. Given the similarity of its usage in parallel contexts limited almost solely to Kings and Chronicles, it is perhaps understandable why the majority of translators and commentators have largely understood the meaning of levav shalem as one and the same in both of its larger contexts, i.e., those of the Deuteronomist and the Chronicler. Through an analysis of the phrase’s usage within the Bible, together with some reference to cognate usage in extra-biblical Akkadian texts, I shall argue that the significance of levav shalem in Kings differs considerably from its meaning in Chronicles. In the context of Kings, levav shalem should be understood as technical or legal formulaic language that describes the actual or desired status of an inferior treaty partner in relation to a superior partner (i.e., as the former being in or out of accord with the latter), and not the personal righteousness or moral rectitude of the former. In the context of Chronicles, however, the phrase loses this technical sense and becomes a theologically charged statement regarding the actual or expected piety or degree of moral and cultic perfection displayed by the subject of lev(av) shalem before God. Though limited in scope, this study will give further insight into the historiographic and theological tendencies of the Deuteronomist and the Chronicler in their treatment of the same historical period.


Premarital Sex in Biblical Law and in Real Life: A Reassessment
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Avi Shveka, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

It is commonly held that biblical law is lenient in its attitude to premarital sex. This view relies primarily on the laws dealing with seduction or rape of an unbetrothed girl (Ex 22:15-16; Deut 22:23-24), which both state only that the man should pay to the father and marry the girl. The only law incompatible with this view is the law of the slandered bride (Deut 22:13-22), which determines that a bride who was found to be non-virgin shall be executed. Most scholars regard this ruling as a clear contradiction to the other biblical laws, and therefore try to undermine its significance in different ways, such as suggesting that this is a late interpolation of “a writer who was more preacher than jurist” (Rofé), or that it is meant only as a deterrent (Weinfeld, Tigay). In this paper I wish to show that this approach, which sees these laws as contradicting, ignores the reality and the anthropological knowledge concerning many cultures from different historical periods, including not a few contemporary traditional societies. In all these societies, unmarital sex is considered harlotry, and a girl who had a sexual intercourse without her father’s consent must be killed because of the disgrace she brought on her family. If, however, the forbidden intercourse is discovered in real time – that is, when the male partner is caught in action or admits the action, and the girl was not yet promised to another man – than no harm done; the seducer marries – gun to head, if needed – the girl, and they live happily ever after. Unless, that is, he refuses, in which case both lovers will be pursued by her family to death, as the only way to erase the family’s disgrace. In light of this realia, the relevant biblical laws are perfectly consistent.


Hope among the Ruins: Matt 2:18 and the Role of Scripture in Matthew's Theology
Program Unit: Matthew
Catherine Sider Hamilton, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

Matt 2:18 and the death of the children of Bethlehem is, in current commentary, a problematic passage. A number of important commentators connect the citation at 2:18 to the cry of the people in 27:25 (“his blood be upon us and upon our children”) to find in the passage a Matthean message of judgment (Davies and Allison 1997, Gundry 1994; cf. Kingsbury 1975, Soares Prabhu 1976, Knowles 1993; contrast Hagner 1989). Yet this reading, quite apart from its anti-Judaic possibilities, runs counter to Matthew’s own reluctance in the citation’s introductory formula to attribute the slaughter to the purpose of God. This paper proposes that Matthew’s meaning in 2:18 is illuminated by the sequence of fulfillment quotations in the birth narrative of which it forms a part. We take up Stendahl’s insistence on coherence – these are not isolated proof texts but a connected series – to argue that the citations constitute a sustained examination of the meaning of Messiah against the background of the history and hope of Israel told in scripture. The method, as James Kugel has shown for much early Jewish interpretation of scripture, is exegetical. The end is theological: in the exegetical interweaving of scriptural texts Matthew begins to describe the shape of salvation. Beginning from the composite quotation in Matt 2:6, this paper seeks to trace Matthew’s interpretive logic – from Mic 5 to 2 Sam 5 by way of the hegemon; from 2 Sam 5 to Matt 21 to Jer 31 (and so back again to the birth narrative) in the company of “the blind and the lame.” How shall the death of the children at the birth of the Messiah be understood? Matthew finds in scripture an answer that begins and ends with Israel, moving from desolation to hope under the rubric of exile and return.


The Historical Jesus, Moral Imagination, and Sin
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Jeffrey S. Siker, Loyola Marymount University

What does it mean to reconstruct the historical Jesus within the contexts and constructs of the moral worlds of first-century Judaism, especially as it relates to understandings of sin and the place of Jesus’ ministry within such understandings? Drawing on recent work on sin in early Judaism (e.g., J. Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple; G. Anderson, Sin: A History; G. Carey, Sinners: Jesus and His Earliest Followers) the goal of this paper is to explore what it means to take an historical approach to the charges leveled against Jesus that he was a sinner. These accusations included violation of Jewish law, blasphemy, and guilt by association with sinners. In general, the historical Jesus appears to have violated Jewish moral norms regarding family, friends, and faith. The death of Jesus by crucifixion only confirmed these judgments against him, at least in the view of the Temple authorities and other Jewish leaders. While it is important to understand how belief in the resurrection of Jesus within early Christianity radically reshaped Christian understanding of Jesus’ death, especially in relation to sin, to what degree is it possible to map the historical Jesus and his ministry in relation to the moral imagination of first-century Judaism when it comes to the question of sin?


The Structure and Central Idea of Proverbs 31:10–31
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Suzy Silk, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

In his important 1970 commentary, "Proverbs: A New Approach," William McKane states that the only unifying structure of Proverbs 31:10-31 is its acrostic form: “The author has enough on his hands with the acrostic principle to work out, and as he tackled the verses one by one he took no thought for what had gone before or what was to come after.” In the 1980’s, Al Wolters made a significant contribution to Proverbs 31 scholarship when he argued that the poem was, in fact, organized as a heroic hymn with sopiyya as its central word. He concluded that “the woman of military-valor” was in fact “Lady Wisdom,” as described in Proverbs 1-9. This paper will demonstrate that Proverbs 31 relies on interlocking leitworter (key words) and interwoven themes to create a unified composition. This argument will be supported by three charts which give visual proof that these interlocking key words and themes create a complex web which connects twenty-one of the twenty-two lines, while leaving out verse 31:26. Once the poem is examined through this two-part lens of word repetition and themes, the reader recognizes the central verse as Proverbs 31:26 and the central word as ?okmâ -- the Hebrew word for “wisdom.” This analysis will further support the theory that the Proverbs 31 woman is the “real life” personification of Lady Wisdom.


You Are My Club; With You I Club Peoples: Indexicality and Reference in the Jeremian Sign-Acts and Prophetic Performances
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Edward Silver, Wellesley College

How did an ancient Near Eastern cultural practice of generating authority by attributing one's speech to a divine source develop into an adaptable corpus of authoritative oracular literature? This essay approaches this problem in sociolinguistic terms, investigating how ancient scribes--acting as autonomous social agents--effected a shift in understanding how language worked. It maintains that the process of entextualizing ancient prophecy was accompanied by a metalinguistic transformation in understanding the basis for prophetic discourse. The movement from speech to text was also a movement away from considering prophecy in connection with the immediate, extra-discursive reality it indicated and toward treating it as stable, patterned discourse capable of generating new meanings in response to changing conditions. To better understand this development, we survey a key corpus of entextualizing discourse--the Jeremian sign-acts and prophetic performances. These texts are variously concerned with the relationship between sign and imputed significance. They treat the presentation of various classes of objects--verbal, physical and performative--and show how many sorts of interpretive actions can proceed from these. Some of these texts show the refiguration of ambiguous orthographic signs, as for instance the interpretive shift from "shaqed" to "shoqed" in Jer 1.11-12. Others describe phonic acts in which meaning and the utterance are bound, as in the case of Jeremiah's "sir nafuach" in Jer 1.13 or the fired clay "baqbuq" of Jer 19. Still others represent material objects in various states of cohesion which are then situated in new referential contexts, either through performance (e.g., the "mota" and "'ol" of Jer 27-28) or in speech (e.g., the "sefer" of Jer 51.60-64). Taken in aggregate, these texts developed a genuinely critical (though non-systematic) indigenous inquiry into the relationship between discourse and meaning. Through them, the scribes who laid the foundations for the Hebrew Bible made sense of the text-culture they were creating.


Text Pragmatics and Tradition Formation: The Word-Event Formula as a Key to the Development of the Jeremiah Tradition
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Edward Silver, Wellesley College

The present essay reexamines a recurrent figure of speech in the Book of Jeremiah that has been termed the "word-event formula" (Wortereignisformel). In contrast to previous studies, which have emphasized the semantic dimension of the collocation dbr-YHWH or have claimed a formal relationship between the WEF and other, similar phrases, this study adopts a text-pragmatic approach to the phenomenon. We differentiate between uses of the WEF in the Book of Jeremiah on the basis of its function in literary contexts, observing two broad types: one which occurs within a narrative unit and which marks a shift in focus (either an act of interpretive elucidation or revision), and one which is found at the head of literary units and functions as an introductory element. Nuancing the WEF in this fashion, it becomes possible to observe a diachronic element in its distribution in the Book of Jeremiah. The Vorlage to the Septuagint contains every instance of the narrative-internal WEF, whereas several significant instances of the introductory type that are found in the Masoretic text are not attested in the Septuagint. From this, we argue that the WEF in the Book of Jeremiah began as a marker of active scribal intrusion or interpretive revision and developed into a simple structuring device. The uniquely divergent nature of the Jeremian manuscript tradition allows us to witness this shift in pragmatic function as it is happening. As a final gesture, we observe that the introductory type of the WEF predominates in late prophetic texts such as Ezekiel, Jonah, Haggai and Zechariah, while the narrative-internal type is attested in historical texts that have been subjected to Deuteronomistic revision and reworking. Thus, the implicit diachronic division we posit within the Jeremian tradition itself is also sustained across the Tanakh.


Edith Stein Jewish Husband Jesus
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Emily Leah Silverman, Graduate Theological Union

I will examine how Stein viewed Jesus as a Jew just like herself through her writings, actions, and religious practice. We will see what it meant to Stein be a Catholic Jew, who felt directed by God’s will to become a Carmelite nun in order work for the end of the suffering of her people. Stein realized that this end required that the Jews accept one of their own as their Saviour. It was she who truly understood that only a fellow Jew could uniquely practice the imitatio Christi through a sacred marriage as a Carmelite to transmute the suffering. Her Carmelite practice opened her to offer herself as a sacrifice for her people as the Jewish Jesus had done 2000 years before. This was part of her Carmelite theology.


The Genitive Absolute in Discourse: More Than a Change of Subject
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Margaret Sim, SIL International

For generations of scholars the genitive absolute in Classical and Koine Greek has been a well attested literary device parallel to the ‘ablative absolute’ in Latin. It effects cohesion in discourse and has been viewed as giving background information as well as indicating a change of subject or ‘switch reference’. This paper disputes the latter as being the predominant function of this participial construction and discusses its role in the New Testament, Xenophon and the papyri with reference to a modern theory of cognition which claims to give principles for the way in which humans communicate with one another.


The Hebrew Particles hinneh, hen: Explaining Speech-Act-Initial Occurrence
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Ronnie Sim, Africa International University

Previous work, in particular Zewi 1996, has shown that the particles hinneh and hen are best described as presentatives. Furthermore, recent developments in linguistics and pragmatics, especially those of Blakemore 1997, 2002, have proposed that particles are better explained as encoding a procedural instruction, rather than lexical or semantic meaning. Bringing together Zewi and Blakemore has the potential of providing improved explanation of how particles (like hinneh and hen) contribute to interpretation. A previous paper, Sim 2010, did just that in a survey of the range of use of both particles, (i) adopting Zewi’s categorisation of the particles as presentatives; (i) proposing that they are insightfully explained by identifying the procedural instruction they encode; and (iii) putting forward the specific hypothesis that both, in somewhat similar ways, re-present (metarepresent) a prior utterance or thought. The data supported the plausibility of the hypothesis. However, some uses lend themselves readily to explanation by this hypothesis, while others are more challenging. Use of either particle to introduce a speech act is fairly common, especially in oracular pronouncements, but is not always self-evidently re-presentational (metarepresentational). The present paper considers this use in narrative, oracle, and disputation (the last in Job) to test further the metarepresentational hypothesis and extend earlier conclusions.


Greek Phonology from Alexander to the Modern Era
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Oliver Simkin, Københavns Universitet

As a starting point for the discussion of which pronunciation systems to recommend for Greek classrooms, we will present a summary of what is known about the historical pronunciation of Greek from the end of the 4th century BCE through the Koine, Byzantine, and Modern periods. After looking at the types of evidence that can be used to reconstruct the pronunciation of an ancient language, we will examine the details of the different stages and varieties of Greek, and the more general evolution of the Greek sound system through time. Particular attention will be paid to the linguistic factors that caused the system to change, and to the interaction between pronunciation and spelling. The aim of this survey is to provide a scholarly background for further comparison and discussion of the various pronunciation systems used for the teaching of historical and New Testament Greek.


Monetary Aesthetics and Christological Formulations in Greco-Roman Context
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Devin Singh, Yale University

Submitted for Project Three: This paper explores the nexus of relations between coinage and monetary economy, the imperial image, and formulations about Christ in emerging Christian doctrine. Work has been undertaken on the potential influence of imperial images on Christian doctrine and iconography. Yet such images circulating on coinage, which invoke imperial power as well as economic themes, call for consideration in light of discourse about Christ which interrelates image, payment, and sovereignty. The imperial stamp and seal on coins gives the coin authority and efficacy. The circulating coin in turn spreads and lends credence to the image which it proclaims, as a key element in the "rituals and power" that facilitate Roman imperial rule. Money also participates directly in the imperial cult, as a transfer mechanism between sacred and profane realms, crossing the boundaries between earthly exchange and the sphere of the gods (and emperor). Doctrinal formulations on incarnation make use of numismatic and monetary terms, both to describe the manner of redemption and situate Christ in the scheme of God’s rule over creation. That Christ is construed as image, payment, and Lord over a divine redemptive economy evinces key relations to monetary economy, and to the images of power circulated therein. Inquiries considering early Christian interaction with Roman rule as a mechanism for the formation of belief must consider the specificity of money and coinage as playing a critical role. I examine the topography of coinage, situated within Greco-Roman monetary economy, locating money and its images among structures of power which regulate and govern territory. I consider the ways such tropes appear in patristic literature about the Son, suggesting potential influence of this Greco-Roman monetized context upon the theological imagination.


Images of Contest and Combat in the Hellenistic-Roman World: Refining Purposeful Action in Sociorhetorical Interpretation
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Russ Sisson, Union College

Philostratus says that rhetoricians can learn from painters how to use visual images to evoke a range of sensory experiences which occur in connection with action performed or witnessed in important social and cultural spaces. He illustrates this in his commentaries on vase paintings, where many of paintings he interprets are scenes of athletic competition and combat. Noteworthy is the way Philostratus connects particular aspects of these scenes with the purposeful actions of individuals, contextualizing the images and elaborating their social, cultural, and ideological significance. Philostratus’s work is helpful to sociorhetorical interpretation by providing a model of how to integrate analysis of sensory-aesthetic texture with analyses of social-cultural texture and ideological texture. This is demonstrated in the sociorhetorical interpretation of examples of Hellenistic-Roman religious dis-course which employ athletic or combat imagery in a manner similar to vase-painting scenes from that same world.


Kierkegaard's Use of Scripture in Relation to His Concepts of Reason and Understanding
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Rebecca Skaggs, Patten University

Much has been written about Kierkegaard's relation to faith and reason. Because of his apparently negative attitude he has often been misunderstood as being at least anti-reason and at worst an irrationalist. Louis Pojman has done notable work toward dispelling this notion, but he does not address the issue of how Kierkegaard's use of scripture is impacted by his concept of reason and understanding. From an analysis of Kierkegaard's concepts of 'reason' (Fornunft) and 'understanding' (Forstand), it is quite clear that 1)Kierkegaard's concepts reflect Kant's definitions, and 2)there is a notable difference in how Kierkegaard uses the two terms. The Concordance by Alistair McKinnon records 21 usues of Fornunft (most in the Philosophical works) and over 2000 uses of Forstand (few in the philosophical works). A consideration of these two terms suggests that Kierkegaard is using them in different ways: in contrast to his use of Fornunft as abstract, Kierkegaard views Forstand in the context of individual existence. I propose that an exploration of the use of these terms by Kierkegaard sheds light on his use of Scripture.


Knock, But Will It Be Opened for You? The Rhetoric of Domestic Space in Q
Program Unit: Q
Daniel A. Smith, Huron University College

Beyond Q's "real" interest in houses (e.g., as the locus of hospitality and peace in Q 10), the imagery of domestic space is a prominent feature of Q's rhetoric. Rather than use this imagery to situate Q sociohistorically (see Guijarro 2004), this paper assesses relevant Q passages which, sometimes in contradictory terms, "image" the Kingdom using the motif of domestic space.


Hospitality at Meals as a Theological Metaphor
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Dennis E. Smith, Phillips Theological Seminary

Hospitality to the stranger was a cultural motif in the mediterranean world that became foundational for theology and ritual practice in earliest Christian house churches. This paper will examine how the theme of hospitality functioned as a theological metaphor in Jesus stories and in Pauline theology and how it emerged as a paradigm for the theology of grace in the ritual life of early Christian communities.


Catacomb as List: Reading Scripture in the Art of Two Christian Catacombs
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Eric C. Smith, University of Denver / Iliff School of Theology

This paper will examine the art of the Priscilla and Callistus catacombs for data about the currency of texts in the Roman Christian community prior to Constantine, when the texts used in worship and teaching varied from one Christian community to the next, with no church-wide decree to circumscribe use. This paper will take the suggestion of Umberto Eco that spaces can be thought of as lists; a museum is a list of a sort, and likewise the art of a particular catacomb may be considered a list, in the sense that it is a time- and space-delimited expression of a community’s engagement with a set of ideas—in this case, texts. This paper will treat art as scholars have long treated patristic citations of scripture: it will take the appearance of a text in the art of the catacomb as evidence of that text’s currency and esteem within its community, and the frequency of artistic “citations” as evidence of the text’s relative popularity. Texts that were frequently depicted were presumably important and central to the life of the community. Such an examination of the art of the Priscilla and Callistus catacombs reveals that Jewish texts were central to the life of the Roman Christian community—particularly the Torah, Daniel, and Jonah. Also of central importance were the gospels of John and Matthew, which between them can explain every New Testament image in the two catacombs. This “list” of depicted texts is notable both for what it includes and for what it excludes. The paper will conclude by offering some proposals for the hermeneutical impetus behind the Roman Christians’ choices of texts and images, focusing on Christians’ typological readings of texts, and will consider the insights gained by reading these images together, as a list, rather than individually.


A New Coptic Fragment of the Shepherd of Hermas
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Geoffrey Smith, Princeton University

This paper presents for the first time a newly discovered Coptic translation of the sixth commandment of the Shepherd of Hermas. One of the most recent manuscripts to emerge from the Oxyrhynchus collection in the Sackler Library at Oxford University, our manuscript adds further support to the mounting evidence for the popularity of this early Christian apocalypse in the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. The papyrus constitutes a full page, front and back, from an ancient codex dating to the early fourth century. Since the manuscript includes page numbers, we will speculate as to how much of the text was included in the original codex and how this new evidence might contribute to ongoing discussions about the forms in which the Shepherd of Hermas circulated in antiquity. We will also discuss the dialect and possible connections with other known Coptic translations of the Shepherd of Hermas, especially the Akhmimic fragment, also containing a portion of the commandments. Finally we will discuss any new readings preserved in this translation and what bearing, if any, they may have on the established text of this popular revelatory book.


Head-God/God-Head: Which Is It in Job 1–2?
Program Unit: Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms
Mark S. Smith, New York University

The deceptively simple encounter between Yahweh and the satan draws on two concepts for expressing divine "one-ness." On the one hand, Yahweh is clearly a deity far above any of the "sons of God" in these chapters; the satan appears to be represented as one of these. This looks like emergent Judean "monotheism." On the other hand, Job 1-2 uses the older form of the divine council for the setting of the scene. The divine council, like the divine family, was an older way of representing divine oneness. That concept might seem to suggest that together the characters God and the satan constitute divine one-ness, or the godhead. So Job 1-2 seems to represent a contradiction, with both the older form and the newer form of divine one-ness; or does it?


Not Ashamed of the Gospel
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Klyne R. Snodgrass, North Park Theological Seminary

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Mark’s Son of Man and the Mysterious Picture of Jesus
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Robert Snow, Ambrose University College

Many years ago, Prof. Morna Hooker in her book, The Son of Man in Mark, argued that the Marcan SM’s authority, suffering and eventual vindication is modelled on the “one like a son of man” of Dan 7. Since that time, very little has been done to develop her work. Narrative-critical examinations of Mark either dismiss or overlook the contribution of the SM along with the influence of Dan 7. This paper argues that a literary and intertextual analysis of the SM in Mark provides a crucial link for understanding connections between the human and divine qualities of Jesus as the SM which, when examined in light of Dan 7, lead to the establishment of his followers as a new temple community. In Dan 7, the SM is presented before Yahweh in his heavenly temple by celestial myriads. Through interpretative rendering, Mark builds on a connection with Yahweh, much like the authors of 1 Enoch and 4 Ezra, so that the SM himself now executes divine prerogatives “on earth”: forgiving sins (2:1–12) and reigning over Sabbath (2:23–28). This display of the SM’s authority in the conflict cycle of 2:1–3:6 contribute to a hostile rejection of Jesus by the religious leaders (3:6), something which Jesus later interprets as “necessary” for the SM (8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34). The suffering of the Marcan SM recalls the Danielic figure and his holy ones who are victimized by a pagan empire. However, when Yahweh comes in judgement, suffering ends and the SM/saints are reunited with his presence. In Mark, the suffering and death of the SM leads to redemption for Jesus’ followers and inaugurates a new temple community (10:45; 14:24, 58) which comes together at Galilee after the SM’s resurrection (14:28; 16:7). Recalling Dan 7, this faithful group achieves full vindication when the earthly Temple is destroyed, echoing the destruction of the beastly empires, signalling the exaltation of the once rejected SM over his adversaries (13:24–26; 14:62) and his gathering of the scattered elect (13:27; cf. Zech 2:6–10).


Rereading the Acts of Paul and Thekla as Hagiography
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Glenn E. Snyder, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

The Acts of Paul and Thekla tells a love story: young, beautiful, and wealthy, a woman named Thekla is engaged to one of the foremost men of Iconium, until she becomes enamoured with a foreign philosopher and embraces his “word of enkrateia”—a passion for which she suffers repeated trials. Laced with eroticism, the narrative describes Thekla’s catechesis, baptism, commissioning, and teaching. So it is not surprising that scholarship on Thekla has been dominated by concerns with her historicity and comparisons with Hellenistic romance novels. But since the 1980s, the question of Thekla’s textual representation has also been a concern: How, why, and for whom was the literary character “Thekla” being used “to think with”? To advance this line of inquiry, I propose re-reading Thekla’s story with other comparative material: martyrdoms and hagiographies. From acts explicitly ascribed to Thekla to implicit rewritings of Scripture, I attend to hagiographic practices in the text and argue that, like the matriarch Sarai, Thekla is represented as wife-and-sister of the honored father, and that her faithfulness is portrayed as reaping manifold from a once dry and barren field. Only, in place of Sarai’s womb that receives Abram’s seed and produces Isaac, it is Thekla’s body that receives the Lord’s water and reproduces the seed of enkrateia. Understanding Thekla’s story thusly—as hagiography for Paul and as propaganda for a particular ideology of enkrateia—helps to explain some of the text’s interpretive difficulties (its repetitions, Paul’s absences during Thekla’s trials, and so forth), as well as its later rewritings for the cult of Thekla. For the Acts of Paul and Thekla, it is not only Thekla but also Paul who is being used “to think with.”


Can African Hermeneutics Mimic Western Hermeneutics? Reading the Book of Esther in Terms of the Notion of Perpetratorhood
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Gerrie Snyman, University of South Africa, UNISA / Old Testament Essays

If you find yourself within a Western paradigm, the concept of “African hermeneutics” would probably have made you think of being a victim of postcolonial revenge, since a lot of the discussion so far is about the problems a Western paradigm created for readers of the Bible in Africa itself. This paper is not about rejecting or discarding European thought, as European thought remains a body of thought to which the author owes his intellectual existence. It is, however, at once indispensable as well as inadequate in helping one to assess and grasp (non-)Western life in Africa. Being branded as a cultural perpetrator of racism in South Africa, the author will explore the notion of perpetratorhood in terms of whiteness as a masked expression of power in the act of reading the Bible in comparison with the link between power and perpetration in the Book of Esther. Whereas Haman’s perpetration is a public transcript for the Jews in Susa, his intentions are quite oblique to the king. Esther’s real power remains hidden in her ethnicity, yet once revealed the question is whether her second request constitutes perpetration. If she becomes the kind of power against which she wanted to defend her people, what stands in the way of African hermeneutics to imitate its Western counterpart?


The Lexicographical State of Christian Palestinian Aramaic
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Michael Sokoloff, Bar-Ilan University

Christian Palestinian Aramaic is probably the most neglected of the first millennium CE Aramaic dialects, having attracted a mere handful of interested scholars during the twentieth century. The last dictionary of this dialect, composed by Fr. Schulthess, appeared in 1903, and it is now sorely out of date. Since then, a large number of texts especially from the Early Period of this dialect (6th-8th cents. CE), have either been published or re-edited, and this has now laid the groundwork for a more comprehensive and accurate description of its vocabulary.


No Nuts? No Problem! The Baptized Eunuch in Acts 8:26–40
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Anna Rebecca Solevag, Universitetet i Oslo

“What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Asks the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:36. Apparently nothing, as he is baptized in the following verse. In antiquity the eunuch was perceived as an ambiguous character, floating between child and adult, male and female in bodily characteristics as well as sexual role: did he experience desire? Was he able to perform sexually as a man? The eunuch in Acts 8 is also ambiguous in terms of status/class: he sits in a carriage and he can read, yet he is consistently called “eunuch” and therefore is probably a slave. The baptized eunuch may thus be fruitfully studied with an intersectional approach that scrutinizes the complexity and interdependence of different axes of identity. In the Ethiopian eunuch, axes of gender, sexuality, class and geographical location so clearly meet and merge. But a disability studies perspective should also be incorporated. The term “eunuch” probably signals both that the Ethiopian is a slave and that his genitals are somehow impaired. It should be noted that the ambiguity of gender and class, the complexity and fluctuality of the eunuch figure, thus are social consequences of an actual bodily impairment. The character of the eunuch, moreover, signals a person with reduced ability or inability to perform sexually and certainly inability to procreate. This paper will present an intersectional analysis of Acts 8.26-40. I will look at the socially constructed category of “eunuch” and how the bodily impairment of crushed or damaged testicles and/or penis is reinterpreted in the text. From being a sign of exclusion in the quoted Isaiah passages, the eunuch is explicitly included into the community of believers. I will discuss the stigmatization inherent in categorizing someone as “eunuch” but also point towards the possibility of contesting such stigmatization of the disabled body.


Reading for Allusion vs. Reading for Intertextuality in Psalm 8
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Benjamin Sommer, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Psalm 8 provides a fine opportunity to clarify the differences between the study of allusion and the study of intertextuality. On the one hand, the psalm clearly alludes to the priestly creation account in Genesis 1.1.-2.4a. On the other hand, the way it introduces a thematic shift in the material it borrows recalls a similar thematic shift in the redacted text of Genesis 1-3. But there is no evidence that the author of Psalm 8 knew Genesis 2-3, much less the redacted text we know as the Pentateuch. Thus a thematic or intertextual comparison between Genesis 1-3 and Psalm 8 is just as possible as a comparison that notes the presence of allusion in this psalm, but these two modes of comparison differ in several respects -- for example, the thematic or intertextual comparison is synchronic in method, while the comparison prompted by the presence of allusion is diachronic. Both modes of reading help the reader, but confusion between them (all too common in our field) introduces elements of confusion and imprecision that are best avoided.


Moses’ Act of Murder as a Rage Resulting from a Narcissistic Injury
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Angella Son, Drew University

In contrast to the understanding of the relationship between shame and anger set forth by Helen Lewis in Shame and Guilt in Neurosis that unacknowledged shame gives rise to anger or rage, I propose that by consulting Heinz Kohut’s self psychology, both shame and rage are concurrent manifestations of narcissistic injury and thus the restorative work of the destructive pattern of shame-rage spiral involves healing from narcissistic injuries and not shame per se. The main implication of this proposal is in the difference in healing approaches. While Lewis’ highlighting of the often unnoticed shame experiences in our lives is a very valuable contribution to human health, her understanding of the relationship between shame and rage in a causal relationship is limiting in its ability to fundamentally address the problem and bring health to those caught in a shame-rage spiral or what Lewis calls a “feeling trap.” While her approach promotes the culture of acknowledgment of shame as the solution to bring the shame-rage spiral to a halt, it stops at identifying and dispelling one’s experience of shame. Instead, by understanding shame and rage as by-products of narcissistic injuries based on Kohut’s self psychology, the restorative effort will be more comprehensive by addressing the root cause of the lowered self-esteem as a result of narcissistic injuries or the experiences of shame. Accordingly, I attempt to demonstrate shame and rage as manifestations of narcissistic injury by offering an alternative interpretation of Moses from that of Freud. Based on Kohut’s self psychology, I propose that Moses had a lack of the development of the self and was prone to narcissistic injuries. As a result, he had a shame-bound self and was prone to rage that ultimately led to his act of murder. It was his encounter with God and subsequent relationships with God and the Israelites as the leader of the Israelites that facilitated the development of his self and the freedom from the shame-rage spiral. I then offer Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication as a strategy for pastoral care and counseling to restore people from the shame-rage spiral that often develops into emotional and/or physical violence.


Jeong as Selfobject Experiences and an Instrument in the Formation of the Being-in-Encounter
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Angella Son, Drew University

Korean and Korean American scholars in various fields in religion including Andrew Sung Park, Minjung theologians, and scholars in psychology or pastoral theology have paid much attention on han. In more recent years, jeong as the positive opposite of han has drawn much interest, most notably by Wonhee Anne Joh in her work, Heart of the Cross: A Postcolonial Christology. While these are valuable contributions to theological discourses, a distinctive bifurcation exists between the study of theology and psychology that both psychological and theological functions of han or jeong are not simultaneously examined. Unlike these studies, I attempt to examine both the psychological and theological functions of jeong. This wholistic approach in interdisciplinary endeavor brings forth a more comprehensive understanding of jeong and addresses its complexity by unfolding the distinction between disparate experiences and the dispositional aspect of jeong. Jeong thus can be seen to develop from an immature to a mature state while its disparate experiences are manifested in people’s lives. As a result, a more refined discussion on jeong is allowed in examining both the life-forming and life-threatening aspects of jeong instead of taking an all-positive outlook of jeong. In addition, in contrast to Park and Joh who re-interpreted the traditional understanding of the theology of atonement with the use of the lenses of Korean people’s experiences of han and jeong, I examine the theological significance of jeong in how we theologically define humanity, i.e., theological anthropology. I thus propose that (1) by consulting Heinz Kohut’s self psychology, jeong represents selfobject experiences that can facilitate the development of the self (psychological function of jeong); and (2) by consulting Karl Barth’s theological anthropology, jeong can be an instrument in the formation of the basic form of humanity, being-in-encounter (theological function of jeong). I will then demonstrate both the psychological and theological functions of jeong in the relationship between Ruth and Naomi.


The KJV in the Light of Communications Theory
Program Unit:
Paul Soukup, S.J., Santa Clara University

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Pudor et Dedecus: The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas and the Rhetoric of Public Shaming in the Third Century
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Brian P. Sowers, Brooklyn College

The execution of five Christians in Carthage around 203 CE had such a profound effect on the North African Christian community that an account entitled the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis was written and read annually in commemoration of the deceased. This essay analyzes the Passio through the lens of recent studies on Roman honor (Barton, 2001) and argues that the Passio was written in part to undermine the humiliation associated with exhibitionistic punishment and to bring shame upon those responsible. Furthermore, this essay contextualizes the Passio as part of a broader, late antique competition for social and religious honors. My first argument outlines the increasingly ambiguous language regarding kinship and familial duty within the narrative, which, I suggest, blurs the line between Perpetua's paternal family and Christian community and, as a result, distances the heroine from the shame associated with betraying kin in general and father (paterfamilias) in particular. As the narrative progresses, Perpetua's family persists in their attempts to preserve their honor, and they are in turn repeatedly subject to increasing measures of ignominy. Second, I examine subtle motifs of modesty from the arena scene, in which civic officials, audience members, and even gladiators are overcome by a sense of indignity, whereas the martyrs emerge victorious. Such reversals function to overturn social expectations–exhibitionistic nudity becomes more an object of shame for spectators than for victims. Third, I place the motifs of dominance and rhetorical persuasion within the context of late Roman social mores and argue that as Perpetua defines her surroundings and convinces her audience, she becomes an object of acclaim, despite her ignominious death. The final product of my research is a more nuanced reading of the Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis in light of third-century religious competition.


Cursus Venefici: Cyprian of Carthage and the Journeys of a Late Antique Magician
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Brian P. Sowers, Brooklyn College

The decades after the conversion of Constantine were marked by intense social and religious transition¬–local bishops rose to preeminence, the cult of the saints transformed urban and rural religious landscapes, and average people embarked on extended religious journeys. To commemorate their journeys, late antique pilgrims kept diaries or logs listing sites seen, texts read, and at times, miracles witnessed. Some of these pilgrimage accounts survive to this day, including the lesser-known account of Cyprian of Antioch, the fictional, fourth-century converted magician, turned bishop of Syrian Antioch. The narrative of Cyprian's fabricated life and pilgrimage–a precursor to the Faustus legend–was first penned in the late fourth century and later turned into an epic a century later by the poet-empress, Aelia Eudocia. The second book of Cyprian's Vita, also known as the Confession, consists of an extended travel account throughout the known world (Greece, Scythia, Egypt, Babylonia); during his travels Cyprian learns various magical techne and is initiated into many Greek and eastern mysteries. But the story is a Christian fiction, propaganda to be used against traditional cults and ritual practice. Although Cyprian's Vita briefly caught the attention of the students of the religionsgeschichteliche Schule, most work done to date has focused on editing and translating the text or extracting vestiges of actual ritual practice. My essay contextualizes the Confession of Cyprian in terms of its relation to other fourth-century travel accounts, with an eye to the rhetoric of religious competition evident throughout the journey. The final product of my research is a more nuanced picture of the way in which Christian prose and verse authors conceptualized the classical, i.e. pagan, past and employed a revisionist reading of Greco-Roman ritual to reinforce and redefine their late antique and Christian identities.


Pausanias and the Cults of Roman Corinth
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Barbette Stanley Spaeth, College of William and Mary

Our best literary source for information about the cults of Roman Corinth is the Greek author Pausanias, who wrote his Description of Greece in the second century century CE. In Book 2 of this work (2.1.1-2.5.4), the author gives the names of many cultic buildings and identifies representations of numerous divinities in the city and its territory, although he mentions very little about the rituals dedicated to those gods. Since Pausanias is writing in Greek, he gives all the gods Greek names, although since Corinth was a Roman colony, we might expect that Roman deities were worshipped in the city and that these had Latin names and Roman rituals dedicated to them. Nevertheless, influenced by Pausanias’ account and by a certain Hellenocentric bias, modern scholars have continued to give Greek names to the gods of Roman Corinth. Moreover, many scholars have gone further than this, for they have assumed that these Greek names meant that the gods themselves were Greek, as were the cults devoted to them. This assumption has led to the assertion that there was cultic continuity between the Greek and Roman periods of Corinth and that the only cults in the city that can be considered Roman were those associated with the imperial family and a few minor divinities, such as the Genius and Janus. Underpinning these assertions is the idea that Roman gods are basically the same as Greek ones, and that their cults also are the same. In this paper, I examine archaeological, numismatic, and epigraphic evidence indicating that major public cults in the city, including many of those mentioned by Pausanias, were in fact Roman and that these cults were significantly different from Greek ones. In conclusion, I offer some observations on the methodological issues involved in using Greek literary sources to identify cult in Roman Greece.


Metalepsis in the Acts of Andrew
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Janet Spittler, Texas Christian University

The speeches delivered by the apostle Andrew in the apocryphal Acts of Andrew feature a telescoping relationship between narrator, character, internal audience, and reader. In direct discourse, the apostle makes statements and asks questions that are strikingly odd in their immediate context; when read, however, as communications not from one character to another but as addressed directly to the reader, the questions and statements underscore the applicability and immediacy of the apostle’s words for the future audiences. In this paper, the narratological concept of “metalepsis” is used heuristically in an effort to understand an otherwise puzzling aspect of the text.


Paradoxography and Early Christian Literature
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Janet Spittler, Texas Christian University

“Paradoxography” is a designation applied by modern scholars to a genre of literature in which “miraculous occurrences” are collected in a series of discrete anecdotes. Seven paradoxographies are extant more or less in their entirety, including Antigonos of Karystos’ Collection of Paradoxical Stories, Apollonius’ Amazing Stories, Phlegon of Tralles’ Book of Marvels, Pseudo-Aristotle’s On Wondrous Reports and three anonymous and untitled texts. More than a dozen other texts are known to us through references, quotations or papyrus fragments. Despite the intrinsic interest of these texts, they have received relatively little attention from either classicists or New Testament scholars. In this presentation I will give an overview of the genre, including an outline of the texts’contents. My focus will be on the relevance of these works for understanding the broad landscape of “the miraculous” in Greco-Roman antiquity.


The Beginning of Torah: The Reuse of Narrative in Biblical Law
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Jeffrey Stackert, University of Chicago

This paper examines the way that literary interactions with pentateuchal narrative in the composition of biblical law opens the door for viewing pentateuchal narrative itself as ‘Torah,’ as is prevalent already in early post-biblical literature. It thus conceives of textual growth with regard to both literary reuse/revision and conceptions of literary genre.


Performing the Ending of the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Meda Stamper, Anstey United Reformed Church

This paper offers an understanding of performance in the final chapter of John in two senses, as a performance experienced by an audience and then as a performance in which the audience is invited to engage. The final chapter of the Gospel of John has often been read apart from John 20 and the rest of the Gospel as a later addition to an already completed work. This paper offers a narrative-theological reading of John 21 as the ending of the Gospel and asks the effect such a reading has on the audience of a performed text. In this reading, the surprising re-opening of the Gospel in the final chapter has the effect of what is called in modern theatre “a break in the fourth wall.” This break jars the audience into a more intimate engagement with the narrative world such that the final chapter becomes (potentially) the story of the audience in the world in front of the text as they engage with the story of the characters within the text. The audience then is invited to “perform” the future that is opening up as the Gospel comes to a close. The paper will also point toward ways in which the final chapter invites the audience to return for another performance of the Gospel by referring back to Jesus’ last night at table (through explicit and implicit references to John 13). The paper will suggest how repeated experiences of the earlier scenes enrich the understanding of the future that the audience is invited to embrace as the Gospel comes to a close.


Foundational Religious Texts: Teaching Bible and Qur’an in a One-Semester Core Course
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Christopher D. Stanley, Saint Bonaventure University

As part of a mission-related core curriculum program that was inaugurated in 1998, all students at St. Bonaventure University are required to take a core course entitled “Foundational Religious Texts of the Western World.” The stated purpose of this course is to introduce both “the structure and content” and “a critical methodology appropriate to an intelligent reading and sound interpretation” of the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a context where most students know little about the Bible and nothing about the Qur’an, the development and teaching of such a course is fraught with difficulties. Yet it also provides an opportunity for the instructor to step back and think about the essential similarities and differences among the three sets of Scriptures (including the way their followers view and use them) and to highlight these points in the context of an introduction to the origins, content, structure, and critical investigation of each text. It also compels the instructor to isolate the key methodological problems associated with the critical study of each text and to figure out how best to present these issues to students from diverse religious backgrounds. This paper will provide an overview of the content and structure of the “Foundational Religious Texts” course and present examples of the many ways in which the historical, literary, and theological relations among the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Scriptures are addressed in the course of the semester.


Text of Trauma: The Therapeutic Potential of Judges 19
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Janelle Stanley, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Judges 19 tells the story of an un-named woman who is gang-raped, murdered, and dismembered. This passage has been studied from a variety of perspectives, but scholarship has largely ignored its psychological elements. This paper uses modern traumatology and narrative psychology to read Judges 19 as a traumatic text, and concludes with the suggestion that trauma in the context of the canon has therapeutic potential. Past scholarship has read Judges 19 in a negative light, understanding the text as a discourse on misogyny, lawlessness, shame, or otherness. More recently, scholars have begun looking at literary and social interpretations, to localize the text within a specific context while freeing the text to speak to a wider diversity of people. There has, nonetheless, been no scholarship that has dared to read Judges 19 as a life-giving text. I believe reading it through the lens of psychological biblical criticism offers this new perspective. Drawing from the field of traumatology, this paper identifies criteria and symptoms of trauma as they appear in the text. Common characteristics of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, such as fragmentation of the self and repetition compulsion, are evidenced throughout Judges 19 and in the story as it continues and concludes in Judges 20-21. The therapeutic potential of Judges 19 will be explored by comparisons across a wide range of clinical examples of narrative and group therapy, from torture victims to survivors of 9/11 to survivors of incest. Narrative is a key function of trauma therapy, and narrative psychology offers insight into how the hearing and telling of stories helps initiate the psyche’s movement from a frozen and damaged state towards healing. A victim’s exposure to stories of similar experiences functions to reground trauma experiences within a broader picture of reality, reducing the experience of unique alone-ness in their trauma. Cognitive behavioral therapy offers further insights into how reframing understandings and interpretations of trauma can help facilitating healing. This paper applies the modern lessons gleaned from traumatology and narrative psychology towards a reading of Judges 19 as a healing text, one which breaks the silence that too often surrounds trauma, offers victims of trauma and those around them a point of common ground within the canon, and provides a narrative framework which trauma victims might use to understand and transform their own narratives.


The Lying Pen of the Scribe: Introducing Textual Criticism to Suspicious Undergraduates
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Jason A. Staples, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Many students feel threatened by textual criticism, suspicious of anyone who tells them that Biblical manuscripts contain errors and changes. One popular pedagogical approach to seems to be to confront this suspicion head-on in a “shock and awe” campaign in the attempt to disabuse students of prior simplistic conceptions of textual transmission. The objective to this approach seems to be to shatter the students’ perspectives and then pick up the pieces. Though this approach does work well with many students, it only serves to heighten the resistance of some students who perceive this approach as an aggressive “liberal” attack on the roots of their faith. This paper argues that, rather than taking an aggressive approach in the effort to shock their systems, instructors should try to meet these suspicious students on their turf, starting with a biblical witness for the need of textual criticism. Jeremiah 8:8 provides just such a witness, complaining that the “lying pen of the scribe” has changed the Torah and giving evidence that even biblical writers recognized the limitations of textual transmission. Starting with this verse has a disarming effect, building trust with suspicious students. The instructor can then explain ancient concerns about textual transmission and the higher value placed on oral transmission (referencing Papias, Herodotus, and others) in antiquity to a more receptive audience. Finally, the rise of wikis (such as Wikipedia) can fruitfully be used to explain how textual transmission is often a fluid process, involving mistakes, corrections, and improvements. By starting with canonical testimony to scribal changes and exhibiting modern “scribal” technologies, instructors can better reach all of their students without alienating those who might otherwise be predisposed to reject this important part of the discipline of biblical studies.


Creolizing Asherah: A Case Study for a Core-Periphery Relationship between Egypt and the Levant
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Adam Christopher Stebbins, Graduate Theological Union

The corpus of iconography and text dealing with the Syro-Palestinian goddess, Asherah, shows that she was a popular goddess throughout the Levant. Images of her are found at Ugarit, inscriptions relating to the Asherah are found at Kuntillet Ajrud, and one cannot overlook how she is often damned in the Hebrew Bible. While it is apparent that she is attested throughout the Levant, Asherah also appears elsewhere, particularly in Egypt. Conversely, her iconography in the Levant appears at times to be quite Egyptianized. My research uses the iconography of Asherah from Egypt the Levant as a case study to promote the notion of a core-periphery relationship between Egypt and the Levant. By using the core-periphery model, I demonstrate that influences flow not just from the Egyptian core, outward; but also from the Levantine periphery, back to the core. Creolization is a phenomenon where qualities of two separate cultures merge together to form a hybrid. The effect of creolization therefore is not a governing culture exerting dominance over another, but rather a mixing of cultural traits. Thus creolization is said to be a resistance by a non-dominant culture to being completely absorbed. Therefore Egyptian influences, like Hathor-style hair, in Asherah iconography from the Levant exemplifies creolization. Thus creolization occurs when the influences from Egypt penetrate the native Levantine home of the goddess, hence she is Egyptianized, but maintaining her native identity. On the other hand, the appearance of the goddess in Egypt shows that Asherah is not assimilated with other Egyptian goddesses, but rather adopted into the pantheon, this being the practice of syncretism. Therefore in conjunction with the core-periphery model, I demonstrate that Asherah’s presence in Egypt, as seen from stele from the Ramesside Period, is syncretism while her iconography in her homeland of the Levant is in essence creolization.


Is Ethnic Identity in Paul's Communities "Simply Irrelevant?"
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Wolfgang Stegemann, Augustana-Hochschule

In view of the wide-spread divergence in scholarly opinion concerning the significance of ethnicity in the Pauline Letters and in view of the fact that the transformation of Christ-followers to the image of Christ is a future hope, it may well be questioned whether anything significant can be said on such a disputed topic.


Improving an English Dictionary’s Characterization of the Gender Representation of Personal Nouns in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
David E. S. Stein, Freelance Editorial Services

The relationship between a text’s wording and the gender or sex of its personal referents is a function of multiple factors. This paper unpacks the complexity by treating three topics: (1) grammatical gender as a schema for personal reference; (2) referential specificity as a function of grammatical gender; and (3) referential gender as a function of both of the foregoing factors. That analysis enables us to delineate the conditions—grammatical, syntactic, and pragmatic—under which a lexically “male” term is employed in gender-neutral reference. Namely, in a categorizing reference (as opposed to an identifying reference), the substantive’s semantic train proceeds to convey its goods, yet the boxcar (in British English: wagon) that contains lexical manliness is shunted to a siding track and left behind. Meanwhile, however, in English, for many male-role nouns and kinship terms, the salience of lexical manliness is relatively invariant. This asymmetry between the two languages poses a challenge for English dictionaries of biblical Hebrew. Any entry that glosses a personal noun (e.g., ben) with an English word whose semantic manliness hardly varies (e.g., “son”) misleadingly implies that the same invariance pertains in the source language. This prompts dictionary readers to construe the biblical text as more androcentric than was actually the case. Hence this paper concludes with a prescription for how dictionaries might explicitly account for how lexical gender in Hebrew is a function of referential specificity. In so doing, they would convey a more accurate picture of the Bible’s linguistic representation of women and men.


Creating a "Canon within the Canon": Genesis in the Biblical Commentaries of Philo
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Gregory Sterling, University of Notre Dame

It has long been recognized that the Pentateuch was foundational for Philo of Alexandria. Of the 8,462 citations or allusions to texts that became recognized as Scripture, 8,215 or 97% are from the Pentateuch. While Philo recognized other texts as Scripture, the Pentateuch was de facto his Scriptures. Yet this is still a coarse analysis of his use of Scripture. Philo cited or alluded to Genesis (4,303) more times than the other four books of the Pentateuch combined (3.912). To put it another way, he devoted forty-three treatises of the fifty-nine known treatises or 73% of his biblical commentaries to Genesis. This paper will set out the importance of Genesis and then attempt to address the rationale for Philo's concentration on the first book of the Bible.


Inscribing Power: Representations of Divine and Royal Writing in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic History
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Elsie Stern, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Recent scholarship on the role of texts in the largely illiterate cultures of the Ancient Near East has demonstrated that cults and royal courts were prime loci for the production of written texts. In each of these contexts, writing was used not only to communicate content but also to represent the authority and virtual presence of the king or deity even in places where they were not physically present. In this paper, I will compare the representations of royal and divine writing in Dt and the Dtr to further clarify the purposes that writing and its reception serve within the narratives and to further clarify the ideologies of divine and royal power and presence inscribed by these representations of writing within the two corpora.


Inscription as Competition: Graffiti and Cultural Identity in the Greco-Roman Levant
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Karen B. Stern, Brooklyn College of City University of New York

Scholars increasingly consider how Jewish, Christian, and neighboring populations throughout the Hellenistic and Roman worlds manipulated their built environments to reflect varied, complex, and competitive features of their cultural identities. Aspects of devotional and mortuary architecture, architectural decoration, and monumental inscription often dominate these studies, which have contributed significantly to traditional text-centered debates. This paper directs attention, by contrast, to distinct sets of neglected data for Jewish, Christian and neighboring populations in antiquity—figural and textual graffiti that adorned devotional and mortuary spaces throughout the Levant. Closer attention to vernacular methods of inscription and decoration, I argue, offers renewed perspectives on relationships between Jewish, Christian, and neighboring populations in their local Mediterranean environments.


A Carrot and a Stick: The Discourse of Character Formation in Proverbs
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Anne Stewart, Emory University

From its opening words, the book of Proverbs presents itself as a manual of instruction for the student to acquire the necessary discipline and virtues to follow the wise course. Its aim is to shape the student’s character as a wise and righteous person. But how does one acquire such virtuous character? And what rhetorical techniques does the book use to shape the student’s character as it sees fit? This paper will discuss the discourse of rebuke and the discourse of motivation as two prominent means that Proverbs utilizes to speak about character formation. These motifs often go hand-in-hand, for alongside the father’s injunctions to avoid certain behaviors and his threats of physical punishment or danger, he also promises great reward for those who adhere to the right course (e.g. Prov 15:4). The book warns the student that resistance to correction will be met with punishment (e.g., Prov 22:15) and that adherence to wisdom’s precepts will bring various benefits, such as wealth (Prov 15:6), success (Prov 3:4), honor (Prov 3:35), fineries (Prov 4:9), safety and protection (Prov 4:6; 10:9), health (Prov 14:30a), and long life (Prov 3:2). Rebuke and motivation are thus equally important pedagogical tools in the book’s address to the student. In addition to mapping the language of rebuke and motivation, this paper will also explore the implications of these pedagogical dispositions for Proverbs’ depiction of the moral self. In Proverbs, self-interest is a powerful and productive force in the cultivation of character, even as the book provides strict boundaries of moral behavior through the discourse of rebuke. What might this language convey about the book’s assumptions about the person? How does one learn? What is the impetus for moral behavior? I will suggest that Proverbs presents a complex portrait of the moral self, thus requiring a multifaceted pedagogy.


Large-Scale Manuscript Digitization Projects: How the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library Manages Imaging, Cataloging, Scholarly Access, and Long-Term Archiving
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Columba Stewart, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) has been involved in several large-scale manuscript imaging projects since its founding in 1965. It was a partner in the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML), which photographed more than 9000 manuscripts in the 1970s and 1980s, and has sponsored the cataloging of those manuscripts. More recently HMML has sponsored projects in Ethiopia, as well as managed a major effort to digitize manuscript collections throughout the Middle East and Kerala, India. This presentation will focus on the challenge of digitization projects involving thousands of manuscripts that require cataloging and long-term digital archiving, and how the images and metadata can be made available to a wide audience.


The Rabbula Corpus and Its Manuscript Transmission
Program Unit: Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
Columba Stewart, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library

Rabbula, fifth century bishop of Edessa, is famous for his legislation for clergy, bnay/bnat qyama, and monks. These texts, frequently copied in the manuscript tradition and published several times in modern scholarship, underwent significant modification in the early stages of their transmission. These modifications can be explained by transitions in the ascetic culture of Mesopotamia as monasticism becomes the dominant ascetic paradigm. This paper will survey the manuscript tradition of Rabbula’s legislation for ascetics and identify changes in its arrangement and presentation, situating those modifications within the changing context of old and new forms of asceticism.


Severe Bodies
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
David Tabb Stewart, California State University, Long Beach

The man who is a full castrato (Deut 23) and the woman with a prolapsed uterus (Num 5) have the most severely disabled sexual bodies in the Hebrew Bible. That is, their marked bodies are the most sexually marginalized and excluded. But this also places them in the best position “to call out the inadequacies of compulsory able-bodiedness” as suggested by Robert McRuer’s “Crip Theory.” Their bodies fit in the overlapping “spaces” where critical disability and queer theory meet. Late Hebrew texts (Esther and 3rd Isaiah) along with Sirach assign castrati a social role and imagine a future in which they reproduce. Jeremiah 31:2 imagines the creation of a new woman. To what degree do these texts represent a creative appropriation of “severity” or a reinscription of compulsory able-bodiedness and heterosexuality within an eschatological hope?


Septuagint Torah Quotations Common to Philo of Alexandria and Luke-Acts
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Gert J. Steyn, University of Pretoria

The relation between the quotations in Philo’s works and the text form of the LXX had been a topic of interest in the past. This author’s investigation into the LXX Vorlage of the explicit quotations in Hebrews (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011) has shown that nearly all Hebrews’ quotations from the Torah were also to be found in Philo of Alexandria. Furthermore, apart from the overlap in occurrence, also the form of all the explicit Torah quotations is in agreement with the form of the quotations as found in Philo – against those of the MT and the LXX. Both Hebrews and Philo thus together deviate from the readings of the MT as well as from the LXX witnesses. These findings raise the question whether such an overlap between Hebrews and Philo might be the result of a common LXX Vorlage of the Torah that might have been used by both of these authors, and one that might possibly point in the direction of an earlier LXX text form. The phenomenon begs for further and more careful investigation. It is therefore the intention of this particular contribution to investigate those Torah quotations that overlap between the Lukan literature and that of Philo of Alexandria. After some methodological remarks are noted, a comparative survey of eight such cases in speeches of Luke-Acts, is presented. The study concludes that in the case of Luke-Acts, differences with the LXX and Philo are minute and few in number. There were no traces found of another Textvorlage of the Torah that was used by Luke and/or Philo. In these instances, Luke’s quotations resemble adaptations and interpretations already present in the Christian tradition. Several cases show evidence of conflations and paraphrases of the quoted passages.


Skin Diseases, Purity, and P
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Jonathan Stökl, University College London

C. Moss and J. Baden have shown that as it stands, P’s proscription with regard to the skin condition tsara`at, does not link it to sinful behaviour. Instead, P treats the impurity it causes in the same way as that caused by menstruation: a form of impurity contracted, through no fault of one’s own, by a natural cause. In this paper I will compare Moss and Baden’s results to a study of the regulations regarding impurity contracted through skin conditions in Mesopotamia (with particular attention to the Akkadian cognate of tsara`at: tsenettu). Diseases in general, and skin conditions in particular, are regarded as the result of divine punishment in Mesopotamian texts, but unlike saharšubbû, tsenettu is never explicitly linked with punishment or demonic possession. I will argue that while this leaves open the possibility that P is inspired by Babylonian concepts of purity, it is more likely that the lack of a direct link between tsenettu and divine punishment is due to the chance circumstances of the survival of texts. Similarly, P could have operated on the assumption that everybody knew tsara`at is the result of divine punishment, as the narrative traditions attest. Since in Mesopotamia skin diseases were linked to the moon-god Sîn, the more likely conclusion would be that P’s reluctance to link tsara`at and divine punishment is caused by the same monotheistic conviction that led it to write other gods out of the creation myth in Genesis 1.


The Dynamics of Manhood in Genesis 18 and 19
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Ken Stone, Chicago Theological Seminary

This paper explores the complexities of ³manhood² as a textual and cultural phenomenon by examining its construction across two chapters from Genesis and two biblical characters, Abraham and Lot. Studies of masculinity have shown that manhood is not a substance that one either has or doesn¹t have, but rather a cultural practice that individuals embody to greater and lesser degrees. Abraham and Lot are assessed as men not simply against abstract principles, but in relation to one another. The representation of Lot as less successful than Abraham at the protocols of hospitality prepares the reader for the conclusion of chapter 19, where Lot is made a feminized object by his daughters, who assume in turn the ³manly² role of sexual subjects. The function of this scene as an etiological account of Moabites and Ammonites also illustrates the use of assumptions about manhood in ethnic polemics.


Micah 5:1 in Matthew 2:6: Rhetorical Paraphrase as Prophetic Prediction
Program Unit: Matthew
Joshua Stout, Baylor University

In Matt 2:6, the Gospel writer cites a version of Micah 5:1, placing the oracle on the lips of the “chief priests and scribes” as their response to Herod’s inquiry regarding the birthplace of the messiah. Prior scholarship can be divided into two camps regarding explanations for the differences between Matthew’s version of the oracle and Micah’s original: 1) Some scholars propose that Matthew worked with a non-Masoretic Vorlage; 2) others argue that Matthew made intentional changes to his source – changes motivated by his ideological perspective. I argue, in sympathy with the latter position, that Matthew has made intentional alterations to the base text with which he worked – specifically to the text of the LXX. In so doing, I suggest that Matthew has created a rhetorical paraphrase with the intention of emphasizing the eminence of Jesus as the expected Davidic shepherd-king and of recommending him as a viable alternative to the powers that be, which on the level of Matthew’s narrative are represented by Herod and Pilate. To this end, I examine Matt 2:6 through the lens of ancient rhetorical instruction, employing evidence from handbooks associated with preliminary education (i.e. the progymnasmata) and with treatises intended for training in oratory. To my knowledge, an approach to the verse from the perspective of ancient rhetoric is novel; it is my intention to demonstrate its value by delineating a number of previously unnoticed insights into Matthew’s method and purpose in adapting Micah’s oracle.


John and the Geography of Palestine
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
James Strange, Samford University

Many scholars of the current incarnation of the quest for the historical Jesus continue to collate and evaluate sayings of Jesus, with the result that the wisdom stratum of the Double Tradition/Q and the sayings found in the Gospel of Thomas constitute primary data for constructing the historical Jesus, while the gospel of John is nearly excluded from the enterprise due to characteristics that are deemed to render the gospel of little use to the historian. To wit, in comparison with the Synoptic Gospels and GThom, John records Jesus’ discourse in a distinctive way and more thoroughly theologizes the ministry, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus than the Synoptics do. This paper takes a different approach. Rather than constructing a historical Jesus, the paper is designed to ask what archaeologists can learn from paying attention to John’s presentation of Jesus’ itinerary.


The Two Felicities: Voice and Embodiment in 2 and 4 Maccabees and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Gail Corrington Streete, Rhodes College

Daniel Boyarin’s influential work on early Christian and Jewish martyrdom, Dying for God (1999) proposes that we think of martyrdom as a “‘discourse’: the practice of dying for God and talking about it.” Yet, curiously, in one of the earliest strands of tradition of that practice, the stories of the martyrs in 2 and 4 Maccabees, while other martyrs, including her own sons, express their witness for God extensively in speech and also in body through their manly endurance of graphic tortures, the mother of the seven gets neither public speech (although she does get extensive talk about her in 4 Maccabees) nor much of the physical witness that becomes a hallmark of later female martyrdoms, particularly Christian ones. In fact, she does not even have a name; later Jewish traditions variously name her as Miriam bat Tanhum (Lamentations Rabbah), Hannah (Sefer Josippon) or Martha Shamoni (6 Maccabees); while later Christian traditions assign her various names, including that of Felicitas of Rome, and even locate the relics of the Maccabean martyrs within the walls of St. Peter in Chains, thus physically appropriating her as Christian. While not suggesting that this Felicitas is the same one as the Felicitas of the Christian Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas, I will suggest that the ways in which the narrators of her story in 2 and in 4 Maccabees attempt to define her not only as a martyr but as a female martyr and mother, playing on and against contemporary tropes of maleness, femaleness, and maternity (e.g., deSilva, 2006) may have had an impact on similar language for the martyr-mothers in the Christian martyrdom, perhaps indicating a “shared narrative tradition” (Galit Hasan-Rokem,2000) or influence (Boyarin, 1999).


Food, Fellowship, and Favoritism: Early Christian Meals as the Setting for James 2:1–9
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Daniel R. Streett, Criswell College

James 2:1–9 pictures an early Jewish-Christian assembly (sunagoge) where favoritism toward the rich shames the poor and violates the royal law of liberty. While the setting for this scene (the “assembly”) has usually been taken as an early Christian “worship service,” recent scholarship (Ward/Allison) has resurrected the older view that James envisions a legal setting, i.e. an ecclesiastical court of sorts. I argue instead that James 2:1–9 should be understood as a hypothetical scene from an early Jewish-Christian communal meal. This yields the following: 1) Most importantly, it explains why the issue of seating/location is the focal point of the discussion. 2) It explains the social import of the instructions given to the poor man to stand (slaves stood as “waiters” at ancient meals/symposia), or to “sit down as/under my footstool” (perhaps like a dog, waiting for scraps from the table). 3) My reading finds a clear parallel to James 2 in 1 Cor 11:17–34, where Paul addresses much the same issue, namely the role of social status (honor/shame, wealth/poverty) in the communal meal, and employs much the same theological strategy, arguing that such behavior is inconsistent with faithfulness to Jesus (cf. James 2:1). 4) It suggests that James may be invoking the Jesus tradition found in the two parables of Luke 14. Luke 14:7–11 concerns a wedding feast where one’s position at the table is the crucial signifier of honor or shame. Luke 14:12–14 encourages those who host meals to invite not the rich (perhaps to secure patronage), but the poor, who would be unable to repay them. James thus echoes the dominical teaching that God’s kingdom reverses society’s judgments concerning shame and honor. This is in line with James’ frequent use of Jesus-tradition, and further explains why he mentions Jesus’ example at the beginning of his discussion of favoritism (2:1).


Exegesis of a Passage Conducted in Koine Greek
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Daniel Streett, Criswell College

Experts in second language acquisition (SLA) theory hold that languages are best acquired in the classroom when the majority of class time is spent communicating exclusively in the target language. The ALBL group has explored ways of making this happen at an elementary (first year) level, but what can be done when a closer analysis of Biblical texts (i.e. exegesis) is desired? Must we conduct the discussion in English? In modern language departments, literature classes are conducted in language; why should Biblical exegesis courses be any different? This demonstration will aim to show that exegesis of Greek texts in Greek is both realistic and beneficial: it can lead students and scholars to a deeper understanding of the text and a greater fluency in the language. A panel of participants will discuss and interpret a selected passage in Koine Greek. In order to simulate a classroom experience, the panel members will not be told the text ahead of time. Handouts will be provided with pointers on conducting exegetical discussions in Greek, as well as key grammatical terms (in Greek) useful for such discussions.


Isaiah’s Exile and Restoration Reconfigured
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Jacob Stromberg, Duke University

The book of Isaiah is a composite work whose formation took place over a long period of time, incorporating material from many different hands. A crucial stage in this process came with the Jewish return from Babylonian exile, and the subsequent efforts at restoration. In this new context, how were the older Isaianic oracles to be seen? What did they say? I will examine this question in depth from the point of view of the post-exilic Third-Isaiah and its reuse of oracles from the exilic Deutero-Isaiah. In particular, the talk will illuminate how the exilic Deutero-Isaiah, with its hope for an immanent end to exile and a spectacular restoration, was received in Third-Isaiah, which understood this earlier voice as authoritative but in need of adjustment in the light of new historical realities. It will be seen that in Third-Isaiah the restoration initially tied to Cyrus has been decoupled from that historical figure, being cast further into the future. It will also be argued that, in connection with this delayed restoration, the exile is seen as a reality not yet fully dealt with in the events immediately following the initial return. Thus, through a study of inner-Isaianic discourse, I will probe the theme of exile and restoration in its post-exilic textual reconfiguration.


Did Pride Really Goeth before the Fall? A Study of Pride and Hybris in the Book of Ezekiel
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
John T. Strong, Missouri State University

This paper will explore the subject of hybris and pride in Ezekiel’s oracles, and as such will discuss both the language and these two concepts within the book. These subjects will be explored within the context of ancient Near Eastern concepts of honor and shame. I will argue the thesis that pride and hybris were actually treated differently by Ezekiel. Pride was actually viewed positively, as the rightful attitude of one who has earned a place of honor in the society. Literarily, the fall of that person is often set forth in grand poetic style, but the tone is descriptive, not judgmental, and certainly not as a result of the person’s pride. Ezek 31 will be presented alongside others. In contrast, hybris is judged harshly by Ezekiel. Hybris, however, is defined narrowly as a king placing himself on the seat of God, and not just a bad case of arrogance! Here, Ezek 28:1–19 will be discussed as an exemplar.


The Prophethood of All Believers: Three Voices, One Message
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Roger Stronstad, Summit Pacific College

The Prophethood of All Believers: Three Voices, One Message


Ancient Magic and Social Context: New Evidence from the Sanctuary of Demeter in Corinth
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Ronald Stroud, University of California-Berkeley

This paper explores the role of magic in early Roman Corinth, roughly at the time of St. Paul's first visit, as exemplified in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone on Acrocorinth and other sites. Particular focus falls on inscribed lead curse tablets and their possible interaction with more traditional cult practices.


Provincializing Rome: Aphrodisias and the Negotiation of Civic Identity
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Christopher Stroup, Boston University

The city of Aphrodisias in Caria offers a unique glimpse into the negotiation of civic identity under Roman rule. The city’s imperial temple complex (Sebasteion), built in the middle of the first century C.E., reveals how a building could project a city’s ties with Rome onto a cityscape in a local way. Through the choice of images and architectural design, this monument to Roman power fashions an ideal image of Aphrodisias that reinscribes the universalizing centrality of Rome while provincializing Rome under an Aphrodiasian idiom. Lining the three-tiered porticos leading to the imperial temple are extant reliefs depicting the story of the mythical origin of Rome, personifications of captive ethne, and the divine power of Rome. These reliefs connect the city’s Hellenistic past with its Roman present by imagining a continuity between the city itself and Rome. More than this, a subtle subtext emerges that takes the images of empire and refracts them through an Aphrodisian lens. In this way, the Sebasteion is both a tribute to the power of the Julio-Claudian emperors and Aphrodisian creativity. The choice of images, composition of individual sculptures and reliefs, and architectural details of the complex all contribute to an Aphrodisian centered view of imperial ideology that seeks to give the city a privileged place before Rome. This presentation explores how Aphrodisias used the city of Rome and imperial ideology in such dynamic and hybrid ways to negotiate its own civic identity through the construction of the Sebasteion.


Editing the Acts of the Apostles: Challenges and Methods
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Holger Strutwolf, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

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Text-Critical Models in the Study of Ethiopic Enoch
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Princeton Theological Seminary

Text-critical work on the Ethiopic version of 1 Enoch is poised to make significant progress, given the identification of and access to photographic materials to a number of Ethiopic mss. not yet studied for this purpose. Taking a short selected passage from Ethiopic Enoch as a point of departure, this paper will offer several models for doing text-critical work, based on scholarly work in the past and on a present study on the part of the authors of this paper. It is hoped that the presentation of these models will benefit from discussion that will facilitate a text-critical output which, as far as possible, is both transparent and efficient for those seeking to engage in a close reading of the text.


Commentary as Memoir? Reflections on Writing/Reading War and Hegemony in Jeremiah and in Contemporary U.S. Foreign Policy
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Louis Stulman, University of Findlay

Not unlike the Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Einleitung in Das Alte Testament), biblical commentary is its own distinctive genre. Regardless of editorial policy, target audience, or governing methodology, the scholarly commentary on the Bible, in its simplest form, seeks to clarify the meaning (i.e., “reservoirs of meaning”) of ancient texts, or as stated in the prospectus and foreword of the AOTC to “provoke a deeper understanding of the Bible in all its many facets.” While such outcomes are straightforward enough, few today would argue that commentary writing is ever innocent or non-contested. Indeed, our post-modern proclivities call for self-awareness, ideological/theological candor (Carroll), and parochial transparency (Diamond). In this praxis-oriented paper, I will broach Jeremiah commentary writing as memoir, especially as it engages Über-powers in ancient and contemporary worlds. Such reflections only reaffirm Gadamer’s argument that interpretive horizons converge, that readers shape the interpretation of texts, and that history holds all of us hostage.


Salvific Suffering in Paul: Eschatological, Vicarious, and Mimetic
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Jerry Sumney, Lexington Theological Seminary

invited paper


Reading Job from Asian American Eyes
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Chloe Sun, Logos Evangelical Seminary

Past scholarship and writings on the Asian and Asian American Biblical Interpretation tend to base their research and reflections on biblical narratives and specific characters in those narratives. Rarely do scholars use wisdom literature as its mode of engagement for Asian American theological reflections. This article aims to read the Book of Job from an Asian American’s perspective. As it will demonstrate, there are many points of contact between the Asian American experience and the Book of Job, including but not limited to: (1) Retribution Principle: Job did everything right yet still suffers injustice. Likewise, the retribution principle does not always work in the Asian American context because hard work and achievement do not necessarily guarantee one’s upward mobility; (2) Hearing and Seeing God: Suffering is a means to experience God and to see God with one’s own eyes. In that sense, marginality is a blessing in disguise; (3) Orthodox versus Experience: The theology of Job’s three friends is based on conventional wisdom whereas Job’s theology is based on his personal experience of innocent suffering. Therefore, theology built on personal experience has a place in the dialogue between the orthodox (western) tradition and the minority hermeneutics. (4) Lament as Asian American expression: The “God-talk” of Job in the form of lament receives God’s final approval. Lament and complaint directed to God are not only the legitimate forms of one’s religious expression but also the ways to freedom and liberation in the midst of alienation and oppression; (5) Creation theology: God’s concern for His created world decentralizes the Asian American’s quest for acceptance and equality and shifts our focus to God’s larger purposes.


Hades Rising: The Sensory-Aesthetic Texture of Wisdom 1:12–2:5
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Dennis Sylva, Saint Francis Seminary

This paper is an attempt to trace the unwinding appeal to the senses that the succeeding images in Wis 1:12 - 2:5 convey and the corresponding third dimension that this appeal contributes to the events portrayed in these verses. The understanding of sensory-aesthetic texture provided by Vernon Robbins in his Socio-Rhetorical interpretive analytic provides the overarching context for this study, which also makes use of the conceptual integration theory of Fauconnier and Turner that Robbins has called attention to as helpful in uncovering sensory-asethetic literary dimensions.


Did Luke Know the Letter of James?
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Kari Syreeni, Abo Akademi

Unlike the Paulines, the letter of James is seldom considered to be one of Luke’s sources. However, particularly three parallels between Luke and James suggest that this is a real possibility: the woes in Luke 6:24-26 and Jas 4:9, the reference to the “three years and a half” of famine in Elijah’s time in Luke 4:25 and Jas 5:17, and the speech of James in Acts 15:13-21 (cf. Jas, passim). The present paper argues that a feasible case for Luke’s familiarity with Jas can be made. If this hypothesis is accepted, attempts to find common “Q” tradition behind these two writings are somewhat discouraged. Instead, Luke’s use of Jas may reflect his familiarity with another but closely related Jewish Christian tradition where, e.g., the critique of the rich and the powerful was even sharper than in Q.


Making of a Revolution: Daniel, Revelation, and the Portuguese Restoration of 1640
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Maria Ana T. Valdez, Yale University

The Portuguese restoration of 1640, which put an end to the union of the Iberian Crowns, is normally explained by a mix of historical, economic, and social events. Religious beliefs, however, were one of the strongest motifs used not only to catapult the “revolution” against Spain, but also to explain how such a small kingdom as Portugal had been chosen by God to lead humankind towards the end of time. This is particularly clear within the Society of Jesus. In this paper, it is our goal to explore further sixteenth-century theoretical conceptualizations regarding the establishment of the “Fifth Empire” as forecast in Daniel and in Revelation. For this, we will analyze the work of a Portuguese Jesuit, António Vieira: the History of the Future and the Clavis Prophetarum. Vieira, in his two books concerning this concept of the end of time, first follows a panegyric approach of the Portuguese people, and later, in light of biblical texts, explains Portuguese supremacy and the role to be played by the Portuguese monarch who would become the world´s last emperor and, thus, guide humanity towards the kingdom of God. It is our goal to demonstrate how texts such as Daniel and Revelation, given their timeless character, can be used in moments of distress similar to those of the turn of the Era, much later and how their content is not only up to date, but continues to press in the direction of a textual interpretation that would allow uncovering the content of the prophecies contained in these two books.


Wadi el-Yabis and the Elijah "Wadi Cherith" traditions in Relationship to John and Jesus in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
James D. Tabor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

According to the Gospel of John the initial activity of John the Baptizer took place "at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there" (John 3:22), whereas Jesus and his disciples are baptizing in the south, in Judea. Later in the narrative Jesus retreats to this area to escape his enemies: "He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained" (John 10:40). This paper explores the possible connection between the Elijah traditions in 1 Kings 17, where the prophet hid in the "Wadi Cherith" and was fed by ravens when he fled from Ahad and Jezebel and a northern location of "Aenon near Salim" across from Wadi el-Yabis in modern Jordan today. An analysis of the physical terrain, as well as archaeological surveys in the Wadi, is related to John's possible pinpointing of this location. Some consideration of the proximity of the Wadi to the city of Pella is also included as part of the thesis that this area became a focus for Judaeo-Christians who were associating themselves with the Elijah stories in times of danger and distress.


In the Footsteps of Milgrom: Between Herem, Ownership, and Ritual: Biblical and Hittite Perspectives
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Ada Taggar-Cohen, Doshisha University

The term herem in the Bible means “to consecrate something to the divine”. As N. Lohfink indicated already, the translation “ban” should be avoided. Herem is directly related to the cult by the simple fact that the act of the herem dedicates things to the deity or its temple(s). In a war context the act of herem dedicates the enemy’s land, possessions and people to the deity. In these cases it therefore takes the meaning of “destruction” or “annihilation”. However as will be shown, according to Hittite texts, the destruction is the aftermath of the “consecration” and not the basic meaning of herem. Thirty-five years ago Milgrom has written on the term ma’al explaining its use in connection with the idea of herem [JAOS 96 (1976)]. Two basic concepts were used by him to explain it: the idea of sancta trespass, and the act of violation of an oath. In both cases he found correlations with Hittite texts. Recently G.F. del Monte has edited a Hittite text (CTH 423), which provides a new look at the issue of herem as understood and practiced by the Hittites [Bibel und Babel 2 (2005)]. This text enables us to see the idea of herem as a legal issue of ownership, which is transferred from the enemy to the divine via ritual means. Together with the other Hittite texts, this paper will demonstrate the biblical herem as a legal act embedded in a ritual activity, and its implications regarding the divine-worshiper relationship.


He Kupu Whakairo (Written in Wood): A Maori Carving Interpretation of Micah 7
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Don Tamihere, Te Rau College

This presentation is on Maori carving as a form of writing (that records interpretation). Instead of an alphabet, we have patterns and glyphs which when combined record history, philosophy, and story with incredible depth and nuance. This presentation will involve the work of Maori carver Richard Otene, and his interpretation of Micah. Richard is Ngati Porou, from Tokomaru Bay. The significance of Tokomaru is that it is the former location of a marae named after Ruatepupuke - a chief who in ancient times, as lore has it, founded the art of carving for Maori. That marae now stands in the Chicago Field Museum. They say we sold it. We say it was stolen. The rest is history. Whose history? This presentation reclaims our say in history, through the carving interpretation of Micah 7, a work in progress!


An Alternative Method: “Intelligent Search”—i.e., through Technology
Program Unit: Scripture and Paul
Randall Tan, Asia Bible Society

Recent research on intertextuality has proposed the triple intertextuality of the Epistles: literary connections with the Old Testament, with other Epistles, and with the Gospels. Criteria for detecting literary dependence and practical methods for tracking and determining the nature of the relationship between texts are still under development. For example, consensus is often lacking on how much verbal agreement is necessary to posit different forms of intertextual relation. This paper proposes a preliminary investigation of linguistic connections between 1 Corinthians and the Old Testament, the other Epistles, and the Gospels, using a probabilistic data-driven approach developed in collaboration with my computational linguist colleague, Dr. Andi Wu. The method relies on the following preliminary data: complete syntactic analysis of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, interlinear alignment between the Greek and Hebrew and several English and Chinese translations of the Bible, reference disambiguation (i.e., linking all pronouns and verbs with implied subjects to their nominal referents in the text), synonymy in the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures (i.e., measuring relative semantic distance between different Greek and Hebrew words), word sense disambiguation (i.e., measuring relative semantic distance between different sense distinctions usually identified for any given Greek or Hebrew word), and intelligent search (i.e., searches based on both syntax and semantics). The idea is to combine this data to represent the "meaning" of different linguistic units in 1 Corinthians and compute the semantic distance between different chunks of texts in 1 Corinthians and the rest of the Scriptures. Internally, the Asia Bible Society is developing this data to provide translators and editors with a bird's eye view of the whole Bible, to better facilitate work on our Chinese Standard Bible (CSB) project. This data also shed lights on the probabilities involved, the nature, and the extent of the interrelationship among various parts of Scripture.


Late Antique Lives of Pythagoras: Pagan and Christian Influences
Program Unit:
Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

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Allusion or Illusion in the Psalms: How Do We Decide?
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Beth LaNeel Tanner, New Brunswick Theological Seminary

The psalms are poetry and as a result they are matrixes of metaphors and images gathered from the religious and regular life of ancient peoples. One could even argue that the psalms are wholly metaphorical with the meanings of these metaphors coming both from other texts, the primary culture, and surrounding cultures. In this milieu of imagery, questions have swirled about how to identify and categorize allusions. Historians argue for an element to be a bona fide allusion, a clear historical order must be proven. Allusion is only allusion if its reference is to an earlier established text. All others are illusions. Literary critics argue that definition is too strict, especially when considering ancient cultures where oral tradition is the dominant method of cultural and narrative transmission. Is this an impasse in the old historical critical debate or can something else be proposed? This paper will argue that poetry cannot be treated in the same ways as narrative or the so-called historical texts. Poetry’s function is different and thus must be studied via different parameters. By an investigation of Psalm 22 with its complex images, the how and the what of its message will help guide an clearer understanding of the questions of allusion in biblical poetry.


Reflections on the Impact of The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Beth Tanner, New Brunswick Theological Seminary

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On Making an Ass of the Romans: Jesus’ Triumphal Entry in the Gospels, History, and Movies
Program Unit: Bible and Film
W. Barnes Tatum, Greensboro College

Palm Sunday—the Sunday before Easter—became the annual occasion for churches to commemorate Jesus of Nazareth’s entry into Jerusalem on an ass, or donkey, as narrated in the four canonical gospels. That a historical occurrence underlies the fourfold gospel witness to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem has been variously affirmed and denied throughout the two hundred year quest for the historical Jesus. Over the last century, most films that tell the Jesus story imaginatively dramatize this event on the screen. My presentation argues that Jesus did indeed ride an ass into Jerusalem. However, contrary to expectation, what Jesus intended by this act may also be disclosed to the viewer by contrasting two film enactments of the entrance: first, in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977); and, secondly, in Roger Young’s Jesus (1999). In order to establish this thesis, I proceed in six stages: [1} Brief overview of scholarly answers to the question: What happened at Jesus’ entry? And two skeptical responses to the question: Did it happen? (Since 1700s CE). {2] Comment about cultural perspectives on the entry-on-an-ass story from the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman World (2000 BCE to 325 CE). [3] Comment on the narrative contexts of and the literary sources for the entry-on-an- ass story, in the three Synoptic Gospels and in the Gospel of John (70-100 CE). [4] Comment on the oral development of the entry-on-an-ass story (30-70 CE). [5] Conclusion about Jesus and his entry-on-an-ass (ca. 30 CE). {6] Contrasting cinematic enactments of Jesus’ entry-on-an-ass: Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth, 6-7 minute clip; and Roger Young’s Jesus, 5-6 minute clip.


New Approaches to the Psychology of Experience
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Ann Taves, University of California Santa Barbara

In contrast to more traditional psycho-biographical or psychoanalytic approaches to historical figures, this review will assess Shantz’s use of psychology from the perspective of cognitive science and, more specifically, cognitively grounded theories of attribution.


Women and Biblical Criticism in Nineteenth Century England
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Marion Taylor, Wycliffe College

This paper examines female responses to biblical criticism in nineteenth-century England chronologically using John Rogerson's three phases of development to divide the century: in phase I (1800-1857), ideas were known, applied and refuted by such women as Mary Cornwallis, Fanny Corbeaux and Mary Ann Evans; in phase II (1858-1879), critical ideas and methods were disseminated by such women as Florence Nightingale, the de Rothschilds and Christina Rossetti; in phase III (1880-1900), biblical criticism triumphed being assisted by such women Anne Mercier, Mary Ward and Julia Wedgwood. The paper shows that women's interpretations of the Bible reflect wider trends in biblical scholarship. It demonstrates that women played an important part in the move toward criticism’s triumph: women were consumers, critics, popularizers, and practitioners of biblical criticism.


Creating African-American Images for Biblical Hermeneutics: Illustrating Works of African-American Biblical Scholars
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Rubertha Taylor, Independent Scholar

Recently, academic works of African-American scholars have made a significant contribution to conversations in biblical studies. Our stories, which also include those about our enslaved ancestors, have been brought into dialogue with previous existing scholarship. As a result, we have pushed through barriers that for many years solely represented voices of dominant groups that suppressed diverse conversations at a scholarly level. We have accomplished this feat in various ways and over a period of about forty years. Nevertheless, for the most part, acceptable images to interpret these groundbreaking works remain outside conversations in the academy. This present work taps into this concern by displaying black images alongside of a discussion on the power of African-American art in biblical studies. My aim for this work is twofold: (1) to produce African-American art for the academy and (2) to recognize the eleven essays in Stony the Road We Trod. In my paper, I contend that because Biblical Interpretation has moved into a visual age, black art is necessary for three fundamental reasons: (1) to provide images that match a level of African-American scholarship, (2) to offer a use of pictures that portray adequately black historical and cultural experiences, and (3) to help foster conversations about African-Americans and the Bible. To honor Stony the Road We Trod, one of the foundational works for African-American biblical scholarship, a drawing has been created for each of the eleven essays submitted to this volume, alongside of other illustrations. In so doing, I pay tribute to works of these particular forerunners by using a pictorial dialogue as a tool to push through another barrier that for many years has hindered our voices in the field of biblical studies.


The End(s) of Redaction: Qumran, Daniel, and the Rewriting of Isaiah in Isaiah
Program Unit: Qumran
Andrew Teeter, Harvard University

The redactional history of prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible is in substantial measure a history of exegesis. This history continues seamlessly in the literary and exegetical production attested at Qumran. Neither corpus is properly assessed without attention to the other, a fundamental insight which strongly undermines the artificial boundaries between biblical and Qumran studies. With general reflection on the dynamics of redactional “rewriting” of prophetic texts within Isaiah (by what means and to what ends have oracles been reworked and expanded?), as well as on the processes of literary formation and book closure (whether or how redaction history might be seen to have “ended”), this study examines the specific problem of the interpretive development of “Assyria” within the book of Isaiah. This process of development and reception is then shown to be essential for understanding the function and reuse of Isaianic Assyria texts both within the final vision of Daniel and in the literature of Qumran. The latter texts, in turn, illuminate the redaction-historical processes within the book of Isaiah itself. Through critical consideration of the rhetoric of inner-scriptural allusion and the hermeneutics of “mantological exegesis” (so-called) within these texts, the paper seeks to demonstrate the need to work across disciplinary boundaries in the attempt to understand either the Scrolls or the literature of the Hebrew Bible itself, as well as the dangers inherent in a failure to do so.


From Monologue To Trialogue: De Providentia I–Iii and the Culmination of Philo’s Apology for the Law
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Abraham Terian, National Academy of Sciences / Armenia

Several new perspectives on Philo from a literary-critical analysis of his “dialogues” will be presented in this paper. Foremost of these is the general observation that De Animalibus constitutes the third book of De Providentia, and that the three books move from monologue to dialogue to trialogue. Further, specific observations on Philo’s self-portrayal in these works as “defender of the Law” lead to a reassessment of the entire Philonic corpus as apologetics, with these works as the culmination.


Rewriting Women: The Figure of Miriam in the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Hanna Tervanotko, University of Helsinki / University of Vienna

The differences between the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures have been recognized for long. This has consequences for the interpretation of some figures because the different versions preserve a different image of some biblical protagonist. For instance, Anneli Aejmelaeus (e.g. her keynote lecture in the IOSOT 2010, “How to Reach the Old Greek in 1 Samuel and what to Do with it?”) has demonstrated that the depiction of the figure of Hannah in the LXX varies from the MT. Significantly, the MT seems to play down this figure. Also the portrayal of the figure of Miriam is rather different in the LXX when compared to the MT (Wilda C. Gafney, Daughters of Miriam, 2008). The LXX preserves the name of Miriam in a list of Exod 6:20, while the MT does not mention her there. This observation suggests that the Vorlage of the LXX was different from the MT at times. Other times the selection of the Greek vocabulary influences the image of Miriam. Exod 15:20-21 presents Miriam as a heroine who performs her song similarly to a Greek drama. This presentation builds a holistic reading of Miriam by comparing the varying textual witnesses to the Pentateuch. The variant readings that are unfolded in this study raise some important questions regarding the interpretation of women in the Scriptures. Are some of the differences between the readings done purposefully? Does the MT preserve a text form that plays this figure down as it does with the figure of Hannah?


There Are No "Aporias": Orality, Memory, and Narrative Aesthetics
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Tom Thatcher, Cincinnati Christian University

Source-critical and developmental approaches to the composition-history of the Fourth Gospel frequently appeal to the notorious "aporias" in the text--narrative and theological discontinuities in the flow of the presentation. Recent research on ancient media culture, however, substantially problematizese these approaches. Many of the classic literary aporias in FG reflect typical oral-compositional practices, while collective memory theories would suggest that groups and individuals do not retain "alien" ideological viewpoints in their representations of the past. While media studies cannot disprove that the current text of FG is a product of redaction or revision, they do suggest that it would be impossible to identify sources or editions with sufficient precision to support source-crtical and developmental approaches.


Excavating Babylon: Expectations and Early Impact
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Rannfrid Thelle, Wichita State University

The excavation of the city of Babylon, beginning in 1899, was a major project to which high expectations were attached. It was the first major German excavation in Mesopotamia and the first project of the newly formed Deutsche Orientgesellschaft. It also turned out to be one of the largest ever archaeological projects, in terms of manpower and hours of labor invested, and one of the early excavations to be carried out by properly trained excavators using a consistent methodology. In this paper I will examine the first reports of the findings from the excavation of the city of Babylon as they appeared in publications both within Assyriology and Biblical Studies, in order to view the early reception of material culture remains from the city of Babylon in the context of intellectual currents in Europe and America from 1900 to approximately 1920. Special attention will be given to the excavation of the city of Babylon, comparing these new findings with what had been gleaned and assembled about ancient Babylonia from other sources at this time. In what way did the discoveries from Babylon meet the expectations of the excavators and those who commissioned them and how did they contribute to the interpretation of archaeological finds from Babylonia as a whole? Which finds, if any, were seen as significant to the discussion of comparative study in “oriental” studies, especially as it impacted biblical studies in post-Delitzschian, Pan-babylonianist and diffusionist discourse? In order to answer these questions fully, the paper will take into account the field reports of R. Koldewey, his book Das wieder erstehende Babylon, dispatches of the MDOG, and reports and reviews in English language journals. Early comprehensive presentations of Mesopotamian history that incorporate material from this excavation, such as L.W. King’s Babylonian history, will also be considered.


On the Pronunciation of Biblical Greek: A Re-assessment
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Michael P. Theophilos, Australian Catholic University

The vast majority of those who have learnt (and taught) New Testament Greek in the context of a Western university, seminary or theological college, have almost unanimously adopted the Erasmian pronunciation of the language. There are, however, several considerations which cast significant doubt on the historical validity and pedagogical benefit of such an approach. This paper will begin by sketching the evolution of scholarly opinion and practice of the language’s pronunciation. We will then attempt to demonstrate that the most fruitful avenue for Koine Greek pronunciation is the adoption of the phonetic equivalents in modern Greek. It will be argued that this approach is both more historically accurate and pedagogically preferable to other alternatives, including the Erasmian Western norm.


African Music: How West African Standards of Aesthetics in Music and Religion Helped Shape the American Gospel Revolution from the “Negro Spirituals”
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Pascal Bokar Thiam, University of San Francisco

This paper explores how West African standards of aesthetics shaped the nascent music of the South through the expression of the Blues and his religious cousin Gospel. From the expression of polyrhythmic sequences vocal or instrumental to the harmonic and melodic contributions linked to the story telling mechanisms of Africans, Gospel music first called “Negro Spirituals” in America was born out of the African communities of the South between the 17th and the 19th century. The re-engineering of the hymns of the Old Church of England by Africans as they infuse a new contextual cultural approach to religious expression in America is built on the architectural concepts of the standards of aesthetics of West Africa and Africa in general that define all aspects of this visceral connection Africans have between spirituality and rhythm. It is through the expression of rhythmic sequences that induce trances that Africans relate to their ever arching understanding of a Creator or Force Supreme whether in animist norms or in more contemporary terms particularly in North America through the adoption of Christian concepts.


Romans 2:17 and the Identity of the So-Called Ioudaios
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Matthew Thiessen, College of Emmanuel and St. Chad

Identifying the interlocutor of Romans 2 is a difficult task, yet if interpreters are to understand Paul properly, it is paramount that they know whom he is addressing. Long ago Origen noted this problem, stating, “The person who wants to understand what is written must direct attention carefully in order to ascertain the personae, that is, who is speaking, to whom the words are addressed, or about whom the discourse is being made. So also, it seems to me, one must now do here in the Epistle to the Romans” (Commentary on Romans 2.11.3). In Romans 2:17 Paul refers explicitly to the person he addresses: “And if you call yourself a Ioudaios…” This verse has led the majority of interpreters to conclude that in Romans 2:17-29 Paul addresses an ethnic Jew. In contrast, Runar Thorsteinsson has argued that Paul continues to address a gentile in this passage, specifically a gentile who has judaized and now thinks of himself as a Jew. In this paper I will provide additional support to Thorsteinsson’s argument that Rom 2:17-29 contains Paul’s diatribe with a gentile judaizer who considers himself a Jew. I will examine the meaning of the verb eponomazo in Greco-Roman literature to show that while Paul describes his interlocutor as someone who thinks of himself as a Jew, Paul disagrees with this person’s self-identification. In light of this interpretation, I will also reexamine Rom 2:28-29, which contrasts the hidden Ioudaios and the outward Ioudaios. As I will argue, Paul does not here redefine Jewishness, since elsewhere in his letters, most notably in Rom 3:1, he always uses Ioudaios to refer to ethnic Jews.


Cosmic Order and Divine Power in Pseudo-Aristotle, On the Cosmos
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Johan C. Thom, University of Stellenbosch

The treatise On the Cosmos ascribed to Aristotle is probably to be dated between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE. Supposedly an exhortation to Alexander the Great to study philosophy, the text starts out by providing a description of the cosmos, including the geography and climatology of the inhabited world and all the conflicting forces at work within it. In the second half of the treatise the author tries to provide an explanation for the continued harmony and stability of the world, despite all the opposing principles threatening to destroy it. According to the author, God is ultimately responsible for maintaining the harmony of the world, but in order to preserve God’s transcendence the author introduces the notion of God’s power: by means of his power he can be actively involved in the world without losing his transcendence. By this move the author creates a split between the divine and the demiurgic principles, a tendency worked out in more detail in (later) Platonic and Neopythagorean texts. My presentation will contain an overview of the contents of the text before focusing on its cosmotheology.


Reading the Urban Topography of Corinth: The Memory of Spoliation and the Counterstory of Pausanias
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Christine M. Thomas, University of California-Santa Barbara

Monuments express memory in the mode of public display, and are actively created by agents in the service of social or political projects. This involves not just the construction of new structures, but the re-purposing of existing structures. Both forms of construction can be seen as evidence of a new reading of the urban topography, the conscious creation of a new narrative, which both establishes and naturalizes a new “memory” of the past. This memory, however, exhibits hybridity because of the interference or cross-readings of the previous narratives, since physical traces of the earlier monuments continue to exist, and particular sites in the city still possess a range of cognitive associations with particular events in the history of the city. The Roman rebuilding of the city of Corinth as a colony in the Republican period included the renewal of several traditional sites that dated back at least to the classical period. Though these monuments were generally reconstructed with little architectural continuity with the predecessor structures, nevertheless some traces of the previous, Greek sites remained visible in the landscape. This was in effect a spoliation, a reuse of previous locations that simultaneously co-opted and repurposed them, but also preserved a memory of a the Greek past. This complex and hybrid Roman restructuring of the Corinthian urban topography stands in counterpoint with the account of Pausanias, whose tour of Corinthian monuments erases the Roman identity of these sanctuaries and buildings by calling them by Greek names. His text shows both the vitality of a Greek countertradition concerning the identity and heritage of the city’s monuments, and the performative efficacy of the act of simply renaming the structures, effectively creating an overlay of other traditions, other narratives, and other memories, of the Corinthian cityscape.


Reinscribing the City: The Creation of Christian Memory in the Urban Landscape of Ephesos
Program Unit: Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Christine Thomas, University of California-Santa Barbara

This study of monuments in Ephesos and their reappropriation during the early Christian empire is based in the realization that monuments, as the etymology of the word suggests, are the quintessential physical locations of memory. Monuments express memory in the mode of public display, and are actively created by agents in the service of social or political projects. This involves not just the construction of new structures, but the re-reading of existing structures. Each element of the built environment becomes a physical fact, a network of traces in the natural environment, a human landscape. Subsequent constructions, though altering this landscape, can never completely obliterate these traces, or the narratives about the past that they express. Thus construction of new “monuments” can be seen as evidence of a new reading of the urban topography, the conscious creation of a new narrative, which both establishes and naturalizes a new “memory” of the past, but always with the interference or cross-readings of the previous narratives. In the case of Ephesos, Roman monumental practice tended to express supersession, but also continuity from one dynasty to another, with careful incorporation of previous programs of monumental display. Christian monumental constructions in Ephesos, however, tended toward disjunctive modes of expression, in which the previous traditional civic monuments were radically repurposed, dismembered and spoliated, overlaid, or largely obliterated -- yet never completely. The traces of the previous dominion remained.


Jesus, the Spirit, and the Believer: The Testimony of the Apocalypse
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
John Christopher Thomas, Pentecostal Theological Seminary

This paper seeks to identify the relationship between Jesus, the Spirit, and the believer as revealed in the Apocalypse. The method employed is a combination of literary and intertextual analyses in the attempt to gauge the effect of the text upon its (implied) hearers. Special attention is devoted to the nature of the relationship between the resurrected Jesus and the Spirit, the way in which their actions and words are often coterminous, as well as the implications of the above for their 'shared' identity. Attention is next devoted to the pneumatic nature of the life of the believers as discerned within this broader Johannine context: the articulation of 'a prophethood of all believers'. This part of the paper is developed by an examination of the following themes: the role of the believers in offering pneumatic faithful witness, their call to and practice of pneumatic discernment, their role(s) in the prophetic community, as well as the soteriological and eschatological dimensions of the Spirit's work in their lives. The final section of the paper focuses on the implications of this study for a) the meaning of Rev. 19.10, 'The witness of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy', and b) the ways in which it facilitates a theological understanding of the Apocalypse as Christian Scripture.


Sense Perception and Metaphor in the DSS
Program Unit: Qumran
Samuel Thomas, California Lutheran University

Cognitive and psychological approaches to the study of language and texts offer several exciting new avenues of research in the present phase of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. While Qumran scholars have tended (for good reason) to focus their attention on the historical and philological dimensions of Qumran texts—i.e. to establish the texts and their contexts—the disciplined use of cognitive and psychological approaches can help to illuminate “the meaning(s)” of these texts within their cultural and linguistic frameworks. Theories of language and sense perception also allow us to nuance any discussion about the relationships between textuality and religious experience. Texts such as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, the Hodayot, and portions of the Community Rule are especially well-suited to new readings in light of these theoretical considerations.


Christ, the Medicine of Life: The Descent of Christ into Hades/Sheol (1 Peter 3:18–21) in Greek and Syriac Theological Traditions
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Tenny Thomas, Columbia University/Union Theological Seminary

The tradition of Christ’s descent into Hell (Hades in Greek, Sheol in Syriac) is an ancient one and it had a very profound meaning for early Christians. In today’s Christian world, this event is understood differently. Liberal Western theology rejects altogether any possibility for speaking of the descent of Christ into Hades literally, arguing that the Scriptural texts on this theme should be understood metaphorically. The traditional Catholic doctrine insists that after His death on the cross Christ descended to hell only to deliver the Old Testament righteous from it. A similar understanding is quite widespread among Eastern Christians. However, the New Testament speaks of the preaching of Christ in Hades as addressed to the unrepentant sinners. The basic text for the tradition is from the first epistle of St. Peter: ‘For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to those in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited’. - 1 Peter 3:18-21. Other texts connected with the descent are Romans 10:6-7, Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 4:7-10 and Matthew 27:51-53. Also, we should mention two texts to which the tradition of Christ breaking the gates of brass and the bars of iron owes its origin: Psalm 106/7:15-16 and Psalm 23/24:7-10. Some modern Western scholars argue that the passage in 1 Peter is not at all about the descent into Hades. However, both Eastern and Western Fathers refer to it in their writings. There is further evidence that lays to rest scholarly doubts: if one looks at the Peshitta, the Bible in Syriac, One reads there that Christ descended to Sheol. Thus, 1 Peter 3:19 reads: “And He preached to these souls who were kept closed in Sheol, those who previously had been disobedient in the days of Noah.” Many Church Fathers and liturgical texts of the Eastern Churches repeatedly underline that having descended to Hades, Christ opened the way to salvation for all people, not only the Old Testament righteous. The descent of Christ into Hades is perceived as an event of cosmic significance involving all people without exception. They also speak about the victory of Christ over death, the full devastation of hell and that after the descent of Christ into Hades there was nobody left there except for the devil and demons. How can these two points of view be reconciled? What do early Christian sources tell us about the descent into Hell? This will be the focal point of this paper.


A Delight to the Eyes, Desired to Make One Wise: Facilitating Independent Language Acquisition
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Christine Thomas Freedberg, Harvard University

As both a learner and a teacher, I believe passionately that the goal of intermediate language training in Biblical Hebrew is to facilitate the kind of delight that arises when one is carried along by the well-understood syntax of a text such that the morphological cues of vocalization are quite literally heard as elements that enliven the narrative, not simply as codes to be deciphered. That delight is at the heart of what sustains consistent and independent study. Yet, how to arrive at delight, especially when facing a room of beginning students whose relationship to the biblical text ranges from a polite acquaintance with the NRSV to a passionate liturgical fervor for the NKJ; from well-worn comfort with the NIV to a quick fingered command of Accordance; or even, if one is lucky, an almost reflexive aural/oral response to Masoretic vocalization which may or may not include total grammatical comprehension. The answer is to draw on the collective strength of what each student brings to the course and move forward with a syllabus that includes a breadth of modalities for language acquisition, including the active dimensions of composition, vocalization, and generating of verbal forms. As a learner of Hebrew, I was privileged to learn from two grammars and two teachers whose training was based on the work of Thomas Lambdin: C. L. Seow’s A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew and Jo Ann Hackett’s A Basic Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. In addition to the philological rigor which under-girds both of their approaches, I benefited from the fact that both texts were in a process of development. In the former, this included a dazzling array of audio-visual supplementary material brought to bear on the published grammar. In the latter, this included the precision and grace of a dedicated teacher refining her manuscript based on the responses of generations of students. In both cases, their commitment to the reciprocal nature of teaching and learning shone through their pedagogical styles. This is why as an instructor of intermediate Biblical Hebrew, I choose to draw on the dialogic nature of the biblical text itself as a means of moving students towards narrative comprehension, so that they might literally read themselves into the text they desire to know. Cynthia Miller’s The Representation of Speech in Biblical Hebrew Narrative is salutary in this regard. While it may not be appropriate as a reference for all classroom contexts, its principles can be used even to generate the kind of multi-colored handouts that enliven a student’s ability to intuitively identify speech markers. Countless well-known narratives in Genesis and in the Deuteronomistic History can be mined for the kind of humor and narrative subtlety that emerges in representations of direct and indirect discourse. As students first attack a text with color-coded pens in hand, searching for shifts in pronominal suffixes, verbal hendiadys, and deictic particles, what they begin to internalize is not simply the syntactic structures that bind sense units but the communicative pleasure of the text.


Kingship and Community in Acts
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Alan J. Thompson, Sydney Missionary and Bible College, Australia

This paper will examine select passages in Acts in the context of ancient descriptions of unity associated with rulers and kings. The paper will suggest that, in the context of its literary setting, descriptions of the unity of the church in Acts contribute to broader Lukan claims in Acts that Christ is the true king and that the Christian community is the true people of God.


The Prophetic, the Devotional, and the Critical in the Ministry of Ellen White
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Alden Thompson, Walla Walla University

Ellen White, a charismatic leader and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, began receiving visions soon after the Millerite Great Disappointment in 1844. Like Gad and Nathan, she saw herself as speaking for God, but with writings not included in the canon. This paper explores the tension between the prophetic, the devotional, and the critical in Ellen White’s ministry, arguing that she sought to be faithful to her prophetic calling without impinging on biblical authority, but also to be more than merely a devotional voice within her own community. In the process, she intuitively but cautiously accessed the biblical scholarship of her era without ever running the risk of being seen as a supporter of “higher criticism.”


Modern English in Our Ancient Language Dictionaries
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Anne Thompson, University of Cambridge

Our language is constantly changing and yet we often rely on dictionaries written more than a hundred years ago. A native speaker is able to make some adjustments quite instinctively when it comes to understanding old-fashioned language contained in them, despite the variations in English which exist throughout the world, but other users will have problems. Even the native speaker can sometimes be misled, since changes in meaning, in particular of some very common words, may not be immediately noticeable. In any case, we might question how representative of the lexical meaning of the ancient language headword some of the definitions were even at the time they were written. The influence of dictionaries on translations of texts is inevitable, and translations have also been known to influence definitions in a dictionary entry. The presence of out-dated English in either place is likely to result in a lack of sharpness of focus when it comes to comprehension of ancient texts. The language used for definitions, whether consisting of one word or a phrase, is crucial, since it constitutes the central part of an entry. We may consider how accuracy may be improved, and also whether it is possible to put in some safeguards against the language becoming dated very quickly. There is the question of whether different styles should be adopted for different kinds of dictionary, whether a writer is free to choose from informal, standard or formulaic language to suit the scope and purpose of a particular work. In a larger dictionary, more than one definition is frequently found within the same section of meaning. In particular, the presentation of several synonyms is quite common. This may serve a legitimate function, but we may ask whether there should be some restrictions. The language of other parts of a dictionary entry is also to be considered: abbreviations, lexicographic labels, literary and linguistic terms, explanations and so forth. We need to ask whether there are principles to be framed which can be universally applicable for dictionaries of the future.


Jesus, the Spirit, and the Disciples in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Marianne Meye Thompson, Fuller Theological Seminary

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is empowered by the Spirit to preach, to exorcise, to heal. His Spirit-empowered ministry becomes exemplary for his disciples who, empowered by the Spirit, are sent out to proclaim the word, heal the sick, and cast out demons. In many ways, the ministries of Jesus and his disciples in the Synoptics are both parallel and sequential to each other with respect to the Holy Spirit. In John, however, Jesus’ work is never explicitly attributed to the power of the Spirit upon or in him. Jesus is rather the one who sends or gives the Spirit: he will baptize with the Spirit, he is the agent of new birth by the Spirit, and he breathes the Spirit on his disciples. This paper explores the distinctive Johannine depiction of the role of the Spirit in the ministry of Jesus and the disciples, highlighting the difference between the relationship of Jesus and his disciples to the Spirit. In John, Jesus’ relationship to the Spirit is not exemplary for the disciples, and their ministries are neither parallel nor sequential. The Spirit carries on the mission of Jesus through the disciples, not by empowering them to do what or as Jesus did, but to bear witness to him and his identity as the life of God in whom one passes from death to life.


Neither Charismatic nor Early Catholic: Rethinking the Ecclesiology of Acts Christologically with Attention to Acts 2
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Richard P. Thompson, Northwest Nazarene University

Discussions regarding the ecclesiology of Acts typically focus on one or more of three aspects of the Lukan depiction of the earliest believers: idealistic/utopian descriptions of the believers/church (such as the summary statements of 2:42-47 and 4:32-37); pneumatological images of believers in terms of power, “signs and wonders,” etc.; and the establishment and role of authoritative individuals (such as Peter, James, and Paul), groups or even specific churches (such as the Jerusalem church). Thus, such considerations of the ecclesiology of Acts focus predominantly on narrative elements such as characterization, Lukan summaries, and specific narrative scenes. However, in such ecclesiological considerations one finds little focused attention given to the speeches of Acts. Because of the widely recognized importance of these speeches within the narrative progression of Acts, this paper seeks to reassess the ecclesiology of Acts by examining one such speech, Peter’s explanatory speech on Pentecost, in the midst of its larger narrative context, which is commonly understood as “the birth of the Christian church.” This paper contends that Peter’s Pentecost speech provides the conceptual lens through which a reader of Acts should view the other descriptions of Acts 2 and the book in general, a speech that is shaped in christological rather than pneumatological or early catholic ways. This paper will have three parts: (a) an overview of the ecclesiology of Acts as seen in its characterization of groups of believers or churches, (b) an assessment of some of the theological emphases of Peter’s Pentecost speech in light of the ecclesiological descriptions within the broader context of Acts 2, and (c) some considerations regarding how this proposed understanding of Acts 2 potentially contributes to the subsequent reading of images and scenes in the remainder of the Acts narrative.


A Vision within a Vision
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, University of Aberdeen

This paper explores the internal structure of Zechariah’s vision report (Zech 1:7-6:8) in dialogue with dream studies. It suggests that the report depicts at least two and sometimes three layers of consciousness. On the topmost conscious level (level 1), we have God and Zechariah, the narrator of the vision report. In the level immediately below the top level (level 2) are Zechariah and the Interpreting Angel. At this level, Zechariah is either asleep or in some other form of trance. In this dream world, the prophet converse with the Interpreting Angel. The angel asks Zechariah what he sees, and Zechariah responds. At this level we also have the angel’s explanations of Zechariah’s visual impressions. Below is yet another level (level 3) which contains the images which the prophet sees. At this level, the horses in the first vision move about, a scroll in the sixth vision is flying around and so forth. There are occasional overlaps between level 2 and level 3. In a few cases, the Interpreting angel (e.g. Zech 2:8) speaks or acts within the visionary world (level 3). In one instance, Zechariah also takes part at level 3 (MT, Zech 3:5). God moves freely between all three levels. This three-part structure helps clarifying the function of images in Zechariah’s vision report and enables readers to distinguish between different strands of material.


Zechariah’s Vision Report: Religious Experience or Literary Fiction?
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, University of Aberdeen

This paper explores Zechariah’s vision report (Zech 1:7-6:8). It argues that the structure and content of this text suggests that it is based on a visionary experience. The oracles which accompany some of the eight vision accounts constitute later attempts at interpretation of the earlier, opaque visionary experience. The possibility that a religious experience underlies Zechariah’s vision report has exegetical consequences. On the one hand, scholars who regard the vision report as literary fiction, which uses the genre of the vision account in order to express a specific political or religious message, tend to interpret its imagery as the mere background scene for the ensuing oracles which convey the prophet’s essential message. On the other hand, scholars who accept the possibility that the vision report is based on a religious experience often highlight the polyvalent character of the imagery in the vision report and advocate a looser textual relation between the individual vision accounts and the accompanying oracles.


Sensing Wisdom: Corporeal Metaphors and the Pursuit of Wisdom in Prov 1–9
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Nicole Tilford, Emory University

The book of Proverbs is full of corporeal imagery. Whether commanding the sage to “keep straight the path of [his] feet” (Prov 4:26), promising that Wisdom will reward his commitment by placing “on [his] head a fair garland” (Prov 4:9), or admonishing against inappropriate bodily behavior (e.g. having “haughty eyes” or a “lying tongue”; Prov 6:17), the text consistently utilizes corporeal imagery to proscribe to its audiences the appropriate behavior for the pursuit of wisdom. This abundance of this imagery begs the question: how should these metaphors be read? Do they simply evoke mental pictures in the mind of the readers, or do they evoke the entire body such that the reader actually physically experiences the sensations described? In other words, is the pursuit of wisdom intended to be a purely intellectual endeavor or a pursuit that engages the entire corporeal experience? In this paper, I shall explore the ways in which the human perceptual facilities (sight, hearing, etc.) and their physical apparati (the eye, ear, etc.) interact within Prov 1–9 to create a complex web of metaphors about the pursuit of wisdom. Drawing upon modern anthropological and cognitive studies on the embodied nature of metaphor, I will argue that the pursuit of wisdom is not purely an abstract, mental activity; rather, it is an embodied enterprise, relying upon the wholistic, corporeal experience of its readers to communicate its meaning. In this reading, metaphors are more than just literary devices; they are insights into the ways human beings develop and communicate abstract meaning. By employing such bodily metaphors, the text can turn what is at once an incomprehensible and abstract concept—the pursuit of wisdom—into an endeavor that can be experienced in a very corporeal fashion within the rhetoric of these texts.


Boundaries within Judah, Boundaries without Judah: Empire, Religion, and Identity in Nahum
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Daniel Timmer, Reformed Theological Seminary

Given the high degree of encounter and interchange between Judahites and the Babylonian empire in Nahum (before and during the exile), this paper applies various hybridity models to Nahum in an exploration of its complex construal of group identity and interrelations. First, it employs a hybridity of encounter model (Wade 2005) to explore the boundaries that separate Judah from the nations around it, noting the distinction between Assyria and all other non-Israelite nations. Demarcations within Judah itself are tentatively approached through the lenses of refraction hybridity (Engler 2009) and hybrid transfiguration (Westhelle 2008). The paper then considers all these boundaries together in order to understand better the effects that such literature might produce within its Judahite readership, especially by (re)forming the identities of self and other. It closes by comparing and evaluating these methods and their conceptual foundations, considering lastly their relation to postcolonial theory and interpretation.


Theoretical Challenges in Studying Religious Experience in Gnosticism: A Prolegomena for Social Analysis
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Philip L. Tite, Seattle, WA

Several theoretical impediments face the ancient historian who wishes to embark on the study of religious experience within ancient cultures. While many of these difficulties face other religious studies scholars, the historical quality compounds these challenges. This paper explores several of these theoretical difficulties with a specific focus on the Valentinian, Sethian, and other so-called “Gnostic” groups in late antiquity. Specifically, the study of religious experience tends to give privileged interpretative position to insiders (evoking the etic/emic problem) and psychological analyses due to the “personal” or “individual” quality of such experiences (typified by perennialist approaches) (Müller, Otto, Wach, Smart), or, following James and Jung, focus on the initial charismatic moment’s effect upon subsequent social structures. In contrast to such tendencies I suggest, by building on Fitzgerald’s lead in the Guide to the Study of Religion and largely agreeing with constructivist approaches, that we re-direct our focus toward the external social forces at play that discursively facilitate, shape, and direct experiential moments within the confines of social identity construction. Such analysis will allow us to better appreciate the experiential aspects of “Gnosticism” while appreciating the individual, communal, and (most importantly) discursive quality of the intersection of the individual and communal. Specific examples of such social facilitation will be briefly explored from Nag Hammadi, where ritual, narrative, and mythological discourse function to enable, and thereby define, religious experience.


Reading the Frampton Mosaics as Religious Text: Religious Innovation and the Construction of Cultural Identity in Roman Britain
Program Unit: Poster Session
Philip L. Tite,  Seattle, WA

Building on the proposal by Dominic Perring that the Frampton mosaics in Dorset reflect a Christian dualist tendency in fourth-century Roman Britain (i.e., “Gnosticism”), this paper offers a reassessment of the history of the mosaics. The mosaics went through at least three stages of modifications, each reflecting levels of tolerance and intolerance of diverse religious motifs: (1) a mixture of diverse Greco-Roman mythic images, hunt scenes, and Bacchic worship; (2) a Christianization of these images, bringing together a playful engagement of Christian and Greco-Roman (especially Bacchic) mythic images; and (3) a period of religious intolerance when select panels were deliberately destroyed. Such acts of tolerance and intolerance are discursive acts of religious innovation, functioning as narrative indicators of the construction and contestation of cultural identity within Roman Britain. By appreciating the discursive quality of each stage, this paper challenges archaeologists and ancient historians to view material culture through the theoretical lens of narrativity.


Stylizing the Day: Linguistic Register and the Day of the Lord in Ezekiel
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Colin M. Toffelmire, McMaster Divinity College

This paper will compare and contrast the linguistic register the two passages in Ezekiel that refer to a coming “day of the Lord” (Ezek 13; Ezek 30:1-19) in order to identify linguistic features that might lead one to identify one passage as prose and the other as poetry. To this end I will apply the insights of Systemic Functional Linguistics in order to identify and describe the linguistic register (defined as linguistic variation according to use or function, sometimes called linguistic genre) of each passage. This process will involve a three-part analysis of each passage that will include a description of the linguistic Field (participants, verbal processes, logical connections, etc.), the linguistic Tenor (linguistically encoded interpersonal information, polarity, etc.), and the linguistic Mode (information flow, cohesion, coherence, textuality, etc.). I will thus describe the linguistic context of each passage, and then compare and contrast these two contexts, noting their points of similarity and difference. This paper will conclude that the distinction between prose (Ezekiel 13) and poetry (Ezekiel 30), as found for instance in many English translations, is erroneous and that these two passages present a very similar linguistic register.


Miss Briggs for the Pulpit?
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Ruth Tonkiss Cameron, Union Theological Seminary/Columbia Univ Libraries

The paper introduces Emilie Grace Briggs, daughter of the controversial theologian Charles A. Briggs, who was the first woman to graduate from Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1897. The story of her academic ambitions and the obstacles which prevented further success, set against the family experience of her father’s heresy trial, will reveal the struggle of an Episcopal churchwoman who was a remarkably skilled linguist and exegete. Emilie’s major unpublished work was her substantial doctoral dissertation The Deaconess in the Early and Medieval Church. Her few publications, unpublished drafts and notes, including evidence within her father’s archival papers show her scholarly biblical approach, from which we can deduce both personal ambitions and broader feminist aims, which resonate with such studies today.


The Priority of Theology in John (John 10:37–38)
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Sigve K. Tonstad, Loma Linda University

In one of the most striking statements in the Gospel of John, Jesus points to his works as the one thing he cannot surrender in his dispute with his critics. “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works” (10:37-38). Here, Jesus speaks as though he is willing to forgo the honor of being the object of belief, even offering to remove himself from the picture, hypothetically speaking, if only his works will remain the substrate that shapes his listeners’ view of God. ‘The works’ take priority over other things that this Gospel invites people to believe. In the context of John’s contentious story, urging people to ‘believe the works’ is a last straw offer, a ‘Hail Mary’ pass into the end zone. Staking out ‘the works’ as the bottom line, John (1) makes Christology subservient to theology; (2) challenges Bultmann’s emphasis on the that (das Dass) of the revelation to the exclusion of the what (das Was); (3) suggesting instead that the Gospel is even more concerned about the content of the revelation than about its agent. Reading John 10:37-38 in this way has significant revisionary potential for the interpretation of this Gospel.


To Fight or Not to Fight on the Sabbath: The Maccabean Revolt Revisited
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Sigve K. Tonstad, Loma Linda University

When Mattathias and his followers in the second century BCE committed to armed resistance against the forced Hellenization of Antiochus Epiphanes, the insurgents initially did not fight on the Sabbath (1 Macc 2:31-41). The consequences of Sabbath non-combatancy were militarily disastrous, and Mattathias therefore urged abandonment of this stance. The change of policy on this point raises intriguing questions. (1) To what extent might the Sabbath be seen as an impediment to war or an anti-war measure, as the initial policy of Sabbath non-combatancy in 1 Maccabees suggests? (2) To what extent did Maccabean militarism influence Jewish messianism in the late Second Temple period? (3) Is there a residue of a pacific stance in Matthew 24:20, where Jesus urges followers to pray that their flight “may not be in winter or on a sabbath”? These questions will be addressed within the context of available historical resources and with a measure of theological imagination.


Waiting for God: Conditions for the Restoration of the Divine Presence in Ezekiel
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
William Tooman, University of St. Andrews

There is no question that divine presence is a central theme within visions of Ezekiel. The book opens with a visionary manifestation of the presence, and the question of God's persistence reaches critical pitch at the end of temple vision in chaps 8-11 when the presence departs from Jerusalem. The central moment in the vision of the new temple (chaps. 40-48) occurs in 43.1-9, when the presence returns to Jerusalem to inhabit the new Temple. Despite this, the topic of divine presence is barely apparent in the oracles of chaps. 4-7 and 10-39. In this paper, I examine this dichotomy, with special attention to the following questions: What is to be made of this difference between the visionary framework of the book and it's oracular core? Is there any indication that Ezekiel's oracles of deliverance, in particular, manifest any concern for the divine presence? Most importantly, are there suggestions within the non-visionary material about how the presence might be reacquired -- any clues as to the conditions under which God would restore his protective presence to his people? In then end, I conclude that the subject of divine presence, though muted, is present within the oracles of deliverance and that those oracles progressively lay out a program for restoration of the presence, a program which the people have no power to enact or influence.


The Witness of the Aramaic, Syriac, and Vulgate Versions in Textual Criticism of the Septuagint III–IV Regnorum
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Pablo A. Torijano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Not much attention has been given to the cases of agreement between the variants attested by the so-called filomasoretic versions (Peshitta, Targum, and Vulgate) and the Greek text of Kings. This paper starts with the analysis of the reading ms’m in 2 Kgs 7:8 that appears in 6Q4 (fgr. 11) and is supported by the Lucianic manuscripts 19´-93-127 (arsin auton) against the reading mšm in the MT, which is supported by LXX-B, Targ., Syr., and Vulg. This example points out to the importance of the Aramaic, Syriac and Vulgate versions for the textual criticism of both the LXX and its Hebrew Vorlage. In this paper, I will study the cases of agreement of LXX-BL with medieval Hebrew manuscripts in the non-kaige section of the Greek text (1 Kings 2:12- 21:43), where LXX-BL represents the Old Greek. I will also study the cases of agreement of LXX-B with Targ., Syr., and Vulg. as well as the medieval mss in the kaige sections of the Greek text (1 Kgs 1-2:11; 1 Kgs 22-2 Kgs), where LXX-L transmits a proto-Lucianic text that is near to the Old Greek. The witness of the Targ., Syr., and Vulg. versions, as well as that of the medieval Hebrew manuscripts, supports the Old Greek readings of LXX-BL in the non-kaige section and those of LXX-L in the kaige sections. Modern criticism has been reluctant until now to acknowledge the critical value of LXX-L. However, the LXX-L reading that represent the Old Greek text in the kaige sections are quite likely to be more numerous than it is generally thought.


The Vitality of the Geneva Bible in King James’ Country of Birth
Program Unit:
Iain Torrance, Princeton Theological Seminary

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Major Trends in the Development of the Biblical Text in the Last Centuries BCE
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This paper describes the major trends in the development of the biblical text in the early period until 250 BCE for which we have no evidence, and the period from 250 BCE until the Bar Kochba revolt for which there is a growing amount of manuscript evidence. The following topics are discussed briefly: literary development, creation of literary and textual variants, nature of the textual evidence, diffusion of scrolls, scribal approaches, plurality alongside uniformity in ancient Israel, text-types?, coincidence explaining the differing fate of Scripture books, and “Rewritten Scripture” texts, excerpted texts, and textual criticism.


Gagnon's Unnatural Homosexual and Wittig's Monstrous Lesbian
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Gillian Townsley, University of Otago

Throughout his monumental work The Bible and Homosexuality (2001), evangelical scholar Robert Gagnon reads texts such as Romans 1.18-32 unequivocally as viewing same-sex behaviour as detestable and degrading, and as affirming the anatomical complementarity of the two sexes as the biblical foundation for a moral society. A close reading of Gagnon’s work, with its persistent references to female and male genitalia, reveals an androcentric and misogynist framework whereby the nuclear family, with strong impenetrable masculinity at its centre, is defined against the perceived threat of male same-sex behaviour. As part of the US evangelical milieu, Gagnon’s work is indicative of a historical identity panic whereby a central feature of maintaining a sense of identity involves formulating the ‘other’ as a ‘monster’ against whom one can determine normalcy for oneself and one’s community. In particular, a prurient fascination with the body of the ‘monster’ is coupled with a need to punish and destroy it, while the fantasy of the normal is anxiously affirmed and strenuously protected (Ingebretsen 2001). While Gagnon’s work has received much attention, the result for those who have disagreed with Gagnon’s approach and/or conclusions has often been frustrated attempts at dialogue that end in a stalemate. In this paper, I propose instead to juxtapose Gagnon’s work with French feminist theorist Monique Wittig’s experimental novel-poem, The Lesbian Body (1973/1976), in which she presents the monstrous figure of the lesbian as a challenge to the supposedly natural and stable construction of the heterosexual body. Reveling in instability, fragmentation, multiplicity, violence and grotesque descriptions of body parts, Wittig’s monstrous lesbian figure disrupts and transgresses the conventional categories of sex, gender, genre, grammar and – in this instance – modes of academic presentation. While Gagnon’s work will initially dominate, the physical and vocal intrusion of The Lesbian Body into the presentation is an appropriate stylistic gesture of critique. Rather than an engagement through conventional dialogue and debate, this approach allows Wittig’s work, and thus her gender theories, to physically intrude upon the space on the page (or the podium) dedicated to Gagnon’s work, to literally stand on/in the margin and speak from a position of eccentricity, offering critical marginalia, and reminding us that the notion of a stable fixed identity is actually the stuff of fiction.


Why the Levite Lied: Solving the Mystery of Judges 19–20
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Elizabeth Tracy, University of St. Andrews

To shed light on why blatant lies go uncontested in the context of the final story of Judges, this paper will use instances of multivalence within Judges 19-20, Genesis 22 and Numbers 22-24 to argue that the Levite considers himself to be and is accepted by Israel as a prophet. It will also be shown that the narrator, while accepting that the Levite is seen as a prophet is, in fact, stressing that the Levite is a false prophet; a true culmination of the decline of Israelite spiritual leadership in the book of Judges.


Epigraphy and the Study of the Polis and the Ekklesia in the Greco-Roman World
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Paul Trebilco, University of Otago

Epigraphy and the study of the Polis and the Ekklesia in the Greco-Roman world.


Textual Variants in the Historical Books (Joshua – Kings) Involving the Terms “Israel” and “the People”
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Julio Trebolle, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

In the historical books from Joshua to Kings, many textual variants around the words “people” and “Israel” are found: a) The word “people” (`am, frequently “the troops”) is substituted with “Israel”: Josh 7:11; Judg 2:7; 20:25; 1Sam 14:24.27; 14:38; 1Kgs 1:20; 8:5.62; 12:15-16; 16:16b-17. b) “The people” is added to “Israel,” as in “the people of Israel”: Josh 8:33; 1Sam 2:14; 11:7; 14:18-23; 2Sam 3:21; 1Re 16:21a. c) “Israel” is added to “my people” as an apposition: Judg 20:2; 1Sam 9:16; 15:30; 2Sam 3:18b; 3:37; 5:2 (cf. 1Sam 15:1; 27:12; 2Sam 6:21; 7:7.8.10). d) “Israel” is inserted without any relationship to “people” whatsoever: Josh 7:13; 8:10; 8:34; 24:28; Judg 10:10; 1Kgs 20:15b. The most significant cases are those in which parallel Hebrew texts offer two different readings, as 1Kgs 8:62 (“Israel”) // 2Chr 10:16 (“people”), also Judg 2:7 // Josh 24:31; Judg 2:6 // Josh 24:28; 2Sam 5:2 // 1Chr 11:2. The analysis of the previously listed passages leads to the conclusion that along the process of textual transmission of the historical books the variants affecting the words “people” and “Israel” do increase clearly in number. The oldest text form is often that which preserves the reading “people,” whereas the most recent substitutes, adds, or juxtaposes the word “Israel.” This process of “israelitization” of the biblical text seems to have affected the proto-Masoretic text more than the Hebrew textual tradition attested by the LXX. The recensions of the Greek translation and of the secondary versions show this same tendency to increase the presence of the word “Israel.” The textual transmission continues and develops trends of the previous literary tradition, which extended the leading role of the tribal armies, the “people,” to “Israel,” to “all Israel” or to the “Israelites.” This phenomenon of “israelitization” affecting the literary and textual biblical tradition and particularly the proto-Masoretic text sets the condition for every text-critical, lexical, literary, or historical study involving the terms “Israel” and “the people.”


Christ and Community: Encomium and Exhortation in the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Lindsey M Trozzo, Baylor University

The Fourth Gospel has been categorized as an ancient biography by such seminal studies as Charles H. Talbert’s What is a Gospel? and the more recent What are the Gospels? from Richard Burridge. Within this category, the rhetorical structure and methodology of the Fourth Gospel reveal its encomiastic tenor, designed to praise its subject: Jesus. This paper approaches John’s Passion Narrative in order to illustrate and expand upon this description, establishing the encomiastic tenor of the least likely part of the Gospel – where the hero is arrested, tried, tortured, and brutally killed. Also, considering the authorial audience, I will argue that an encomium does more than present a laudable subject; it includes a moralizing program, an engagement with the reader that challenges him or her to imitate the virtue of the hero and wrestle with the moral issues presented in the writing. Thus in the Fourth Gospel encomium extends to exhortation, and a dual emphasis is found, which when illuminated by its rhetorical character presents readers, ancient and modern, with a unique portrait of Christ and challenge for his community.


The Function of the Enemy in Book V: Reflections on the Final Composition of the Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
W. Dennis Tucker, Jr., George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University

The presence of the enemy/enemies throughout the Psalter has long garnered the attention of biblical scholars. Earlier works by Mowinckel, Birkeland, Kraus, and Keel, along with more recent treatments by Croft, Dhanaraj, Zenger, Janowski, Riede, and others, represent the wealth of work already carried out on the enemy in the Psalter. This paper, however, will consider the function of the enemy in Book V of the Psalter. Two points are worthy of note regarding the enemy language in this section. Books IV and V differ from the first three books in that the latter two have fewer lament psalms, yet despite the reduction of lament psalms, the enemy and those in opposition appear with great regularity throughout these psalms, particularly in Book V. Second, scholars (Zenger, Kratz, Wilson) have noted the presence of smaller collections in Book V (Pss 113-118; 120-134; 138-150) and argued as to the meaning of their arrangement. What proves interesting, and merits continued investigation, is that language associated with opposition (“enemy,” “princes,” “kings,” “nations,” “evildoers,” “wicked”) appears across all of the collections in Book V, culminating with numerous references in each of the concluding psalms (with the exception being Ps 150). The enemy and those in opposition to God represent an important theme that transcends the various collections that are found in Psalms 107-150. This paper will argue that the themes of opposition and conflict serve to heighten the claims of the cosmic rule of Yahweh, and further, may shed some light on the social situation confronting those who compiled the Psalter.


The Continuation of Gentile Identity in Ephesians
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
J. Brian Tucker, Moody Bible Institute

Minna Shkul’s Reading Ephesians provides an Iserian ‘wandering viewpoint’ analysis of Eph 2:11-22, with a specific focus on 2:15, in order to determine whether or not Jesus was remembered to have abolished the Law completely or partially. She concludes that Jesus abolished the Law completely; however, this should not be interpreted as an anti-Jewish interpretive stance. Jewishness provides autochthony and behavioral models for this non-Israelite Christ-following community, though its symbolic universe is reconfigured around the Christ-event. This is necessary because the community will be required to leave their existing Roman culture behind now that they are ‘in Christ’. With regard to the partial continuation of the Law and previous social identities within the Christ-movement, Shkul acknowledges that ‘multiple identities’ and ‘righteous gentile’ constructs have textual support in the undisputed Paulines. However, she contends that there is no warrant for holding these positions in Ephesians where one overarching identity is the ideological perspective of this reformist, Jewish author, writing in the late first century CE. Shkul is quick to point out that often NT scholars acknowledge the Deutero-Pauline status of Ephesians, but continue to interpret the letter as if Paul had written it, and that it reflects a mid-first historical century situation. She provides warrant for rejecting that approach and suggests ways in which looking at Ephesians as a late first century document provides an evidentiary bridge between the early Christ-movement and the universalistic Christian identity that emerges during the time of Ignatius. This paper engages three aspects of Shkul’s reading of Ephesians: (1) Did Jesus completely abolish the Law? (2) Were these Christ-followers required to leave their Roman culture behind? And (3) Does Ephesians present a one overarching identity as its preferred ideological perspective? It concludes that (1) Jesus did not completely abolish the Law; (2) Christ-followers were not required to completely leave their Roman social identity behind; and (3) previous identities continue to be relevant within the Christ-movement. Gentiles in Christ are described as ‘fellow-citizens’ in the ‘politeia of Israel’, while not becoming Jews (2:12, 19; 3:6).


"I Tell You a Mystery": From Hidden to Revealed in Sethian Revelation, Ritual, and Protology
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
John D. Turner, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

As a tribute to Einar Thomassen, I offer a treatment of the concept of revelation in the Sethian literature from Nag Hammadi, in particular as a designation for the movement from “hidden” to “revealed” or “manifest” in two contexts. First, as the transmission of some kind of cognitive content or ritual action essential to the enlightenment and salvation of the recipient, and second as a fundamental ontogenetic concept in the protological metaphysics and mystical epistemology of Sethian and related literature in the first several centuries of the common era, in effect offering an asymptotic conjunction of both ontogenetic and epistemological manifestations of reality.


Paul and the Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King’s “Paul’s Letter to American Christians"
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati

Theorists such as Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Jacob Taubes and others have, in various ways, spoken of Paul as a radical, a revolutionary. My paper will quickly survey some of these theoretical positions. It will then turn to a sermon delivered by Martin Luther King, in the midst of the Montgomery bus boycott. Ventriloquizing Paul, King criticizes American Christians for failing to achieve social harmony and economic equality. This text marks a revolutionary moment early in the civil rights movement that King would come to represent; and in describing it one might be tempted to draw upon the language of theorists for whom Paul represents the very possibility of radical political change. But King, unlike Badiou’s post-Moaist militant Paul, for instance, constantly seeks to negotiate for justice within the existing legal system during this period of his activism. Thus when he announces the need to end segregation in this letter, in favor of the “broad universalism standing at the heart of the gospel” (418), he does so quite cautiously, especially when compared with his more strident calls in the mid-to-late 60s for a fully integrated society. Moreover, King’s Paul very intentionally privileges American capitalism over communist alternatives. My paper will seek to consider the role “Paul’s Letter,” which MLK presented on several occasions from 1956 to at least 1963, played in the early and developing civil rights movement. But it will also look into Paul’s function in King’s writings more generally in order to interrogate, and perhaps to ground, the inspiring but frequently problematic revolutionary readings of Paul in the work of recent thinkers. Neil Elliot’s Liberating Paul will likely be an important conversation partner in this effort.


“Sooner Murder an Infant in Its Cradle”: Wisdom and Childlessness in The Sweet Hereafter
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati

Working initially with Mary Ann Beavis’ article “The Sweet Hereafter: Law, Wisdom and Family Revisited,” I will discuss the various wisdom motifs in Atom Egoyan’s film (and the Russell Banks novel upon which it is based). My primary purpose, however, is to consider the film’s and the novel’s wisdom content in terms of queer theorist Lee Edelman’s 2004 book No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive – as well as other relevant and more recent work responding to Edelman. A basic point of departure for Edelman’s thinking has to do with political pronouncements that urge policy decisions in the name, usually, of “our children,” as in: “Securing a better future for our children.” One of the goals of his analyses is not so much to refuse marginalization –as a gay man he is marginalized as the negative, morbid other in a social order predicated upon “heteroreproduction” – but to embrace it fully and self-consciously in opposition to the norms of a tyrannical political futurity. The rhetorical construction of a future in the interests of contemporary political norms can be seen as tyrannical because it excludes a host of possible present modes of being in favor of only one kind of narrative. Moreover, it deploys an image of “the Child” not out of any actual interest in the well being of real children, but for the purposes of short-circuiting critical alternatives. Edelman’s work can help expose the ways in which the trope of the child guarantees a fantasy of futurity in The Sweet Hereafter (a story in which many of a town’s children die in a bus accident) while encouraging the misrecognition of present injustices. For example, throughout The Sweet Hereafter, characters will refer to broken families living on the outskirts of Sam Dent, the town where the film is set, in terms nearly borrowed from the sages of Proverbs – the abusive, drug-addicted poor are the film’s equivalent of the wicked, the fools. And yet when the children die, when filiation ceases to function in this re-imagined wisdom text, and hence when an idea of the future can no longer operate as a way of masking contemporary realities, it is possible to understand such folly differently, namely as the by-product of an ongoing set of economic displacements from which all residents (including the wise, the righteous) of Sam Dent are actually suffering. Other pressing social issues – ranging from petty crime to sexual abuse – emerge only in light of the town’s new future-less present as well. My approach to the film will strive to be consonant with queer critical reflections upon biblical wisdom (by Ken Stone and others), while also drawing upon the work of Walter Brueggemann, for whom the sages are a potential source of political and economic oppression.


Psalm 22 in Pesiqta Rabbati: The Suffering of the Jewish Messiah and Jesus
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Rivka Ulmer, Bucknell University

Psalm 22 is cited in several critical New Testament passages; by comparison, Psalm 22 is rarely cited in rabbinic literature. In particular, Psalm 22 is used as an expression of personal suffering by the New Testament writers in the crucifixion scenes that recount the suffering of Jesus. In rabbinic literature, Psalm 22 is also cited as relating to the afflictions of a Jewish Messiah. The major rabbinic passage addressing the subject of a suffering Messiah is found in Pesiqta Rabbati, a rabbinic homiletic work that contains numerous messianic passages, as well as four entire homilies that present apocalyptic messianic visions, which mainly focus upon Messiah Ephraim (Pesiqta Rabbati 34, 35, 36, 37). The major premise of this paper is that the unique character of these passages in Pesiqta Rabbati is based upon an ideological inversion of Jesus. This depiction in Pesiqta Rabbati responds to the Christian view that Jesus was the only messianic figure who suffered and died in pain while bringing salvation to the righteous. This rabbinic text demonstrates that there will be a Jewish Messiah who fulfills the same paradigm.


Charting the Types of Compositional Development in the Text of Scripture
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Eugene Ulrich, University of Notre Dame

The pluriformity in the scriptural texts documented by the manuscripts from Qumran is not random or chaotic but can be charted in well-defined categories. Sufficient evidence is now available to trace the types of developmental changes that contributed to the formation of the biblical books. This paper will attempt to distinguish and explore those categories of change from the perspectives of textual development, motives for development, and growing authoritativeness.


Abraham's Tamarisk
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Matthew Umbarger, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

In Genesis 21:33 we are told that “Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.” In medieval times, this verse was spiritualized, and even today many popular commentators are fond of such an approach. Today, Akkadian literature presents us with intriguing possibilities regarding the place of the tamarisk in ancient Near Eastern culture and religion that provide more satisfying solutions to the riddle posed by this text. Jewish midrash was fond of using word plays to explain what Abraham’s tamarisk was. Most often, it becomes a symbol of Abraham’s hospitality. “Bereshit Rabbah” says that the tamarisk (“eshel” in Hebrew), refers to the fact that whatever someone should ask for (“shoel”) in Abraham’s hostel, that’s what they would get. Rashi says that “eshel” is an acrostic for “akhilah” (food), “shtiyah” (drink) and “leviyah” (companionship). Jerome’s Vulgate took a more literal route, with “nemus,” i.e., “grove,” evocative of places of worship. Although there is no reason to multiply Abraham’s tree into a grove, the religious connotation of the Vulgate seems to be justified by the role of the binu, or tamarisk, in Akkadian texts. The binu is referred to as the “chief exorcist,” finds its place in numerous pharmaceutical and magical formulas, is called “holy” and is even pictured as the bones of divine beings. All of this provides the cultural backdrop for the author/redactor of the Abraham story to narrate that he planted the tamarisk next to the shrine which he founded in Beer-Sheva. On a personal note, I want to say that this is my first SBL conference, and I am looking forward to it with great excitement. The opportunity to share my research at such a forum is nothing less than exhilarating.


Cognitive Theories of Ritual: New Tools for Analyzing Early Christianity
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Risto Uro, Helsingin Yliopisto - Helsingfors Universitet

During the last two decades or so a new field has emerged in religious studies, which has been coined as the “cognitive science of religion.” More recently, some biblical scholars have begun to use cognitive approaches to gain fresh insights about ancient texts as well as beliefs and practices that shaped these texts. At the same time, a growing interest has been awakened in ritual theories and ritual aspects of early Judaism and early Christianity among biblical scholars. Since cognitive scientists of religion were early on active in advancing theories of ritual, it may be timely to look how these two new methodological currents in biblical studies, ritual and cognitive approaches, converge with each other and whether cognitively informed ritual theorizing can produce new insights and perspectives in the study of early Christian rituals. More specifically, I will ask in this paper (1) what new the cognitive theories of ritual bring to the field of ritual studies, (2) in which way they differ from other types of ritual theorizing and from one another, and (3) what they can contribute to the understanding of the New Testament texts and the early Christian world.


“Principle of Knowledge” and the Soteriology in the Letter of Eugnostos (NHC III,3 and V,1)
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Paivi Vahakangas, University of Helsinki

This paper proposes that the Letter of Eugnostos contains a soteriological system, although it is not as easily detectible as the one in the Sophia of Jesus Christ (NHC III,4 and BG). References to chaos, defect of femaleness, Saviour, and the vain wisdom of philosophers which leads to death attest that people are in need of salvation. The purpose of the document is catechetical: Eugnostos wants to instruct his audience how to gain right knowledge in order to become immortal. One must start the mental journey from the highest transcendent reality and proceed contemplating the divine realm in ascending order all the way to the visible reality. Only then one is able to perceive how the transcendent reality radiates in the visible cosmos. Eugnostos highlights the most important pieces of information on this mental process by presenting them as the “principles of knowledge”. The differences in the presentation of these principles between the two versions of Eugnostos shall be analyzed. The crucial point in gaining understanding is to realize the distinction between the first and the second principle; not between God and a demiurge as in Marcionite, Sethian and Valentinian systems but between the primal unity, described in apophatic language, and his emanation, the beginning of multiplicity and visible things. However, the ending of the document stresses that the perfection in knowledge only takes place in the eschatology. “The one who need not to be taught” and who tells everything in pure knowledge is most likely a reference to Saviour, a figure briefly mentioned previously in the text. Finally, it shall be argued how the soteriological system of Eugnostos reflects its Judeo-Christian milieu of origin.


"Molech": Human Sacrifices in Canaan and Israel Reconsidered
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Daniel Vainstub, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

The existence or non-existence of the sacrifice of infants by their parents in the Canaanite culture, and the partial adoption of this abominable custom by the Israelites is the focus of a famous controversy among researchers for almost a century since the discovery of the Carthaginian "tophet". Notwithstanding, the proliferation of research, the controversy continues. In my opinion, an interdisciplinary approach to some biblical sources can contribute to our understanding of them, leading to the inescapable conclusion that the sacrifice of babies was indeed a very accepted practice in Canaan. This paper shall reconsider the biblical evidences of the phenomenon, deriving new insights by means of philological, exegetical and theological analysis of the biblical texts, and by comparing them with the Punic epigraphic, archaeological and literary sources. Emphasis will be placed upon a new comparative analysis of the roots zb? and mlk in Phoenician and Hebrew.


"Empty Islands": Colonial Migration and Scent of Empire in Deuteronomy 7
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Nasili Vaka'uta, University of Auckland

This paper will offer a reading of Deuteronomy 7 based on the reality of colonial migration into the islands of Oceania and the effects of imperial perception of Oceanic islanders and their cultures. Very often ‘migration’ is associated with islanders ‘deserting’ their (so-called un-developed and un-civilised) islands to look for greener pastures in (so-called) developed and civilised places. Very little attention, however, is given to the fact that colonisation gave rise to the largest migration program in history. Very little attention is given to the fact that the colonial view of Oceania as ‘empty’ paved the way for colonial intrusion, colonial translation, and cultural deracination. That colonial reality colludes in many ways with Deuteronomy 7, which from an Oceanic standpoint, is a narrative of migration and empire.


Indicting YHWH: Interpreting Numbers 25 in Oceania
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Nasili Vaka'uta, University of Auckland

This paper will attempt to reread the story/-ies in Numbers 25 from an Oceanic perspective. The content of the work will be in two main parts. The first will outline a new methodology that utilizes several aspects of Oceanic cultures and takes into account key issues that confront the region. The second part will demonstrate the methodology by reading the selected text, Numbers 25. I will read the text from the perspective of the peoples (especially children/daughters) of the land, and as an islander.


Jesus the "Inside Agitator": Reading Parables from a Diaphoric Perspective
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Andries van Aarde, University of Pretoria

The point of departure of this paper is Freud's notion of "outside agitator" and Foucault's notion of "local resistance". Beginning with Jesus' saying "do not judge", contextualized literarily as a chiasm, the paper focuses on three parables peculiar to Luke in chapters 15 and 16, namely the homecoming of a son, the prudence of a broker, and Lazarus the merciful beggar.


Rome Meets Ashbury-Haights
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa

In his book, The Cults of the Roman Empire, Robert Turcan likened the religious scene of ancient Rome to the multi-ethnic streets of present-day Paris, but the most pointed comparison is surely with the seething countercultural world of California, especially with the (in)famous ‘Summer of Love’ of the late 1960s and its aftermath. Comparatively scant evidence exists for cult foundations and cult migrations in antiquity – mostly contextless inscriptional evidence, highly selective records, biased and polemical narrations – leading generally to representations of insider perspectives or the ideology of the sources. By contrast, contemporary cult foundations and formations and invented traditions and religions are densely documented. The world of new religious movements and alternative religions, as well as the newly important phenomenon of invented religions, weaving new religions from fictional representations and cultural discourses, forms a significant comparandum to such ancient invented cults like Mithraism, and the migration and relocation of Isiac, Dionysiac, and Megalesian cults. Cross-cultural and trans-epochal comparisons constitute an essential tool for theorising less well-documented phenomena, for they enable theorising of myth and myth-making, cult formation and foundation as species of general social and cultural discourse, as well as explanations of the endurance of invented cults. This paper intends to demonstrate the utility of such a comparative enterprise for the understanding of ancient cult foundations.


"Between Athens and Jerusalem," Once Again: With Justin and Origen at the Coalface of Christian Identity-Making
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa

Constructions of origins is a kind of after-the-fact mythmaking. From the perspective of manufacturing of tradition (cf. Eric Hobsbawm and Hugh Trevor-Roper), invention of tradition and mythmaking of origins are ways of manufacturing social identities. Thus, ‘Christianity’ is the collective noun for a widely divergent spectrum of sets of divergent Christian identity-making projects. Epic-making indicates the manner in which images, symbols, stories or narratives and topics and themes, figures, stories-as-examples, typical arguments or rhetorical motives are constantly reinterpreted and reconfigured. The diversity and divergence of early Christian identity-making projects are to a large extent attributable to the social locations of the various groups involved in Christian tradition-making. In essence, to make myth, tradition, epic, or identity, is to use stories, symbols, or rhetorical strategies to negotiate various social and cultural contexts. Certain specific selections of narratives, symbols and rhetorical strategies resonated better with certain specific social and cultural settings than others, so that not all Christ-groups aligned themselves with the same set of symbols and narratives, nor gave the same interpretation to them. Early Christian identity-making drew on the same symbolic, cultural and rhetorical resources from the surrounding world that other inhabitants of the Graeco-Roman world drew on to create and maintain their respective social and group formations. Artifactually, there is often no distinguishable difference between Christian, Jewish or other Graeco-Roman traditions, and the earliest Christian apologists and church fathers’ writings provides an impression of the extent to which nascent Christian tradition is deeply enmeshed and woven into the surrounding cultural symbolic world. This is amply illustrated in the work of two early Christian Graeco-Roman philosophers, Justin Martyr and Origen. Both were deeply steeped in contemporary philosophical traditions (Justin was a veritable school-hopper) and drew on these traditions to mould the figure of Jesus as a cipher on which to project contemporary worldmaking symbolic discourses. In the case of Justin it is particularly instructive to observe how the First Apology sets the figure of Jesus squarely in the context of Graeco-Roman mythological discourses, arguing for the rationality of Christian beliefs on the basis of their similarity to Graeco-Roman religions. In his Contra Celsum, Origen, on the other hand, refutes Celsus by drawing on the same discourse that Celsus names as the reason for the untrustworthiness of Christian tradition, namely novelistic fiction. Both Celsus and Origen are aware that Christian mythic narratives subsist in the encyclopaedia of fantastic tales of men who ‘crossed over’ and back. For Celsus this is emblematic of wayward religion. Origen embraces the fictional, and in this is related to a Christian literary corpus of the fantastical and the grotesque. Comparison with other Graeco-Roman writers demonstrates that Origen’s Christian discourse is born in the crucible of the mishmash of Graeco-Roman cultural goods. As trendsetting early Christian philosophers, Justin and Origen show how difficult it is to maintain the idea of a distinct and separate Christian identity or identities, and that the really fundamental question should be why such alike discourses should be construed to be radically different.


Polluting Foreigners: The Symbolic Value of Expulsions of Jews and Others from Rome
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Birgit van der Lans, University of Groningen

The expulsion of Jews from Rome and, in some cases, from Italy is an ever-present issue in discussions of the position of Jews in the imperial capital. The three expulsions that are reported – one for 139 BC, and two under Tiberius and Claudius – are often taken as a sign of Roman anti-Judaism, and sometimes as opposition against supposed Jewish proselytism. At the same time, the precise circumstances leading to expulsions are shrouded in mystery and it is even debated if the decrees were made effective at all. A new perspective emerges when expulsions of Jews are viewed together with evidence for evictions of other groups that could be paraded as foreign, such as astrologers and philosophers. These reports share a common discourse, in which foreigners are portrayed as a polluting and infecting threat to Roman ways. This topos can be connected with a broader debate in Antiquity about the degree to which a community should be open to external influence or isolate itself to guard the purity of the polity. By locating expulsion in the context of this tradition we get a better understanding of its symbolic value and the kind of statement the state made by announcing this measure. As such, it needs to be considered when discussing the impact of expulsions and their rhetoric for the position of Jews in Rome and Italy.


The Bible in Afrikaans—A Direct Translation: A New Type of Church Bible
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Christo H. J. van der Merwe, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

Recently, a significant number of churches in South Africa expressed the need for a translation into Afrikaans which was “closer” to the source texts than the meaning-based, official 1983-version. The Catholics wanted a translation with a more formal register while the evangelicals wanted a translation that would be more suitable for serious readers. Fully cognizant of the fact that a formal equivalent translation could not be fully justified in terms of the developments in Translation Studies, the challenge was to find a new model that would (1) be practical and (2) lead to a translation acceptable to the churches. Christiane Nord’s functional model was embraced since it sensitizes all parties involved for the range of factors to be taken account of, and that had to be documented in terms of a “translation brief.” The problem with Nord’s model, however, was that it had been conceptualized in an academic setting where translators were taught to resolve translation problems within the text. Since her model implies that the bridge of the “otherness” of the source language culture needs to be crossed inside the text, this would result in a “longer” translated text that could alienate readers. For this reason her model was supplemented with insights from E-A Gutt. His metaphor that a Bible translation could be like “direct” or “indirect” speech, turned out to be a very useful “handle” to capture the needs of the churches. It is a direct translation that strives to accommodate all of the communicative clues in the source text, and then represents the translation in idiomatic Afrikaans as if the writers of the Bible are quoted directly. Cultural information that is needed is presented in meta-texts. Some of the challenges of applying this theoretical model in the real world—a project with more than 100 co-workers are described in the rest of this paper. Some of the most pertinent challenges were: • The problem of different levels of competency in the teams. • Communicating the translation brief—in particular the notion “direct translation” successfully. • The challenge of the inadequacy of available resources. • Establishing what was really needed as “additional” information in the meta-texts. After 5 years, about 15% of the work had been done, and so far the following were useful: • Accepting that literary translation (and translating the Bible as an extreme case) is a complicated and painfully long process. If quality and consistency are not negotiateable, there are no short-cuts. • A well-defined, detailed and up-to-date “translation brief” and lists of agreed-upon translation decisions, that are always and easily accessible to each co-worker, is crucially important. • An editorial team of real experts in the source and target text, as well as translation studies, who respect and appreciate the insight of one another. • A working knowledge of recent insights into use of particles, word order and many fixed expressions of the source languages that are not always recorded in major grammars and lexica.


George Lakoff and the Study of Biblical Metaphor
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Pierre Van Hecke, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

No other linguist has influenced the study of biblical metaphor more than George Lakoff. Not only his seminal volumes on the topic, viz. Metaphors We Live By and More Than Cool Reason, but also his more technical publications have strongly determined the course biblical metaphor studies have taken in recent decades. In this contribution, I will present Lakoff’s most important contributions to the field of metaphor analysis and I will demonstrate their applicability in biblical studies. Firstly, I will show that Lakoff’s basic tenet – viz. that metaphors are primarily cognitive phenomena – opens the way for a much more comprehensive understanding of biblical metaphors. Lakoff’s approach urges biblical scholars to look beyond the individual metaphors in the language to more fundamental conceptual metaphors that guide the authors’ comprehension of the world. This insight has led to a much better understanding of the way in which metaphors in a text are related to form coherent and consistent clusters. A second aspect of Lakoff’s work that is of great importance in biblical studies, is his description of the way in which source and target domain are related in metaphor. This description gives biblical scholars a much deeper insight in the way metaphor works, but also in the selective nature of metaphorical mapping. Not all aspects of the knowledge of the source domain can simply be transposed to our knowledge of the target domain. Especially in a field of study where no native speakers are available, a strong awareness of the selectivity of metaphors and of the restrictions the source domain imposes on the metaphorical mappings is important for the correct interpretation of texts. Finally, Lakoff’s insights in metaphor also provide biblical scholars and theologians with a language to describe the status of the biblical text itself, viz. as the potential source domain for an ongoing metaphorical mapping operation, enabling the reader to gain better understanding of his/her life on the basis of what he/she knows of the biblical text.


Motherly Love in 4 Maccabees and the Passion of Perpetua
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Jan W. van Henten, Universiteit van Amsterdam

This paper concerns a test case for Daniel Boyarin’s approach to the study of the interconnections between early Jewish and Christian traditions of martyrdom. In his Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism (Stanford: 1999), Boyarin criticizes the kinship paradigm applied to early Jewish and Christian martyrdom by W.H.C. Frend and others. Boyarin argues for multiple and complex interconnections between “Christian and non-Christian Jews” with regard to martyrdom traditions. He proposes a “wave theory” as alternative model for explaining the interconnections between Jewish and Christian martyrdom traditions. Boyarin’s programmatic theory should be tested by detailed analyses of Jewish and Christian martyrdom passages. My paper aims for a case study of the motif of motherly love, which is prominent in 4 Maccabees and the Passion of Perpetua. I will discuss the relevant passages in both martyrdoms and analyze the Jewish and Christian articulations of the motherly love motif. The motif appears to be elaborated in almost opposite ways in both martyrdoms. The concluding section will connect the outcome of my case study with Boyarin’s “model”: I will argue that the similarities in both writings are not sufficient enough to claim any interaction on the level of the texts.


The Maccabean Martyrs as Christian Models in Origen
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Jan W. van Henten, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Christian passages from the second century allude already to the Maccabean martyrdoms described in 2 Maccabees 6:18-7:42 as well as 4 Maccabees, but Origen is one of the first Christian authors who refers extensively to the Maccabean martyrs. His Exhortatio ad martyrium from 235 CE incites the rich layperson Ambrosius and the priest Prototectus to opt for martyrdom. The persecution of the Christian elite by the emperor Maximinus Thrax (235-8 CE) forms the work’s historical context. Origen uses the description of the glorious deaths of the Maccabees for his incitement of Christians to martyrdom. Origen quotes large parts of 2 Maccabees for this reason (Exh. 22-27) and he also alludes to important martyrdom motifs in 4 Maccabees. This paper will first analyze Origen’s paraphrases of the Maccabean martyrdoms and then focus upon his Christian re-interpretation of the martyrs’ motivation to sacrifice their lives. By leaving out passages and emphasizing details by his own comments, Origen ignores the markers of Jewish identity and he highlights that the martyrs die for proper worship (eusebeia) and love of God (Exh. 27), which are both interpreted from a Christian perspective. Origen also re-interprets the vindication of the martyrs by presenting martyrdom as the best way to achieve an afterlife close to God and in unity with Jesus Christ. Origen restricts the beneficiary effect of the martyrs’ death to their personal fate. In short, Origen consistently Christianized the Maccabean martyrs as models for Christian martyrs.


The Political Opposition between the Pauline and Civic Assemblies Revisited
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
George van Kooten, Groningen University

In this paper I wish to contribute to the comparison between the Pauline and civic assemblies in the Roman world. After establishing the similarities between both types of communities from the ancient historical sources, I intend to nuance Richard Horsley’s thought-provoking emphasis on the opposition between the Christian and the civic assembly. According to Horsley, Paul’s alternative society ‘is rooted in the history of Israel, in opposition to the pax Romana’, ‘stood sharply against the Roman imperial order’, and ‘“Acceptance and integration into society at large” would have been the last thing Paul wanted for his assemblies’. This view, however, conflicts with Paul’s exhortation of his Corinthian assembly to ‘Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God’ (1 Cor 12:32), and with his appeal to the Christians at Rome to subject themselves to the civic authorities (Rom 13:1-7). In some instances Horsley views seem to be nuanced when he writes that ‘Paul is a “radical” in his rejection of the established order, although not a “revolutionary” who attempted to overthrow it.’ Yet normally this nuance seems to be lacking. Horsley, for instance, wrongly contrast the semi-separate politeuma of certain diaspora Jewish synagogai, which, he says, was ‘officially or tacitly approved by the Roman authorities’, with Paul’s insistence that ‘our politeuma is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Soter’ (Philipp 3:20). In Horsley’s understanding Paul’s words amount to ‘both an alternative constitution or form of government and an alternative emperor for an alternative society.’ Yet Horsley fails to refer to the Stoic doctrine of dual citizenship, according to which man was at the same time citizen of a particular political constellation and also, at least in the case of the philosophers, citizen of the cosmic city. Also in Stoic political theory there was a tension between both forms of citizenship, to the extent that Seneca acknowledges that the wise man has a problematic relationship to the cities of the earth (Seneca, De otio 8.1-3). But normally one would stress that people can yield service to both commonwealths at the same time (cf. Seneca, De otio 4.1). In the same way Paul’s call to peaceful coexistence with society and loyalty to its government could be reconciled with his establishment of assemblies which were loyal to the heavenly politeuma. Hence, Horsley seems to put the Christian and public assemblies too much in a political opposition.


Spiritual vs. Physical Reproduction in John: A Non-Gnostic, Greek Metaphysical Reading
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
George van Kooten, Groningen University

Contrary to Bultmann’s dualistic, Gnostic reading of pairs of opposites in John, it seems that a contextualization of John in the pre-Gnostic period, against a Greek-philosophical background has more interpretative potential. As an example I shall comment on the antithesis between spiritual vs. physical reproduction. In this paper I shall sketch the backgroup of the concepts of ‘‘ek theou genesthai’’ and ‘divine sperma’. The commentaries ad locum only refer to a few Gnostic passages, or to the mystery cults, but hardly any references are made to Greek philosophical texts. According to Maarten Menken, ‘Hellenistic thought, mystery cults and gnosticism insofar as they are more or less contemorary with the Johannine writings, display verbal similarities but no exact parallels’. In this paper, however, I shall discuss pagan parallels, differentiating between (1) literal-mythological parallels, consisting of passages which contain phrases such as ‘sperma theou’, ‘ek theoon einai’, ‘ek’ as an preposition of divine origen, etc.; (2) literal-mythological parallels, but now personified and historicized instances of divine seed and divine birth: Hippocrates, Alexander the Great, and Augustus; and 3) metaphorical-philosophical references to divine seed. Especially the last category offers very relevant material to John’s distinction between spiritual and physical reproduction.


Those Tricky Sequential Verbs: Getting Students to Hear and See the Patterns
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Raymond Van Leeuwen, Eastern University

For modern students, the narrative vav-hahippux is a strange creature indeed. Why does biblical narrative even need it, when we already have qatal forms to indicate past events? Based on classroom experience, this paper demonstrates that Communicative Language Teaching enables students to experience and understand the sequential syntax of classical Hebrew, prior to any grammatical explanation thereof. By means of enacted oral narrative, students gain understanding of the relation of qatal forms to vav-ha-hippux sequential forms, as well as learning to recognize the important contrast with circumstantial clauses that interrupt a narrative sequence. Besides demonstrating the classroom process, we will consider the preparation required of teacher and student before class. Potential hazards and drawbacks of this immersion method will also be considered.


The Discourse Function of DE in 2 Timothy
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Ray Van Neste, Union University

The meaning and function DE has been extensively discussed by both traditional and discourse linguists. According to traditional analysis DE has both a copulative and an adversative use. More recently Levinsohn and Heckert have argued that the basic function of DE is to mark new developments in a discourse (thus encompassing the two different uses discussed by traditional grammarians). It will be useful to examine the function of DE throughout one complete discourse. Since 2 Timothy contains the widest range of uses of DE in the Pastoral Epistles (including the only occurrences of certain constructions in the PE), 2 Timothy will provide a useful setting for this investigation. While Heckert’s analysis focused on the Pastoral Epistles, his treatment was necessarily selective, and was handled thematically by various functions. Thus, this paper will analyze the function of every occurrence of DE in 2 Timothy in order to further examine the discourse function of DE and to test the interpretive value of Levinsohn and Heckert’s understanding of DE.


Gnostic Christians and the Apostles
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Bas van Os, Vrije Universiteit

Gnostic Christians had to maintain their identity in respect to other Christian groups who often claimed apostolic authority for their tradition. In this paper, I will analyze various responses employed by gnostic Christians, who either rejected (the Gospel of Judas), improved (the Gospel of Philip), selected (the Gospel of Thomas) or embraced the apostles (the Letter of Peter to Philip).


Plural Jesuses in Mark’s Gospel and the Sitz im Leben of the Real Reader
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Geert Van Oyen, Université Catholique de Louvain

(a) This paper first describes one fascinating example of the tension often used in the characterization of the Markan Jesus: as either a divine-like powerful self-assured person who is able to predict in detail his upcoming fate of suffering, death and resurrection (8:31; 9:31; especially 10:32-34), or someone who during the moment of his death, seemed to have doubts concerning his final outcome (14:36; 15:34). This particular case leads to the question: why, in their final and global interpretation, do some modern scholars place a great deal of prominence on Jesus’ other worldly power, while others emphasize his fully human feelings of abandonment, and still others propose an intermediate position of trust and despair? Stated boldly: why is there a kind of competition among scholars between the understanding of Jesus’ divinity and his humanity? (b) The answer proposed in this paper is based on two related statements. First, Mark’s gospel offers a multi-faceted portrayal of Jesus and, second, the ultimate interpretation of this complex characterization largely depends on the reader’s (or scholar’s) imaginative power. This “imagination” is not a faculty of free invention (P. Ricoeur), but is influenced by the reader’s personal Sitz im Leben, i.e. one’s theological and denominational traditions and presuppositions, personal life experiences, socio-political environment and individual work situation. In order to verify the value of this second statement, the members of the Mark SBL Group will be asked to participate in an open and friendly dialogue about the relationship between their own Sitz im Leben and their interpretation of the divinity/humanity of the Markan Jesus. In order to prepare this dialogue, they will receive a short questionnaire by October 1st, 2011. (c) The innovative aspect of this approach lies in its form and method which start from both the Markan text and the real situation of the actual reader. In this sense, it is an application of the larger hermeneutical model in which the real reader is considered an essential factor in the construction of meaning. By gearing academic interpretations towards the reality of their own participant’s personal situation, scholars will be able to better understand the mechanisms that could explain the variety of interpretations with regard to the Markan Jesus in past and present research.


Facing His Death: Abraham’s Last Day in the Book of Jubilees
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

This paper will consider the last speeches of Abraham to this children and grandchildren in the book of Jubilees, in relation to the preparations for death by the other patriarchs in the Hebrew Bible, Jubilees, and other testamentary literature. I shall focus especially on Abraham’s death in relation to Jacob’s death. In addition, I wish to examine the attitude toward death in Jubilees, in order to discern the concept(s) of death in the book.


One Powerful Deity or Another? The Bow as Symbol of YHWH and Elohim
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Ellen van Wolde, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Because Gen. 9:12-17 and Ez. 1:26-28 have used the word qešet in relation to the deity and to the clouds, the inference has been made in biblical scholarship that both texts refer to a rainbow. The plausibility of this inference is tested in a cognitive linguistic study. Linguistic, literary, intertextual, comparative and iconographic arguments will be given in favour of the view that the word qešet designates both in Gen. 9:12-17 and in Ez. 1:26-28 a ‘warrior’s bow’. An additional cognitive linguistic analysis of the valence structure in which this word functions in Ezekiel 1 and Genesis 9 will demonstrate that this ‘warrior’s bow’ represents a completely different view on power. In Gen. 9:12-17 the bow is the divine weapon of attack that is set in the clouds as the arc-like sign of the hierarchical pact between Elohim and all living beings on earth. In Ezekiel 1 it is the divine weapon of attack that is the part of the circle of radiant fire around YHWH; it is a testimony of his unique overwhelming might and superiority.


The Story of the John Bois Notes
Program Unit:
Laurence M. Vance, The Francis Wayland Institute

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Herodias in Empire
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Caroline Vander Stichele, University of Amsterdam

This paper addresses issues of race/ethnicity, class and gender structures in the context of the Greco-Roman Empire. It analyses the power structures in which the biblical stories situate Herodias, using insights from gender and post-colonial studies, as this approach allows for a better appreciation of the complexity of the cultural and historical conditions that determine a person’s position in society. I argue that an analysis focusing solely on gender overlooks other important parameters at play in the construction of identity. Herodias is not just a woman, she also belongs to a particular socio-political class and ethnic group within the larger context of Greco-Roman Palestine. I will use concepts from postcolonial studies, such as hybridity and mimicry, as well as discussions about imperialism, in the awareness that these tools have been developed to analyse modern forms of colonialism. I use this lens to illuminate particular aspects of the story in terms of how Herodias appears in Matthew and Mark, compared to her role in Luke and Josephus. The context and interest of these sources differ because they are positioned in different ‘places’ within the socio-political context of their time. These differences inform the way they present Herodias (or not). By combining gender and post-colonial approaches, the picture of Herodias drawn in this paper will prove to be more complex than often suggested in the reception of her character.


Acts 13:4–12: Paul’s Debut as a Greek Hero
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Katherine J. Veach, Claremont Graduate University

In Acts 12 and 13, the author of Luke-Acts switches protagonists from Peter to Paul, and Acts 13:1-12 marks the latter's narrative debut. Luke capitalizes on this occasion by narrating Paul’s stunning defeat of the Jewish magician Bar-Jesus/Elymas and the subsequent conversion of a Roman proconsul. Use of obscure Homeric vocabulary in this passage presents Paul as a victorious Homeric hero, and the narrative demonstrates his ability to decisively defeat opponents in battle. The minor points of scholarly consternation in Acts 13—the dual names of Elymas and the unexplained change of “Saul” to “Paul”—are illuminated by a reading of the text through a Homeric lens. The paper highlights and discusses the passage's connections to Homer, then evaluates how such a characterization of Paul contributes to an understanding of Luke-Acts as a whole.


What Kind of Party Is This? The Anti-banquet of Herod in Mark
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Jeffrey Veitch, Graduate Theological Union

The banquet of Herod (Mark 6:17-29) is the only banquet in which Jesus takes no part. The use of the banquet motif forms a theme in Mark, revealing key values within the Jesus movement. Within the wider Roman social landscape, banquets are important identifying practices. Using the work of John Donahue, the social features of Roman banquets center on three features. These features are the importance of the emperor as a model for widespread public banquets; the role of patronage within banqueting practices, especially concerning the emperor as patron of Rome; and the consistency of social distinctions at banquets. In the case of the banquet of Herod, using Philip Harland’s term, it forms an anti-banquet, or banquet of oppositional values, to the practices of the Jesus movement. In the Markan narrative, the banquet of Herod reflects the common features of Roman banquets. However, the narrative does not critique the these features but critiques the use of these features to reinforce status, power, and authority of Herod. Thus, the narrative uses the social features of visibility, patronage, and social distinctions to comment on the rule of Herod. In contrast to these are the social features of the feeding narratives. The negotiation of identity is possible through literary motifs such as banquets reflected in the comparison of Herod’s banquet and the feeding narratives.


Wettstein on Xenophon and Acts
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Joseph Verheyden, Catholic University Leuven

The paper looks into the references to the works of Xenophon that are found in the second apparatus of J.J. Wettstein's "Novum Testamentum Graece". More specifically, it will discuss the type and character of these references and explore the reception of a number of them in the history of research on Acts.


Chrysostom’s Use of Paul and Aristotelian Philosophy: Biblical Studies as Paideia in John Chrysostom’s “Against the Drunks”
Program Unit: Poster Session
Matt Versdahl, Seattle Pacific University

John Chrysostom promoted paideia in the service of theology in Against the Drunks, in which he advances Aristotelian philosophy and Attic Greek as a vehicle for understanding Pauline ethics. Simultaneously, Christian paideia transformed from enduring persecution to integration into imperial culture. Naturally, New Testament interpretation through philosophical eyes appealed to Chrysostom’s upper-class audiences. The rhetoric of Chrysostom was indicative of how Aristotelian philosophy helped transform New Testament interpretation into Christian paideia. While he considers philosophy a context rather than a commitment, he indirectly promotes the look and feel of Classical ideas such as moral character and virtue in his understanding of Paul. Chrysostom regularly echoes Plato’s Republic and other philosophers such as Epictetus. The educated audience would have recognized the philosophical style, structure, and ideas of his arguments. Additionally, Christian Atticizers rejected Latin while using Koine/Hebraistic words from the New Testament without Koine structures. As a result, Patristic Greek evolved from Koine by following a philosophical literary style rather than unpolished prose.


Did Mark Read Romans?
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Anne Vig Skoven, Københavns Universitet

The Gospel of Mark was once called “a passion story with an extended introduction” (M. Kähler). Although this designation may seem too minimalistic, it points to the fact that the Gospel of Mark is a “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”. Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez the evangelist has had to plot the events leading to the death of Jesus. The thesis of my paper is that in plotting these events the evangelist made use of a scheme employed by Paul; thus meeting a criterion put forward by Thomas B. Brodie at the SBL Annual 2010 for testing a potential literary dependence between documents: “significant similarities…, beyond the range of coincidence”, including elements like plot and order/sequence. Based on a narrative analysis of Mark and taking up ideas from B. W. Bacon (Was Mark a Roman Gospel?, 1919), I shall compare the theological discourse of Romans 9-11 to the Markan plot and outline and discuss the probability that the evangelist knew and made use of Paul’s letter to the Romans. It will be argued that the Markan gospel is structured by elements identical to those of Paul’s discourse in Romans 9-11: divine election, the composition of Israel, faith and the divine strategy of hardening. These elements are not only present in both texts but appear in almost the same order: the very first act of the Markan Jesus is an act of election (1:16-20; cf. 2:14). After the appointing of the 12 leaders of a new Israel (3:13-19), the criteria for belonging to Israel are discussed (3:20-35). Gentiles are included by faith and understanding (i.e. 7:24-30). Divine hardening, however, prevents the non-Gentiles from understanding (4:10-12). This strategy of hardening which in Romans 9-11 leads to the salvation of “all Israel” finally leads to the salvific death of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Furthermore, the Messianic secret may be seen as a narrative consequence of this ideological strategy.


Psychological Type and Biblical Scholarship: An Empirical Study among Members of the SBL
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Andrew Village, York Saint John University

Research on lay and ordained Christians has shown that psychological type preferences can predict some aspects of how individuals handle and interpret Scripture (see Village, A. (2010). Psychological type and biblical interpretation among Anglican clergy in the UK. Journal of Empirical Theology, 23(2), 179-200). In particular, preferences in the perceiving (sensing versus intuition) and judging (thinking versus feeling) processes are correlated with preferences for interpretations that reflect sensing, institutive, thinking or feeling styles. Biblical scholars handle texts in a wide variety of methods and styles, and the question arises as to whether any of this variation can be accounted for by variations in psychological type between individual scholars. This paper reports the results of an on-line study conducted among members of the SBL who were asked to indicate their main methodological specialisation, their preferred way of handling texts and their psychological type preferences.


Animals, Animal-Imagery, and Holy Men in Early Medieval East Syrian Monastic Literature
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Cynthia Villagomez, Winston-Salem State University

This paper will focus on wild and tame animals as a common feature in the monastic environments created in the narratives on holy men in early medieval East Syrian monastic literature. A key argument of the paper is that the true and superior holiness of many monastic saints in this literature is ultimately defined by the success of monks in healing, taming, or over-powering animals. Another key argument is that many of the holiest of holy men are celebrated with language that correlates their pious behavior and the miraculous acts which they perform with the behavior and character of animals such as dogs, cats, and birds. The frequency of these types of presentation of monastic sanctity in the East Syrian monastic literature is explained in relation to biblical and Egyptian monastic models as well as the actual place of animals, including both those that were loved and those that were loathed, within the East Syrian natural and agriculturally well-developed monastic landscapes. The case examples that are discussed include the description of Ishoyahbh the Great, the head of the monastery of Beth Abe and the patriarch of the Church of the East in the early seventh century, as a mother eagle, stories of various holy men who interact with wild lions who behave like tame sheep dogs, an anchorite who takes his daily meals with a flock of wild goats, and abbots who challenge fierce hunting dogs. The paper concludes with an explanation of the significance of animals within the natural and spiritual arenas of East Syrian monastic communities.


“There Is Something in Me”: Narratives of Lesbian and Transgender Sangomas in Contemporary South Africa
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Rachel Schneider Vlachos, Rice University

Over the last 15 years there has been an explosion of academic literature around homosexuality and same-sex sexuality in South Africa. This explosion has meant that black South African lesbians, considered a previously “invisible” identity category, have gained increased visibility alongside other modes of same-sex intimacy. The emergence of sexual and gender identity categories, including lesbian and transgender, in South Africa and the increased academic literature exploring same-sex sexuality in South Africa (and Africa) can be linked with the inclusion of sexual rights in the democratic Constitution of South Africa in 1996 as well as the transnational turn in gender and sexuality studies. Curiously though, the relationship between sexuality, gender, religion and spirituality in contemporary South Africa has been underexplored by scholars despite the fact that many published narratives about same-sex and transgender experience explicitly reference religion and/or spirituality. This may be due to the fact that postcolonial, queer and feminist scholarship tends to view religion as non-consequential, functional, or repressive in relation to gender and sexuality. Nevertheless, first-person narratives of self-identified lesbian and transgender sangomas in contemporary South Africa reveal how sexuality and gender is being understood and negotiated with reference to religion or spirituality in ways that resist gender binaries and Western sexual identity markers. By examining first-person narratives of lesbian, bisexual and transgender sangomas, this paper will argue that changing gender and sexual configurations in South Africa are increasingly mediated through religious and transnational discourses. In particular, for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender sangomas, religious and spiritual frameworks provide ways of integrating different forms of same-sex experience while maximizing social power in an often hostile and death-dealing environment. However, this dynamic relationship between religion, gender and sexuality cannot simply be reduced to a functionalist negotiation with modernity. Rather, religion, gender, and sexuality represent mutually constitutive and meaningful aspects of subjectivity, though this subjectivity is far from unity or stable. Because sangomas occupy a liminal space in South African society, a space that imaginatively mediates between past and future, their bodies act as a corporeal and sacred site through which the relationship between spirit and sexuality can be (re)articulated in relation to local, national, and transnational discourses. While examining sexuality in South Africa remains difficult because questions of sexuality are intimately linked with postcolonial national and regional discourses, for some the adoption of modern sexual identity categories has been liberating. Narratives of same-sex sangomas challenge scholars to reconsider the construction of gender and sexuality in relation to religion and spirituality by revealing the ambiguity, multiplicity, and permeability present in sexual and religious experience and by allowing speakers to articulate a unique subjectivity. Further, religious practices and spiritual beliefs provide avenues for creative self-expression that help subjects make sense of their gender and sexuality, and in turn, gender and sexuality help to shape subjects’ spiritual beliefs and religious experiences. In the process, religious and communal boundaries in South Africa are being negotiated and expanded to include emerging categories like lesbian and transsexual.


Some Reflections on the Use of the Jewish Scriptures in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Urban C. von Wahlde, Loyola University of Chicago

The Johannine community was indeed the object of an “exile-forced migration.” That is, they were, to all indications, very much at home in the Jewish Synagogue even with their belief in Jesus. But at one point in their community’s history, they were expelled from their parent synagogue because of their claims for Jesus. There is no evidence that their “migration” was a major geographical dislocation, but it certainly would have been a migration of great social disruption. In this paper I will explore several aspects of the community’s use of Scripture: the role of Scripture as a “witness” to Jesus and the role of this “witness” in the structure of the gospel; the methods employed in eschatological (pesher) exegesis of Scripture; and the reasons for the two distinct introductory formulae for Scripture used in the Gospel. Finally there will be some more general conclusions drawn regarding the role of the Jewish Scriptures in the Gospel.


Introduction: The Gospel and Letters of John, Model and Method
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Urban Von Wahlde, Loyola University of Chicago

This paper will offer a brief overview of the research method and primary conclusions of the recently released 3-volume set The Gospel and Letters of John (Eerdmans, 2010). Particular attention will be given to the life setting and composition-history of the Fourth Gospel and 1-2-3 John.


Who is in Charge? Mental Space Analysis and Visualization in a Textual Study, Applied to 1 Sam 28:3–25
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Miranda Vroon-van Vugt, Universiteit van Tilburg

1. In the dialogue between Saul and the woman in 1 Sam 28:8-14, the Mental Space Theory (MST) and its visualization open a new perspective on the text's conversation dynamics. Remarkable is that in the so-called QOR spaces (Question-Order-Request) the addressee functions as profiled participant, which indicates the intensity of Saul’s engaging with the woman and vice versa. In traditional exegesis the length of the conversation has been noted and some have focused on presumed omissions in the information. However, the conversation dynamics as such remained unnoticed, and MST provides a theoretical framework to enlighten this aspect. 2. The Mental Space configuration identifies very easily the conceptual framework of the individual characters. The identification of mental character spaces as History or Future spaces and the level of connectivity between the spaces of a character can elucidate whether or not the conversation partners share a common conceptual framework. In Saul’s and Samuel’s word exchange (1 Sam 28:15-19) the MST visualization shows the conceptual difference between the two men. Although dead, Samuel exerts much more power than Saul who is still very much alive and king. The dominant conceptual framework is Samuel’s, not Saul’s. 3. In Samuel’s monologue (1 Sam 28:16-19), Samuel refers to a 'him' at the beginning of v.17, leaving the scholars in despair as to the identification of this person. Suggestions have been made to change the personal pronoun from 'him' to 'you' (Saul), to translate the word as a reciprocal 'himself' (God), or to leave it out in translation all together. However, this does not clarify the meaning of the sentence. The mental spaces in the monologue suggest a possible and probable identification of 'him' with the later mentioned David.


Christian Loyalty to Christ and Deuteronomic Loyalty to YHWH? Paul's Reuse of Texts from Deut 4:4–11:32 in 1 Corinthians
Program Unit: Scripture and Paul
Erik Waaler, NLA School of Religion and Intercultural Studies

First Corinthians uses the Old Testament in an extensive manner. It has been established earlier that Paul interacts with several texts from Deut 4-11 in his first letter to the Corinthians. The impact of this has been variously assessed. There is a need to identify the extent to which such interaction is present. Some would agree that Paul reuses Shema in 1Cor 8:3-6. The repetitive style in this part of Deuteronomy invites a more complex interaction that combines issues like idolatry, love directed at God, monotheism etc.; issues that are present and forms interwoven patterns in each text. This paper will survey and analyze Paul's reuse of Deut 4-11 in 1 Corinthians, focusing on interpretive changes of the pretext. A focus on exegetical change has the potential to bring to light new interpretations of well known texts.


Grouping Greek Manuscripts of the Gospels
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Klaus Wachtel, Muenster University

On the basis of probe collations at more than 450 test passages in the Gospels, groups of manuscripts can be established with a high degree of reliability. A new online tool designed for this purpose will be introduced and applied to family Pi (041) as an example. Moreover it will be shown how the tool can be used to determine representatives of major groupings in the Byzantine mainstream tradition. Hitherto results of the Münster test passage collations have been available only as printed in the “Text und Textwert” series. This presentation is a first step to opening up this valuable resource to a wider scholarly public. From 1 Nov. 2011 the new tool will be available at intf.uni-muenster.de/TT_PP/.


The Enochic Son of Man and Pauline Christology
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
James A. Waddell, University of Toledo

A comparative analysis of the Messiah in the Book of the Parables of Enoch and the Letters of Paul, this study locates one aspect of Paul’s thought, his christology, in the context of Jewish intellectual traditions of the first century BCE and the first century CE. Conceptual elements of messianic traditions are identified in these documents by examining the nature and functions of the divine figure and the nature and functions of the messiah figure. This has implications for understanding divine and human agency and the relationships between mediatorial figures and the one God in Jewish literature from the Second Temple period. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the Book of the Parables and the Letters of Paul share specific conceptual elements of messianic traditions. The combination of shared elements is so striking as to preclude the possibility that the Book of the Parables and the Letters of Paul constituted independent, parallel developments. The evidence indicates that Paul was familiar with the conceptual elements of the Enochic messiah, and that Paul developed his concept of Jesus as the Kyrios out of the Son of Man traditions in the Book of the Parables of Enoch. This study argues that at least one facet of Paul’s thought, his christology, was heavily influenced by Enochic Son of Man traditions.


Choose Your Own Adventure: A Fresh Look at the Structure of the Book of Revelation
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Robby Waddell, Southeastern University

In my opinion, the structure of the Book of Revelation becomes pliable in the hands of its readers not unlike the various shapes and colors viewed through the end of a kaleidoscope. When a commentator chooses to focus on a repetitive phrase, a particular structure comes into view. However, if another scholar decides to highlight the repetitive series in the book, then a different structure falls into place. Many commentators have been influenced by a notion that the events in the book spiral forward as opposed to moving in a purely linear fashion. This theory of recapitulation is often accredited to the third century scholar, Victorinus, who produced the oldest extant commentary on Revelation. Invariably how a person structures the book influences how he or she interprets the book. In this paper, I review some of the leading theories of how the book is structured, and I offer a reading strategy for the Book of Revelation that builds on my previous publications on the structure of Revelation and my years of teaching the book to undergraduates. In particular, I focus on the final two visions of the book, the harlot and the bride. By utilizing the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series as a controlling metaphor, I trace possible roles in which potential readers might place themselves. Introduced in 1979 “Choose Your Own Adventure” was a new genre of children’s literature in which the reader was engaged as the protagonist of the story. Written from a second-person point of view, the reader was asked to make choices as the story’s main character in response to events taking place in the plot. Owing in large part to the spiraling structure of Revelation, the end comes into view multiple times, though it does not always look the same. It is these alternative endings that I present as possible adventures from which the reader is asked to choose. It is my hope that this paper will provide a way to view the Book of Revelation that is more applicable than the way it is often taught and preached in Pentecostal churches.


Postcolonialism: African Biblical Hermeneutics as the Forgotten Subject
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Robert Wafula, Drew University

Abstract It has been over 30 years since Edward Said published his Orientalism, beginning a theory that has now been called Postcolonialism. But questions still remain concerning, for example what constitutes the subject of postcolonialism, how we can describe the colonizer-colonized relationships and the voice of the tangible postcolonial subjects on these matters. A review of the discourses on Postcolonialism reveal that these questions remain open ended questions—sidelining the very subject of their inquiry—the oppressed postcolonial subject. Achille Mbembe has argued that “discourses and representations have a materiality.” Following on this, I suggest in this paper that there is need for a particular oppressed postcolonial subject to be put at the center of the discussion. I argue that centering a particular subject may illuminate the very questions that Postcolonialism seems to address hence providing a window into the importance of African Biblical Hermeneutics.


Inclusivity and Exclusivity in the Reception of the Actus Silvestri in the 13th Century
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Daniel Wagner, Technische Universität Dresden

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Remembering and Confessing the Sins of the Fathers
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Thomas Wagner, Bergische Universität Wuppertal

In several texts of the Hebrew Bible problems of the people living in Exilic times are reflected, which can not be connected with the first Exilic generation (cf. Ez 18; Thr 5). They are obviously documents of later generations. One of the their main themes is the meaning of the Sins of the Fathers for the Sons growing up after the divine judgement. The topic is discussed in Ps 78. This psalm contains a basic layer from times after the devastation of Northern Israel at the end of the 8th century BCE. In combination with Ps 77 it functioned as song of divine rejection of Israel and election of Judah. In my paper I want to line out how this Psalm praising the divine election of the Davidic monarchy was reworked from a later Exilic generation to point out the Sins of the Fathers and to emphasize the righteousness of the actual generation, which is still living under the bad conditions of the destructed land (cf. Ps 79) but in hope that God will turn towards his people again.


Expanding the Textures of Texts: Beyond the Sensory-Aesthetic and Socio-cultural to the Ecological
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Elaine Wainwright, University of Auckland

Since the appearance in 1996 of Vernon K. Robbins, Exploring the Texture of Texts: A Guide to Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation, it has functioned as a handbook to many biblical scholars who have, in a variety of ways, engaged in a socio-rhetorical approach to interpreting biblical texts. Its foundational elements, such as its five key textures, have, however, been explored and expanded by these scholars especially through the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Group of the Society of Biblical Literature and the seven Pepperdine Rhetorical conferences. Vernon Robbins himself has further expanded the approach in his recent publication The Invention of Christian Discourse, particularly in relation to ‘rhetology’ and ‘rhetography’. The approach, however, requires further development if it is to serve emerging ecological readings of biblical texts. In this paper, I propose to highlight, in dialogue with Lorraine Code, some key aspects of an ecological hermeneutic that lead me to engage critically with the current socio-rhetorical approach to reading. In particular, I will argue that attention to what I am calling the ecological texture of the text provides a way of interpretive engagement with the materiality of the human, the other-than-human and their interrelationship as these push up into the text. Robbins’ category of ‘rhetography’ will be explored for its potential to serve an ecological reading, especially as it engages the sensory-aesthetic and socio-cultural textures of the text.


Writing an Ecological Commentary
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Elaine Wainwright, University of Auckland

In a recent collection of essays on the Gospel of Matthew, Built upon the Rock, R. T. France and John Nolland present their reflections on the writing of a Commentary on the “first” gospel. Nolland turns his initial attention to the question of the presuppositions that an author brings to the art of commentary writing. He does not claim a presupposition-less starting point but does want to have “a lightness of touch in relation to presuppositions” [p. 272]. At the same time, other scholars have been engaged in writing a range of “commentaries” that have brought a very explicit set of presuppositions to the interpreting of a text—feminist, womanist, postcolonial, and queer to name but some of these. Scholars writing these commentaries give very explicit attention to their hermeneutic and the presuppositions that inform it. Against this backdrop, I will explore, in this paper, the task of writing an ecological commentary in the Earth Bible Commentary Series, edited by Norman Habelm to be published by Sheffield Phoenix. Attention will be given to some of the presuppositions that will inform an ecological hermeneutic and how these together with a nuanced methodological approach can shape new readings of selected texts. I will draw on my own experience of writing the Earth Bible Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew and also canvas the experience of other commentators writing in the series.


Hub-and-Spoke Blogging in Introductory Courses
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Todd Walatka, University of Notre Dame

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Wicked Problems, Jesus, and Pedagogy
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Donald Dale Walker, Illinois Institute of Technology

Policy planners have identified a set of intractable issues that they have labeled "wicked problems," which frustrate the best efforts of the professionals who address them. The term has entered the standard vocabulary of designers to describe problems that defy definition, isolation, and solution. Using the parameters of wicked problems to reframe the study of Jesus turns it into an investigation that is more generic and transfers to the kind of issues a knowledge worker might encounter. Rather than a strictly historical question about Jesus or christology, students are invited to formulate for Jesus a policy of social change. This task opens the door to collaborative methods, which wicked problems require because of their intrinsic social complexity. These methods enliven pedagogy, improve students' collaborative and creative skills, and give them room to use what they have learned from their own disciplines. The outcome will be more intellectually integrative and applicable to students' future professions. At the same time, intellectual questions remain near because wicked questions represent a hinge between modern and postmodern thinking, thereby providing a concrete springboard into postmodern reflection.


Sing Me a Song: David’s Temple Singer and the Story of the Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Arthur Walker-Jones, University of Winnipeg

Since Gerald Wilson established that royal psalms and psalms without superscriptions were placed by editors at the seams of the books of the Psalter, studies of the shaping of the Psalter have flourished. While agreeing with Wilson that books IV and V answer the problem posed by Books I-III and the exile, J. Clinton McCann showed that Books II-III had already begun to answer the challenge of the exile. McCann’s discussion focused on the psalms of the Korahites, and had little to say about the psalms of Asaph. The separation of one psalm of Asaph, Psalm 50, from the rest of the Asaph collection, Psalms 73-83, creates a ring structure in Books II-III with psalms of David in the center (51-65, 68-70) and the psalms of the Korahites, Psalms 42-49 and 81-88, on the periphery. Goulder followed Delitzsch in noting the unique literary and theological characteristics of the Asaph collection. He, like older commentators, used this information to reconstruct the historical origin of the Asaph psalms, rather than discuss their contribution to the Psalter as a literary work. Interestingly, when the Chronicler recounts David’s appointment of Asaph and his kin, the accompanying “Psalm of Asaph” is made up of parts of Psalms 105, 96, and 106, which are not from psalms in Books II-III with the superscription “of Asaph,” but from psalms without superscriptions from the centre and conclusion of Book IV. This paper shows that the unique content and arrangement of Asaph psalms contributes to the meaning of Books II-III of the Psalter and constructs an ideal Asaph as a character in the Psalter’s story.


Imaging Tirana Beratinus 2
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Daniel Wallace, Dallas Theological Seminary

Imaging a purple manuscript presents particular challenges, due to the contrasts between the dyed parchment and the silver or gold ink. Dr Wallace describes the process with illustrations of the manuscript.


Erasmian Pronunciation
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Daniel B. Wallace, Dallas Theological Seminary

This paper will focus on two things: the history of the usage of Erasmian pronunciation and reasons for its continued usage. The reasons for its continued usage will be broken down into two groups: linguistic and pedagogical. This paper will not be a wholesale defense of Erasmian pronunciation, but will offer broad arguments in its defense with a nod toward alternate views.


Rivals or Coregents? Kingships of YHWH and David in Book V of the Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Robert E. Wallace, Judson University (Elgin, Illinois)

David makes a strong reappearance in Book V of the Psalter after having made only three appearances since “the prayers of David, son of Jesse are ended” in Psalm 72. Gerald Wilson and others have suggested that Books I & II emphasize the position of David and Davidic monarchy. Book III confronts reflects the reality of exile and Book IV reflects Israel reorientation to YHWH as king and Mosaic covenant. For Wilson, Book V reflects the new reality of Davidic acceptance of YHWH’s kingship. Wilson has downplayed the role of the Davidic psalms of Books IV and V. Yet, fourteen of the forty-four psalms in Book V are associated with David by virtue of their superscription. This project demonstrates that while Wilson is correct in asserting the Psalter shifts emphasis from human kingship to divine kingship in books IV and V, this shift is not accomplished by demoting David, but rather by conflating Davidic kingship with the kingship of YHWH.


The First Century City, between Rome and Pompeii
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Cambridge University

Understanding and Investigating the City in the First-Century Mediterranean World


The Living Soul: Aphrahat's Anthropology in Context
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
James E. Walters, Princeton Theological Seminary

The writings of Aphrahat, removed as they are from contemporary debates taking place within Greek-speaking Christianity, provide a unique opportunity to view a variant manifestation of Christianity forged within a very different social, political, and religious milieu. While many who have written or commented on Aphrahat have noted that the Christianity described in Aphrahat's writings remains largely untouched by contemporary practices in the West, very few have focused on the ways Aphrahat's writings demonstrate influence from his social setting. And when Aphrahat's setting is discussed, the conversation is dominated by his relationship to contemporary Jewish groups. While this is understandable based on Aphrahat's frequently stated intention to write "against the Jews," the Jews were likely not the only religious group Aphrahat had in mind in his writings. Although Aphrahat mentions the "followers of Mani" only once in passing and does not explicitly dedicate any of his demonstrations against the Manichaeans, given his geographic location deep in the heart of Mesopotamia it is highly likely that Aphrahat knows of Manichaean Christians and recognizes them as a rival group to his own community. Moreover, with the many Manichaean texts that have been discovered and published recently, it is more possible than ever to reconsider the writings of Aphrahat in light of Manichaeism in order to find places of contact and perhaps even indirect disputation. One topic that may provide a unique meeting place between the writings of Aphrahat and those of Mani and his followers is relationship of the soul and body. Aphrahat's primary source for discussing the soul-body relationship is, not surprisingly, Scripture. He relies explicitly on Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15, but also implicitly on a number of other texts, both canonical and non-canonical. Through his characteristic exegetical method, Aphrahat weaves these sources together to form a unique argument about the relationship of soul, spirit, and body. However, it would be naive to assume that Aphrahat exercised his exegesis toward anthropology in a cultural vacuum, removed from the contemporary thought of Jewish, Zoroastrian, and particularly Manichaean communities, for whom the relationship of soul to body was so central. Thus, this paper will argue that Aphrahat constructed his anthropology, and particularly the relationship of the soul and body, based on his unique reading of scriptural sources and in response to Manichaean anthropology.


Curse Tablets and the Interpretation of 1 Corinthians: Proposals and Prospects
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
James C. Walters, Boston University

This is a prepared response to Ronald Stroud's paper, Ancient Magic and Social Context: New Evidence from the Sanctuary of Demeter in Corinth.


A Proposed Chiastic Macrostructure for Job 3:3–5:7
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
John Walton Burnight, University of Chicago

Many interpreters have noted that Eliphaz’s speech in Job 4-5 contains a number of terms that echo Job’s words in chapter 3 (see, e.g., Beuken’s 1994 essay “Job’s Imprecation as the Cradle of a New Religious Discourse: The Perplexing Impact of the Semantic Correspondences Between Job 3, Job 4-5, and Job 6-7”). In this paper it is proposed that the poet’s use of what Dennis Pardee has termed “distant” repetitive and semantic parallelism, as well as broader thematic correspondences, creates what can be viewed as a chiastic macrostructure: in effect, the first three sections of Eliphaz’s speech—4:2-11, 4:12-21, and 5:1-7—provide “responses” to Job 3:20-26, 3:11-19, and 3:3-10, respectively. Recognition of this macrostructure, it is argued, can help to illuminate some of the more puzzling statements in each of these speeches.


"To the Jew First and Also to the Greek": Romans As Ethnic Construction
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Sze-kar Wan, Southern Methodist University

This essay explores the internal tension in Paul’s construction of Jewish identity in his letter to the Romans in light of his own hybridity–as a Jewish Roman subject. On one hand, his identity as an elite member of a chosen people imbues in him a sense of ethnic superiority, which is further informed by a claim of commission as a prophet to the Gentiles, a light to the nations. On the other hand, as a member of a subaltern class, he was keenly aware also of his inferior position in the political and cultural imperium. Both superiority and subalternity come into full expression in his construction of a Jewish ethnicity that claims preeminence over all earthly authorities and governments, as well as priority over Gentiles, even gentile converts who belatedly join the movement. Furthermore, this ethnicity is constructed through intramural debate with fellow Jewish interlocutors who would insist on stricter observance of traditional Jewish ethnic markers. By insisting on essentializing circumcision as marker for the Jewish ethnos, however, Paul reinscribes a construction as maleness. Paul’s ethnic construction on both fronts—in response to the imperial situation from the outside and through confrontation with fellow insiders—fits in well with what we know today about modern ethnic reconstruction. It follows a recognizable pattern of a worlding impulse coordinated with internal power struggles.


Satan Whispered: Considering Qur’anic Accounts of Adam’s Fall in Light of Syriac-Christian Tradition
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Tammie R. Wanta, University of Pennsylvania

Sura 20 of the Qur’an reports that Satan effects Adam’s fall with a simple whisper: “Satan whispered to him and said, ‘Adam, shall I lead you to the Tree of Immortality and to a kingdom that does not decline?’” The text informs us that the primeval pair eats from the tree, their private parts appear, and they then began to sew the leaves of Paradise around them (20:120-121). Although the basic structure of this narrative will sound familiar to many, those who approach the Qur’an knowing only the dominant Judeo-Christian story now preserved in Genesis 2-3 may be well surprised by one Qur’anic detail: the narrative identifies the ‘Tree of Immortality’ as the one which stands at the center of Adam’s fall. What has happened to the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ so familiar from the ‘biblical’ account? Has the Qur’anic narrative intentionally subverted the well-known Judeo-Christian story? Though earlier generations of scholars often approached the textual relationships through such a lens, this paper aims to show that the Qur’anic Paradise narratives share affinities with and perhaps lean upon a version of the story now found in the Syriac Christian Cave of Treasures—a narrative which itself quite possibly preserves and redeploys ancient Jewish traditions from Second-Temple times. In all this, I propose that the Qur’anic accounts of Adam’s misadventures in Paradise shed light on issues associated with the preservation and transmission of early Jewish and Christian literature. In addition, I draw attention to a larger conceptual issue: namely, the question of what actually constituted ‘the biblical tradition’ in eastern environs at the time of the emergence of Islam in the late sixth and early seventh centuries CE.


“Who is Really an Adventist?” Reflections on Ethics and Theology for Drawing Boundaries
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Daryll Ward, Kettering College of Medical Arts

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The Parable of the Virgins in Matthew 25: Psuedo-Macarius and a “Spiritual” Reading of Psalm 45
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
H. Clifton Ward, Southern Seminary

Psalm 45 is replete with royal imagery, and interpreters have often noted the shared terminology with Psalm 2. Even so, and somewhat surprisingly, Psalm 45 shares conspicuous imagery with Jesus’ Parable of the Virgins (Matt 25). Modern interpreters of this Matthean parable often analyze a number of details characteristic of the passage, such as its status as a clear allegory of the parousia (Davies and Allison), or its social setting as a Jewish wedding (along with the standard customs that accompany such) [France]. Christological or theological explorations occur, but pneumatological discussions rarely arise. Nevertheless, for Pseudo-Macarius (and, strikingly, for other early Christian interpreters, such as Saint Augustine), the parable begs a canonical reading from start to finish. This paper examines the shared imagery between Matthew 25 and Psalm 45. Moreover, following the lead of Pseudo-Macarius, I analyze the role of the Spirit in the parable—both one of enlightening conversion and of rewarded spirituality. These themes are rarely mentioned in modern explications of the parable, but after considering both the early reception of the parable, its similarities to Psalm 45, and its context in Matthew 25, I suggest that such a reading is in the very least plausible, and ultimately, it proves helpful, as it fulfills a particularly Matthean purpose—it brings out the greatest of virtues: love (Matt 22).


Heavenly Identity: Scheintod in Joseph and Aseneth
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Meredith Warren, McGill University

Aseneth’s figurative death and rebirth parallels the Sheintod (apparent death) motif found in the Greek romances. While death and rebirth in Joseph and Aseneth is known to reflect a common way of expressing new religious affiliation (Chesnutt 1995, 180), this terminology also calls to mind the false deaths of the heroines in Chaereas and Callirhoe (1.4.12), The Ethiopian Story (2.3.3), Leucippe and Clitophon (3:15.5; 5.7.4; 7.3.8), and An Ephesian Tale (3.6.5). Bowersock argues that the heroines’ false deaths and lively reappearances are suggestive of their association with the divine (1994, 102). This association seems to be confirmed by the constant mis-identifications of these heroines with various divinities (Ephesian Tale 2.2; Leucippe and Clitophon 7.15, An Ethiopian Story 1.2, 1.21). Aseneth’s central transformation involving the honeycomb and the mysterious, other-worldly visitor, serves to relocate Aseneth in the heavenly world of Joseph and his angelic doppelganger (Warren [Thesis, McGill] 2004). After her transformation, her appearance is transformed and she resembles the heavenly visitor; throughout the text, this anticipated transformation is described using imagery of life and death. The acts of mourning performed by Aseneth and her self-imposed isolation from her seven virgins (10:2-10; 14-15) mirror the funerals and entombment of the heroines in the Greek romances, imagery which is solidified by the language used to describe her old gods (e.g. 12:5; for contrast see 15:12), and especially by the description of the all-important honeycomb in 16:14: “this is a comb of life and all who eat of it will not die for ever and ever.” Further, like the heroines who seemingly return from death in the novels, Aseneth, too, acquires a divine appearance (18:0-11; 19:4). Thus, just as Aseneth’s eating of the honeycomb locates her in the world of the heavenly visitor, so to the use of life and death language creates the cultural expectation that Aseneth is associated with the divine. I propose that Aseneth’s transformation, because it uses the language of death and rebirth, in as much as it interacts with the shared symbolic understanding of the incidents of Scheintod in the Greek novels, further emphasizes Aseneth’s belonging to that otherworldly kingdom.


The Rule of the Congregation (1QSa) as a Speech
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Cecilia Wassen, Uppsala Universitet

This short, sectarian document provides regulations for a congregation that saw itself living in the endtime as 1QSa 1:1 reads: “And this is the rule for all the Congregation of Israel in the end of days.” 1:4-5 specifies that the assembly includes women and children, to whom ‘they’ (the priests likely) shall read the ‘statutes of the covenant’ and instruct in ‘all their judgments.’ The prescriptions that follow regulate various features of communal life, including the education of children, the age of different officeholders, and gives detailed regulations concerning meetings and a messianic banquet. The introduction with its reference to the inclusion of the whole community recalls covenantal ceremonies in the Hebrew Bible that envision a large gathering of people and typically highlight the presence of women and children, e.g. Deut 31:10-13. These covenantal ceremonies served as prototypes for the Renewal of the Covenant ceremony in the Qumran movement to which 1QSa 1:4-5 refers. It is likely that 1QSa was composed particularly to be read during this ceremony. I will examine 1QSa as a speech and analyse its rhetorical functions, i.e., how the speech was intended to affect the listeners in this setting. I will highlight the rhetorical strategies employed by the author and pay special attention to the use of biblical allusions and terminology. Through this perspective I will be able to highlight important features of the discourse that usually are not noticed.


The Suffering and Victimization of the Elect in the Letters of Paul
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Emma Wasserman, Rutgers University

This paper treats Paul’s thought about the suffering and victimization of the elect as central to his thinking about cosmic hierarchy. Focusing on 1 Thess 3:3–4, Phil 1:27–30, Rom 5:3–4, and 8:18, it is argued that Paul’s language about the suffering of his idealized Christ-followers fits with similar motifs in apocalyptic literature like 1 Enoch, Daniel, and the Book of Revelation. Like these texts, Paul’s apocalyptic thought most centrally concerns the victimization and vindication of an elect within a hierarchically conceived cosmic kingdom. Though many scholars treat Christian apocalypticism in terms of a dualistically conceived cosmic struggle between warring forces of good and evil, I argue instead that appeals to dualistically constructed normative categories like insiders and outsiders, righteous and wicked, and true and false religious beliefs and practices generate and re-enforce larger visions of hierarchy, power, and rule. On these terms, claims about persecution and victimization work as part of a series of dualistic constructs that generate and re-enforce the social differentiation of the supposedly true Christ followers. The cosmic hierarchy thus extends seamlessly into the human realm to justify the different rank and value of persons.


Early Jesus Tradition in 1 Peter and Early Petrine Christianity
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Duane F. Watson, Malone University

This paper looks broadly at clear uses of early Jesus tradition in 1 Peter, focusing on the origins of the tradition, its incorporation and adaptation of Old Testament texts, is rhetorical use, comparison of this use in other early Christian texts , and implications for understanding Petrine Christianity.


The Community Diminutive
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Jonathan M. Watt, Geneva College / Ref. Pres. Seminary

In a paper on Greek diminutive suffixes presented to the Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics section in 2010, I demonstrated from the literature that meanings of diminutive affixes across the world’s living languages correspond favorably with the semantic functions of NT Greek diminutive suffixes. These meanings included physical smallness, comparable quality, affection/endearment, and derogation – though sometimes they flag a semantic shift. I then proposed that a preponderance of diminutives in a speech act or written corpus might reflect a ‘colloquial word bank’ for members of a specific speech community. This paper investigates further that function which I had proposed for some NT diminutives. To accomplish this, I first discuss the settings and semantics of the roughly three dozen NT diminutives, including their topical concentration and preponderance in the gospel narratives (e.g. Swanson 1958; Petersen 1910). Second, I demonstrate from collected data, the field of pragmatics, and informant interviews connected with three living speech communities, that frequent diminution indicates specifically in-group communication of a self-aware community (e.g. Dressler et al 1994; Wierzbicka 1991). Third, I argue that there is sufficient evidence to interpret some diminutives in the gospels as reflecting distinctively Palestinian Jewish second-language usage of the language in specific settings, and should be interpreted accordingly in those contexts.


The Historical and Literary Contexts of the Sin and Guilt Offerings
Program Unit: Biblical Law
James W. Watts, Syracuse University

Many interpreters have noted that the common nouns, hattat and asham, carry legal connotations in Akkadian and non-priestly parts of the Hebrew Bible. In P, they also serve as the names of the “sin” and “guilt” offerings. The fact that the offering names evoke legal documents and treaties suggests that they were introduced because priests were playing a larger role in legal matters, or at least they wished to. The demise of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah provide plausible reasons for why the Temple would have been looking for additional sources of revenue in the form of the sin and guilt offerings. But the interpretation of the kingdoms’ history in Deuteronomistic and other texts may have raised doubts about priestly claims to be able to offer atonement for sins through the cult. This paper analyzes how the rhetoric of Leviticus has been shaped to advance those claims in the context of hostile historical and literary circumstances.


A God Unlike Any Other: Mark’s Jesus’ Exegesis of Yahweh
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Rikk E. Watts, Regent College

In 1 Cor 1:18-25 Paul outlines the unexpected and offensive nature of the gospel to both Jews and Greeks. The former seek powerful signs and the latter wisdom, whereas he proclaimed and embodied a crucified Christ; a folly and weakness that put him at odds with those “superapostles” he later indicts. This tension partly informed an earlier generation of scholars’ interest in the putative Theios Aner with some arguing that Mark critiqued the very same by means of his theology of the cross (classically Weeden; but cf. Schenke, Kock, Anderson). The Theios Aner model no longer commands its earlier assent but this very real tension between Jesus’ undeniably impressive power and his shameful weakness on the cross remains. This will propose that this tension constitutes less a fault line in Markan theology than a remarkable insight into the character of Israel’s unique deity, Yahweh. In the ancient world it was power that characterized the divine over against the weakness of humanity. For Mark, the coming of Jesus overturned that unquestioned and foundational first century opposition. By first identifying Jesus with Yahweh, by means of his exercise of what were previously Yahweh’s sole prerogatives, Jesus’ suffering and death then serves to exegete the character of Yahweh as the crucified God (cf. John 1:18). For Mark’s Jesus, Yahweh, the God of Israel, uses his power not for himself — hence Jesus’ apparent weakness culminating in the cross — but to bring life to his creation (cf. Mark 12:27).


The Compositional Structure of Judges Revisited: Judges as a Ring Composition?
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Ken Way, Biola University

This paper seeks to build on D. W. Gooding's well-known proposal that the book of Judges exhibits a chiastic structure, with the Gideon narrative in the central position. Recently, anthropologist Mary Douglas made a significant contribution to our understanding of complex chiastic devices in Mediterranean literature, and she calls these patterns "ring compositions." Based on her exposition of the essential components of ring compositions, it is here suggested that the entire book of Judges also follows the same pattern. It will be demonstrated that the same themes which appear in the prologue and epilogue of Judges also appear in the centrally located Gideon narrative. Also, many additional connections will be noted between the parallel accounts of Othniel/Samson, Ehud/Jephthah, and Deborah/Abimelech.


Teaching Biblical Literacy
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Jane Webster, Barton College

Recent studies in literacy suggest that people often do not recognize biblical references in art, literature, and film. How can teachers in the Undergraduate Liberal Arts address this knowledge gap effectively? Share your questions and your ideas. We will also consider whether literacy training is enough: What do we gain? What do we miss?


A Convenient Monotheism: The God and the Gods in Wisdom Literature
Program Unit: Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms
Stuart Weeks, University of Durham

There is a danger in assuming that monotheistic discourse must reflect a monotheistic belief: it may represent, rather, a way of speaking about 'the divine' which avoids separation of divine roles and identities in a polytheistic context. This is visible in much of the Egyptian literature analogous to biblical wisdom literature, where 'the god', to whom divine actions are attributed, can even stand alongside named, individual deities. Comparable tendencies or techniques are visible elsewhere, and we must be wary of assuming, therefore, that the attribution of all divine action to a single God in biblical wisdom literature must signal a rejection of the existence or effectiveness of other deities (perhaps especially when the God of Job appears to have children ...). If it did not begin as an affirmation of monotheism, however, such discourse may have become a vehicle for the development of new ideas.


Musical Ritual in the Pauline Churches: The Slippery Slope of a Necessary Social Practice in Antiquity
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Jade Weimer, University of Toronto

The specific liturgical and ritual practices of the Pauline communities in Antiquity are highly contested due to the limited quantity of textual references and physical evidence. Scholars of early Christian ritual, however, do have several useful tools at their disposal to make plausible conclusions about various ritual practices observed or performed by the earliest Christian groups. First, textual references to the musical practices of both Greco-Roman cults and Jewish communities in Antiquity provide some form of contextualization for the relationship between religious ritual and musical practices in the ancient world. Second, ritual theory proposed by scholars such as Catherine Bell give a distinct theoretical framework with which one can interpret the limited data set available to New Testament scholars that pertain to the ritual world of Pauline Christianity. Third, recent advances in cognitive science and brain physiology supply another interpretive lens, which helps to a certain extent to explain why musical engagement is such an important element in social interaction and group cohesion. This paper will examine the references made in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and several of the Deutero-Pauline Epistles regarding the use of music and singing as a valid or accepted form of religious expression and argue that Paul’s seemingly limited comments on the use of music in social gatherings of worship can be viewed as a precursor to later Patristic contestations regarding the use of song and instruments in the church. On one hand, Paul’s writings validate song as a legitimate and encouraged form of praise within the worship setting and articulate a distinct pedagogical function in musical expression; on the other hand, there existed an inherent danger in this form of expression (similar to glossolalia), which has been argued by Wayne Meeks, as Paul’s concern for rationality and knowledge. Spontaneous expression of musical forms in the Pauline communities possessed both a structure and an anti-structure, which originated during the earliest period of liturgical formation and this paradox provided a forum of debate for later Christian authorities on the subject of music and liturgy.


Can Scholarship Counter Violence? Seeking Answers a Decade after 9/11
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Steven Weitzman, Stanford University

The study of ancient religious violence did not, of course, begin on September 11, 2001. The violent practices that have come to preoccupy recent scholarship in the aftermath of this event—martyrdom or holy war—were already being studied in ways that would no doubt have continued if September 11 had never happened. What this event added was a heightened sense of relevance. The public realized that it didn’t fully understand religiously motivated violence, and those of us who studied early religious history felt we had something to contribute by reexamining the origins of such practice in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. This presentation will reflect on the aspiration to counter present-day violence as a scholarly motive. Is there any real sense in which understanding the origins of religious violence can help to defuse it today? Have scholars been able to apply their insights in a practical sense and if so, how and to what effect? If such efforts haven’t proven successful, why not, and can we then still credibly claim such a goal as a motive for our scholarly work?


"That There May Be Equality": The Context and Consequences of a Pauline Ideal
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Laurence L. Welborn, Fordham University

This paper explores the roots of Paul's ideal of "equality" (isotes) as the goal of economic relations among Christians as articulated in 2 Cor 8. The context of this idea is sought in the theory of unequal friendship in Aristotle's Ethics, supplemented by subsequent discussions of relations between greater and lesser friends in Cicero and Seneca. The paper then elaborates the consequences of the ideal of "equality" for Paul's collection project for the poor saints in Jerusalem.


Give and Take: Regional Economy along the Judean Shephelah in the Eighth-Century BCE
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Eric Welch, Pennsylvania State University

The books of Kings and Chronicles have notable differences related to their underlying historiographical principles and their dates of composition. However, when read side-by-side, these texts present a dynamic picture of Judah's western border with Philistia in the 8th century BCE in which the sites within the Shephelah are repeatedly subdued, raided, and captured by Judah and the Philistines. Adding to the complexity of this picture is the relevant testimony of Neo-Assyrian inscriptional material and archaeological remains from sites in the Shephelah. This paper compares and contrasts the geopolitical details of the books of Kings and Chronicles, integrating textual and material remains in order to explore the historical plausibility of the literary records as they pertain to Judah's border in the 8th century BCE. Within this exploration, the paper offers a hypothesis regarding shifts on Judah's western frontier which may only be hinted at summarily in the biblical record (2 Kgs 18:8). This paper suggests that Hezekiah's defeat of the Philistines listed in 2 Kings 18:8 actually preceded his rebellion against Assyria (2 Kgs 18:7), and likely took place during the campaigns of Sargon in 711 BCE. Furthermore, it may be that Hezekiah's gains in this instance are not achieved gains, but gains awarded for his policy of non-action with regard to the anti-Assyrian coalitions of the final decades of the 8th century. In this regard, his political policy continues that of his father Ahaz. Ironically, his reward—the assignment of detached foreign lands—is later reversed to serve as his punishment at the hands of Sennacherib in 701 BCE when parts of the Judean Shephelah are detached and assigned to Philistia. Following this geopolitical assessment, the paper turns its attention toward the economic implications of the regional politics, focusing on the interaction between Judah, Philistia, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire.


Gospel Endings and the 40-day Literature
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
John W. Welch, Brigham Young University

One of the most indicative parts of any effective narrative is how the story ends. Discussions about the famous textual problems and literary questions arising out of the various endings of the New Testament Gospels have overshadowed what these divergent endings may reveal about how early Christians understood the main messages of the Gospel. By seeing the various Gospel endings in the context of the expansive corpus of early Christian 40-day texts, key themes can be identified in that literature which reveal both the tensions and harmonies within the images of Jesus and of his ministry that these texts present. By analyzing and comparing all known 40-day texts, we hope to shed light on two questions: (1) how do themes such as secrecy, authority, missionary service, miracles, rejection, apostasy, ordinances, death conquest, and heavenly ascent help to explain the various endings given to the New Testament gospels, and (2) how do those endings collectively present the plan and mystery of salvation in and through Jesus Christ?


The Spirituality of Service-Learning in Higher Education
Program Unit: Service-Learning and Biblical Studies
Marshall Welch, St. Mary's College of California

Marshall Welch serves as the director of The Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action at St. Mary's College of California in Moraga, CA. This presentation will overview Welch's interests in social justice and spiritual development of students. This presentation will be particularly applicable for faith-based schools that need tangible ways to fulfill their mission by highlighting how service-learning pedagogy can play an integral role in the development of students.


Restoring the Material to Material Cultural Approaches: Methodological Inconsistencies in Explaining Pauline Reception
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Heidi Wendt, Brown University

The last decade has witnessed great interest in mapping Paul’s purported communities onto archaeological remains of the cities he visited, or onto analogous social and spatial environments. The concept of material culture that frames these endeavors, however, reinforces irreconcilable ontological commitments that prefigure how Pauline phenomena are interrogated: namely, material culture consists of hard data, subject to certain questions and analysis, that supplement, but that warrant different forms of inquiry from, mental, cultural, or spiritual variables. While revivifying a field long and narrowly trained on texts, these publications fail to theorize the social conditions enabling Paul’s activity; rather, they take for granted both the character of his ‘mission’ and its essence, whose appeal is self-explanatory. As Pauline scholars draw upon archaeological evidence in greater detail, they form a subterfuge for uncritical and essentializing assumptions about his singularity within such contexts. If one moves beyond methodological dualisms in favor of a thoroughly naturalized account of Paul’s activities, his letters witness to the social embeddedness against which he struggles, to the distribution of intuitive knowledge through various material contexts and social practices, and to the ability of textual artifacts to ascribe novel, durable meanings to more practical activities. We cannot presume that people with whom Paul interacted modified their behavior and built environments automatically. Neither does Paul prescribe for his correspondents a complete extrication from their local matrices, nor does he market his offerings as a comprehensive alternative cultural program. I examine passages from Paul’s epistles that point to materially plausible explanations for his basic intelligibility and reception, while also highlighting how he uses writing to stabilize religious offerings vulnerable to competing social practices and idiosyncratic appropriation.


Mark at the Table: Religious Experience and Circulating Competencies
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Karen Wenell, University of Glasgow

This paper considers the account of the Eucharistic meal in Mark 14 as indicative of religious experience, making use of the approach of Bruno Latour (and others working with ANT and ‘after ANT’) and treating Mark as a full actor (in the sense used by Latour) whose voice is heard and valued above our own as interpreters. Thereby, we are able to approach Mark’s account as ‘a colleague consulting a specialist, instead of a pathologist carving a cadaver’ (C Clifton Black, CBQ 2009, 76), and learn something about the flows and circulating entities (both material and supernatural) which are connected to Mark’s account, to his thought about, and his experience of, the Eucharistic meal. Read in this way, Mark’s experience of the Eucharistic meal is not unlike other religious experiences, in which religious competencies (Matthew Day), both cognitive and practical, circulate within the ‘social world’, yet are put together and transformed by the actors themselves. This approach does not exclude the role played by gods and supernatural elements; rather, these make a real difference to religious experience, and should not be put into scare quotes and reduced to ‘the social’ by the interpreter. It is not a matter of judging whether such elements are ‘real’ or not, but allowing for the real difference they make to how accounts hold together and religious competencies are performed in experience.


Parsing Possibilities for Moving from Ancient Text to Experience
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Rodney Werline, Barton College

In the third chapter of her book, Paul and Ecstasy, Colleen Shantz brings neuroscience and cognitive studies to bear on her exegesis of the Pauline letters. As a result, often overlooked statements or statements that modern interpreters have given theological meanings now reveal possibilities of looking in on religious experience. This paper engages these methods and explores how these and other methods might assist in moving from an ancient text to statements about experience. Selected texts from the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls will serve as test cases.


Reconfiguring Death through Ritualized Speech Acts in the Epistle of Enoch
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Rodney A. Werline, Barton College

According to Austin’s speech act theory, the words “Take courage and do not abandon your hope” (1 En 104:4a) articulate the perlocutionary intent of the Epistle of Enoch. The encouragement is important because the righteous unjustly suffer at the hands of the rich and powerful, and their deaths, some of which may have already happened, threaten to verify the unjust cosmos of the rich sinners, who by contrast appear to prosper and go to their deaths in peace. The author of the Epistle does not simply engage in discursive speech and reasoning in order to invoke hope in the righteous; rather, he deploys a series of woes, salvation oracles and oaths that, according to theories of ritualized speech action, by their very performance disrupt the dominant culturally figured world and therefore, from the perspective of the righteous who hear these words, transform the meaning of the deaths of these two groups. Enoch’s revelation of the content of the heavenly tablets about future judgment delivered in these speech forms seems to extend that future reality into this world—in the speaking that other world comes into existence. Drawing on theories of ritualized speech and practice from Bourdieu, Rapport, Austin, Asad, and Holland, this paper argues that the speech in the Epistle of Enoch reconstructs the way in which the righteous experience life, the inevitability of their death, and their emotional state in relationship to these.


True and False Prophecy: A Perspective from the Book of Jeremiah
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Willie Wessels, University of South Africa

True and False Prophecy: A Perspective from the Book of Jeremiah


Apprehending and Being Apprehended by Biblical Narrative: Redeploying Jephthah’s Daughter against British and Afrikaner Colonialism
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal

“The challenge of producing a cogent account of religious change in any part of Africa over the last two centuries lies in how to blend the three narrative themes which are pertinent to it: missionary endeavor, colonization, and the endogenous development of African societies. Each of these offers a template by which certain key relationships are highlighted and (by the same token) others are pushed into the background.” In these two sentences, J. D. Y. Peel elegantly and eloquently encapsulates the complex task before us as we attempt to analyze the appropriation of the Bible in postcolonial Africa. My paper examines one example of this confluence of narratives, that of Isaiah Shembe, founder of Ibandla lamaNazaretha (the congregation of the Nazarites) in the early 1900s, a vibrant and growing African Independent Church in South Africa. In particular, this paper analyses how Isaiah Shembe appropriates the story of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11), both being configured by and reconfiguring this biblical narrative, in his struggle to forge a community in the context of British and then Afrikaner colonialism. What for biblical scholarship has been “a text of terror” becomes for Shembe and his community a text of redemptive religious and political struggle.


Appropriations of Jephthah's Daughter (Judges 11) among the amaNazaretha: From the Early 1900's to Today
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Isaiah Shembe, the founder of iBandla lamaNazaretha, an African Independent Church in southern Africa, 'stole' the Bible from the missionary-colonial masters in the late 1800s and redeployed it to build a community of African resistance. Among the texts he appropriated is the story of Jephthah's daughter in Judges 11. His son and successor, Johannes Galilee, formalised this 're-membered' narrative within a liturgical setting. My paper explores this appropriation from the early 1900s and then invites a current member of the amaNazaretha church to re-read my reading of this appropriation from the current use of this text in the life of the church.


A First Glance at Title Creep
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Ryan Wettlaufer, University of St. Michael's College

“Title creep” is the colloquial name given to the scribal activity wherein additional terms are added to a divine title. Thus, for example, the simple title 'Lord' might become 'Our Lord' in one manuscript, then become 'Our Lord Jesus' in the next manuscript, and finally become 'Our Lord Jesus Christ' in another manuscript. In this way the divine title creeps ever longer with subsequent copying. While this phenomenon is usually mentioned in standard introductory text books, it appears that it has never been studied in depth. This paper presents the beginnings of that study. It tabulates results drawn from an examination of 4321 potential texts in order to start addressing questions like: How often did title creep occur? Where did it occur? When did it occur? What is the nature of the changes? The initial answers to these questions are then seen to have distinct importance for the exegesis of New Testament texts.


Image and Obeisance: The Use of Ekphrasis in Revelation 4:1–11
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Robyn J. Whitaker, University of Chicago

This paper offers a rhetorical reading of Revelation 4:1-11, arguing that the vision of the heavenly throne room functions as an ekphrasis in accordance with classical Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions. Ekphrasis is defined in the Progymnasmata as a vivid description that brings what is described “clearly before the eyes of the hearer”. It turns hearers into spectators, mimicking the effects of viewing art. The one seated upon the throne in Rev 4 is called a “spectacle” (??as??), is vividly described as resembling multi-colored jewels, and is surrounded by both fantastical creatures and typical theophanic accoutrements. The entire scene is a visual feast and verbs of sight abound throughout. What is the rhetorical purpose of such a vision? What effect might this ekphrasis have had on an ancient hearer? Rev 4:1-11 presents the audience with an image of the divine that allows the hearers of Revelation to “view” God. The rhetorical function of such “viewing” makes a spatially distant distant God more present and allows the audience to see and feel what John does. Moreover, in a culture whose religious practices are dominated by tangible images of the gods and emperors who in turn are offered various forms of worship, the author of Revelation offers his own (literary) icon of the divine before which the heavenly host offer obeisance. We will see that sight and obeisance are inextricably linked throughout Revelation, suggesting John’s ekphrasis of the divine aims to compete with the prevailing religious and political culture, particularly in the arena of worship.


Beseeching God and King: Textual Tension in LXX Esther Read with Pierre Bourdieu
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Kelly Whitcomb, Vanderbilt University

In the Septuagint (LXX) version of Esther, there are a number of places where the text diverges from the Masoretic Text (MT). Often these differences create tension in the Greek narrative which scholars have understood as results of layers of redaction in LXX. However, such tensions are not necessarily accidental even if the authors were not always fully conscious of every change. Instead, the tensions and structures of the text may reflect the tensions and structures of the social world in which they were produced, albeit often in indirect ways. Pierre Bourdieu has noted that literacy is a means of cultural capital and texts are a way of accruing social capital and hence of controlling the symbolic capital of a group. For Jewish leaders in the Second Temple period, the proliferation and transmission of written texts was thus a means of maintaining authority in the imperial Diaspora. In addition, those with the cultural capital associated with literacy possess the tools necessary to make alternative claims with regard to social capital. Biblical scholarship has pointed out that in the Second Temple period, Jewish scribes and other religious authorities such as priests existed in a liminal space, at once having authority over other Jews concerning religion but also being authorized and thus ruled by the imperial authorities. These literate Jews possessed more cultural and social capital within the imperial social structures than other Jews, but they possessed less capital than the imperial authorities. At the same time, the texts themselves were a means of accruing capital. Hence, the texts often convey a tension between Jewish ideas and practices and imperial structures because their authors existed and functioned in liminal spaces of tension. In LXX Esther, this tension is revealed in the text’s attempt both to portray the king in a more positive way than MT Esther and to claim that the Jewish God is the ultimate king, a claim which is not made by MT. Within this field of power, the text also claims that particular Jewish practices are vital forms of social capital for Jews. These include prayer to the Lord, circumcision and kosher diet, all of which also convey tension for the Jewish authorities with regard to the imperial social structures. In particular, LXX Esther was produced at a time when Jewish religious authority faced more difficult challenges in the Greco-Roman period. Engaging Bourdieu’s notions of capital with regard to Jewish authorities in the imperial Diaspora and with regard to the texts they produced sheds light on some of the textual tension of LXX Esther. I will argue that rather than simply understanding such tensions as the results of layers of redaction, a reading which investigates the tensions both in and behind the text reveals the tensions in the text to reflect the social structures and struggles for power which the Jewish authorities faced residing in liminal spaces in the empire.


From Memorization to Interpretation: The Benefits of an Interpretation Journal in First Year Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Kelly Whitcomb, Vanderbilt University

Two major goals of elementary biblical Hebrew are to introduce students to the fundamentals of Hebrew vocabulary and grammar and to develop critical thinking skills for translation and interpretation. Achieving an effective balance is an on-going challenge. Along these lines, scholarship on pedagogy in higher education proposes that students can and should function at multiple levels of memorization and critical thinking in order to develop deep understanding of any subject (Bain 2004; Willhauck 2010). With this in mind I have developed an interpretation journal which I utilize in the second semester of Biblical Hebrew. It is a journal in part because it is a regular practice and in part because students have permission to ask questions or to note the difficulties they experience in working through the exercise. Students write journal entries every other week, and each entry focuses on a particular aspect of a verse or passage read in class. In each entry students must parse or describe a piece of grammar and consider the possibilities of translation and interpretation concerning the word or phrase in the given verse. In this way students move from basic memorization/recall and parsing to putting together syntax and finally to the higher-order critical thinking skills of interpretation. In addition, students learn to use the resources available to them, including lexicons, grammar references and translations. The journal requires students to use these resources in focused ways to check their understanding or to consider further possibilities with regard to a word’s or phrase's function and meaning. Hence, students develop the skills for finding and assessing the information in such resources while building on their knowledge of the language. Finally, at the beginning of the semester, the journal provides basic challenges such as parsing and choosing the proper definition of a word or phrase, but as the semester progresses students are faced with more challenging tasks such as explaining a particular translation, grammatically assessing text-critical issues or looking up difficult grammatical concepts and working through them on their own. Thus, the journal is a method for moving students from basic recognition and recall to critical skills necessary to read independently.


All the Things I Wish I Had Known: A First Timers Approach to Teaching the Bible and the Qur’an
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Ellen White, Assumption College

A reality of the modern university structure, particularly of the undergraduate liberal arts variety, is that often instructors end up teaching courses outside of their primary discipline. Being the person in the theology department with a Bible degree, I was the “logical” choice when the department decided to offer a course on the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an. This paper comes out of my experience teaching a course called “Isaac and Ishmael: The Bible and the Qur’an” for the first time. Taking a case study approach, it is explores the joys and pit falls experienced by a first timer in a small catholic liberal arts college. While I will share the parts of the course that were successful and the pieces that were well received, the focus of the paper will be on areas that I struggled with or that fell flat when put into practice. My conclusions will contain a list of suggestions I have for those thinking of developing a course in the area, including all the things I wish I had known then.


A New History of the Ostia Synagogue: Its Construction, Contexts, and Use in Light of the UT Excavations
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
L. Michael White, University of Texas at Austin

Sitting at the mouth of the Tiber River, Ostia was the port city for ancient Rome and thus something of a microcosm of Rome itself. While catacomb inscriptions provide information on more than 10 Jewish congregations in Rome during the imperial period, none of the actual meeting places have been found. The Synagogue at Ostia, first discovered in 1961, remains the only archaeological site in the environs of Rome. Since 2001 the UT OSMAP Project has conducted extensive field studies, archival work, and new excavations on the Ostia Synagogue resulting in an entirely revised building history. Situated in a thriving suburban neighborhood of the city along the main coastal highway, the Via Severiana, the edifice was built sometime in the early 3rd cent. CE and went through several major renovations into the 5th cent. CE. It continued functioning as a synagogue at least well into the 6th cent. CE or beyond, before it was finally abandoned. New discoveries provide evidence for liturgical practice, while several new inscriptions also provide information regarding the Jewish community of Ostia and its social standing.


The Rhetoric of Kyrios and the Diminution of the Son of David in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Michael Whitenton, Baylor University

Previous scholarship has long been divided over two key questions in the characterization of the Markan Jesus: What is the relationship of Jesus to the God of Israel?, and What is the relationship of Jesus to the Son of David? However, the potential value of ancient rhetoric for this endeavor has—as far as I’m aware—remained completely untapped. Setting out to fill this lacuna, this paper utilizes ancient rhetorical theory to explicate the relationship of Jesus to God, particularly with reference to the hints at ambivalent Son of David Christology throughout the Gospel. It will be argued that Mark’s Gospel uses two complementary rhetorical figures: First, for those with “ears to hear” there is a rhetorical use of kyrios. Known in the rhetorical handbooks as “emphasis through ambiguity,” this figure functioned for the audience both to distance the Markan Jesus from the Son of David and simultaneously to elevate him to near equality with God. Secondly, this characterization of Jesus is supported by an extended dual synkrisis — a rhetorical comparison. As the narrative approaches 12:35–37, synkrisis is used to compare the deeds of Jesus to the deeds of God (esp. 4:39–41; 6:47–52). The rhetorical effect is that by 12:35–37, the audience is already meant to be persuaded that Jesus is David’s Lord, not David’s son. This thesis is particularly relevant to the current program topic in that it focuses Mark’s kyrios Christology at a level emic to Mark’s ancient context, which sets the divine in tension with more mundane messianic hopes. The paper will proceed in two stages. First, I will offer a brief discussion of emphasis and synkrisis, as they are described in the relevant progymnasmata and rhetorical handbooks. Second, I will present a rhetorically sensitive reading of select passages (Mark 1.3; 2.28; 4.39–41; 5.19–20; 6.47–52; 10.46–52; 11.1–11; 12.35–37), at which point I will demonstrate that this rhetorical strategy characterizes Jesus primarily as kyrios rather than the Son of David, evincing a Christology every bit has high, though not as explicit, as the Fourth Gospel.


Group Identity and the Textual Caricatures of the Shechemites
Program Unit: Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
Mark F. Whitters, Eastern Michigan University

In the ancient world, storytelling was more than an entertaining pastime. Archetypal stories were pedagogical tools, used and reused to teach lessons. One such archetypal story was the rape of Dinah (Genesis 34), and one of its thematic messages involved group identity and relationships with outsiders. This paper argues that two later biblical stories followed in Dinah’s wake: Judith’s deliverance of Israel (Book of Judith, LXX) and the woman at the well (John 4). Together these stories project contrasts and developments in lessons about group identity, a trajectory that is not often noticed by modern commentators. All three stories reveal perspectives on race, religion, and romance.


Favor, Struggle, and Abandonment: Life in the Spirit in Galatians 4:6 and the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Timothy Wiarda, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (Mill Valley)

The Gospel of Mark presents three instances of direct communication between Jesus and God: God’s words of affirmation at Jesus’ baptism, Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, and his cry of dereliction from the cross. These scenes form a distinct and progressing story thread within Mark’s larger narrative, one that centers in Jesus’ experience of his relation to God. Mark highlights the Spirit’s active presence in connection with Jesus’ baptism and the temptation that immediately follows (the only two places in the Gospel where the Spirit is directly linked to Jesus’ experience); he thereby implies that the Spirit was also present with Jesus in Gethsemane and at the cross. A canonical approach that reads Mark’s depiction of Jesus’ experience in light of Galatians 4:6, and the latter text in light of Mark’s depiction, enriches our understanding of both portions of Scripture. In Galatians 4:6 Paul describes the Spirit’s work of bringing Christian believers into an experience of God as Father. He links this Spirit-generated experience of believers to Jesus’ experience of the Father by referring to the Spirit as “the Spirit of his Son” and using the expression “Abba, Father.” The closely parallel Romans 8:15 sheds further light on this matter, both reinforcing and extending the links between the experiences of believers and Jesus. In the context of the Romans passage Paul describes Christians as “co-heirs with Christ” and those who “share in his sufferings;” he then goes on to speak of their groaning and even to address the question of abandonment. Mark’s portrayal of Jesus allows us to fill in Paul’s picture of Spirit-led sonship with sharp, concrete detail, and helps us answer the theological question of what obedient, Spirit-indwelt Christians can expect in their felt experience of God.


The Poetics of Villainization: Ephrem's Reading of Ritual Transgression
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jeffrey Wickes, University of Notre Dame

Studies of the use of Scripture in Ephrem’s literary corpus have focused predominantly on (a) his hermeneutics (and their overlap with his broader semiotics), (b) the relationships of these hermeneutics to other types of late antique reading (for example, his similarity to so-called “Antiochene” or “Alexandrian” readers), or (c) have engaged in an effort to establish the biblical text upon which Ephrem drew. Less common have been studies which have investigated the role Scripture plays in establishing the rhetoric of Ephrem’s hymns – that is, the way Scripture helps Ephrem say what he wants to say, to whom he wants to say it. Recently, Christine Shepardson’s Anti-Judaism and Christian Orthodoxy has proved an admirable exception to these scholarly tendencies. Shepardson focuses on Ephrem as a polemicist, and argues that his reading of Scripture – in which he recasts biblical villains as proto-Arians – is motivated in large part by his own project of crafting a fourth-century Nicene Christian identity clearly distinguishable from both Judaism and non-Nicene Christianity. Yet, arguably, Shepardson’s heavy emphasis on the rhetorical ends to which Ephrem puts the biblical characters results in a minimizing of the extent to which the biblical characters as they appear in his hymns are themselves products of a nuanced exegesis. This paper thus treats the hermeneutical processes through which Ephrem constructs these biblical villains. I argue that they arise from a conscious, complex, and often very detailed engagement with the biblical text, and involve a poetic dynamic in which, on the one hand, Ephrem uses biblical scenes, characters, ideas and vocabulary to shape the poetics of his own text, but, on the other hand, essentially rewrites these scriptural episodes by embedding them (structurally, lexically, and ideologically) within his own hymns. This process can be clearly discerned in his eight hymn of the collection of Hymns on Faith. Hymn eight contains sixteen stanzas, in which Ephrem weaves together six different Old Testament ritual transgression narratives, and uses them to recast fourth-century heterodoxy as ritual transgression born anew. Having offered an analysis of the use of Scripture in hymn eight, I conclude by suggesting that if we heed Ephrem’s poetic use of Scripture in this single hymn, we can garner a greater understanding of the way exegesis and rhetoric work together in his hymns. This, in turn, will deepen our understanding of Ephrem as a reader of Scripture.


Can a Nasraniyya Teach the Qur’an Effectively, Authoritatively, and Authentically?
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Clare Wilde, Catholic University of America

A ‘nasraniyya’ is teaching you the Qur’an?! That, reportedly, was the concern of a sheikh in Doha when a student brought him questions that arose in Georgetown’s ‘Problem of God’ class at Education City in Spring 2008. In the estimation of some students at Education City, ‘it is easy to be pious’: in other words, prior to university, a female student could earn a ‘good’ mark in ‘religion’ classes by covering her hair in an ‘appropriately’ modest fashion. By and large, (certain) hadith were emphasized (rather than memorization – let alone study – of passages from the Qur’an itself). The process by which educators of ‘religious sciences’ are selected in a number of Arabic-speaking societies is in accord with their marks on the exit exams from high school: high marks (and English proficiency) earn them the possibility of a place in Medicine (including Dentistry), Architecture and/or Engineering. Low marks (and less emphasis on English acquisition) open doors to literature/languages/social sciences – and Kulliyat al-Shari’a. Certainly, those who earn high tawhjihi marks may elect to study languages, or enter the ‘Religious Sciences’, but not without serious questioning from friends and family - a situation not terribly different from that of an Ivy League graduate in the United States who chooses to pursue (non-ministerial) ‘Religious Studies’. In the contemporary transnational university classroom, and in the face of a ‘dilution’ of traditional ‘qur’anic sciences’ in a number of countries, ‘academic’ study of the Qur’an faces a series of challenges today: e.g., which translation to use? Where does one go for reliable (and respectful) secondary literature? In order to obtain the confidence of a classroom of students, Muslim and non-, from a variety of backgrounds, might a non-Muslim maintain credibility and authenticity through effective employment of the approaches to the Qur’an found in early Christian Arabic texts, as well as those of traditional disciplines within Islamic tradition (e.g. tafsir – fiqh – kalam – hadith, etc.)?


Was Amos Prohibited from Interceding? The Absence of Intercession in the Second Two Visions of Amos
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
J. Blair Wilgus, University of Edinburgh

The motif of Yahweh’s prophet prohibited from interceding for Israel is a recognized one. Moses is almost prohibited from interceding on behalf of Israel (Ex. 32:9-14) The prophet Jeremiah is explicitly commanded not to intercede (Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11) and the prophet Ezekiel is rendered mute to prevent his intervention (Ez.3:25-26, cf. 24:27; 33:22). Amos 7:1-8:3 features two pairs of visions; the prophet sees destruction in the first two visions and successfully intercedes for Israel. In the second two visions the prophet sees an image that is interpreted for him, identifying the destruction to come. No mention of intercession is then made. Scholars commonly interpret the absence of prophetic intercession as prohibited intercession. This paper will examine the absence of intercession in the second two visions of Amos to determine whether this is an example of prohibited intercession or something completely different.


Memory, Scripture, and Tradition in the Gospel of John: Insights from Ancient Media Studies
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Catrin Williams, University of Wales: Trinity Saint David

Recent investigations of ancient media culture highlight the significant role of memory in the interplay of orality and writing in antiquity. This paper will examine the extent to which the use of Scripture, particularly explicit quotations, can shed light on the mnemonic processes at work in John’s Gospel, and will consider the implications of those processes for understanding the Johannine handling of Jesus tradition.


Otherness Reconciled, Otherness Treasured: Reading Colossians 1:15–20 at the Interface of the Bakhtinian-Barthian Discourse on Encounter
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
David W. Williams, Laidlaw College

The thought of Mikhail Bakhtin intersects with that of Karl Barth around the concept of encounter — the discovery by a differentiated consciousness (the "self") of the otherness of the thou. For Barth, this is love — the treasuring of the otherness of the thou — and it is imago Dei; humanity images the triune God in the event of the I-Thou encounter. For Bakhtin, this is dialogical truth — the discovery of the “self” of the other who occupies another time and another space — and it is in this event that humanity discovers its unfinalisable humanness.The intersection of these ideas at the point of encounter provides a helpful starting point for a rich reading of the hymn of reconciliation in Colossians 1:15-20. This hymn, and its central theme of reconciliation between the “invisible” God and the “visible” creation, informs the Pauline epistemology of love which is referenced throughout the letter. In this hymn, God is portrayed as seeking reconciliation with the other (creation, with humanity as its particular focus), while also preserving the otherness of that other. This is achieved in the death of Jesus Christ, in place of the other. Reading the hymn in light of the Bakhtin-Barth intersection suggests an ethic of otherness that both celebrates reconciliation and treasures otherness — an ethic that both Bakhtin and Barth would say could only occur in the dialogue, in the actual encounter between discrete persons. This paper explores Colossians 1:15-20 through this hermeneutical lens, and suggests pathways to reconciliation that embrace encounter and the treasuring of otherness, with reference to the Pauline ethical imperatives that emerge in the later sections of Colossians.


The Origin of Bishop Ignatius’s Martyr Complex? The Nachwirgung of Maccabean Martyr Theology on Ignatius’s Martyr Theology
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Jarvis J. Williams, Campbellsville University

Research Question: The question that I will attempt to answer in the paper is whether Maccabean Martyr Theology had an informative impact on Bishop Ignatius’s martyr complex. Additional Questions: I will consider two closely related questions in pursuit of an answer to the research question. (1) Do Ignatius’s letters reveal a familiarity with Maccabean Martyr Theology? (2) Are there sufficient parallels between the descriptions of the Maccabean martyrs and Ignatius’s martyrdom to answer the question whether Maccabean Martyr Theology shaped his understanding of his own martyrdom? Method: I will employ an exegetical method to help answer the above questions. The exegesis will offer a comparative analysis of selected texts in both 2 and 4 Maccabees and selected texts in Ignatius’s letters. The analysis will exclusively be concerned with discerning how the different traditions describe martyrdom to provide answers as to whether Maccabean Martyr Theology influenced Ignatius’s martyr complex. Conclusion: The evidence derived from the above method will help establish the conclusion whether Maccabean Martyr Theology deserves any credit for Ignatius’s martyr complex.


The Book of Job: On Friendship, Bullying, and Sacrifice
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Jennifer J. Williams, Vanderbilt University

Bullying has reached appalling levels in our nation’s schools and universities, culminating in radical and terrible responses (e.g. children seeking plastic surgery, mass shootings in the nation’s high schools, and tragic suicides). Bullying no longer refers to mere schoolyard shoves, but has the ability to permeate all aspects of young people’s lives through various forms of multimedia and especially in social networking sites. Exploring the contemporary issue of bullying, this paper will utilize perspectives and conversations gleaned from high school students who are leaders in their schools and faith communities in order to consider how the Book of Job might shed light on this challenging contemporary issue. After Job loses all but his life, Job’s friends first act as his comforters. However, soon their accusations against Job demonstrate an utter lack of empathy, escalating into abuse against Job. Job argues back, and indicts his “so-called” friends of being tormentors. At the same time, Job charges God with unjust treatment. In the end, Job prays to God on behalf of his friends in order to enable the story’s neat and tidy conclusion. This paper reflects on how Job may or may not be a good example of how to resist bullying and pressure from peers. The story also helps reveal how our own culture of violence repeatedly leaves no other option for the ones being bullied but to sacrifice to and for the sake of their tormentors. Because of this, the Book of Job might necessitate a resistant reading, as it provides little opportunity for deliverance from tormentors for the sufferer and also reinstates an oppressive and illegitimate framework of understanding. Ultimately, the paper considers how an individual friend or an entire faith community might respond in pastoral ways to the issue of bullying and to those who suffer from bullying.


The Suffering God of Hosea
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Martha S. Kimbrell-Williams, Regent University

The tendency in Hebrew Bible studies, both textual and theological, has been to either project the ideas of divine suffering and vulnerability onto the incarnate God of the New Testament, or designate those passages which speak of a suffering, grieving God as mere metaphor, unworthy of serious study or consideration. Terrence Fretheim accurately identifies the work of Abraham Heschel and the feminist theological movement as the driving agents behind the present interest in the suffering God of the Hebrew Bible. From the perspective of gender oppression and generations of mental and social subjugation, the feminist movement has challenged the patriarchal interpretations of biblical metaphors used to describe God, especially those found within the Hebrew Bible. Feminist scholars have offered interpretations of these metaphors which include divine vulnerability, suffering and grieving. This paper will present a sampling of the ongoing discussions and issues that have been aroused by the idea that the God of the Hebrew Bible suffers with special attention given to the Book of Hosea.


The Book of Eli: The Dawn of the Twenty-First Century Apocalypse
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Marvin Williams, Command Chaplain

Biblical themes and theological motifs are pervasive throughout American popular culture. Nowhere is this more evident than in the film and entertainment industry which critics simply label as "Hollywood." Among biblical themes explored by screenwriters and producers in the past decade, there still seems to be an overwhelming fascination for the development of apocalyptic motifs. One such film released in 2010 is "The Book of Eli," written by Gary Whitta and directed by Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes. Although the "The Book of Eli" received mix reviews from critics, the film's treatment of apocalyptic themes warrants further study because of the heuristic value it adds to biblical criticism. Given the fact that many students and moviegoers only learn about apocalyptic themes through films, I wish to examine some of the more prominent biblical motifs behind the plot that makes "The Book of Eli" a treatise for liberation and emancipation. In particular, I am interested in how the film brings together the imagery of the priesthood in ancient Israel in 1 Samuel 1-2, the incarnate Word of God in John 1:1-14, the scroll of the Lamb in Rev. 5:1-5, the Two Witnesses in Rev. 11:1-14, and the new Jerusalem in Rev. 21:1-22:5. Utilizing a cultural studies approach, this paper will explore issues of race, gender, domination and resistance, and the power of film in popular culture as a means of religious expression.


The Gadarene, Gerasene, and Gergesene Variants Reconsidered
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Peter J. Williams, Tyndale House (Cambridge)

At Matthew 8:28, Mark 5:1, and Luke 8:26 witnesses divide at least three ways regarding the people group mentioned. The consensus of modern editions is that ‘Gadarenes’ should be read in Matthew, while ‘Gerasenes’ should be read in Mark and Luke. However, this paper will propose that modern editions have chosen the wrong reading in every instance. The first clue to the problem is the versional support. In general, the earliest versions contain the same reading for all three passages. This shows that assimilation is likely to have occurred in their tradition and makes problematic any appeal to these versions in attempts to establish the initial text for any individual passage. Similar problems occur with Greek witnesses which are likely to have undergone assimilation. Finally, the solution of recent editions implies an appeal to simultaneous contrary forces of assimilation, producing a majority reading in all three texts which is different from the initial text. A simpler solution will be proposed for the history of these variants and how they could arise from the initial text.


Redaction by Addition: Exilic Fortschreibungen in Isaiah
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
H.G.M. Williamson, University of Oxford

Biblical redaction critics often fail to consider that each redaction must inevitably have involved the re-copying of the entire scroll, so that to postulate the multiplication of such layers of redaction becomes a self-defeating hypothesis. An exception to this might include short additions that could be accommodated on a previously extant scroll. This paper will look at a sample of such possible additions in the first part of the book of Isaiah which have the application of the previous passage to the exile of the people of Judah as their common theme. They are recognizable in part also by their character as Fortschreibung, in which language or phraseology in the prevailing context is taken up and developed in some way. The collection of such examples suggests that there could have been a systematic redaction of Isaiah under the impact of exile which did not, unusually, require wholesale recopying.


Yahweh Regenerates His Vineyard: Isaiah 27
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
John T. Willis, Abilene Christian University

Scholars continue to struggle about the nature, structure, meaning, and significance of Isaiah 27. It is common to deal with this text diachronically, dividing it into three to six original fragments. This study attempts to deal with Isaiah 27 synchronically rhetorically. This assumes that a composer carefully wove the various parts of this chapter into an oral, dramatic performance for a live audience apparently living among Judean Babylonian exiles. This paper attempts to deal with three aspects when one considers Isaiah 27. First, the metaphor of Israel [Judah] as a vine or vineyard appears regularly in the Hebrew Bible, and thus probably offers a significant background for understanding Isaiah 27. The terminology of Isa 27:2-6 is similar to Isa 24:7; 32:12-15. The whole figure of Yahweh as vinedresser and Israel as a vine or vineyard is striking in Hos 9:10-:10:6 [especially 10:1]; Jer 2:21; 6:9; Ps 80:8-19. Second, Isaiah 27 reverses the metaphor of the vineyard in Isa 5:1-7. In both texts, the poet summons his audience to “sing” about his vineyard (5:1; 27:2). However, 5:1-7 is an announcement of punishment while 27:2-6, 9, 12-13 is a promise of hope. In 5:5, Yahweh states he will devour, break down, and trample his people, but in 27:5, 12-13, Yahweh assures his people that he will protect them, gather them from the scattered nations where they live and 2 come and worship Yahweh on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. In 5:6, Yahweh proclaims he will not prune nor hoe his vineyard, but it will be overgrown with briers and thorns, but in 27:4, 6, 9, Yahweh encourages his people in exile that if his vineyard gives him thorns and briers, he will march to battle against it and burn it up, Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and put forth shoots, and fill the whole world with fruit, and by exile the guilt of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin when he destroys the images and idols of other gods. Additional contrasts appear in Isa 5:1-7 and 27:1-13. Third, one may interpret Isaiah 27 coherently from a rhetorical perspective. 27:1 and 12-13 are an inclusio in prose declaring that “on that day” Yahweh will overthrow the enemies of his people. The poetic section falls into two parts. In 27:2-6, Yahweh assures his penitent people that he will sustain and protect them. In 27:7-11, Yahweh explains that his chastisement was essential to bring his people back to God, and now he has removed his sin. Unlike Jerusalem (v 13), “the fortified city” [whether this be Samaria or Babylon or some anonymous city] is forsaken and deserted.


“What Other Nation is Like Your People Israel?” A Textual and Redaction Critical Study of 2 Sam 7:22–24
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Timothy M. Willis, Pepperdine University

One of the most heavily investigated texts in the so-called Deuteronomistic History is 2 Sam 7. An important part of many investigations has been the redaction history of the chapter, and redaction critics have commonly asserted that vv 22-24 represent an exilic addition to the Prayer of David, which comprises the second half of the chapter. The present study seeks to come at this specific point afresh in a two-part approach. First, a careful textual critical analysis of v 23 will show that the MT in this verse represents the latest stage in the text’s development. This is important, because most redaction critical analyses have assumed the MT’s version as the text to evaluate. So, the second part of the paper will take the reconstructed text of vv 22-24 and consider anew the question of the redactional relationship between vv 22-24, the rest of the Prayer of David, and the chapter as a whole.


“Outsider Icon”: A Commentary on the Tradition of John 19:5 from the Street
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Andrew P. Wilson, Mount Allison University

John 19:5 provides a dramatic textual site, rich in classic theological irony, interpretative conflict and devotional fecundity. The narrative action shifts between interiors to exteriors and along the way confuses notions of truth and authority: is Jesus’ divinity or humanity being emphasized here, his kingship or lowliness, or is such ambivalence precisely the message intended? This passage also provides an important point of inspiration for traditional Christian iconography something that, in the contemporary period, has given rise to a range of ideological critiques from both inside and outside the tradition (see examples of work by sculptor Mark Wallinger, photographer Elisabeth Ohlson and even Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ). Influenced by postcolonial perspectives, this paper brings John 19:5 into conversation with a recently discovered artistic rendering of this ecce homo tradition, one that might be best classified as ‘street art.’ The picture is a charcoal drawing of Jesus by a Jewish artist from 1940s Amsterdam. Its context places it outside of the traditional parameters of Christianity, and from this marginal vantage point, it makes a profound comment on the complicity of Christian culture in the Holocaust. And yet, while lying outside the province of traditional Christian representation, the “Amsterdam Jesus” maintains a faithful dialogue with the innermost heart of Christianity as a potentially grave comment on the human condition, the location of grace and the nature of redemption. Despite its now distant historical origins, this “outsider icon” continues to offer its own provocative commentary on contemporary questions about the boundaries between sacred and secular, the cultural ownership of the figure of Jesus and the authority to interpret the biblical text.


Neither Male nor Female: The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:25–40) and the Intersection of Greco-Roman Masculinity
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Brittany E. Wilson, Princeton Theological Seminary

Reading Acts with respect to ancient constructions of masculinity is a current lacuna in Acts’ scholarship. Although masculinity studies proliferate in the field of Classics and are being increasingly generated among biblical scholars, those who interpret Acts in light of ancient masculine norms amount to a surprising few. Even more surprising is that the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8:25-40—who arguably lacks a potent symbol of masculinity in the Greco-Roman world—remains largely unexamined by those who do attend to gender in Acts. This oversight is primarily due to the widespread assumption that the eunuch, as an official to the Queen of Ethiopia, is a personage of great importance who simply reflects Luke’s larger interest in high-status individuals. Such an assumption, however, overlooks the inextricable connection between status, ethnicity, and gender, and how the eunuch’s repeated designation as “the eunuch” (vv. 27, 34, 36, 38, 39) would have affected his status in particular. This paper, then, will problematize the depiction of the eunuch as an elite, “respectable” convert to the Way by focusing on the gendered significance of his identification as (1) “the eunuch,” (2) an Ethiopian, and (3) one who serves the Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians (v. 27). Looking at these intersecting descriptors against the backdrop of ancient masculine mores reveals that the Ethiopian eunuch would appear to many of Luke’s early auditors as a gender liminal figure; a monstrous “non-man” who is neither male nor female. In the context of Acts 8, this liminality is precisely the point, for it intersects with the liminal, ambiguously gendered body of Jesus, whom Luke identifies as the suffering servant from Isaiah 53:7-8. Like the eunuch, Jesus does not easily adhere to traditional representations of masculinity and power; a point that Luke highlights with his identification of Jesus as the Isaianic figure who is slaughtered and shorn; silent and subordinate.


Chrysostom’s Analysis of Paul’s “Gentle” Rhetoric about Jews and Judaism
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Courtney Wilson VanVeller, Boston University

John Chyrsostom’s homiletic observations concerning the rhetorical elements of the Pauline epistles have been helpfully used both to examine ancient rhetorical readings of the New Testament and to illumine Paul’s own rhetorical strategies. This paper explores how John’s analysis of Paul’s rhetoric, both as depicted in Acts and as attested in the Pauline epistles, is especially helpful in illuminating a particularly challenging, and essential, facet of ancient and modern Pauline interpretation – that is, Paul’s rhetoric concerning Jews and Judaism. Scholarship on John’s own rhetorical invective against Jews and Judaism focuses on his eight homilies known as Adversus Iudaeos, yet John’s concern with such matters extends well beyond these limited homilies. John is a devoted admirer of the figure of Paul, and one of the most active commentators on the Pauline letters; finding in Paul a fellow Antiochene preacher who, like John himself, fought against Christian Judaizers, John also encounters in the apostle a self-identified Israelite and a ‘Hebrew born of Hebrews’. Thus, as John habitually exhorts his congregants to imitate the apostle, he must continually confront Paul’s complicated relationship to Jews and Judaism. This paper will demonstrate that John’s observations concerning Paul’s rhetorical choices are critical to such exegetical confrontations. John addresses Paul’s brotherly language towards Jewish places, peoples, and practices by celebrating Paul’s skilled use of such gentle rhetoric. He argues that such gentleness is a necessary and effective rhetorical strategy by which Paul draws the Jews toward himself in an attempt to quiet their passion riddled souls so that he can more effectively inflict a wound of condemnation. John’s various discussions of Paul’s gentle rhetoric concerning the Jews thus contribute to his exaltations of Paul as the philosophical soul extraordinaire, and the Jews as passionate souls unable to respond favorably to his message of salvation.


The Ephesian Elders Come to Miletus: An Annaliste Reading of Acts 20:15–18a
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Mark Wilson, Asia Minor Research Center

In his recent study on Ionia Alan Greaves adopts an Annaliste approach following the pioneering work of Fernand Braudel. Greaves attempts to move beyond a text-based understanding of sites and events by also considering the related landscape and geographical data. This study adopts Greaves’s methodology in examining a text in Acts related to the Ionian cities of Samos, Miletus, and Ephesus. Acts 20:15-18a records that Paul bypassed Ephesus, but later summoned the Ephesian elders to meet the apostle in Miletus. This summons sets up one of Paul’s most important speeches and the only one in Acts delivered to a Christian audience. This study will examine the landscape and geography related to this stage of Paul’s third journey as well as the journey of the Ephesian elders to Miletus. It will also look at how recently published Bible atlases have illustrated this segment of Paul’s journeys. An Annaliste reading will hopefully bring fresh insights into Paul’s travel habits and his decision-making related to ministry as depicted in this text in Acts.


Samson the Man-Child: Failing to Come of Age in Biblical Literature
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Stephen M. Wilson, Duke University

In recent decades, many biblical scholars have shown convincingly that a key feature of the narrative depiction of Samson is the hero’s liminality, his status as a character caught “betwixt and between” two different worlds or states of being. Most often the discussion of Samson’s liminality draws attention to his perpetual location at the border between nature and culture—freely crossing this border, but never staying long in one world. My paper shows that a central aspect of Samson’s liminality has yet to be illuminated: the failure of this man-child ever definitively to cross the threshold into adulthood. The character’s impressive strength and occasional eloquence are telling marks of manhood in ancient Israelite literature, as recent work on masculinity in the Hebrew Bible has recognized. However, alongside these manly traits Samson demonstrates a lack of impulse control, an unwillingness or inability to be self-sufficient, and remains childless throughout the narrative, characteristics that suggest a failure to transition to mature adulthood. Nowhere is the childlike half of Samson’s character more on display than after he has been captured and shorn by his Philistine enemies. I argue that the long-recognized emasculation implicit in the Philistine treatment of Samson functions as an infantilization of the hero as much as a feminization, thus once again drawing the reader’s attention to this particular aspect of Samson’s liminality. I conclude by drawing upon recent scholarship on the character of Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh showing that he may similarly represent a case of “arrested development.” This provides compelling evidence for my reading of the Samson tale as describing a failure to come of age, given the number of studies that have noted the many similarities in the depictions of Samson and Enkidu.


Translating the Sentences of Sextus
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Walter Wilson, Emory University

A new translation of the Sentences of Sextus will be presented for discussion.


The Nature of Persian-Hebrew Language Contact in the Achamenid Period
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Aren Wilson-Wright, University of Texas at Austin

The nature of Persian influence on Hebrew has been a point of contention in recent years. Young, Rezetko, and Ehrensvard maintain that Old Persian influence is evident throughout the Biblical corpus, most notably in the form of loanwords, and so has no probative value for dating Biblical texts. Others, such as Hurvitz, insist that Persian influence could only have taken place during the Achaemenid period and that it therefore provides a reliable, even sufficient criterion for pinpointing late texts. So far the debate has focused almost exclusively on loanwords. This paper attempts to shift the discussion away from loanwords and onto a more holistic study of language contact between Old Persian and Late Hebrew. More specifically, I will investigate the how, when, and why of Persian-Hebrew contact using both textual and linguistic data. A variety of sources attest to multi-lingualism in the Persian empire (Ezra 4:18; Esth 1:22, 6:1; DB 70) and provide clues as to the setting of Persian-Hebrew contact. A synoptic comparison of Old Persian loanwords into Hebrew and their Aramaic equivalents, on the other hand, suggests that Aramaic did not always mediate Persian-Hebrew contact. Using this as a starting point, I argue that there was enough contact between Old Persian and Hebrew to alter the syntax of Hebrew only in the Achaemenid period. I will then focus on three examples of contact-induced change: the inversion of the royal title hammele? PN (e.g. 2 Sam 9:5 cf. 1 Chr 26:26) under the influence of the Persian titularly PN xšaya?iya; the calque Attributive Noun PN šem? (Prov 21:24; Job 1:1; 2 Chr 18:9) based on the common Persian phrase Attributive Noun PN nama (Kent, 97); and the use of apposition to represent a construct chain synthetically (e.g. Pr 22:21; 1 Chr 28:18; 2 Chr 15:8) which reflects the reduced role of the genitive case in Old Persian (Kent, 98). Hurvitz, Avi. A Linguistic Study of the Relationship between the Priestly Sources and Ezekiel: A New Approach to an Old Problem. Paris: J. Galbada, 1982. Kent, Roland. Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon. 2nd ed. American Oriental Series 33. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1953. Young, Ian, Robert Rezetko, and Martin Ehrensvärd. Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts: An Introduction to Approaches and Problems. New York: Equinox Publishing, 2008.


White Men's Fetish: The Black Atlantic Reads King James
Program Unit:
Vincent Wimbush, Claremont Graduate University

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Armed with the Censer Containing Weaponized Incense: Censer and Incense as Articles of Dress for the High Priest
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Ross E. Winkle, Pacific Union College

The purpose of my presentation is to demonstrate that both the censer and its incense should be understood as role-related dress items of the Jewish high priest. The traditional portrayal of the high priest’s dress, often described as the “eight garments,” is not only stereotypical but also incongruous with contemporary analyses of dress. The censer and its incense, for instance, have usually been overlooked or ignored as high priestly dress items. Nevertheless, while not exclusive to the high priest, they were foundationally associated with the high priest through both cultic law (e.g., Exod 30:7-8; Lev 16:12-13) and gripping narrative (e.g., Num 16:46-48 [MT 17:11-13]). Since dress can communicate such information as personal, social, and role-related identities, the censer and its incense as articles of dress became iconic signifiers of the high priest’s sacral identity and role-related status. The censer as a dress tool and the incense both as dress equipment and dress fragrance or cosmetic find resonance with such texts as Wis 18:21 (where the incense is described as an Aaronic weapon), 4 Macc 7:11 (where Aaron is described as “fully armed with the censer”), and Sir 50:9 (where the high priest Simon II is rapturously compared to “fire and frankincense in the censer”). Furthermore, understanding the censer and incense as role-related items of high priestly dress helps explain the enigmatic and thus far unresolved reference to the rare term chalkolibano (literally, “bronze-frankincense”) associated with the one like a son of man in Rev 1:15.


Apocalyptic Optics: The Ancient Extramission Theory of Vision and John’s Apocalypse
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Ross E. Winkle, Pacific Union College

The purpose of my presentation is to demonstrate that visual sensory perception in John’s Apocalypse has a Jewish basis but is similar to the ancient extramission theory of vision known from such Hellenistic philosophers as Alcmaeon, Parmides, the Pythagoreans, and the Stoics. Recent research on the history of optics has demonstrated that the two most popular theories of vision in Hellenism both involved the extramission theory of vision, in which the eye sends forth (or, is a channel for) a ray or beam that comes into contact with another object. One modern reflection of this ancient theory of vision is in the X-Men comic and film series, where the character “Cyclops” utilizes a single beam of intense luminosity as a weapon against his foes. While scholars have examined the extramission theory of vision in relation to the Hellenistic and Jewish background of texts from the gospels, reference to several optical elements in John’s Apocalypse has been largely inconspicuous—if not entirely absent. In my presentation I will examine several texts relative to the optics of John’s Apocalypse, including: (1) the fiery eyes of Jesus in 1:14; 2:18; and 19:12; (2) the seven eyes of the Lamb in 5:6; and (3) the blindness of Laodicea and the necessity of ointment as a solution to its blindness in 3:17-18. I will further demonstrate that the extramission theory of vision illuminates the Jewish backgrounds to these texts and is a critical factor in understanding and appreciating the ancient sensory meaning of them.


The Finger Prints of the Elijah-Elisha Narrative in Mark 6–8
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Adam Winn, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

This paper will argue that the Elijah-Elisha Narrative was used by the Markan evangelist as a literary source/model in the composition of Mark 6-7. The paper will begin with a brief discussion of criteria for determining literary dependence. It will examine Mark’s two feeding narratives (6:30-44; 8:1-10) and account of the Syrophoenician woman (7:24-30). The paper will argue that the former pericopae are imitations of 2 Kings 4:42-44, while the latter pericope is an imitation of 1 Kings 17:7-16. The paper will conclude by noting additional mimetic markers in Mark 6-7 that point to the Elijah-Elisha narrative as a significant Markan literary source.


Sociology Trumps Theology
Program Unit: Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Richard Winn, Western Association of Schools and Colleges

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Who and What Are "Ambassadors for Christ?" The Identity and Role of Paul’s Audience in 2 Corinthians 5:16–21
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Sean F. Winter, Melbourne College of Divinity

In this paper I argue that Paul’s use of the 1st person plural in 2 Corinthians 5.16–21 is inclusive and, when understood in relation to the surrounding material in 5.11–15 and 6.1–13, is intended to locate the Corinthian audience within the ambit of Paul’s apostolic ministry. A survey of the likely conceptual resources that shape Paul’s description of the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ leads us to conclude that the Corinthians, along with Paul, must view themselves in Isaianic terms as ‘servants of the Servant’, thus extending the insights of Mark Gignilliat’s treatment of this topic. The exegesis of 5.16-21 shows that the majority interpretation ¬ which relates each component of the argument primarily to Paul and his co-workers ¬ suffers from major problems. Crucially, 2 Corinthians 5.20 has suffered in translation from the insertion of an additional pronoun which serves to identify the Corinthians as the object of Paul’s ‘entreaty’ for reconciliation. By contrast, the background to and context for this verse supports the view that the Corinthians are, with Paul, the subject of the implied actions of 5.20. In short, the Corinthians are to understand themselves as ‘ambassadors for Christ’.


The Significance of "The Same": Reassessing Paul’s Ethical Exhortations in 1 Corinthians and Philippians
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Sean F. Winter, Melbourne College of Divinity

On several occasions in his letters Paul exhorts his audience to think (phronein: see Philippians 2.2; 4.2; 2 Corinthians 13.11; Romans 12.16; 15.5) or speak (lego: see 1 Corinthians 1.10) ‘the same thing’ (to auto). The majority of exegetes understand the phrases used in 1 Corinthians and Philippians as a response to problems of disunity within these Pauline congregations that thereby constitute an exhortation to agreement within and among members of the community. In this paper I survey the usage of this exhortatory formula in the Pauline epistles and identify the distinctive nature of the phrases in Philippians and 1 Corinthians, letters that are often understood as responses to churches scarred by internal dissension. I then challenge the standard reading and argue that the unqualified phrase is best read as signifying a call for agreement with Paul. I argue that the ambiguity inherent within the to auto phrases requires the exegete to draw on the wider epistolary context in order to understand its specific force. In the case of 1 Corinthians and Philippians the evidence for church disunity is less persuasive than many believe, and the rhetorical focus of these letters seems clearly to be directed towards the relationship between apostle and congregation. It is within this contextual framework that the expression must be understood. Paul’s language of ‘the same’, in these instances, is an alternative rendering of his call for apostolic imitation.


Computer-Assisted Language Learning from the Hebrew Bible: The PLOTLearner
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Nicolai Winther-Nielsen, Copenhagen Lutheran School of Theology and Aalborg University

The Europe Union funded life-long learning project EuroPLOT (https://sites.google.com/site/europlot/) from November 2011 to 2013 will be developing a pedagogical framework for active engagement by learners. Inspired by current and innovative principles of simplification and motivation, this new approach is called persuasive learning objects and technologies (PLOTs), and it focuses on developing design principles which will change behaviours and attitudes of learners. Some of the seminal ideas were presented at CARG in New Orleans 2009 (cf the recording at http://www.3bmoodle.dk/course/view.php?id=33 Login as Guest). By November 2011, the project will disseminate the first PLOTLearner of three prototypes of a web-application for learning from texts in foreing languages and from cultural corpora. Information is stored and retrieved from a text database system (www.emdros.org) which uses the Amsterdam database built by the Werkgroep Informatica at the Vrije Universiteit (WIVU) and also available in the German SESB Bible Software. The PLOTLearner will further develop the 3ET program which from this database generates exercises and tests, enabling learners to construe training jobs from linguistic features in the databse, and allow teachers to upload text-generated teaching material to Moodle’s question bank. The first prototype of PLOTLearner will allow tutors and learners to customize a text database for enhanced learning and appropiate timing. This prototype will offer a more user-friendly and persusasive learner-controlled and adaptable syntactic display of morphosyntax for learning and exercise purposes and inproved self-directed learner-controlled language proficiencey. The paper will illustrate the use of PLOTLearner in teaching integrated with the SESB software. It will reflect on the challenges in developing the self-instructing text as an open educational ressource. Interested teachers and learners will be offered free trial access for feedback and for cooperation on course development. We focus on viable solutions for Africa and other non-Western countries.


The Editorial Significance of the Portrayal of Foreign Nations in Pss 2 and 149
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Derek E. Wittman, Baylor University

In both the introduction and conclusion of the canonical Psalter the reader encounters vivid imagery depicting the subjugation of the nations under the reign of Yahweh. In both cases, the kings of those nations are portrayed as failed opponents of ancient Israel and its divine king. Indeed, the nations appear frequently in the Psalter as enemies and oppressors of ancient Israel. While claims that all of the enemies in the Psalter are foreign have been justly criticized, is seems clear that the Psalter exhibits a strong tendency to portray foreign nations as enemies. This paper explores the significance of such rhetoric in Pss 2 and 149 through the lens of the phenomena known as the primacy and recency effects. The failed conspiracy of the nations against the divine and Davidic kings in Psalm 2 leads the reader of the Psalter to adopt from the outset a hypothesis that they are treacherous enemies of Yahweh and ancient Israel and that they are ultimately destined to become subordinate to both. The reader’s hypothesis is confirmed and reinforced in Psalm 149, in which the nations appear as the defeated enemies of ancient Israel and its king Yahweh. In Gerald Wilson’s description of the Psalter’s canonical shape, the kingship of Yahweh is shown to be the primary topic of editorial concern. Further, the introduction and conclusion of the Psalter are moments of great editorial import for understanding the perspective of the entire collection. The juxtaposition of the similar portrayals of foreign nations in Pss 2 and 149 with language referencing Yahweh’s reign in both psalms thus leads the reader to conclude that the motif of subjugation of foreign enemies constitutes a major attribute of that reign. Moreover, the absence of a Davidic figure in Psalm 149 further associates this portrayal of the nations with the canonical Psalter’s ultimate preference for Yahweh’s kingship over Davidic rule as described by Wilson.


“And they went out from Ur of the Chaldeans...” The Golah-Community as the Real Israel in P
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Jakob Wöhrle, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

One of the most important discourse of the early Persian period concerns the question of who still belongs to the people of Israel – the people who staid in the land during the exile, the members of the Golah-community or both. Beyond previous research, the paper will show that the priestly passages of the Pentateuch, written in the early Persian time, are an important source for this discourse. Especially within the ancestors’ account, the priestly authors opt for an exclusivist Golah-oriented definition of Israel. By depicting the ancestors of Israel as exemplary returnees they show that only the Golah-community is the real Israel. From the time of the ancestors the people of Israel has constituted itself in foreign countries as a separated group. The integration of other groups, especially the integration of the people of the land, is not tolerated. But in spite of such an exclusivist position the priestly authors do not demand violent actions against the people who staid in the land. They rather vote for a model of peaceful coexistence. Thus, the priestly passages give a new and illuminative perspective on the discourse about the affiliation to the people of Israel in the early Persian time.


Authentein (1 Tim 2:12) Neither Pejorative Nor Ingressive: The Evidence of Early Astrology
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Al Wolters, Redeemer University College

It is disputed whether the verb authentein in the controversial text 1 Tim 2:12 is pejorative ("domineer" or the like) or ingressive ("assume authority" or the like). The evidence of astrological texts roughly contemporary with the New Testament shows that neither of these nuances seem to be part of the lexical meaning of the verb (and its cognates) at that time. Particularly instructive is the astrological text Methodus mystica, which has been misdated by more than a millennium, and contains a rare example of authentein plus personal genitive. In aadition, two other early astrological texts will be analyzed.


Jesus’ New Relationship with the Holy Spirit, and Ours:
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Telford Work, Westmont College

If the pre-baptismal Jesus is already fully divine, is he not already, eternally filled with the Holy Spirit? And could his baptism really account for the changes in him portrayed in the gospels and Acts? Yet if the pre-baptismal Jesus is not filled with the Holy Spirit, how can he have been fully divine? Nicene-Chalcedonian Christology seems to leave Christian biblical interpreters in a dilemma. This presentation draws on scripture, patristic theology, and contemporary Spirit-Christology to sketch and develop a resolution. Jesus is personally constituted (as all persons are) by his relationships: in his divinity, his begetting Father, and in his humanity, by his begetting mother and by other human persons. Jesus’ human relationships change as his life unfolds – even his human relationships with God (so Luke 2:52) as his creator, judge, indweller, and the like. These changes are intrinsic to his saving work and so inform soteriology and ecclesiology.


A De-essential King: Dr. Martin Luther King as Identificatory Conglomorate
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Bruce Worthington, McMaster Divinity College

In order to avoid naive essentialist analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King, current poststructuralist theories helpfully identify the complexities of existential analysis itself.Dr. King was more than the sum total of his parts—a black pastor, a theologian, a civil rights leader, a philosopher?The psychoanalytic work of Julia Kristeva highlights a certain intertextual hermeneutic we must recognize when analyzing the origins, influence and composite nature(s) of the person. Our identification of Dr. King should not be at the expense of “this” or “that”, rather he exhibits an “identificatory conglomerate” which disenfranchises strict, static, or essentialist cultural identification. His literary and oratorical performance is necessarily intertextual, a dynamic mosaic of overlapping linguistic conditions and rhetorical strategies. Western philosophical discourse, American Constitutional language, and the Hebrew Prophets inform a diverse synthesis of religious-political influence, a diversity manifest in non-violent civil disobedience.


Itinerancy at the Margins: The Prophetic Re-appraisal of Dead Space
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Bruce Worthington, McMaster Divinity College

In contrast to the hegemonic features of static, centralized politics, the “itinerant” concomitantly displays nomadic yet dissident behaviour—a geography of subversion. Literary references to travel and itinerancy are never casual or happenstance, they creatively position the protagonist in antagonistic, marginalized spatial arrangements. These marginal spatial arrangements are critical to the development of subversive prophetic behaviour and the subsequent relocation of sacred space beyond hegemonic grasp. Through a post-colonial analysis of travel, and contemporary socio-scientific spatial theories, this essay will creatively connect the politics of itinerancy with the geography of marginalization. Specifically, our model will reveal a literary synergism between the itinerant struggles of Jack Kerouac in On the Road, Elijah the Tishbite and Jesus of Nazareth in Mark's gospel. Specifically, my aim is to re-orient the way we read alternative spatial imagery in biblical documents, subsequently encouraging renewed critical analysis of hierarchical spatial arrangements and their contemporary implications. I will employ the structural binary pairings of marginalized/oppressed, sacred/profane and centre/periphery to identify similar itinerant subversions within On the Road and our biblical narrative arrangements. The essay concludes with a post-structuralist appeal to a thirdspace understanding of itinerant subverions, based on the urban socio-spatial analysis of Edward Soja and bell hooks. Itinerancy embraces the marginality of dead spaces while reinvigorating this lost space with life and creative fecundity—at the expense of oppressive binary spatial relationships. In reclaiming marginal existence, itinerants liberate hierarchical spatial arrangements through the careful production of thirdspace, reinventing spatiality through subversive reappraisals of place and movement.


Israel's Scriptures in Pauline Theology
Program Unit: Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
N. T. Wright, University of St. Andrews

Paul's reading and understanding of Israel's Scriptures are framed and explored within the scope of Pauline Theology.


Filled with the Spirit: Singing and Moral Formation in Ephesians 5:18–19
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Richard A. Wright, Oklahoma Christian University

The progression of ideas in Ephesians 5:18-19 has puzzled commentators. The author moves from general paraenetic instruction regarding living wisely (in vv. 15-17) to a specific warning against drunkenness (v. 18a). The warning against becoming drunk is contrasted with an exhortation to be filled with the spirit (v. 18b). Spirit-filled people are then characterized as persons who “speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (v. 19a). Why raise the issue of drunkenness? Is it merely a convenient contrast to being filled with the spirit? Is there a specific problem in the community? Some have tried to connect the admonition against becoming drunk to the presence of Dionysian practices which had a reputation of involving drunkenness. There was another context that could connect wine, music, and moral instruction: the banquet and its related activity, the symposion. The symposion provided an opportunity for drinking and entertainment. Moral philosophers used these occasions as opportunities to explore questions regarding character formation. The presence of wine, however, often led to a lack of self-control; control that philosophers tried to cultivate in their students. Plutarch (in his essays on Table-Talk) argued that the presence of music (and singing in particular) at the symposion, when used with care, could help participants maintain self-mastery. In this paper, I argue that we can understand the progression of ideas in Ephesians 5:18-19 as being influenced by a context in which discussions of Christian ethics took place in symposion-like settings. The author of Ephesians takes a position similar to that of Plutarch. He encourages the use of well-chosen music to help the conversation partners avoid drunkenness and remain in control of themselves as is appropriate for children of God.


Emics and Etics in Biblical Studies: A Fresh Approach
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Dan Wu, Moore Theological College

Since their introduction into the field of linguistics in 1967 by missionary and linguist Ken Pike, the terms ‘emics’ and ‘etics’ have proved increasingly popular in biblical studies, and have played a key part in important discussions to do with understanding the Bible. Unfortunately, the increase in usage has led to a loss of clarity and, in some cases, distortion of the way the terms were intended to operate. As is often the case with binary terminology, an unhelpful polarisation has tended to creep into discussion, with the terms coming to represent competing and mutually exclusive interpretive positions with regard to the biblical text. In conversation with scholars such as Philip Davies, N.T. Wright, Marcus Borg and those utilising social-science criticism of the Bible, I argue that the original meaning and nature of emic and etic as complementary, rather than competing, perspectives must be recovered for them to be properly utilised in biblical re-search. I also suggest a way forward in the field by appropriating and developing the insights of the cross-cultural psychologist J.W. Berry on the notions of ‘Imposed’ and ‘Derived’ etics.


Wholly Free: The Import of Emancipation to Understanding Manumission-Consecrations of Slaves in the Neo-Babylonian Period
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Cornelia Wunsch, University of London

This paper examines the legal principles behind the manumission and consecration of slaves by their masters. This process requires the manumission of the individual and his or her subsequent transfer to the temple household as shirku, resulting in free status but noticeable dependency at the same time. Such dependent status, which seems in contradiction to the idea of complete freedom as represented by the mar bani of the Neo-Babylonian juridical documents has been the subject of several studies (Roth, Westbrook, and Ragen). The paper argues that the key to understanding this special shirku status lies in the legal notion of emancipation. Emancipation is a concept that extends beyond freedom in that not all free persons, such as children and wives, are independent. For example, a freeborn son becomes emancipated (i.e., released from the potestas of the father) only upon his father’s death, at which time he is permitted to set up his own household. The freeborn daughter typically transfers from the potestas of her father to that of her husband or father-in-law. This paper maintains that the manumission and consecration process does not include emancipation. The manumittee must remain in his or her previous household as a dependent member, comparable to a minor, under the authority of the former master until the master’s death, at which point, the shirku will be transferred to the temple household and become a temple dependent. The limitations of shirku status, therefore, can be viewed as the marks of interminable legal infancy, but this does not impinge upon the shirku’s status as free.


Bakhtinian Matchmaking: Odd Couples and Threesomes in 1 Kings 16–19
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Stephanie Wyatt, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

A polyphonic reading of the characters of Ahab, Jezebel, Elijah, the Widow of Zarephath, and Obadiah discloses dialogical undercurrents in 1 Kgs 16-19 and accentuates the biblical narrative’s conflictual attempts to establish a definitive “Israelite” identity. This essay creates a series of character groupings that place one or more personas in relief as s/he relates to the others. Reading with Bakhtin, the biblical narrative deconstructs its own insider/outsider dichotomous constructions. The narrative faults Ahab for maintaining allegiance to multiple divinities and marrying a foreigner, the Sidonian princess Jezebel (1 Kgs 16:31-33); however, blame quickly shifts from King to Queen. Though Elijah and Jezebel never meet face-to-face, Jezebel is Elijah’s antagonist. Ahab relays Elijah’s words and actions, and then Jezebel determines the royal response. Jezebel and Elijah drive the plot. Ahab is a passive-aggressive participant in his own triangulation. Elijah’s introduction (1 Kgs 17:1) includes the puzzling phrase, "Elijah, the Tishbite, from among the temporary residents of Gilead," raising questions about the prophet’s origins and his status as an Israelite. Though on the surface the Widow of Zarephath (1 Kgs 17:8-24) is a faithful Sidonian in contradistinction to Jezebel, the unusual appearance of a Baalistic construction in 1 Kgs 17:17 sheds doubt on her trustworthiness. Jezebel and the Widow of Zarephath appear at critical narrative junctures for the prophet, and their actions–for both life and death–transfigure Elijah’s vocation. Elijah sojourns outside of Israel while Obadiah (1 Kgs 18:1-16) serves as a double agent, chief official in the palace and provider for hidden YHWHist prophets. Elijah makes no mention of Obadiah’s efforts when he flees Jezebel’s wrath and succumbs to isolation, complaining that of all YHWH’s prophets, “I alone am left” (1 Kgs 18:10). Both men serve YHWH faithfully, yet the lesser-mentioned Obadiah highlights Elijah’s own self-doubt.


The Natural World as a Model for Human Righteousness in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Jackie Wyse Rhodes, Emory University

In 1 Enoch 2-5, the natural world is extolled as a model for human righteousness and morality. Humans are commanded to contemplate all God’s works, which “do not alter their paths” (2:1) — these include seasons, trees, seas, and rivers. In contrast, humans are critiqued for not standing firm; unlike nature, humans have strayed from the paths God intended for them. My paper will examine the ways in which the category of nature as model takes shape in 1 Enoch and other works of Jewish apocalyptic literature. Rather than praising God’s mastery of the natural world, 1 Enoch extols nature itself for its inherent righteousness. I will argue that this portrayal of nature as an intrinsically orderly and obedient model for humanity is remarkable when compared with other portrayals of nature in biblical and extra-biblical literature — although Ben Sira 43, the Testament of Naphtali 3-4, and Psalms of Solomon 18:10-12 do provide some parallels, which I will examine. In light of the significance of nature as model, this paper will also consider the interplay of reliability and unreliability within other apocalyptic portrayals of the natural world. Though the natural world is primarily presented as predictable, chaos does sometimes ensue — this happens chiefly when humans, angels or elements of the natural world depart from the courses which God has set for them. For example, in The Book of the Watchers, the illicit activities of fallen angels and their progeny result in violence upon the earth and a disruption of nature’s courses; in other portions of 1 Enoch, various Sibylline Oracles, and 4 Ezra (among others), disruptions in the natural order signal the prelude to the final judgment. I will argue that, in these cases, nature is presented as an aberration of its usual ordered self. Indeed, The Book of the Parables conceives of God’s intention for the natural world as determined by a “cosmic oath” (ch. 69) which sustains earth, mountains, sea, deeps, sun, moon, stars, water, winds, thunder, lightning, hail, frosts, mist, rain and dew. All of these elements are attributed with the ability to confess, to give thanks, and to glorify God (69:25). A further description of nature’s constancy is found in The Book of the Luminaries, which devotes seven chapters to detailed astronomical, uranographical, and cosmological observations. In the end, 1 Enoch’s depiction of the natural world as a model for human righteousness prioritizes nature’s obedience, thereby crediting nature with a signficant measure of agency when compared with portrayals in other biblical and extra-biblical texts.


An Intertextual Discourse Analysis of Paul's Use of the Scriptures in Rom. 10:5–10
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Esther Xue, McMaster Divinity College

Paul’s argument in Rom. 10: 5-10 involves a number of important issues. Of special note is his use of the two texts Lev. 18: 5 (v. 5) and Deut. 30: 11-14 (vv. 6-8). In this passage one sees Paul’s understanding of the relationships between Christ and the Mosaic law and also his basic approach to the Scriptural texts. Paul seems to set these two quoted texts (both from the Pentateuch) antithetically against each other and the way he uses Deut. 30: 11-14 seems to disregard the deuteronomic context. In order to solve this problem, some scholars deny any contrast between the two quoted texts. Other scholars argue for a positive salvation-historical contrast. Still others scholars perceive the contrast in terms of the tension between literacy (the written Torah) and orality (the oral gospel). However, none of these solutions explain the reasons for Paul’s seemingly arbitrary use of the scriptural text satisfactorily due to their lack of clear definition of intertextual methodological control. Therefore, this paper develops an intertextual discourse analysis to investigate Rom. 10: 5-10. This intertextual approach brings together Halliday’s three meta-functions of language and Norman Faiclough’s theory of intertextuality for social discourse. This paper argues that Paul by no means uses Deut. 30: 11-14 arbitrarily or disregards the initial context. On the contrary, he perceives the correspondence between Christ and the Mosaic Law, and the contextual continuity is still there.


Using Clips Illustrating Moviemaking Technique to Teach Storytelling Technique in Biblical Narratives: Perspective Criticism as a Case Study
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Gary Yamasaki, Columbia Bible College

Film is a component of popular culture that has garnered considerable attention by biblical theologians, resulting in numerous insightful analyses of biblical themes and motifs in contemporary movies. However, the connection between moviemaking techniques and the Bible has not garnered the same attention. Movies, as stories, employ standard storytelling techniques used in other types of stories, including biblical stories. This being the case, a clip demonstrating one of these techniques in use in a movie can be employed in the teaching of biblical storytelling method, serving as an illustration to help students spot that particular technique in use in a biblical narrative. A facet of biblical storytelling method that would particularly benefit from such a use of movie clips is a new methodology called Perspective Criticism whose focus is the workings of point of view in biblical texts. According to perspective-critical theory, point of view can be crafted in such a way as to have a reader feel distance from a particular character—resulting in disapproval of the character’s actions—or feel empathy for the character—resulting in approval for all the character does. Therefore, in analyzing passages bereft of explicit guidance for evaluating a character’s actions, examination of the various storytelling techniques related to the crafting of point of view has the capacity of uncovering evaluative guidance operating at a subliminal level. And the showing of movie clips containing the use of these techniques should be an effective means for helping movie-oriented students grasp the nature of each of these techniques. This session will demonstrate this classroom use of film by incorporating into a discussion of perspective criticism some movie clips illustrating prominent storytelling techniques related to the functioning of point of view in a narrative.


Undulating the Holy: The Shulamite’s Dance and Queer Sexuality in Song of Songs 7:1–4
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Angela Yarber, Graduate Theological Union

Many biblical scholars have noted the primacy of the female voice in Song of Songs. Many dance historians have noted that the movement vocabulary describing the Shulatime’s dance is clearly related to what is historically known as bellydance. And many queer theorists have noted that the “lover” who dotes upon the Shulamite in 7:1-4 is ambiguously genderless, never referred to as “he” or male. However, when you approach the Shulamite’s dance through all three of these fields in an interdisciplinary analysis, understanding the historical and sacred underpinnings of the Shulamite’s dance become more nuanced and fascinating. Through a thorough exegesis of the text one realizes that our dancing bodies are viewed as holy and good, and that sexuality is not simply profane. By reading the text through the lens of a dance historian one notices evidence of bellydance technique embedded in the Hebrew phrases, and by exploring the sacred origins of bellydance, the role of sacred sexuality and female-empowerment is highlighted in the Song. Finally, by approaching the Song through a fusion of feminist and queer theory, one may discover that the lover doting upon the dancing Shulamite may, indeed, be another woman, delighting in lesbian love. The reason for this conclusion stems primarily from the fact that bellydance is historically a dance done by and for women, often within the confines of all-female harems, where lesbian sexuality is explored and even encouraged. Since it is evident that the movement vocabulary described in Song of Songs 7:1-4 is analogous to bellydance and since the lover is never identified as male, one may conclude that the Shulamite’s dancing and sexual relationship is with a female lover.


The Creation of Poverty in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School

The impetus for my study arises from two different sources. First, back in the 1980s, Gerda Lerner (The Creation of Poverty, 1986) argued that male dominance over women was not a “natural” or “biological” phenomenon, but rather one that was created historically. Patriarchy can thus be ended historically. Second, the 2000 UN Millennium Development Goals acknowledge the complex interrelations among gender empowerment, education, physical health, ecological and environment conditions, global partnerships for trade, debt relief and accountability that are involved in eradicating poverty today. This paper therefore presumes that poverty, like patriarchy, was “created" in ancient Israel, and that one must consider a number of complex interlinkages that created and sustained poverty systemically when examining it. Some of these interconnected factors in monarchic and colonial Israel are the mechanisms of exploitation, the ecological degradation of the land, debt slavery, colonization and war, illness and disability. This paper will select a number of these interlinkages to examine, following Fernand Braudel’s three levels of historical analysis: the history by events (histoire événementielle), history by social groups and social movements (histoire conjoncturelle), and long-term history (histoire de la longue durée) shaped by humans in relation to their environment.


“Gather Unto Me, O My Holy Members”: A Papyrological Restoration of the Gospel of the Savior’s Introduction to the Amen Responsory
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Erik Yingling, Brigham Young University

I propose to restore the text of pericope 72 of the Gospel of the Savior based on a recently published Coptic text that demonstrates a high degree of verbal similarity with the passage from GS. The restoration has implications both for the dating of GS as well as its textual development. Following the work of Bertrand, Haase, Schmidt, who argue for a second or third century dating of GS, I propose that the reconstruction of pericope 72 suggests that there was an earlier text upon which both the Berlin codex and Kasr al-Wizz drew upon. This finding would be in agreement with Hedrick, Mirecki, Jacoby, and Ehrman, who have argued for the existence of elements of GS already in the latter half of the second century. I intend to discuss my proposed reconstruction of the text as well as the function of this passage in both texts as well as drawing upon parallels in the Acts of John.


Disorder in the Court: Acts’ Presentation of Gallio and Concerns about Adeia in Literary Portraits of Roman Governors
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Joshua Yoder, University of Notre Dame

The proconsul Gallio, who dismisses charges brought against Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:12-17), has often been seen as representative of the author’s ideal for the conduct of Roman governors toward adherents of the Christian movement (e.g. Conzelmann, Haenchen, Fitzmyer). This view has been challenged by Cassidy, who sees Gallio’s anti-Semitism as the key to Luke’s portrait of him. More recently, Rowe has maintained that Gallio seems oblivious to the deeper implication of the charges, that the new “social and political identity” constituted by Christian practices “spells the possibility of pagan cultural collapse.” Other interpreters (e.g., Winter) continue to view Gallio as a model for Luke. The divide is emblematic of the way that exegetes interpret Luke’s presentations of Roman governors differently according to their differing conceptions of Luke’s view of the Roman Empire. Is there a way out of this impasse? I contend that reading these texts in light of other narrative portraits of Roman governors from the first century C.E. can help to clarify Luke’s intentions. Specifically, my paper proposes to evaluate Luke’s presentation of Gallio in light of concerns about adeia (impunity, license) reflected in these first century narratives. Josephus’ account of Florus’ mishandling of a conflict between Jews and Gentiles in Caesarea (War 2.284-288) offers an instructive parallel. Josephus complains that by leaving town after accepting a bribe from the Judean faction, Florus implied that the Judeans had purchased his non-interference so that they could freely have recourse to violence to settle their dispute with a Gentile property owner. More generally, concern about adeia permeates Josephus’ account of the run-up to the Judean rebellion, and is an important part of his analysis of the causes of the war. Nor is the theme confined to Josephus – Philo’s In Flaccum and Tacitus’ Agricola evidence similar concerns about adeia and the grave dangers it represents both to civic order and to the success or failure of a governor. Seen against this background, Gallio’s willingness to allow street violence to proceed unhindered, which Luke emphasizes by conveying Gallio’s proximity and lack of concern, appears to be no trifling matter. Hence the author’s portrait of Gallio is not meant to represent an ideal. Indeed, this portrait conforms to a recurring pattern in Luke-Acts in which exculpatory statements are placed on the lips of Roman officials who are less than perfect specimens of governorship. Although the dismissal of the case does represent a reasonable (kata logon) response from a Roman authority to accusations against Christians by non-Christian Jews, “see to it yourselves” may not have been all that Luke hoped for from the Roman authorities. The active intervention of Claudius Lysias in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27-36) poses an alternative to Gallio’s passivity. Lysias’ response to mob violence does not represent an ideal either, but the fact that his intervention saves Paul’s life disposes the reader to view this response favorably.


Repetition of a Word or Root in Biblical Poetry, Once as an Isolated Word and Once in a Construct Genitive Chain
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Shamir Yona, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

This presentation will deal with one type of repetition, which has not yet been fully recognized. It was briefly mentioned by a few scholars. ‘Expanded Repetition Using the Construct’ consists of repeating a word or a root one or more times. This repetition takes place both inside and outside of parallelism. In this type of repetition, a word which is used in one of the stitches in the verse is repeated within a construct phrase, whether as the first or second word in that construct. Most interpreters have seen such examples of repetition as scribal errors. In many cases, they have deleted one of the repeated words and in other cases have suggested emending it so that another word appears in its place. Even in places where they do not propose emendations, they have not paid attention to this syntactic and linguistic phenomenon. On the contrary, they have explained that the biblical poet preferred to repeat a specific word because of its precise meaning even though this violates the rules of style, or have explained this type of repetition as the result of the author’s desire to balance the meter. However, in the course of examining hundreds of examples from both biblical poetry and cognate literature, I have found that there are two very significant techniques. In one of these words are repeated with morphological variations. The latter phenomenon proves that poets were not reluctant to repeat words in their exact form while, on the other hand, they modified the repetition by introducing morphological changes in the repeated lexemes. The phenomenon here described must be regarded as a central rhetorical featureof biblical poetry. This feature is both integral to biblical prosody and indeed primarily, an important tool for exegesis, textual criticism, and determination of meter and structure.


An Egyptian Ritual in Genesis 43:31a?
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Philip Y. Yoo, University of Oxford

Genesis 43:31a contains the only description of someone washing his or her face in the Hebrew Bible (wayyir?a? panayw). Joseph does need to wash his face in order to cover up his weeping so that he remains unknown to his brothers, but did the author purposefully select his words at a particular moment in the narrative to reflect a foreign custom? Very few, if any, examples from the biblical text exist for comparison. This paper will consider the context of the Joseph Story and explore possible parallels between Genesis 43:31a and portrayals of face-washing in Ancient Egyptian texts.


BibleCriticism.com: An Online Resource for Students and Scholars
Program Unit: Poster Session
Tzemah Yoreh, American Jewish University

My website, www.biblecriticism.com, is the first online Bible to show the evolution of biblical texts in an easy-to-comprehend manner using an accessible color-coding system and enhanced by comprehensive introductions and running textual analysis. It is a truly novel development as both an online tool and a way to visually show complex, detailed material that has heretofore mostly been presented in scholarly articles and academic books. Launched in February 2009, the website was designed to highlight my theory about the evolution of biblical texts, which is a version of the supplementary hypothesis. It covers all of narrative and most legal sections of the Hebrew Bible between Genesis and II Kings in English and Hebrew and shows, by means of color-coded texts, how they developed over time. Two different theories of development are presented: The first, the redaction criticism, or supplementary parardigm, which is available with commentary, and the classic Documentary Hypothesis. This website also features a section on the structures of Biblical narrative. These hypotheses are currently not available for easy perusal by students and academics in fields other than biblical criticism, either because they were written for a specific academic audience and are therefore heavy in jargon or because they were written in foreign languages altogether. The Bible is a text with which most literate people of the West are familiar with and thus if a proper platform to clarify and explicate were created, these insights could be made widely accessible for the first time. Many religious communities have successfully disseminated their interpretations of biblical texts through the web. While this has helped increase overall familiarity with the Bible, each interpretation necessarily reflects the particular biases of the religious community that presents it. Scholars, students, and laypeople need a counterbalance to in the form of a platform that brings together the different streams of biblical criticism and provides the prevalent scientific opinions in clear and accessible English. In this poster presentation I will demonstrate some of the features of the website and how it can be used as a valuable aid for students and scholars alike.


Paul as "Bricoleur" of Myth: A Ritual Expert Who Markets His Services through Innovations upon Familiar Myths
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Stephen L. Young, Brown University

Various ancient Mediterranean ritual specialists marketed their religious services through, among other things, innovations upon myths that were recognizable to their clients. These innovations alter familiar myths in ways authorizing the services (or at least credentials) of the ritual expert. The logic of this is intuitive. For example, because of X state of humanity, people need Y ritual or specialized-knowledge –- a service the ritual expert provides. Drawing upon recognized myths not only renders the specialist intelligible within an already existent framework, but allows him or her to tie into the notional authority, prestige, and broader familiarity of the established myth. In this paper I argue for the fruitfulness of re-examining Paul from this comparative vantage point. The first part of the paper will illustrate this model through brief discussions of such myth-innovating independent ritual experts, in particular the Orphic initiators behind the Bacchic Gold Tablets (following a recent monograph working out this “Bricoleur” approach with respect to them), Alexander of Abonoteichus, Valentinus, and Marcus and other Marcosian Christians. The second part of the paper elucidates how Paul’s letters reflect him engaging in similar practices. He explicates his “gospel” and his own expertise through innovations both upon certain Jewish myths and broader cosmological speculation. His drawing together of various familiar myths and topoi situates his services within a mythic-cosmological framework that renders them both intelligible and necessary. This paper thus aims to theorize a particular kind of use of myth, its plausible social settings, and the people involved through recourse to data from various cultural locations in the ancient Mediterranean. The paper’s analysis of Paul both explores a potentially fruitful approach to his letters and treats his letters as data for refining this theorization of myth.


Another Look at the Suhu Annals
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
K. Lawson Younger, Trinity International University

It has been twenty years since the publication of the tablets discovered by Iraqi archaeologists in salvage work in the ?aditha Dam area. Yet, both assyriological and biblical scholars have largely neglected this interesting and important corpus that provides insights into the first two-thirds of the 8th century BCE in the ancient Near East, particularly the Middle Euphrates. In returning to this corpus, this paper will investigate its historiographic value for ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies. Special attention will be given to the narration’s use of direct speech in the presentation of the “mighty acts” of Ninurta-kudurri-u?ur.


A Shadow of a Magnitude: Reading Luke’s ‘Parables of the Lost’ Missionally
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Colin H. Yuckman, United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington

Much ink has been spilled over the meaning of the Parables of the Lost in Luke 15. And yet, it is precisely texts like these, having long borne the paradigmatic weight of ‘standard’ readings, which demand continual re-interpretation. Missional hermeneutics offers ways of reading such texts freshly and boldly. The resulting exegesis and reflection will further develop the working definition of missional hermeneutics. Specifically, this paper will have three parts: (1) a brief summary and analysis of the GOCN Forum’s working definition, constituted by the five hermeneutical streams; (2) an exegetical essay that reads the Parables of the Lost (Lk 15) through the lens of these five guiding questions—namely, by probing the text’s missional direction, purpose, and cultural engagement, and the reader’s missional location and encounter with otherness; and (3) some critical reflections on the hermeneutical process that attempt to strengthen the working definition of ‘missional hermeneutics’. This essay answers by illustration the question which the Forum’s work continues to solicit: what does missional hermeneutics look like? Or put differently, if the five hermeneutical streams were standardized, for say a graduate level course on ‘Missional Readings of Scripture,’ what would an exegesis paper in that class look like? How might a student of the Bible, rooted in a particular context, document the hermeneutical task required by this fivefold charge? Two of the hermeneutical streams emphasize the reader’s location and posture towards otherness. Therefore, the essay includes practical reflection on the role these parables have played in the formation of the missional community I lead. It will be shown that Luke writes with a missional intent and for a missional community and therefore is best interpreted by a missional hermeneutic.


Who Is Afraid of the Weak Verb?
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Naama Zahavi-Ely, College of William and Mary

The term “weak verbs” is a misnomer. One cannot read, speak, or understand Hebrew without them. They are more numerous and far more common than the "shlemim," the “standard” verb pattern beloved of Hebrew textbooks. Any competence in Hebrew requires confronting weak verbs – figuring out the root when one of the root letters is missing, and figuring out the stem (binyan) and the grammatical form when their patterns are skewed by that missing letter. This paper will survey several approaches to handling weak verbs in the teaching of Biblical Hebrew.


Identity and Empathy: Large-Scale Trajectories in the Book of Jeremiah and the Effects of Changing Speakers
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Naama Zahavi-Ely, College of William and Mary

Group identity is always a fluid concept. The book of Jeremiah, particularly the poetry in it, maneuvers the reader or listener into self-identification with the people going through the destruction of Jerusalem. The book then leads the listener or reader gradually into emotional acceptance of the sincerity of God's suffering at the destruction He Himself brings, and into empathy with His frustration through the prophet’s despair at his inability to avert the destruction. The book ends up leading the audience to share in desolate Jerusalem’s future hope. The progress is emotional rather than chronological or intellectual; and a summary does not do it justice any more than the summary of a symphony can capture its music. Changing speakers in poetry are a major tools in these larger trajectories in the book of Jeremiah. This presentation will show how particular literary poetic technical details function in large-scale trajectories in the book of Jeremiah.


Reuse of Scripture in the “Apocryphon of Moses” and Related Texts
Program Unit: Qumran
Molly Zahn, University of Kansas

Recognition of rewriting as one of the most significant ways that Second Temple scribes engaged with and extended existing scriptural texts stands as a major achievement of Qumran scholarship to date. Yet a great deal of work remains in order to appreciate the full range of forms and purposes rewriting could assume in Second Temple texts. One group of texts that has not fully been incorporated into the discussion surrounding scriptural rewriting is a series of fragmentary “para-Torah” texts from Qumran (1Q22, 1Q29, 4Q368, 4Q375–376, 4Q377, 4Q408). All of these texts in some way involve the figure of Moses, and several have been grouped under the title “Apocryphon of Moses (?)” as related compositions, though the precise nature of their interrelationships remains to be clarified. All but one of the manuscripts in this group were classified as “Rewritten Bible” in DJD 39 (4Q377, 4QapocrPent. B, is placed in the “Unclassified” category). Despite this classification, however, the specific ways in which these texts redeploy existing scriptural material and the purposes for which they do so have not yet been contextualized by comparing them to the types of scriptural reuse found in better-known examples of Rewritten Scripture such as Jubilees and the Temple Scroll. As part of a larger project on scriptural rewriting in the Second Temple period, this paper will present the results of a detailed analysis of the ways this group of “para-Torah” texts rewrites Scripture. I will show that, both in the attestation of specific techniques (e.g. mixing of material from parallel locations in Scripture) and in broader features (e.g. the combination of rewritten material with material that does not derive from known scriptural sources), these texts provide important analogues to better-studied Rewritten Scripture compositions. Thus, despite their fragmentary preservation, they constitute key evidence for the diversity of ways in which scriptural traditions were transmitted and transformed in the Second Temple period.


Rediscovering the Apocalypse of Paul through Its Context
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Claudio Zamagni, Université de Lausanne

As many other apocryphal writings, the Apocalypse of Paul is a formidable reservoir of relevant information about the spirituality, the worship, and the theology of its context. This text is in many ways a paradigm of the “status” of a medieval apocryphal text. The Apocalypse claims to be written by St. Paul, and is therefore “apocryphal” in the strictest sense of its definition (i.e.: it concerns an apostolic personage), but the reader knows that this claim is purely fictional, and therefore such a claim does not challenge in any way the Christian biblical canon. Every reader is able to read the prologue, relating the miraculous discovery of the text at the end of the fourth century, as obviously topical. It is not a coincidence that many of the more fortunate and widespread apocryphal texts are the latest that have been written, while many of the oldest apocryphal texts quickly lost their importance, mainly because of the direct concurrence of the canonical texts. These considerations are significant also in the debate on the dating of the text in the twentieth century; for a long time all specialists shared the conviction that the text was based on an Ur-text dating back to the beginning of the third century, or to the end of the second. Their main arguments were external (essentially quotations), and, as it has been largely demonstrated, they are inconsistent. The contents of the text, its theology and the proposals submitted to the reader, confirm the new dating and help us to define its implicit reader. The narrative framework becomes here a mean of explaining new beliefs concerning the judgement after the death, that are unimaginable before the fourth century, and it presuppose a well-defined audience, against which the Apocalypse shows a structured and clear educational function.


New Perspectives on Eusebius’ Questions and Answers on the Gospels
Program Unit: Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Claudio Zamagni, Université de Lausanne

Eusebius wrote a huge amount of works: each of them would probably have been enough to make him one of the major Christian authors of his time. Among his less famous works, there are the Questions and answers on the gospels, an innovation in the Christian literature: a sort of compendium of exegesis concerning the most controversial passages of the Gospels, in the form of questions and answers. In this paper I would like to focus mainly on two aspects concerning this work of the bishop of Casearea. Firstly, I would like to deal with the methodology that the bishop of Casearea practiced to compose this text: what was the working method he applied here and how different was it from that used in other well-known works, like the Preparation or the History? The library of Caesarea represents certainly a condition that has made the Questions possible, although this text seems deceptively simple text and not at all erudite and rich of quotations as other works of Eusebius are; I will argue that it’s entirely built in dialogue with the exegetical tradition of the past centuries. Finally, I will analyze the current situation of the text, and illustrate the need to complete the critical edition begun in the Sources Chrétiennes series (2008). The original text as written by Eusebius is lost, but there are two main textual traditions that retain original and unchanged parts of Eusebius’ original text. This two traditions cover partly the same branches of the text, but each one also has its own sections and is therefore primary to have both of them published in a critical edition: what are the special problems involved in such critical edition and how can we take a step towards a complete critical edition?


Political Prophecy: Provincial Mimicry in the Revelation of John
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Brigidda Bell, University of Toronto

Although the subversive narrative of the Revelation of John has been much discussed in secondary literature, the medium through which it deploys its message and the impact this has on the audience’s interpretation of the text has not yet been fully appreciated. The Revelation of John, as part of the discourse of the early Jesus tradition, uses the medium of prophecy in an overtly political way, yet this use of prophecy was by no means unique in antiquity. This paper examines the political nature and reception of publically distributed prophecies in the ancient Mediterranean, determined primarily through the analysis of pro-imperial portents and anti-imperial oracles recorded in the imperial biographies composed by Suetonius and Cassius Dio. By employing postcolonial theories of mimicry and media studies theory, it becomes clear that Revelation’s appropriation of Graeco-Roman prophetic discourses and their political connotations underscore the anti-Roman thrust of the narrative. The analysis concludes with remarks on the implications this has for the way the Revelation of John was received and how it should be reassessed in light of the political nature of prophecy, furthermore suggesting how we might reassess the overall political function of prophetic discourse in antiquity.


Closural Conventions in Narratives in the Book of Numbers
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Susan Zeelander, University of Pennsylvania

The sense of closure that a reader experiences when reading individual narratives in the Book of Numbers can be enhanced if one is aware that there were conventions of closure that biblical authors used at the ends of their stories. By identifying closural conventions we can see how the narrative ends and understand why the reader is satisfied when it does. Historically over time, individual stories each with its own ending may have been combined or embedded in larger narrative structures; common language, characters, and themes enhance the sense that the larger stories are unified. Examination of specific narratives, Numbers 9:6-11, the second Passover; Numbers 15:32-36, the Shabbat woodgatherer; and Numbers 11 and 12, which includes the stories of the quail and the seventy elders of Israel, shows that specific forms of closure were used in Numbers. These forms all occur in the “end-section” of their narratives, a section that can be delimited using the methods of structural narratology. The closural forms within the Numbers stories include etiologies, rituals, repetitions that indicate the transformation within a story, resolution of a known problem, tropes such as death and departure. Biblical forms of closure are both similar and different from forms of closure found in other literary genres, in music, and visual art. Awareness of these conventions, a component of narrative poetics, can provide a link between historical criticism and poetic criticism of the Bible.


No Exit: Punishment, Hell, and Early Byzantium according to the Talmud Yerushalmi
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Holger Michael Zellentin, University of Nottingham

Placing the redaction of the Talmud Yerushalmi in the fourth to fifth century makes its redactors subjects of the Constantinian, Valentinian, or Theodosian dynasty, and subject to these dynasties’ increasingly successful efforts to Christianize the Roman Empire. The disconcerting, violent images artfully strung together in Yerushalmi Hagiga 2.2 (77d) illustrate how we can contextualize the Yerushalmi’s strategy to maintain its Jewish identity in the light of the ascendency of Christian rhetoric of empire. I argue that the Yerushalmi's imagery imitates and alters early Byzantine narrative in order to emphasize religious difference.


The Quran on the Origins of the Quran
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Holger Michael Zellentin, University of Nottingham

The Quran repeatedly emphasizes that it confirms previous revelations. It refers to this material as “what was before” and as “what is with you,” and attributes some of it to the figure of Jesus, the Son of Mary. Despite recent contributions by Reynolds and others, any broad attempt to establish, or to discredit the Quran’s direct continuity with the early Christian Gospels remains unsatisfactory. However, if we relate the claim of continuity not to early, but to Late Antique Christianity, the Quran’s rhetoric yields historical insight. The Quranic view of Jesus’ partial dispensation of Israelite law stands in clear continuity with minority positions within Syriac Christology. Most importantly, the Quran presupposes familiarity with a body of ethical teachings which the Syriac Christian literature ascribes to “Judaizing” heretics. The Quranic claim “to confirm what was before” can therefore partially be validated.


Rabbis and Disciples of Jesus—A Conflict over Interpretive Authority
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Karin Hedner Zetterholm, Lund University

In this paper I suggest that the construction of an interpretive authority by non-rabbinic groups of (mainly) Jewish disciples of Jesus was perceived by the rabbis as a serious challenge to their authority, and that a number of rabbinic claims developed as a response to this challenge. The rejection of rabbinic tradition and reading the Torah with the life and death of Jesus as the hermeneutical key, as promoted by the authors/redactors of Didascalia Apostolorum (Fonrobert 2001), and the attribution of supreme interpretive authority to the apostle Peter (and by extension to the office of the bishop) based on his access to prophetic knowledge through his direct relationship to Jesus the True Prophet by the authors/redactors of the Pseudo-Clementines (Kelley 2006) was likely perceived as a challenge by the rabbis, who claimed that the right to interpret the Torah was given to the collectivity of the rabbis at the moment of revelation. I argue that the Didascalia’s rejection of rabbinic interpretive tradition and the Pseudo-Clementine claim to possess the teaching of the True Prophet accurately transmitted with no alterations, contributed to the development in the amoraic period of the idea that rabbinic tradition with all its details was given to Moses at Sinai (the doctrine of the two Torahs). I further argue that the rabbis reinterpreted “all Israel” in m. Sanh. 10:1 to mean “all rabbinic Israel” in response to Jewish Jesus disciples, and that the unique use that the Babylonian Talmud makes of a number of traditions about the prophet Elijah should be understood as a response to non-rabbinic authority claims.


Renewing Historiography and Ending Hysteriography
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Ziony Zevit, American Jewish University

This short presentation introduces the new Historiograpy sessions at NAPH/SBL. By 2000 CE, Biblicists noticed that research on problems in Israelite history had slowed down and that publications had decreased significantly. Part of this decline was explicable by changes in people’s interests, but another part to grave uncertainty about what might count as data in such history writing and how reliable they were. The 90’s were characterized by what was fashionably labeled then as a “culture of skepticism.” In 2002 I traced the decline to legitimate questions raised and confusion sowed by the then current and very public debates about Biblical Archaeology, Maximalism v. Minimalism, and the “missing” Tenth Century (“Three Debates About the Bible and Archaeology” Bib 83 (2002)1-27 and accessible online). During the last ten years, the Biblical Archaeology debate, long resolved, is no longer part of the public agenda. The two others changed somewhat. The Tenth Century debate stopped being about architecture, building techniques, and mainly about pottery chronology and came to include discussions about 14C dating in combination with older methods, to nobody’s absolute satisfaction. A new debate over whether or not biblical texts could be dated by their language added new fuel to the Maximalist-Minimalist discussion. Over the last few years, these too have started to resolve themselves as scholars reach points of consensus on the basis of new data, new research, and new ideas. It is possible to date archaeological events, even in the 10th century BCE, cautiously; and it is possible to date some biblical compositions within the Iron Age. It is time to renew modern historiography about ancient historiography and to reengage historical archaeology. It is time to terminate the hysteriography that for almost two decades never tired of touting a slogan: histories of ancient Israel cannot be written. Papers in this session will teach about these significant discussions that affect our understandings of the Bible, language, and archaeology as Israelite History reasserts itself as a discipline.


"This One Shall Be Called Soul Mate”: Eve, Adam, and Christian Online Dating
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Valarie Ziegler, DePauw University

Although Genesis 1-3 never mentions romance, a long line of Christian writers since Milton have found the Adam and Eve story redolent with exciting and intense sexual love. Popular Evangelical writers such as Joshua Harris, Tim and Beverly LeHaye, and Eric and Leslie Ludie have appealed to Genesis 1-3 as the foundation of a sexual theology that promises to provide “worship in bed,” to transform married couples into Prince and Princess Charmings, and to deliver the most satisfying (and frequent) sex on the planet. No one has delineated the romance of Adam and Eve better than Joshua Harris, who began Boy Meets Girl, the follow-up to his massive hit, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, with an imaginary discussion between Adam and his great-great-granddaughter, who frets that she may not identify the mate God has chosen for her as easily as Adam found Eve. Adam assures her she will have no trouble. “When the Maker brings you your husband,” Adam explains, “you’ll be aware that it was He who made you for each other and He who planned your meeting. And in that moment, just as we did, you’ll want to sing a song of praise to Him.” Harris then turns to the reader and announces: “God wants to do the same for you. Yes, you. The Creator of romance, the Maker who arranged the first ‘boy meets girl’ in the Garden so very long ago, is still at work.” The questions I will ask in my paper are these: what happens when online dating services invoke the Creator of romance? What kind of enticement can the promise of finding one's soul mate and the example of Eve and Adam offer internet pilgrims seeking fulfillment? How do secular myths of Adam, Eve, and romantic love differ from Christian readings of Genesis 1-3? Or do they? Though I will draw from a wide range of sites that call upon imagery from Genesis 1-3, I will focus on three that illustrate a spectrum of understandings about what it means to seek one’s soul mate: eHarmony, Single Christian Network, and Catholic Singles. eHarmony has redefined soul mate to mean “highly compatible” and offers members pragmatic reasons to reject romantic fairy tales for “scientific” matchmaking. Single Christian Network, the destination site for Adam Meet Eve, abounds with the language of Adam, Eve, and soul mates, and exemplifies the hope that someday my Prince/ess will indeed come. Catholic Singles belongs to another world entirely, as it has no use for the language of soul mates. Instead, sacramental theology and the vision of the church as the bride of Christ are the ruling paradigms of marital love.


Character Analysis in Q Parables
Program Unit: Q
Ruben Zimmermann, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

In studies focusing on so-called “long parables,” one often encounters the assessment that parables only play a subordinate role in Q. So, accordingly, only Q 14:12-24* (The Invited Dinner Guests) and Q 19:12-26* (The Entrusted Money) are accepted as parables and considered. On the basis of literary criticism, as well as a historically contemporary perspective, however, the strict distinction between “short” and “long” parables should be abandoned (see Zimmermann 2007 and 2008). The cluster of characteristics that identify the parable genre, such as “narrativity, fictionality, relation to reality, metaphor, appeal structure, and co-/contextuality,” applies to numerous Q passages. This paper intends to focus precisely on these often-overlooked “short” texts and to demonstrate that they are not only figurative comparisons, but also miniature narratives, which take as their basis the immense impact of parabolic speech in the Jesus tradition. In this study, emphasis will be given to character analysis, as found and established in narrative studies, and on the basis of selected passages (e.g., Q 7:31-35; 12:42-46), the abundance of characters in Q parables will be examined. Such a consideration of these Q texts yields insight on a variety of levels: (1) a character analysis demonstrates the detailed narratival and literary structure of the Q material; (2) the continuity and discontinuity of the constellation of characters in differing stages of the transmission of the tradition (e.g., in Matthew, Luke, and The Gospel of Thomas) allow for new methods of diachronic consideration of the material that lie beyond word reconstructions; (3) the social origin of the characters (analysis of the “bildspendender Bereich”) allows for some inferences to be made concerning the social milieu of the transmission of the Q material; and (4) the presentation and offered identification of the characters allow the appeal structure, and thus also the theological impact, of the Q parables to be more precisely understood.


Translating Repetition in Hebrew Scriptures: Communicating the Message in African Languages
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Lynell Zogbo, United Bible Societies

Hebrew biblical texts are known for their repetition, be it the repetition of names in narrative texts (“Noah” in Gen 6.8-9), the repetition of verbs (“go down” or “fear” in Jonah) or the rhythmic repetition in poetic books such as Psalms. But Bible translators who choose to imitate this feature (i.e. render the text literally) in their mother tongues may send misguided signals to their target audiences. In this paper, the functions of repetition in a group of selected biblical texts are explored and suggestions are made as to how some African languages might effectively communicate the message of the source text. Parameters explored will include structure in discourse, text climax, truth value, irony, as well as cases of “ordinary emphasis”. In many cases, there may be a “mismatch” between the uses of repetition in source and target languages. For example, in some African languages, repetition of proper names may convey mockery rather than respect or positive highlighting. Research shows that each case of biblical repetition must be analyzed for its literary and pragmatic function. Analysis of target language stylistic features is also a necessary step to determining which repetitions in Hebrew can be rendered literally and which need to be expressed by other stylistic means. (References : B. Pitre, T. Wilt, L. Zogbo, etc.)


How Many Times Did the Cock Crow in Mark? Neglected Evidence from Tatian’s Diatessaron
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Nicholas J. Zola, Baylor University

Only in the Gospel of Mark does Jesus predict that Peter will deny him three times before the cock crows “twice.” Mark’s extra cock-crow has puzzled scribes and exegetes ever since. There are four places in Mark where the tradition might appear: in Jesus’ initial prediction (14:30), after Peter’s first denial (14:68), after Peter’s third denial (14:72a), and in Peter’s recall of Jesus’ prediction (14:72b). Some manuscripts of Mark include two cock-crows throughout, others just one. Still others are inconsistent even within themselves over whether to include one or two. The variant readings defy easy explanation. The current proposal argues that neglected evidence from Tatian’s Diatessaron can tip the scales toward one reading, that of Codex Vaticanus, where there is no explicit first cock-crow in v. 68. In the Greek copies of Mark with two cock-crows, the cock normally crows “for the second time” after Peter’s third denial (14:72a). But in the Arabic Diatessaron, the cock does not crow “for the second time,” but literally “twice” in a row, because there is no first cock-crow after Peter’s first denial. This reading is supported by evidence from Ephrem, the Liège Diatessaron, and the Old Syriac Gospels. If original to the Diatessaron, it implies that in Tatian’s copy of Mark there was no first cock-crow at 14:68, giving him the freedom to make the cock crow “two times” at 14:72 to fulfill Jesus’ prediction. Thus the Diatessaron provides mid-second century evidence that the initial text of Mark had two cock-crows, but did not specify when the first crow occurred, which is exactly the reading of Codex Vaticanus. On this evidence, I propose that future editions of the Greek text should remove the first cock-crow from Mark 14:68 and return it to the apparatus.


History in the Most Christological of Places: The Authentic Core of John 1:19–51
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Michael Zolondek, University of Edinburgh

Many scholars are wary of basing historical conclusions on traditions found in the Gospel of John, particularly those traditions located in the context of christological affirmations. In this paper, however, I will do just that. I argue that there is an authentic core underlying the narrative of John 1.19-51. More specifically, it is my contention that the authentic elements of this narrative are at least the following: that the Baptist announced the imminent coming of the Davidic Messiah; that some of the Baptist’s followers left him to follow Jesus because they became convinced that he was this Davidic Messiah; that these followers were convinced of this because the Baptist considered Jesus a candidate for this role and because of their time spent with Jesus; and that after becoming convinced that he was the Davidic Messiah, these followers recruited others to follow Jesus as well. Throughout this paper numerous objections to these assertions will be addressed. Evidence will be presented to counter the claim that the Baptist did not, in fact, proclaim the imminent arrival of the Davidic Messiah, but rather some other figure. The argument that John 1.35-51 should be considered unhistorical because it is part of the Evangelist’s effort to present Jesus as superior to the Baptist will likewise be shown to be unpersuasive. These and other arguments will be dealt with briefly in the course of my positive argument. In the end, one finds that significant historical information may be drawn from John 1.19-51. The findings of this paper are significant for those studying the Gospel of John, as well as the historical Jesus. Not only does this paper indicate that Jesus was believed to be the Davidic Messiah early on, but it also demonstrates that scholars may draw historical conclusions from even those passages in John containing significant christological affirmations.


“As for me, I will dwell at Mizpah” (Jer. 40:10): Tell en-Nasbeh and the Babylonian Period in Judah
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Jeff Zorn, Cornell University

Eighty-five years ago, in 1926, William F. Badé of what is now the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, initiated the first of five seasons of excavation at the site of Tell en-Nasbeh (TEN), just south of modern Ramallah in the West Bank. His intent was to test if the archaeological remains at the site could help settle the debate over the location of biblical Mizpah of Benjamin, the leading contenders being TEN and Nebi Samwil. Badé’s excavation of approximately two thirds of the mound have, for most scholars, established TEN’s identification with Mizpah. After the fall of Jerusalem to the forces of Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC, the Babylonians appointed a local official, Gedaliah, as the administrator for what was left of the territory of Judah. The seat of Gedaliah’s new government was Mizpah. At the time of Badé’s excavations, and in the subsequent site report following his death, no remains of Gedaliah’s capital administrative center were identified. However, careful re-evaluation of the site records housed at the Badé Institute of Biblical Archaeology beginning in 1990 have revealed clear evidence pertaining to this period belonging to Stratum 2 of the revised stratigraphy. To date, TEN is still the only site in ancient Judah to provide remains for this “dark age” of Babylonian rule. Stratum 2 at TEN shows a great change in settlement layout as compared with Stratum 3 of the Iron Age II. Gone are the small mostly 3-Room houses crowded together along narrow lanes. These are replaced by larger, better constructed 4-Room dwellings. There are several larger additional structures likely associated with the new Babylonian administration. A variety of artifacts also suggest the presence of a Babylonian sponsored administration, such as: stamp impressions, pieces of Mesopotamian style coffins, a fragment of a bronze circlet with a cuneiform inscription, an ostracon with a Babylonian name written in Hebrew characters, and ceramics with affinities to North Arabia. Taken together these remains throw a welcome light on this otherwise obscure period.


When Good Cities Love Bad Deities: Jerusalem's Dalliance with Molech
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Ilona Zsolnay, University of Pennsylvania

In a recently published article, "The Inadequacies of Yahweh: A Re-examination of Jerusalem’s Portrayal in Ezekiel 16," I argue that the reason for Yahweh's anger toward his city-wife Jerusalem is not, as generally has been argued, because Jerusalem committed adultery; rather, I contend that Yahweh's rage, as depicted by Ezekiel, ultimately stems from Yahweh's feelings of inadequacy, because his city-wife does not rely solely on her god-husband. In the chapter, Jerusalem acts independently of Yahweh, trusting not only in herself but also seeking out alliances with other deities and nations beyond his purview. Although not patently stated, the text implies that one of these deities is Molech, a god with multiple ancient Near Eastern cognates. In this paper, I will investigate this allusion to Molech and the possible circumstances which would elicit it.


Latest Imaging Technology for Analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Manuscripts
Program Unit:
Bruce Zuckerman, University of Southern California

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Death as Divine Paideia and the Agon of Corporeal Life in the Wisdom of Solomon
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Jason M. Zurawski, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

“But through an adversary’s envy death enters the world, and those who belong to death’s party put humanity to the test.” This translation of Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, based on the author’s work in a forthcoming article, may sound odd to those familiar with the standard translation: “But through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it” (NRSV). This new reading of the verse—more congruent to the original Greek text, the context of the author’s argument, and the overall worldview set forth—opens up possibilities for understanding this enigmatic text’s ideology which the old interpretations of the verse only clouded. The need to support the devil’s place in 2:24a forced scholars make the Greek of 2:24b say what is simply cannot say. The focus in this passage is on neither the coming of the ultimate death of the soul into the world—a fact clearly stated in the previous chapter—nor the “experience” of this death by the wicked. Instead, 2:24 is meant to highlight the testing of humanity by those who have destroyed their own souls through their own actions. A strict body-soul dichotomy pushes the author to the point of including even bodily death within this test. The prize for all those who win the cosmic agon is the release of the soul from within the confines of the body and an immortal life with God. The punishment for those who fail is the destruction of the soul itself, even while experiencing a corporeal existence. This scenario is also paralleled in the historical section of the text, where God (or Wisdom) is seen as continually testing humanity, the difference being that the repercussions there are carried out within history while the consequences of the cosmic test are decidedly atemporal. With the new understanding of 2:24, then, we see that this testing, the divine paideia, is an element central to this author’s thought and the key to grasping the fundamental issues of the text—theodicy, soteriology, and the very meanings of life and death.


The History of Acco
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Wolfgang Zwickel, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

There are only few towns in ancient Palestine with such a wide distribution of references in ancient texts from the second and first millennium BCE like Acco. We find references in Emar and Ugarit, the Execration texts, the Amarna letters, Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom, Akkadian texts (one found in Aphek/Antipatris) and the Old Testament. Unfortunately a history of Acco in those periods is still missing, although this town was one of the major sites in the country and an important harbour. The lecture will present a short overview of the history of the town, connected with some remarks to the archaeological finds on Tell el-Fukhkhar, the site of ancient Acco.

 
 


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